Many major news outlets reported today that the first domino in what appears to be a very long and controversial domino train has fallen this week in the State of Missouri. According to these news outlets, lawmakers in Missouri added a provision to the recently passed "Amy Hestir Student Protection Act" that prevents teachers and students from connecting via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Understandably this news has not gone unnoticed and has set up heated debate on both sides of the argument all across the web. Some feel that teachers and students really have no business communicating on a social networking platform after school hours. Others however have argued that these new modes of communication serve as a vital link connecting students with teachers when they might need them most: during the hours they spend each night struggling through mountains of homework.
This is no doubt a complex and important issue to discuss. On one side, ultimately the number one role of an educator is to ensure that students learn in an environment that fosters intellectual growth and also provides them with an unmistakable level of protection and safety. This law definitely makes great strides toward ensuring that the safety of students on the internet is policed and enforced.
However, on the other side of the argument......completely restricting vital home links between educators and their students could certainly have negative effects on the learning process as well.
Should it be the responsibility of lawmakers to completely ban access to potentially useful new technologies as they appear on the educational spectrum? And for that matter......is there a better solution?
Social Networking Ban
Interesting post here. I would suggest that (using Facebook terms) teachers do not "friend" students directly, but rather set up separate course pages that all students as well as the teacher (maybe an administrator as well) "like" (connect to). Contact could then be monitored, kept germane to the subject, and also meet students where they are. We, as educators, should embrace technology as a powerful tool to reach our students, and not dismiss it out-of-hand as a distraction.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I certainly agree that there should be ways that school districts allow teachers to connect with students in a safe and protected way on the web. I see no problem with a district monitoring online discussions and I would also encourage teachers to invite parents to monitor the discussions as well in an open and welcoming environment to ensure that discussions are purely content oriented. Hopefully, most districts will move in this direction rather than banning this type of technology all together.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!