Robert Losinski wrote an article on maintaining network security for THE Journal this month.
While he mentions a wonderful piece of hardware, the 8e6 technologies filtering appliance, he repetitively dismisses social networking sites as inappropriate for students while they are in school. This is completely against the principles of Web 2.0, where collaboration and the formation of trustworthy relationships between users is fundamental to the completion of tasks or projects. The workplace becomes ever more a center of collaboration and cooperation and our students need to learn that with a guided hand. For example, in my school district we are reviewing our acceptable use policy for our high school students. I am not tackling this task alone, but instead in a committee of five - where we each have access to the document in Google Docs so that we can make the appropriate changes.
Many educators have realized over the years that you teach the whole child when they are in your classroom. This means that if turmoil exists in a child's life outside of school, it may render them unable to learn for a day or a week, or a month. We provide social services within our schools to render assistance so that the students may concentrate on learning during the school day.
The student's virtual life is much the same. If we force students to leave a part of themselves at the school door, how can we ever help them come to grips with the power of the virtual world? Cyberbullying is alive and well - prolific bloggers like Andy Carvin and Steve Dembo have reported the unfortunate evil visited upon Kathy Sierra. These are adults performing these actions and if we all look back, we know how vicious children can be - for we experienced it ourselves.
Installing filters to block out the unwanted will not solve our problems. We must educate our teachers and our students on the appropriate uses of technology. One day, I'd like to live in a society where it is not socially acceptable to talk loudly on your cell phone in a restaurant. We can only accomplish this by recognizing the impact of technology and fitting it into the proper niche of our society. I once read a book by Neil Postman called The End of Education. In it, he proposed that the Dust Bowl was accelerated by the implementation of the tractor. This technological marvel allowed a single man to plow many times the acres of land when compared to the horse and plow. Therefore, more acres of dirt where exposed to the drought conditions allowing the winds to lift the top soil into the air, creating the worst agricultural disaster to ever hit the United States. Just like we assimilated the tractor, we must do the same for today's technology.
