Networked Classrooms... "I'm a physicist, not a hippie"

It's hard not to think of what happened in Missouri in 2011 when talking about social media and networked classrooms.  I think the legislature has placed a negative view on what can be positive online learning experiences.  If you didn't already know, the state attempted to ban school employees from using social media because of the few teachers that have misused social networking tools to create inappropriate relationships with students.  In the end, the state legislature repealed ban and had schools create their own social media guidelines that respect and value both the students, teachers and technology.

With what we have experienced in our state, I have to say the information provided about Safety and Ethical Use resonated with me.  "All too often, we've seen districts equate keeping students safe with filtering any online access to people and to content that hasn't been created in traditional ways (blogs, wikipedia, YouTube, and so on.  Even worse, many districts do not give teachers the ability to override the filter at their desktops or laptops if they find blocked sites that they deign either appropriate or relevant to the curriculum." (76)  I am fortunate to have a good relationship with our "tech guy," but I feel like I have to jump through a lot of hoops just to have educational downloads or certain websites available.  I agree with the text that the strategy of strictly blocking at school puts students in a less safe place considering they generally go home to an unrestricted, unfiltered access to media and technology (and, yes, I do realize that we have to have some level of filtering as mandated by law).  I also agree that higher levels of restriction gives the idea that we are not respected professionally as adults and teachers.  If my level of integrity was appropriate to be a part of influencing the lives of our students, then I can say my ability to make and model appropriate choices with technology will reflect my level of ethics and integrity that made me a part of the community.

When it comes to technology, it is hard not to equate acceptable use with our character development in schools.  Character education is an important aspect of our school culture.  We even have a weekly meeting with our assigned small group to discuss and perform activities, but above all we try to embed character training in all we do.  We take opportunities to show through examples and experiences what quality character is, and what is not. This should be true of our technology integration, but when there are not learning opportunities available for learning appropriate use, it makes the embedding process of safety and proper use more challenging.  Don't get me wrong, I do believe in restrictions - or restraint, and proximity and expectation are a big part of that.  When we are not connecting to the social media that students are already using, we are ignoring learning opportunities.

For example, I asked my principal if we had a Twitter feed.  He didn't know and had to check around.  It turns out we don't have one specific to our school.  When I replied that I thought we were missing out on an opportunity to stay connected to our students and families, the hot topic question he asked was what happens when those utilizing Twitter would retweet our information with negative language or pictures?  Honestly, that could already be happening and we don't know it.  I think we have to change our perspective... and change the question.  How do we stay connected to our community and have a positive influence, and what are the consequences for inappropriate use that disrupts or disrespects our students, staff and school?

Strangely, I couldn't help but think Big Bang Theory when reading through chapter 3 this week in our PLN text.  When Sheldon is confronted with sharing his emotions, he exclaims, "I'm a physicist, not a hippie."   I guess it's a bad analogy, but our idea of open access to information isn't the same as an all-access free-love movement.  Limiting our access doesn't solve the problem of cyber-bullying and inappropriate or disrespectful posts, nor does it make us 'anything goes' hippies in the world wide web.  We all need to model good choices and provide strategies to deal with the online character development of our students, and ourselves.  And, learning how to become better cyber-citizens not only affects our classrooms, but the world that our students are a part of.  So, for now, the next step to networking our classroom and school is through conversations with administration about the benefits of using Twitter.

I am a teacher, not a hippie.