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

Black on blocking video, and learning too.

At last, a senior eduction figure prepared to call  institutional internet blocking for what it is: a serious threat to learning. Greg Black, CEO of education.au, in this brief video submission to an OECD conference in Korea states bluntly that most school staff and students are not able to see this video: because many systems and institutions routinely block video sharing sites.

An incredibly broad range of sites are blocked in schools systems. Wikis, image sharing, discussion - some of the best Web 2.0 tools for learning. Have the blocking police heard that daily newspapers have little personal advertisements that look suspiciously like prostitution. Ban the newspapers!

Tags: internet digital literacy safety
Posted at 10:46AM Jun 17, 2008 by John Travers  | 

Some Principles for Internet Safety

Having been a school principal for much of my working life I have had plenty of time to observe how people cope with change, and to discover a few guiding principles. Here is a handful of these that seem to apply to the current lively issue in schools about child safety and the internet.

1. learning involves risks but it is better than ignorance
2. there are few really new issues under the education sun
3. parents are sensible and realists
4. bad administrators seek control by fear
5. good administrators look to the long term

 read on ... 

[Read More]

Tags: learning internet safety cyber safety safety
Posted at 10:21PM May 28, 2008 by John Travers  |