The good news is that it seems like there’s a new entry into the safer student blogging arena every couple of weeks these days. David Warlick’s Blogmeister (free) is gaining quite a following, and the well-established ePals gang has just released its very robust SchoolBlog software (not free.) And I’ve been sworn to secrecy about a couple of other entrants soon to be coming forth that I think will take classroom blogging to an even higher level. All in all, there ought to be quite a few choices for schools who are looking to cover the bases in terms of keeping track of who is doing what in the blogs.
This is all a good thing, I know, but I have to be honest that it feels a little sad to me as well. It’s like the Wild West of blogs is coming to an end. There’s always been something powerful about the lack of a gatekeeper, something that makes it both scary and seductive. When I first had my students blogging four years ago, their blogs were open to the world. Nothing but good things came of it. They met people from Spain and Japan and Canada and all over the states who shared their ideas and questions and knowledge. It didn’t happen often that someone we didn’t know chimed in with a comment, but when it did happen, we all shared in a positive experience. Were we lucky? Maybe. But I think that by and large people are good, and it was nice to have that borne out in that class.
Four years hence, I still think people are good. This is a totally complex issue, I know, much of it dependent on age and place and all sorts of other stuff. We’re all just kind of throwing it against the wall to see what works and what doesn’t. I know there are risks out there. Tucker is sitting right next to me and just published his first blog song about Winnie the Pooh to the world. Comments are open. Is the fact that I’m even mentioning that somehow exposing him unnecessarily to danger? I’m sure some will think so, and I’m not going to argue the statistics. I would rather think it’s an opportunity for good people to let him know that they appreciate his six-year old effort. That he will learn that writing and publishing and conversation are opportunities for learning. Call me a dreamer.
My biggest fear is that we’ll just be replicating online the contrived structure of peer review we currently have in our classrooms. That would be such a shame. But we live in an era of such fear, fear of terrorists and pedophiles, fear of not passing the test, fear of not getting into the right school, fear of litigation, fear of taking anything that even resembles a risk. The transparency that the Read/Write Web offers resembles a big risk to many, but it’s a big opportunity as well. I hope our march to eliminate all risk for our students won’t also eliminate the potential that blogs and blogging can offer.
It’s my fear, too. We HAVE to go for the big opportunity! Great post, Will!
Anne
Will, I’ve enjoyed your site for many months now but this is my first comment. Not too long ago I read that people should blog for their employer … ten years down the road. The gist being that you never know who might become interested in your writing. I was reminded of that comment when I read your post on schoolsafe blogging. What are your thoughts on protecting teenagers from themselves?
Andy
Andy I think this is exactly the point. The idea being that giving students the responsibility will give them some ownership of their work. And really, it’s not like erasing a blog post is impossible. I’m sure even will has done a little post post doctoring over the last 4000+ posts. Delete a post entry, and then someone pretty much has to know that a post existed in order to track it down.
will… the culture of fear is far greater than this issue… more’s the pity. THe question i have is… do you see bloggging as a method to combat that fear?
I think there are pedagogical reasons to limit the scope of publishing on a blog at times. There’s a lot of paranoia, too, granted, but generally I think these are positive developments. Also, Dave, it is a very, very, bad idea to compel students to publish on the web based on the idea that such things can be retracted or changed. That is absolutely not a message that we should be sending to students.
It’s important that we teach young people how to conduct themselves, and make critical choices in their use of the web. It seems apparent that young people will use the web, isn’t it important to provide them with the ability to make “informed decisions” along the way. As some have mentioned, we’ll never be able to protect everybody, all the time.
Bud the Teacher has some interesting thoughts on the subject in his Choices podcast.
Andy…I think the way we protect teenagers from themselves in blogs is to teach and model good blogging practice. James Farmer, in a response to this post, brought up a great quote from Peter Ford, one of the earliest ed bloggers who writes:
It’s those mentoring educators that will make the difference.
Dave…in the sense that we fear most what we don’t know, I think blogging can be helpful in terms of its transparency. We’ll never eliminate all of the dangers in our lives (what kind of life would that be, really?) but I think we’re now able to understand them more completely. I’ve said it before, but this access to knowledge also brings a great deal of complexity to the table, and I hope we can teach our kids to be active consumers instead of being passively overwhelmed.
Tom…I do agree with the pedagogical needs part of this, but my concern is that the more programmed blogware becomes the less creative it let’s us be.
Tom…
I think it’s a bad idea to compel them to do anything. It is, however, possible (as Barbara Ganley has described can’t find the post right now, but she explained it on the podcast at 20:00 minutes into the show) to help students reorganize work that has gone astray. Look back at what I said, and how you chose to interpret it… it seems to support Will’s central idea of a culture of fear. And, to be fair, I didn’t add the fact that, if what students do is VERY compelling, other websites will pick it up if it is not erased first. Which is a real possibility. But it’s a possibility in and out of school. What we need is leadership, not protectionism.
You’re position sounds like something you’ve thought about… you certainly feel strongly about it, any chance of sending me to some links that flush out your position? Or, if you like, show up at the brainstorm on Thursday night so we can talk about it!
One more thing… I take you to this example of how things can go badly when one is not careful what one posts on the internet… forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1759655
I agree with Doug, that “it is important that we teach young people how to conduct themselves, and make critical choices in their use of the web.”
Students need to be aware of issues associated with copyright, libel, pedophiles etc etc. Certainly these are life skills that students need to learn somewhere.