Great thoughts, Sheila. I'd be curious to see what you think about ways to harness that huge interest that teens obviously have, and turn it into a productive outlet in the school environment. Certainly there are loads of new teacher skills involved in dealing with the "MySpace Generation." But, looking at it from the "what potential does this have for us as 21st Century Educators" viewpoint, I'd love to be able to capitalize on the massive appeal this "new realm" of socializing holds for our students.

The beauty of the social network sites is that kids have an immediate and more intimate audience for their ouput (as the young student mentioned), in contrast to the vast, undifferentiated space of the web at large, where in theory, yes you can publish something but will anyone actually see it?

Though I have not used social network sites in my own teaching, I did several years ago set up an online mentoring program with my students in Mexico and US and UK professionals. The transformation in my students' writing was astounding. They had an immediate audience who offered encouragement, feedback there was a high degree of discourse between students and mentors. It was one of the few instances in which technology made all the difference. I've thought since, how sad it is that most students in US schools could never partake of such an activity because of interdictions against email use.

I'm a middle school Language Arts teacher with four teenage children of my own. Because the majority of my students have unorthodox learning styles (i.e. students with autism, ADD, ADHD, learning disabilities), and many have not experienced success with writing, I use a variety of unorthodox strategies, many with a tech spin. While I've heard the argument about MySpace providing a forum for creative writing, I've yet to see examples of thoughtful, intentional writing pieces in this setting. I've explored MySpace sites looking for examples of written expression, and defensively, as a mother attempting to insure that my own kids are maintaining some level of integrity in such a public forum. In both attempts, I've found that MySpace pages are dominated by photos--many provocative and sexual, and few with captions, and those WITH captions misspelled and un-punctuated. Examples of multi-paragraph writing that I've seen are lyrics or passages of other writers' poetry--I've yet to see volumes of original work in this venue.

Of greatest concern to me as a parent is the consumption of my kids' down time with this type of outlet, at the expense of more creative endeavors, with or without technology; there appears to be an addictive quality to this, that has resulted in my need to set limits, then spend time that could be better spent, insuring that the limits are met.

This reads helplessly prudishly--I don't believe that I'm unusually resistant to change, and I'm a fan of the high interest value re. using technology in the classroom, but My Space doesn't fit the bill.

I think it's a shame that the above-mentioned student does not have a readily available venue in which to share her love of writing with others in her school with a similar interest. Is it nonexistent, or is it not "marketed" well so all students can participate?

In either case, the Internet offers a very easy, and economic solution to this problem. I would agree with Mrs. Greene's comment that perhaps Myspace is not the best forum, but would be willing to bet there are a multitude of appropriate online venues - websites, blogs, etc.

And if not, start one. Think of it: A student-generated, student-operated, student-oriented space about writing, for example. You could go and to network with other students, with other instructors, with national experts, etc.; to share your work; to get constructive feedback; to ask critical questions; etc.

Clearly, the students are already interested in, and more importantly ENGAGED IN the particular curriculum, so why not strip off the barriers preventing them from fully exploring it?

Would a kid's education be enhanced by this? I'd say "yes, most definitely."

Hi Chris,

I think that one reason we see kids making inappropriate posts on sites such as MySpace is that we adults have refused to accept that social networking is an important part of kids' lives and have stuck our heads in the sand rather than addressing appropriate use. This is a chance for us to mend our ways!

My own kids (both in their early 20s) use MySpace. My son actually does write some very good stuff there (my jaw hit the keyboard when I read his post about why he admires Ralph Waldo Emerson--who knew???). My daughter and her friends use MySpace to keep a small business they own organized and for staff communication.

I think there are all kinds of ways we could engage students using social networking--if only we dared to try it!

we will be discussing This at NECC Next week, we will host a forum for SIGTC Regarding "web 2.0" Check blogs from NECC to See what we come up with!

I have heard many of my students discuss their online socializing in places such as myspace and eharmony--and they are only in eighth grade. My sixth grade granddaughter zooms through the internet and chat rooms like she was born to do it. Of course, her parents monitor what she does.

I also know that many of my students love to write and keep notebooks of their writing. They would love a place to publish their writing and share with others.

I teach 5-8 writing in 50 minute periods (ugh--this is new and, as an elementary teacher, I find it unfair to kids and teachers to limit us this way). I would like to offer the students a venue for sharing their writing since we have so little time.

I've been experimenting this summer with www.writely.com and nicenet.com to see how those would work for a school setting. I can create password protected group pages in my .Mac account. Nicenet does not require an email for the students. I've also thought about setting up Moodle courses for the students.

It's the 21st Century, and schools and teachers must be part of it--kids need guidance navigating and socializing to protect themselves.

I want to embrace email, chats, blogs, podcasts as learning tools. Think of the motivation to write! Last year, several students interviewed the wrestling and cheerleading coaches. They wrote about the wrestling cheerleading events, huddling around each other on the computer, suggesting better word choice and checking the facts. Then two students created a podcast using Garage Band and iWeb. I uploaded (password protected) it and set it up on the computer in the library for all the classes to see and listen to. It was a huge success. The most important part was the collaborative writing--applying the lessons from writing class to their podcast.

I'm hoping the nicenet, writely, or .Mac groups will offer a collaborative space for more such writing.
By directing students to a password protected area, it allows me to choose who is allowed in. I could invite classrooms from other schools for more interaction and diversity.

I don't think restricting the Internet is the answer; parents need to monitor their kids--and companies like MySpace should be more proactive in protecting kids.

Thanks for the discussion.

Thanks for raising this issue, Chris, and soliciting input. I feel very strongly that teachers, parents, and other adult community members should be learning alongside young people about appropriate and safe use of digital social networking (DSN) sites. I agree Susan, that adults should not put their heads in the sand and pretend that DSN is going to go away or is a passing fad: it is not. Use of these types of sites is only going to increase. We read every week about another statistic and technocratic organization banning use of another site, or kids making poor decisions with DSN, and most recently a university (Kent State) banning all its athletes from having profiles on facebook. I think this is a lot like driving: Would we as responsible adults want to send kids out into the world without any type of instruction on driving? Without any period of supervised apprenticeship? Without multiple opportunities for students to try, experiment, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes? I hope not. The same should be true for DSN.

I have had very positive experiences using DSN with elementary students at Wells Elementary School in Maine on Think.com. I actually did a podcast interview with the computer teacher there, Cheryl Oakes, and am convinced that DSN sites like this which permit a level of moderation and control on the part of adults need to be used at every school in the nation. Imbee.com is another site that has recently launched, that parents can use with their students to learn about safe DSN.

Ultimately, conversations and face to face interactions are the only viable solution to the problems highlighted by DSN. Technology is really more a window into problems we've had for a long time as a society, rather than the problem itself. If this window can serve as a catalyst for positive change, I think that would be great. Unfortunately, many schools and adults prefer to put their heads in the sand-- paint the window black so fewer people can look inside it at the problems we have, rather than fix those problems.

Wesley Fryer
Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog and podcast

I like Chad's idea of the student centered writing space. I believe students will take advantage of this kind of opportunity if introduced in an appropriate fashion by a teacher or mentor. Students are very good about monitoring themselves.

This may be the new era of the literary magazine!

Hi Chris,

Incidentally, this has been a hot topic for discussion among my school community as well, especially in the context of child safety on the Internet. I have blogged about Web 2.0 in education, as well as issues of safety related to social networking.

While I agree with most of the sentiments posted here by Sheila, Chad and Susan, I do also think that the way social networking spaces are being used by teens (fun, 'hang-out' spaces) is very different from the way it is used by people in the 20s-30s (for organizing their personal/professional communication). Since it is teens we're talking about when we consider 'social networking' in k-12 education, we're looking at appropriating the kids' fun, 'hang-out' spaces for these kids, and using it for more serious endeavors such creative writing and collaborative work. That, in my opinion, is a tall task, to say the very least.

Blogging, on the other hand, has met with a fair amount of success in the school here in Bangalore where I am the resident educational technologist. Language arts (and other subject) teachers in middle and high school have successfully set up group blogs where their students find an audience for their creative writing among their peers as well as other teachers in the school (when the teacher setting up the blog has pro-actively got the word out).

Web 2.0, undoubtedly has tremendous possibilities in teaching and learning, but the devil, as they say, is in the detail. ‘Which' tools we educators appropriate and ‘How', is the key.