art ed + web 2.0 + [e]merging media blog

Everywhere I look, I keep seeing references to Web 2.0 in education. How far will this trend go? An author whose work I just became familiar with (though I've heard his ideas for a while) is Marc Prensky. He is the (as far as I can tell) originator of the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants." In my mind, this is a seminal piece that challenges what we do as educators and how we do it. Though I do not know what he was aware of in terms of Web 2.0 when he wrote that article, it seems as if he was almost predicting the changes that would come with its emergence.

Computers in the Schools has a call out now for articles on Web 2.0 (they are due October 15) and I wonder how far people are pushing the boundaries on their ideas. It seems (to me) that the same stumbling blocks are still in place with regard to Web 2.0 integration in the classroom that were there for so many other previous technologies - mainly lack of teacher training time, no pay for teacher training, no (or little) technical support, and no or little release time to come up with new ideas for working with the new technologies.

In a local district, all the middle schoolers and high schoolers have laptops. It seems as if the students' main interest is in MySpace, Facebook, etc. It was interesting when I asked one student about the use of filters to block certain sites. He responded that there was always a way around every filter that the administration tried. But there is always an ongoing battle about who can be in control - students or the administrators. Didn't anyone learn anything from Ferris Bueler?

My point is not that there are not legitimate safety concerns with social networking sites - certainly there are. My point is that so often it is fear that shapes the educational policies, not learning how to use the technology in a better or safer way. We know that cars kill thousands of Americans each year and still we drive. But, we wear seatbelts, have front and side airbags, follow the speed limits (or not), and have laws about DUI. We're not terrified of cars and we even let our teenagers drive them. But schools are terrified of social networking sites because of the potential of pedophiles finding students while they are on the school network. Again, this is a credible fear. But, is it best to engage in a never-ending battle with devious teenagers, or is there another way?

I think that we need to take multiple approaches at the same time to deal with students and social networking. It's not a bad thing that students are making networks. What may be alarming is how easily they give personal information to others. On a NPR show, a mom called in and said that she is on her own daughter's MySpace page as a friend. She knows what her daughter's friends post, she knows what their friends' pages contain, etc. Basically, she makes it her business to be in her daughter's business. Would students act differently online if they knew some of their teachers or parents were there?

Where should thinking skills be taught? Should we not be teaching students to think about what they say to others online about themselves? It's interesting to me that we (educators) tend to fear what is new. We think the new thing will cause harm, may do damage to our students, and may undermine our authority. However, our students often embrace the new, they think it's cool and they love using it. The Pew Internet and American Life project has amazing research on the topic of teens creating and consuming content. Basically, they are doing both all the time. As educators, we can just say it's all bad and try to ban it. Or, we can (with out digital immigrant accents) learn to use these technologies and find ways to teach with them and make learning more meaningful to our students.