Educational Origami

The Herald on Sunday, today, ran a feature article on students using facebook in an inappropriate manner, firstly in a conversation about a fellow students and then posting comments about a teacher.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10578306

While I might have suspicions that the article was given priority because of the profile of the school. The article does highlight a number of points for me:

1. There is a general lack of understanding of “digital citizenship” and the students were unaware about how easy it is to track such comments.
2. There is a grey area between home and school that the children’s commissioner highlighted. Parents also need education and support on digital citizenship.
3. Schools, private or not, need to be educating students in digital citizenship from an early age.
4. There is little formal structure or consistent approach to digital citizenship across the schools and through out the curriculum.

Social networks are growing rapidly. Social networks are so accessable, straightforward and easy that students often continue their conversations from the real world into the virtual environments of social networks and back again. The difference is that their spoken conversations (and they undoubtably had similar conversations) do not occur in a permanent medium. The conversations are disappointing, spiteful and unacceptable whether spoken or chatted. Students often feed on each other words escalating such discussions to the levels we see here.

The Herald questions whether the school had a right to act and discipline the students. From my perspective they had to on several grounds.

1. The comments involved members of their community in a manner that was potentially dangerous. We have seen here in New Zealand and overseas too many (and one is too many) cases where such bullying has resutled in students killing and harming themselves. Had they not acted they would have been vilified.
2. Unfortunately, many parents are unaware. They would not know how to monitor their child’s internet activity or an awareness of the potential risks.
3. Schools will deal with such activities with a degree of fairness and consistency that parents may not be able to with their emotional involvement and protective aspect. Schools do in many cases have a better understanding of the seriousness of such activities.

I am not trying to demean parents, I am one myself and I know that I do wear rose colour glasses, on some occassions, when dealing with my children. Many parents do not have the experience or knowledge of such technologies.  Such offences need consistent and appropriate responces for they are serious.

So what do we need to do

Firstly, we need to educate all three sets of stakeholders in this situation the

• Students
• Parents
• Teachers

The education must be balanced, blanket banning of access and draconian rules will not achieve a lasting outcome. We want our students to be ethical and moral users of these tools. They must understand the positive and negative aspects. It is too easy to focus only on the risks and ignore the huge potential that access provides. (See Digital Citizen AUA)

Rules without reason will develop frustration rather than understanding.

We must teach a suitable ethical approach to all students. This ethical approach and the responcibilites that go with it must be suitable for the students developmental age. We must accept that, many if not all, students will experiment and push boundaries whether this is access to unacceptable materials like pornography or inappropriate behaviour and actions etc. This is normal. Students must be dealt with appropriately when this occurs, a level and fair responce which clearly highlights why it is unacceptable; and with concequences that suit the action rather than reflect the emotional state of the people involved.

Teachers, are a huge influence on their pupils, they must model an ethical approach to use of technologies. Essentially they must model values. Parents to must model an ethical approach too.

Students to must act responcibly and act when they see inappropriate activity. Every social network has the facility to report abuse. The students should consider what they are reading and how they would feel if such comments or actions were directed at them. If they feel uncomfortable they should report this rather than ignoring or avoiding it.

I am a firm believer in the Grandma rule, which I suggest to my students is a measure of suitablility of content.

If you would not show it to your grand mother its not suitable content.

At home and at school I would recommend the I³ approach to student internet use.

• Interested – parents and teachers should be interested in the students use of these technologies
• Informed – parents and teachers should be informed of the benefits and risks of these technologies
• In view – computers should be in view, not hidden in bedrooms, darkened corridors or secreted in corners

Well done Dio for acting swiftly, well done for taking measured action, for being consistent and timely.

and finally if I was to quote Dean Shareski

Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3557/3352272716_a42d75c0f5.jpg?v=0