I have a bebo page.
I have had students ask to access my bebo page, this is one of my private spaces. But these invitations led me to have a look at these students sites. Many of these students have public profiles where anyone has access to their pictures and comments - that becomes more apparent as you look at their pages. Looking through these pages led me onwards to wanting to talk to the students in class about their use on the internet, as it was apparent that some students were not ’safe’ in the use of their sites. With my new role as a lead teacher I have been able to go through some classes and talk about cybersafety with students and I have focussed on the medium of Bebo. It has been an interesting set of discussions and every class has had different questions, scenarios and ideas to share which has built up my knowledge of students use and ideas of social networking, especially Bebo.
What intrigued me was the set of literacies and online knowledge that these students were lacking. Within the 1 hour sessions that we have been having many of them have re-thought aspects of their online appearance - from the posting of images, text, emails, bebo comments or the sharing of personal information. It’s amazing how a small piece of knowledge can stretch so far.
One example of this is that many of the students when asked, had no idea what ‘Terms Of Service’ meant - these are the basic rules that by signing up to Bebo (or any site) that you agree too. All of the students who I asked who had a Bebo page had not looked at these and were surprised when I alerted them to the fact that the 2nd rule is “Must be 13 years or older” to access Bebo.
In discussing the use of students and social networking sites with colleagues I have had to acknowledge the different opinions and levels of thinking in regards to the use of social networking sites such as Bebo. And these opinions are varied - from education for students to straight up blocking of the sites.
I, personally, have a very strong philosophy that the education of these skills outweighs the blocking or dismissal of these sites. If we want our students to function within the realms of technology and the internet in a safe and effective manner we need to educate students to the expected norms for these things. They need to become responsible citizens using technology in the same way we teach them to be responsible citizens in ‘real’ life. I continued this conversation on twitter with a few colleagues and achurches made a great tweet:
“…exactly, banning drives it underground - bring it out and social norm will come into play - u cant be mean in public.”
There are so many factors that come into play when we talk about social networking - from individual skills and knowledge about keeping safe to the expectations of family and friends, to what we, as educators, expect from our students. The only way to keep our students safe is to allow them access to the knowledge and a safe and effective safety net of people who they can communicate with.
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach states that…
By doing these kinds of things we can teach and model digital citizenship. As educators we need to help teach the kids the responsible ways to use the tools. Lincoln said.. the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next generation. Part of our job is to indoctrinate in this case — responsible use of the new technologies.
We teach them not to talk to strangers and not to answer the phone when parents aren’t home. Educators traditionally have had the responsibility of helping the next generation understand how to use the tools safely.
What do you think about the use of social networking sites, such as Bebo, for children younger than the sites age limit? What do you personally think about the banning of sites vs the teaching of knowledge and skills?
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