I just received permission to post this message sent to me over the weekend.
…the father of one of my students is currently serving in Iraq and today he left 2 comments on his son’s blog. The child was so thrilled that his father had done this. That moment just reaffirmed how wonderful this process is and what powerful things can happen! I am still teary-eyed thinking about it and the boy’s reaction.
Can we become so frightened of new technologies that we become blind to the potentials? Can we get the media to pay attention to connections and not just the threats?
2¢
I agree. I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We just have to make sure students understand the risks involved. You were right in your previous post — “We haven’t been doing our jobs. We haven’t been allowed. We haven’t been pushed. The technologies are here, we’ve simply turned it over to kids to make of it what they will. What should we expect?”
Your story truely touched me. I think it is so amazing that you care that much about your students and not only that you showed how technology should be used to communicate not corrupt. I hope I someday can be a teacher like you.
After attending an infuriating “scared straight” style seminar yesterday in Dayton, OH, that focused totally on “the bad technology” and what we can do to combat the dangers of sexual predators on the internet, I was comforted by your post. Of course we need to protect our children, but we also need to allow the voices using these new technologies to be heard, and stop using our lack of tech knowledge, technophobias, and fear of the unknown as an excuse.
That was my email message to David. This boy, whose father left the comments, is a FIRST GRADE student.
I have been using the class blog extensively in my classroom and the kids love it. The parents and families are reading the stories at home and the children are even leaving comments for each other. We have had many discussions about what was appropriate to put on, and the students know that I will delete or change anything that isn’t acceptable.
My point is, that even though this takes a fair amount of my time, I feel that it is so worth it. I can teach my first graders how to be responsible users of this technology. By the time these 6 year olds are adults, this will be all that they know. It’s time, NOW, to do this. Very few other teachers in my area are looking forward like this, which is discouraging. Our students fall in the lower socio-economic range. If we don’t teach them, what will they become?
What are the statistics of internet predators? What are the chances of this happening to our children, if we use reasonable caution? I can’t believe that they are high enough to throw the baby out with the bath water!
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