good times

We all recognize that the face of education is changing because of technology.  The question is how do we maintain a balance between teaching certain necessary skills and using technology to prepare students for an evolving and increasingly technological world?  It is a tough question.  “The future is not online .v. face to face contact. It is about mixing it together to enable the best possible experience for our students” ( Michael Zastrocky http://www.sconul.ac.uk/news/conf.html ).   In addition, Anne Bell said, “We must combine the best of technology with the best of human academic interaction”.  Students need to be prepared to work collaboratively and to be critical and creative thinkers.  If we can find that balance between traditional teaching and new technologies we can guide students to be independent learners who can evaluate information, contribute quality work and produce original thoughts.

Anne Collier, publisher of Net Family News asserts that Web 2.0 “It’s necessarily bringing ethics back into the public discussion and citizenship back into public school curricula (I think, I hope).” and “It trains kids better for the “real world” than traditional education does. “  So… the question still remains.  How do we find the balance?  http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2008/01/web_20_and_education_hot_or_no.html

Wikipedia is not a source I would want my students to use.  In fact, in the past, I have told students they are not allowed to use it as a source when conducting research.  However, after reading the assigned articles, I feel more informed about how Wikipedia works. The article “Growing Wikipedia Refines Its ‘Anyone Can Edit’ Policy” explained some of the controls the administrators attempt to use to control the accuracy of information and maintain control of the content. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=646c3d018ce68f36&ex=1308196800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Has this changed my mind? Will I allow students to reference it and cite it as a valid source in a paper and works cited page? No.  Here is why.  Wikipedia may be a place that offers a wealth of information, mostly accurate information.  But…high school students don’t always take the time to check information or to read critically to evaluate information.   In the article “Why Wikipedia is not so great” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great)   – interestingly on Wikipedia itself – several entries – all of which can be edited are noteworthy:

•  Anyone can add subtle nonsense or accidental misinformation to articles that can take weeks or even months to be detected and removed. Users who are not logged in can also do this.
•  Because Wikipedia is widely used, often showing up high in Google searches, and its dangers are not well understood by many people, misinformation in Wikipedia articles can easily spread to other external sources.
• The fact that any editor can edit any article regardless of competence in the subject matter may imperil the quality of articles on highly technical subjects. In case a dispute over the content of such an article ensues, an editor without specific competence can easily reorganize the content of the article based on faulty understanding of the subject.

Is it an appropriate teaching tool?  It is if you are teaching students how to conduct research and how to evaluate information on the internet.  It may serve as a valuable teaching tool if students find information on a topic in Wikipedia and then have to validate the information by finding evidence to substantiate the Wikipedia information.  It could serve as an interesting assignment.

The Value of Social Networking?  As educators, do we embrace this new way of socializing and adopt the “if you can’t beat them, join them” mentality, do we embrace the teachable moments that Facebook and the like offer us, or do we turn our backs and ignore it all together?  Obviously, we can’t turn our backs.  Social Networking continues to evolve and our students are evolving with the new technology and the opportunities, both good and bad, that these new forums offer.  So…we must embrace the teachable moments and the technologies.  Even if teachers don’t use MySpace, Facebook, or the like, we should be knowledgeable enough about them to help our students and their parents make informed and appropriate decisions when they are using them. “McGuirk said he’d rather see… administrators using Facebook to get students thinking about how they want to craft their public persona” than faculty and administration at colleges and high schools pretend that these new ways of creating a public image don’ t exist. (http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/15/facebook)

One thing is clear – danger lurks in these social environments. Nancy Willard’s “A Briefing for Educators: Online Social Networking Communities and Youth Risk” asserts “Online disinhibition is caused by the “you can’t see me, I can’t see you” phenomenon. The perception of invisibility and lack of tangible feedback in online environments interferes with three key factors that help guide responsible decision-making – social disapproval, detection leading to discipline, and the recognition an action caused harm to others or self.” (http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/events/techforum06/MichelleRussell_ABriefingforEducatorsOnlineSociaNetworking.pdf)

Willard, like McGuirk, assert that although there are benefits to social networking sites, there is great danger and since there is nothing educators can do to prevent students from accessing these sites, as filters can be circumvented, we have no choice but to educate ourselves and our students.  Personally, I feel there are just too many dangers associated with teens using these forums, watch the Dateline catch a predator series or watch the news about issues arising with Facebook, YouTube, etc.  I may be old-fashioned and wish students didn’t use the internet to socialize, but since I can’t beat them, it is my job and my responsibility as a teacher to join them.

It has been an interesting week.  I hate to admit it, but this week forced me to explore a topic of which I had been utterly unfamiliar.  I have read expert articles, searched through I-don’t-know-how-many blogs, and actually created my own space to blog!  It has been a frustrating yet rewarding experience.  I now see the potential for incorporating blogging into my curriculum as a way for students to take ownership and to publish their work.  In an English class, students are constantly asked to respond to literature and to make personal connections to the lit.  A blog is an ideal way for all students to express their thoughts.  The interactive nature of commenting is also beneficial as students receive feedback on their ideas.

Unfortunately there are several hurdles that present themselves when considering adding blogging to my class.  First, blogs are blocked at my school.  Big problem, since some students might not have computer access at home.  Second, I don’t really know what I am doing.   I don’t mind this potential hurdle that much, because I know my students would teach me what I don’t know.  The last hurdle is convincing others – especially administrators – that blogging has the potential to motivate and engage students in a new and exciting way.

I will continue to explore this new – new to me, anyway – form of expression, and attempt to make it work for me and my students.