I hope this isn't too off topic and apologize to Chris if it is, but it's something that keeps coming up in my mind and (unfortunately) in the minds of many of us.
One of the things that I keep struggling with is, if we are asking these kids to create a Google account (for Docs or Notebook) or a Teacher or YouTube account (to post their documentary), what happens when something goes wrong? Does it or could it ever come back on the school? If you are teaching them how to upload video to YouTube (which I've done in a classroom setting), and then they post something containing violent, threatening or sexual content on their own account, does the school face some responsibility? Even if they had, previous to the assignment, used the media? What happens if a school asks students to use a Gmail account to collect and share notes with Notebook, but then the student uses the email to send threatening messages to another student. We didn't teach him how to be disrespectful to the other person, but we inadvertently supplied him with the means. I definitely feel that it is the parent's responsibility to know what their child is doing at home, but let's shoot straight: There are certain people in our society not afraid to sue anyone. Their child can do no wrong and it certainly wasn't parenting that made the child who he or she is. It must be the school's fault!
As a male elementary teacher, I kept myself from hugging students because I was afraid a parent or staff member would walk by and take it the wrong way. Everyone who knows me knew I would do absolutely nothing to harm a student in my class or school, but school districts tend to cringe when parents and lawyers walk in the door together.
As an elementary teacher and in my current position of technology integration, I use and encourage the use of web tools with classes. But as our district discusses more and more how to utilize what students are already doing at home, it's always in the back of my mind to think about what could come back to haunt us. Sadly, because of how our society has become, I have a hard time thinking of the kids first in these situations.

Josh -
Does your school currently have any regulations regarding the use of certain mainstreamed technologies in the classroom? I think your questions and concerns are certainly legitimate and is something that your school board should discuss as a whole. For instance, our school board has developed policies regarding student photos and postings that discuss drugs, alcohol, or threaten violence toward others, taking some of the flack off of the backs of teachers and placing more responsibility on students and their parents. If not, then I think you probably need to be quite specific in your technology based assignments as to what is considered acceptable and what is not, and make sure to discuss that with parents. Ultimately, the matter schould be discussed amongst your school board, and a uniform policy should be implemented to protect student and teacher interests.

As a mother and a teacher, I to am concerned about the implications that technology is having on students. I wonder about plagerism because it is so easy to copy and paste and steal other people's work and claim it as your own.

I do also wonder about assignments at school that could lend themselves to problems down the road when a student uses what they have been taught in a destructive/violent way. The internet is a very hard area to control, and I think schools need to be careful on what they "teach" and allow students to do in in school.

Jen

Hi Jen,
Those are good points, and I guess your thoughts are what prompted me to write this post. My fear is that if schools are NOT showing students how to use these tools in a productive way, then they'll do what you describe even more. I guess I think of it almost like a "we're not going to teach driver's ed, because there's a chance students might get behind the wheel and do something inappropriate, or get in a wreck." I guess, as a parent, I'd rather them be shown how to avoid the wrecks, and have an educated person show them the ropes along the way - what to do to avoid wrecks, what to do in dangerous situations, etc. That way they're using the tools that they're going to use anyway, but with some educational context so they'll learn good decision making, etc.

Josh - outstanding points. Jamie provided great thoughts below as well. Districts and schools have a legal liability to provide a safe learning environment for students. The lines have always been a little blurry about that when it comes to school-related issues that happen after 3:00 - dances, football games, etc. But, with technology, the issues are even harder to keep tabs on. Most districts have AUPs (Acceptable Use Policies) that clearly spell out use of the Internet and related technologies.

Just to clarify, what I think is probably even more important than the mechanics of the actual tools themselves are the skills involved in using those tools. YouTube, for example, is very popular and very powerful. I think part of the power of a tool like YouTube is teaching students how to interact online, and the dynamics behind the anonymous social commentary that happens at a place like youtube. My daughter's school blocks YouTube, and I'm fine with that. What we try to work on though are the positive aspects - so they do a lot of video design, they share their work only internally on an "intranet." What I think happens is that by having open, frank discussions about these tools, students become better at handling online issues. I don't at all suggest opening up MySpace in schools, but I do think it's critical that we teach the skills that are inherent in social networking - posting, publishing, commenting, creating, co-editing, as well as dealing with the potential negatives - in order to make our students better Internet contributors.

I feel for you. I've been the only male teacher in an elementary school also. I also wonder about some of the students I know are not having positive productive conversations about their online lives when they're outside school! Hopefully those that are will tip the scales in our favor as they progress...

Hopefully my reply wasn't too long. Do let us know if you have specific questions, or need sample AUPs.

Chris O'Neal

Great points Jamie & Chris. I would love to get a couple AUPs. Jamie- We do have some rough guidelines in place that haven't been revisited in a while. I don't disagree with them, but we probably need to sit down and take a glance. Our district has been slow with tech integration, but we are taking great strides this year and will probably really be sprouting next year, so I don't want to leave this part out. I think Chris made a great point about, even if you don't put it on the "Internet," the process is what's more important.

I am a graduate student at Walden University, and as part of our work this week we were asked to access these blogs and comment on some things that we saw posted.

Even though I consider myself a very internet savvy person, I had never considered educational blogging as a way to improve myself professionally, or as a way to keep up with the latest news.

I think that we need to find a way to harness the positive aspects that the internet has, and what it can offer. for example, a counselor can use it to help students that feel isolated to connect with other kids that are going through the same issues, or they could use it as a tool to help bullies to see what their actions do to other kids by allowing them to read blogs of students who have been bullied. You can use the internet to direct students to educational websites or professional websites of professions that students are interested in so that they can see what the ideas are of their potential colleagues, and they can therefore see if it really is a field they can tap into.

However, on the other hand, I think that it is important to make sure that we engage students in life outside the computer as well, because it is very easy for students to be so "connected" that they become disconnected with real life.

Oh that is a good point, I never thought of whether or not the school would be held responsible for teaching students how to be internet savvy. I have used more internet blogging and uploading of YouTube in my undergraduate work, however, I could see where a student might find or post something inappropriate.

I am a first year teacher and am learning things daily about how to better run my classroom. How do you use technology in your classroom to avoid such problems?

My district does not allow access to pages like MySpace and Facebook. Unfortunately, the high school students are very smart and have found ways around the blocks in place. Students live for the communication and socialization they find in these sites. It is interesting because the parents sign an AUP at the beginning of the school year and we have parents who get upset because we do not allow access to these kinds of sites. They feel that since taxpayers buy the equipment, they should be able to use them in any way they see fit.

My school district also recently announced that teachers were NOT to have MySpace or Facebook accounts. They had done some searches and were coming up with pages posted by educators that showed them in personal settings. They had pictures of themselves drinking alcohol or dressed very scantily. I have to wonder what these teachers were thinking! It is unfortunate that something that could be quite useful and practical for people to communicate can be brought down so easily. It is also unfortunate that these "professionals" can behave so unprofessionally! If teachers are posting such pictures, don't you think that students are going to do the same?

One way that I have found that students bypass filters is through the use of a flash memory stick. Students load Firefox or a similar bypassing browser on the memory stick and load the browser via the memory stick to the district computer. One way for teachers to get around this is to constantly monitor students on computers. It is a no brainer that students will do what they please if they know that the teacher is surfing the internet and not progress monitoring the activity at hand. Also, unsupervised computer labs are a cyber bullying playground. If teachers do not supervise their students, they will take advantage of the situation. If the students know that their teacher checks on them all the time and that their teacher has the technological skills to see if they have uploaded or downloaded images, they'll stay on task more often.