May

10

The 5 W’s and the 1 H of a Classroom Blog.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Graphic Organizers, Special Education, The way I see it, Web 2.0 tools and technologies, maintaining a safe, math, motivating students, positive climate, underachieving students | Leave a Comment

The 5 W’s and 1 H of a Classroom blog?  OK, OK, I know that the 5  W’s and 1 H of a Classroom Blog isn’t the most creative title for a post, but sometimes tried and true is OK, and all teachers know there’s nothing more tried and true than the 5 W’s and the 1 H, so here it is.

Although my students are pretty digital savy seeing that most spend hours and hours online visiting Facebook, YouTube, playing online games and text messaging, I can’t assume they know about  blogs and blogging so  I show them the following video.  I love it.  They love it. As you’ll see after viewing it, Common Craft , the company who makes these educational videos, believes in the KISS principle. I believe in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple for  Students. What’s not to like!  Common Craft also has videos on TeacherTube-great when YouTube is blocked like it is at my school. Grrrr!!!!

See, wasn’t that a great video, especially for students who are visual learners or for those struggling or  reluctant readers in your class who loath the printed page.

My students are usually quite excited when I introduce the idea of a class blog.  They like the idea of  writing blog posts and having others read what they’ve  written. To  be more precise, they like  not having to write something using pen and paper, and they like knowing that someone other than their teacher will actually read what they’ve written.  In the two years that I’ve had the class blogs,  only one student has asked me not to publish some of his work.   I’ve got no problem with that. At least, he was thinking and writing.

I suspect that the kids also like the blog because when their work gets published it  looks so professional-just like the articles in the papers, magazines or even in textbooks. Some of my students have really messy handwriting and are embarrassed by it,  and some of my students  find the process  of forming letters difficult to do so they write as little as possible.  When they type their work and use the spell checker, their work looks the same as everyone else’s when it gets published.  What they’ve written doesn’t look stupid, so they don’t feel stupid. They don’t have to be embarrased. That’s definately a good thing with reluctant and struggling students.

At first, I was a bit apprehensive about having my students contribute to a class blog.  Some of them can be very creative in a michevious way- if you know what I mean.  I told my students that  I didn’t want to have to take early retirement because something went wrong.  I can honestly say there haven’t  been any problems.  More about that later.

I wasn’t only concerned about  inappropriate material appearing on the class blog, I was also concerned about student safety. I didn’t want the class blog to put my students in harm’s way.   We’ve all read the horror stories about online bullying or harassment or even worse.  Fortunately, it was easy to put all the saftey  measures in place to protect my students so there have been no problems in the past two years.

In subsequent posts, I”ll share with you how I made the class blog a safe and inviting place for my students, and why I chose the particular blogging  tool I use for my class blogs.  Oh yes, I’ll also share the letter I sent home to parents to tell them about the class blog. I got wonderful positive feedback from parents about the blog.  I’ll tell y0u more about that later too.

See you then.

Apr

7

The Way I See It

Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, The Way I See It | 3 Comments

During the last week Ive been reading about the cyber-abuse that Kathy Sierra has experienced and listened to her talk about it in an interview. It was very disturbing. I’ve had many conversations about Kathy’s cyber-abuse and cyber-abuse in general with other bloggers. I have written about cyber- abuse in my posts “Schools need to do more to protect students from road rage on the digital highway” and Cyber-Bullying: Relational Aggression . Please read the two posts regarding my arguments and suggestions.

I have computers in my classroom and saw kids using MySpace (before it was blocked) and realized the need for us to teach kids in a systematic way about using the internet safely. I have also seen and heard the relational aggression that goes on amongst students. I have suggested that schools among other things implement a program that deals with cyber-bullying based on the program that all ready exists for bullying. I also suggested that students need to know that freedom of speech is limited by the laws prohibiting libel and slander. Kids and adults need to be absolutely clear on what is appropriate behaviour and what isn’t. Our safe school policy states

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.

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.

I am very much concerned about the issue of cyber-bullying and relational aggression and made suggestions to help stop the abuse and help deal with the abuse. With these thoughts and concerns and Kathy Sierra’s experience of cyber-abuse in my head , I read Miguel’s post Think Before You Post where he says:

For me, it’s a reminder that we all have to be a bit thicker-skinned when we venture out into an online world. If I post my photo online, I have to expect that it will be modified. If I share my thoughts, my hopes, my fears, I have to expect that they could be used against me.

I read the statement and concluded that the victim was being blamed because she should be thicker skinned and not bothered by whatever .She should have know better and she should have expected trouble. I said that blaming a victim for cyber-abuse reminded me of when women were blamed for being raped because they wore short skirts. The implication was that the victim was at fault because of what she did and she should have know better and she only had herself to blame.

As for Miguel’s statement about my accusation :” The accusation seemed to be working against a “straw man.” I don’t know about that. I just made a logical extension of Miguel’s argument regarding the video and went down the slippery slope with it. Look, I’m not trying to make brownie points here. I read what Miguel said and I interpreted it the way I did as a reflection of my own observations and after thinking about it further I still see it the same way.To say that someone should not feel bad when someone hurts them and then say what did you expect when you did that, is blaming the victim. At least, the way I see it.

The most important thing is that cyber-bullying and relational aggression be stopped and victims of abuse get support. That’s what I am working for. That’s what other people are working for. I have links to different support organizations in my blog roll for anyone to access. I want people to be educated about the dangers of cyber-bullying and how to protect themselves and know that if something happens they will have the emotional and legal support they need. W e are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. I recently read an estimate that predicted 80 million people will on line by 2010. I hope we have more answers by then.

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, Bullying, Computers In The Classroom, maintaining a safe | 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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