School social networking: a positive report

Digizen.org, a reputable agency in the UK has produced a detailed report on social networking and its value for children. Young People and Social Networking Services was prepared for Childnet, which is an online child protection agency in the UK. The report gives a thorough overview and an review of the main social networking sites from MySpace to YouTube. It has a non-hysterical tone and the best part I think starts from page 10 with opportunities and barriers and risks. Summarised in this chart:

Opportunities for Education	Barriers and Risks
developing e-portfolios	educator's confidence and experience
literacy and communication skills	negative views of social networking
collaboration and group work	blocking policies
learn abot data protection and copyright	lack of digital literacy policy across schools
learn about self representation and presentation	lack of risk management tools
learn about e-safety	users misunderstanding the environment
public showcase for work	managing the risks
forming communities of practice	controlling your data
organising work - time management	intruding on yourn people's spaces
teachers being where learners are	bullying
	illegal behaviour and content
	spam
	social pressure to be 'friends'

The tone of these is positive and suggest that schools need to be involved to take advantage of the benefits and to help children learn how to manage the risks for themselves.

This is a valuable report for school administrators who don't want to hide their heads in the social sand.

Tags: internet safety social networking showme web 2.0
Posted at 04:01PM Jul 07, 2008 by John Travers  |