In Supplement #1 Full Circle Outside the Box, Dan Balzer does a podcst interview with Will Richardson. Will is one of the best known advocates for integrating social networking technology into the public classroom. Among other things, Dan and Will discuss proposed laws to ban student use of the blogosphere.

What barriers are you encountering in your school settings to creating a community using Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, and social networks?

What concerns do you have about personal privacy and student confidentiality?

Are the safety issues that worry us all really properly addressed by banning the use of a technology that most of our students are using outside of school?

Let us hear what you think!

Dennis@21cif

Our middle school is very protective of students and aware of the responsibility they have if students get "in trouble" during school hours, using school equipment. We are also being affected by off hours social networking that amounts to cyberbullying.
With Schoolweblockers, an online storage space for schools, there is a discussion board that teachers can open up or shut down. When it was open to the whole school, unknowingly and not monitored, students had a "hay day" with it and it was inappropriate. We shut the whole thing down. I am now working with a teacher to open up a class discussion that he will monitor for his classes. I believe we need to step up and use social networking in teaching since students are using that form of communication widely. We also need to diminish the digital divide between home and school.