Social Networking and Schools
i recently received a troubling email from a former student of mine who now teaches in a high school. his email reads, in part:
hey Sean, we are running into A LOT of problems at school with students writing threats on their Xanga sites (other personal websites like myspace.com etc.). I had the sites blocked by our filter a while ago, BUT students are making threats on their sites and the issues are trickling over into schools causing more issues. One mom was up at school yesterday ordering us to do something about one girl threatening her daughter on a Xanga site. Also, some of their sites seemed to have students being photographed in EVERY classroom in our building.
this is an issue that is popping up more and more in the news. even our local district was able to suspend about 15 - 20 high school students who posted pictures from a party showing the teens with alcohol. the student who contacted me wanted to know what a school is supposed to do and what they can do. i provided him with snippets on current court cases and what other schools are doing in similar situations, but this really comes down to the old adage about an ounce of prevention . . . i think the key for any school is to have rules and consequences explicitly stated. in other words, a school/district should consider revising their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and making this policy very clear to students and to the parents/public. having a visible policy in place is really the best way to then deal with enforcement and any legal action that might be taken.
my experience with district technology plans comes largely from an assignment i have teachers in one of my graduates classes complete. that being said, i have read enough of the technology plans to verify what my students are finding in their own evaluations. most technology plans appear to be put into place as a way to make the State happy. only a small percentage of districts develop a living and breathing document that really guides technology in that district. and unfortunately, the AUP is often developed with the same sense of urgency (or lack thereof). a well developed AUP would have helped these current schools more easily deal with the problems of social networking websites. of course the problem would still persist, but the schools would have the means to take quick action.
May 18th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
I find this so troubling that students do things that this. Threating other students online is something that needs to be put to an end. I think that parents play the biggest role in their children being able to get on these sites and post comments like that. It is unfortunate that people have to threaten other people in order to make themselves feel better. I wish there is something that schools or parents could do about this situation, but with as much as children know about computers and technology now, I think that it is only going to get worse before it gets better.
May 21st, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Sean, I find that letter to be quite disturbing. I completely agree with your statement about schools implementing the Acceptable Use Policy. But, inevitably, who’s to say that the schools can do much about it. Is this happening at school or in the home? Obviously, if the students have access to the internet at school, then yes, it can happen at school…but are the parents being informed about it? I firmly believe that absolutely no student should have to feel threatened when they are at school, regardless of where this is occurring. If it is happening in the home yet is being brought up and being a distraction in school then something needs to be done about it. Things like these seem to be occurring more and more frequently year after year. But as Melissa states, things will get worse….children are learning more and more about technology and what and how they can use it more everyday. They are getting more profound with it and learning what their abilities are and how they can manipulate everything. Technology needs to be taught that it is a resource and a tool used for encouraging good things not harmful….people and society are so quick to judge and defend themselves more than ever, this may be where the real problem started.