When it comes to safe practices with web 2.0 tools and student use, I believe that the values, skills, and effective practice need to be instilled at a young age. As I said in the Ning conversation on this topic I think it would be very difficult to have students in a high school setting start using certain blogging sites without ever being exposed to them before. I am not saying it could not be done but I look at the population of students that I have and I think asking 400 students with various academic tracks using certain tools and I just think they would have a rough time with it. Now if all of these students used these types of tools in a classroom setting from day one I think the task would be less daunting. I would like to attempt some of the concepts and skills that we learned in class but I think I would have to choose one of my classes that is on a higher maturity level or I think that my life may consist of just monitoring the site and making sure nobody writes anything inappropriate.
When reading chaper 7 in Solomon and Schrum I cannot help but be impressed with the student/teacher code of ethics. I think that all of the points in that section are important but my favorite one is everyone being held accountable. As a teacher I believe that you need to be accountable for everything that is going on and as a student as long as you practice within the guidelines of the class everything should run smoothly with whatever 2.0 tools that the class is using. My other issue or question concerning practices with 2.0 tools is how do you get your school to see that these teaching tools are such an asset to a classroom and convince them that we need to have access to them. I have been trying to get our sites that we use for class unlocked since day one and nobody seems to have any answers for me. If a teacher cannot even have access to the sites how can we introduce them to our students?
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2 comments:
Eric,
It seems as though having access to sites, policies, and tools is an issue at many districts. I ran into this problem when I started asking to see a copy of our AUP. I was emailed a document that is "thought" to be the AUP. Shouldn't this be accessible to students, teachers, and parents?
In terms of gaining access to the sites and proving that the tools are educational and beneficial to learning, I think that we will just have to keep asking questions and bringing the issue to the attention of those "in charge." If you can find a tool that you do have access to and then use those products as examples to prove the beenfits of using web 2.0 tools, you may be able to make some progress. When I wanted to use VoiceThread with my students, I made a presentation at home to use as an example to show my students and my principal. I figured that if she was new to VoiceThread, I could give her an on-the-spot example of how the students would be using the tool. I also had a parent permission letter for her to read. With most of her questions answered, I hoped that she would be less likely to refuse my request to use this tool. She was pretty excited about the project and she is now looking forward to seeing the student's projects when they are complete. I think that if I had not presented the example, she would have been a bit more hesitant to approve the project. Now that I have experimented with VoiceThread, and she knows that these tools are beneficial, I thinkin the future when I propose a new tool she will definitely be willing to approve it without much hesitation.
Victoria presented an excellent way to initiate change. Take one item that you want to focus on (blogging w/ one class is a great idea, Eric) and plan it out. Find the research behind it and also some examples on the Internet. Share that (with your curricular goals as the focus) with your principal and you should at least get him/her interested. You could also offer to be the "pilot" project.
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