Mar

28

Schools need to do more to protect students from road rage on the digital highway

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom | 3 Comments

internet-highway.jpg Hardly a week goes by that I don’t read or hear about the problems school officials must deal with now that students are on the digital highway and can access sites like Facebook, MSN-Messenger, MySpace, and YouTube from anywhere. Students use these sites to vent their rage about adult authority figures or post offending comments about fellow students. Of course schools have always had to deal with those students who are disrespectful to adults or bully , harass or name-call their peers. and have developed codes of conduct in an attempt to stop this behaviour, but I believe they need to do more than this. They need to teach kids defensive driving strategies while they are navigating the digital highway.

There have to be expectations and requirements for on-line behaviour just like there have to be expectations and requirements for off-line behaviour. We can’t just advise or expect students to use common sense when traveling the digital highway because we all know that common sense isn’t as common as we’d wish. The requirements for on-line behaviour need to be stated plainly so there is no doubt about what is acceptable behaviour and what isn’t. In fact now that I think about it, the requirements for on-line conduct should be posted above computers to remind stuents about the required on-line behaviour just like there are traffic signs posted on the road side to remind drivers on highways of the speed limit. We all need reminders.

My Board, the one I now the best, has the following requirement for on-line conduct:

when using electronic resources students must demonstrate appropriate on-line conduct/manners and refrain from improper/unethical use of technology, including computer hacking. Internet use for any purpose which is contrary to the school’s Code of Conduct is strictly prohibited. This includes all forms of violence, threats and harassment directed at the students or school. This applies to school, work and home Internet use.

Now that seems pretty clear; no violence, no threats, no harassment. Notice however, that the no violence, no threats, no harassments requirement applies when using the Internet at home and at work not just at school. Let me say that again: The no violence, no threats, no harrassments requirement applies when using the Internet at home and at work, not just at school. Most students aren’t aware of this. They tend to think what they do at home is none of the school’s business. But, it is the schools business because the insults, threats and harassments wherever they originate disrupt the learning and teaching in the school and need to be stopped.

Some students don’t realize that the Internet is a public place where free speech is limited to prevent libel and slander. They think they have the right to say anything they want, even if their comments are derogatory. They don’t realize that freedom of speech does not include being able to threaten and insult others. There are laws against that. One student who found himself suspended along with three other students because of their derogatory on-line remarks argued:

As long as the person who you’re talking about doesn’t get it; as long as you’re not e-mailing them, as long as you’re not messaging them and telling them what you’re saying, then it’s all right to an extent..If you’re talking about killing them and beating them up, that’s a different story, but we were not doing that.

Oh, it’s OK to say nasty things about people behind their back just as long as you don’t say it to their face? That’s not the way the law works. I guess you could argue that these students are just kids and as kids they are bound to make errors in judgment so maybe they shouldn’t be judged harshly.

Marshall Korenblum a psychiatrist specializing in children’s mental health argues:

Part of adolescence is to be sarcastic, part of adolescence is bravado, part of adolescence is just being silly…so adolescents will say and write a lot of sayings they don’t mean literally or seriously as we adults might take them to be. And from that point of view I think we have to cut the kids some slack in terms of their freedom of expression.”

So how much slack should these kids be cut? They called a vice-principal a fat penguin and said that you’d have to divide her into pieces and individually weigh the parts of her body so you could see how much she weighed . Since I don’t know all the details, I’m not going to comment. I do know that the Safe Schools policy in our board maintains:

harassment and physical, verbal (oral or written) sexual or psychological abuse; bullying; or discrimination on the basis of faith, gender, socioeconomic status, ability, age, sexual orientation or any other attribute is unacceptable…

Any student who demonstrates behaviour inconsistent with Board policy or the school Code of Conduct will face consequences which may include loss of privileges, detention, community service, making restitution, suspension or full expulsion from any school in the province.

So there you have it: the behaviour requirements and the consequences should students choose not to respect them. When students complain about the consequences they must suffer for their inappropriate behaviour, I tell them to make better choices because better choices lead to better consequences. It’s as simple as that.

Some people argue that by suspending or expelling students, school officials are preventing students from getting an education. This is not the case. There are alternative programs such as the Fresh Start program in my Board that kids who are expelled from the regular system can attend and earn credits toward graduation. I’ve had students who attended the Fresh Start program. They were very humbled by the whole experience and appreciated the fact that they could continue their education.

So far I’ve discussed what schools do to try to stop people from harming others. But I don’t think that is enough. I think more needs to be done to teach unsuspecting kids how to protect themselves from others who intend to harm by them using the Internet. We need programs for kids teaching them how to protect themselves from this type of abuse like the programs we have teaching kids how to protect themselves from bullies in the hallways.

I want to conclude by saying that schools have some responsibility for teaching students how to manage their lives in ways that keep them safe. Students need to know exactly what conduct is expected when on-line, and the consequences of not meeting these expectations. Schools do have codes of conduct around Internet use and make it very clear what students can and cannot do, but they need to remind students more frequently what the expectations are and the resulting consequences for non-compliance. More importantly, schools need to teach kids self defense strategies they can use while on the Internet to protect themselves from those who wish to harm them.

Wait a minute. It just dawned on me when I said schools had some responsibility for teaching kids how to protect themselves on-line. I did said they had some responsibility, so that means they don’t have all the responsibility. It’s amazing, we’re back to that village again. You know the one I mean. The one that everyone always says it takes to raise a child.

I’ve noticed that the school is reaching out into the village, into the work place and into the homes to set requirements for acceptable behavior for young people. The village needs to reach into the school and support the school in it’s effort to prevent students from being harmed or abused by people on the Internet. The village needs to join schools in teaching students Internet self-defense strategies so they can protect themselves from abuse and harm. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

 
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Mar

22

It’s a conspiracy

Filed Under The Way I See It | Leave a Comment

If you would prefer to listen to my post rather than to read it, please click on the audio link above. :)

I never used to be a conspiracy theorist. Actually when I realized I’d become one, I was rather shocked at first, but then I do have that touch of cynicism in me that I’d inherited from my father, and I did listen to that all night radio talk show that talked about one conspiracy after another when I had that bout of insomnia a few years ago. I’ve been suggesting in quiet tones , to just a few people that the literacy test the grade tens write and have to pass in order to get their graduation diploma seemed to be getting easier each year. I know. Imagine that.

This is how I see it: the first literacy test results were a tad disappointing, to say the least. Everyone was shocked. What was happening to the kids in Ontario schools. What were those teachers doing, or more to the point what were those teachers not doing? Why were the the kids doing so badly? If this continued, we wouldn’t be able to compete in the global market place, and the country would go to hell in a hand basket. But then, the government of the day decided to step up to the plate and fix the education system. Their solution: more of everything- more teachers, more expectations, more remedial classes, more on-line self-help, more, more , more. After the results of the following year’s literacy test, people were patting themselves on their back because the test scores were better. I did mention at that time , I thought the test was easier. But, I don’t think anyone heard me because of all the noise from all the celebrations.

This coming year’s test on March 29th has changed even more.It’s a one day test, instead of the usual two days. There are only 48 multiple choice questions instead of 100 and there are fewer reading and writing questions. I predict the test scores are going to improve again from the previous year. Isn’t the government doing a good job. Aren’t our schools wonderful now! Our country is not going to hell in a hand basket anymore. The politicians are smiling right into the next election.

OK, OK, a lot of teachers really worked hard to help kids get ready for the literacy test. I know I did, and I don’t want to belittle our efforts. But the test format did change significantly over time, so we’re not really comparing oranges to oranges. Who created the literacy test, guess. And no, I don’t have test results for each year at my finger tips to prove my point, but I did attend all those meetings about the literacy test for the last three years and read all those newspaper articles about it. You know what? I’d be really happy if someone were to prove me wrong.

 
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Mar

20

The dangers of virtual reality

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management | Leave a Comment

games.jpg“the overpowering stimulation and excitement that virtual reality produces can lull the imagination and numb sympathetic feelings for pain and suffering (Daisaku Ikeda, Soko Education (Santa Monica: Middleway Press, 2001), 53

This quote could help explain a lot of things that I see and hear in my classroom of at-risk kids. . Many of my at-risk students play video games, violent video games most of their time at home. I just checked here to see which games are the most popular now. I was hoping it wasn’t the especially violent ones. But I was wrong. Grand Theft Auto is still right there at the top.

Many of my at-risk students have desk top computers in their bedrooms and play on them into the wee hours of the morning. They have little ones they carry around and play games on when they’re away from home. They play games and don’t interact with other people, except to comment on how many points they have scored or which level they’ve gotten to.

These at-risk students seem numb to the pain and suffering of others and have no empathy for anyone. They glorify violence. When I talk to them about things they just shrug their shoulders and say things like oh well, that’s life. They ‘ve even held fights that were specially staged for and posted on YouTube, that is until the school got wind of it and it was stopped. It just boggles my mind. Perhaps the quality of life is becoming what Hobbes claimed it was- solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

How can we counter the negative effects of virtual reality?

UPDATE-March 22

My daughter Lisa read this post and said that she had recently read that violent video games actually reduced the incidence of youth violence. The only conclusions I’ve come to are:

1. For some reason my at-risk students might be affected negatively by violent games while other students might n0t be.

2. My at-risk kids would be even more violent if they didn’t play violent video games because they wouldn’t get some of the violence out of the system by playing those games (Oh my goodness)

Does anyone know of research that could speak to this? Please let me know if you do.

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