Sunday, August 16, 2009

Students Blogs

Asking students to create a blog is an idea that has been widely discussed within the community and especially within my school. A large number of teachers feel that it will open the students up to bullying, especially if they are posting their own idea's.

Interenet bullying is a major problem for school aged children, espcially as they are at such an inpressionable age. It has been agreed that this is not a exercise in which the students should participate as the welfare of the children is of the upmost importance.

The students have been taught about the appropriateness of what they post on the internet and are aware of copyright and plagerism laws. These two factos are important as they help students be aware of requirements when they complete assignments and such later on.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jess,
    I am intrigued by your posting. I am yet to have the opportunity to spend some time in a classroom, so I am unsure of how students and teachers are actually feeling about the ICT's presented in this course. However, I am of the opinion that blogs could cut out some of the bullying as they would be monitored by teachers with the use of RSS aggregators. I am unsure if I am being naive due to lack of experience, but I figured that if these blogs are monitored, students would be mighty bold to initiate bullying in this kind of environment, as it would be written clearly in black and white so students would not be able to deny their actions.
    Do the teachers in your community feel that the bullying would happen in another context? I am interested to know more about this as, like i said, I am forming opinions based on very no 'real world' experience in the classroom.

    Regards
    Kelly Wilkins

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comment Kelly.

    The school has previously experienced a large amount of internet bullying over chat forums, web forums and blogs. Even teacher monitored school forums had bullying incidents as the students would post strong opinions, often offensive to those of other races or genders.
    Even though students are aware of the anti-bullying policy, they often sub-consciously make posts that are offensive to other students. Boasting, competing with marks and putting each others ideas down. Not name calling or anything, but still a form of bullying.

    Jess

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for responding. I see now where you are coming from. It's a shame that kids can be so cruel. Optimistically, we would be able to come up with a way that we can overcome this, as it is a shame to right off these great ICT's, but I understand why they have made their decision.
    It's certainly a tricky subject isn't it.

    Thanks again Jess,

    Kelly.

    ReplyDelete