I had an interesting conversation with a reporter this evening on the phone. She called to ask about student podcasting, and we discussed different schools in our state (Texas) as well as around the country who are using podcasts in creative ways.
She told me an interesting story that happened about a year ago when she was writing for a different newspaper in another state. She wrote an article about Xanga and how students were using it for social networking, homework collaboration, and other things– as we’ve read other places most likely, some students were posting their cell phone numbers, IM addresses, and LOTS of personal info there which could potentially put them in danger.
As a result of the article, the reporter received MANY emails from teenagers both in the local area but also in other parts of the United States. Some were angry, others saw valid points in her article. Some were upset that as a result of her article, more parents were learning about social networking sites like Xanga and MySpace. These kids, apparently, wanted their activities online to remain a secret from the adults– at least the adults in their homes and schools.
We need all educational stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, principals and other community members, to be communicating better in general. On the topic of technology use specifically, there needs to be more communication about what students are doing, who they are communicating with, and what information they are sharing and accessing.
But we also need to be talking about the POSITIVE ways these technologies are being used and can be used to help students develop authentic literacy skills as well as problem solving skills. Hopefully we’ll see more mainstream news articles about the positive uses of student blogs, podcasts, and other web 2.0 technologies in the months and years to come.
These technology tools are potentially DISRUPTIVE to traditional communication methods because they fundamentally alter notions of audience and publisher. We need to leverage the constructive use of these tools in the 21st century classroom.
On this day..
- Summarizing the 2011 MACE Keynote with Mobile Video and Glogster - 2011
- Presentation Links from the 2011 Heartland eLearning Conference #heartlandconf11 - 2011
- The Visions of Students Today by @mwesch #heartlandconf11 - 2011
- How to Boil the Ocean: Lessons of Blogging for Online Discussions by @berlinf #heartlandconf11 - 2011
- Cloudy is a Good Thing!: Enhancing Instruction with Tools from the Cloud #heartlandconf11 - 2011
- Michael Wesch Keynote at 2011 Heartland eLearning Conference #heartlandconf11 - 2011
- Don't just blame the kids: Adults face social media challenges too - 2010
- Writing Essays and Creating New Games: Things We Should Do on Netbooks - 2010
- Heartland eLearning Conference: PI4BL Workshop - 2010
- Free image editing options and student voices on edtech - 2009
