Blogging safety and security - the web is already opened up
Joe left a comment on the Masterclass post from yesterday:
One of the issues I am concerned with are the security of children on the Internet. Our authority are very security conscious and to start opening this up to the whole Internet wouldn't look good in their eyes and more importantly the parents. Are there any issues that have been raised before?
Getting kids to blog is not, I would argue, opening up the whole internet to kids. The internet is already opened up to them. Take a look at a couple of personal web pages from Bebo. This is what most 15-18 year olds are using, along with MSNSpaces. MSNSpaces has been used by 100% of all 11-13 year olds that I have been working with in the past three months. The site even recognises where you are so that you can feasibly make new friends in 'meatspace' (the real world) from the (plentiful) information provided by the youngsters on their personal sites.
I think there is a huge role for teachers - and not just ICT teachers - in showing how to use these existing tools with care. Authorities, schools and teachers can block all of this in school and not cover the issue for fear of getting burnt. Or, we can attempt to show the way by getting kids to use a safer, teacher-guided student-led tool for a constructive learning purpose. As Andy says in another comment:
Within our Authority, I'm the one who looks after issues about security as they affect schools. Because blogs can be moderated, there should be no security issues.
I know which story I would like to hear. What do you reckon?
Can we embrace the tools our kids are already using?
How would you use a blog in the classroom or for extending learning beyond the four walls of your class?
I fully agree with opening up the Internet to the children, however, on the aspect of authorities accountability, that is the issue I am concerned with. You dont want to see your authority spread over the front page of a national newspaper
Posted by: joeshaw | March 24, 2006 at 09:55 AM
Where does the Authority's accountability stop? At 4pm? When a kid is bullied inside school? When a kid is bullied outside school? Is it not most responsible if an Authority chooses to tackle the difficult area rather than be so tentative that these technologies evolve quickly and overtake the importance of each action the authority makes?
Posted by: Ewan McIntosh | March 25, 2006 at 07:54 PM
We are not slinging the children out there to the wolves, and we do have a responsibility to teach them to safeguard themselves in every area of life. The web in all its forms is a reality that we have to deal with. My Primary three class are involved in the moderation of the comments that are placed on their blog. http://talkingteds.blogspot.com. I have previously checked them, for anything really dodgy. There have been none in that category. They can tell anyone that they won't publish people for whom they have no ability to trace a point of reference, signs themselves anon. or with a number only. They won't publish comments written all in capitals etc and themselves made a suggestion that I should write a posting to that effect. I have removed the Blogger header so that they cannot inadvertently go onto a next blog, which might not be suitable. How can we prepare our children in this, as anything else, without experience? We owe it to them.
Posted by: Marlyn Moffat | March 26, 2006 at 07:50 PM
hello my name is misha!!
can u create a web site for bebo and myspace which we can access to at school with out teachers blocking it please! thanks! :)
xx please keep in touch! x
Posted by: misha | February 05, 2007 at 09:21 AM
hello my name is misha!!
can u create a web site for bebo and myspace which we can access to at school with out teachers blocking it please! thanks! :)
xx please keep in touch! x
Posted by: misha | February 05, 2007 at 09:21 AM