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Helping Kids Participate Safely in a Web 2.0 World
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Using today's computer technology to support student learning was something of a theme during the June 3 school board meeting. Centennial Campus Middle gave a detailed report of their one-to-one laptop initiative, which has brought online instruction and collaboration to an awe-inspiring level thanks to a grant funded by SAS Institute, Inc. (You can find out more in Bill Poston's podcast, and you can watch their presentation during the first hour of the school board meeting -- check with your public/government access channel for airtimes.)
Among the tools Centennial is bringing to bear are blogs, podcasts, wikis, and other so-called Web 2.0 technologies. They bring an unprecedented level of interactivity and participation to the classroom, just as in the business community and the day-to-day life of an increasingly hyper-connected generation. As chief technology officer Beverly White sees it, that brings opportunities as well as responsibilities.
"This is fantastic," says White. "Anything that engages students in learning is exactly what we need to do. Technology can be transformative, and bringing it into the classroom in this way makes it transformative for learning." At the same time, she says, caution must be taken when more and more personally identifiable information may be released onto the Web. Those concerns were reflected in updates to the school board's policies on Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources enacted Tuesday night.
"We needed to recognize the fact that since we first put the policy in place, the Internet has really changed from being just a place to pull information from," says White. "Now it's a two-way exchange of information. So we need to encourage and we need to teach 21st-century skills, Web 2.0 tools, all those kinds of things. That's the conundrum: finding ways to protect students who are doing the posting and taking advantage of the two-way conversations available while teaching them how to do it -- because it's their world."
The updated policies and administrative procedures clarify the need to get parental permission before posting personally identifiable information. White says that while students' involvement in public activities -- say, scoring the winning touchdown in a football game -- is "directory information" and may be publicized on the Web, day-to-day classroom activities require more care in the absence of parental permission (for example, using a pseudonym or "handle" instead of a student's real name on a blog).
"The whole concept is, let's get information out there -- let's show the child's artwork, let's do things to make people proud of what they're doing and proud of where they are, and help them understand the skills -- but let's protect our employees, and let's protect our students," says White. She's also hopeful that revising acceptable use policies will encourage further adoption of instructional technology: "This can help teachers, some of whom are skeptical of letting kids get out to these resources, have more confidence that there are effective guidelines and that the district will stand behind the teachers."
White adds that the Technology Services Division will also work collaboratively with teachers who have already embraced online and Web 2.0-based teaching tools, many of whom have independently adopted similar rules, helping them realign when necessary. "We might say, 'We're not experts about what you want to do your wiki about, but we can certainly look at some generalities. Let's look at the acceptable use policy,'" White says. "That's the approach: to educate and involve you in the solution, not to waggle a finger and say, 'No.' We need to enable that teaching to happen."
(We'll provide links to the updated policies here when they are posted to our website.)
Posted by Chip Sudderth at 5:05 PM on June 4, 2008 | Leave Feedback
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