Steve Kinney

Over at 2¢ Worth, Dave made a great point:

So what are social networks and social networking? Do we need to integrate social networks(ing) into our classes? ..or do we need to create assignments or work for our students that demands them to use social networking. This is the conversation. Also being talked about is the technology of it. How do you bring it in and protect the kids.

Way back when I was in high school – which was not all that long ago, the big thing was Open Diary. This was before MySpace. This was before Facebook. It was before Friendster for crying out loud. For all practical purposes, it was a blog. But it was more than a blog. It was a teen drama machine. If you wanted to scorn you ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, this was the place. Needless to say, it caused far more harm than good.

As educators and administrators, we are scared to unleash these tools in our classroom for one very good reason - kids will be kids. We are scared about what liability issues we might create.

But we’re missing the point. If we’re allow fear to petrify us, we miss an opportunity to teach our students how to use these tools responsibly.

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