Schools and Social Networking

A Parent's Perspective

I view social networking not as the latest kid’s fad, but as a new communication direction that is here to stay. But how does this new trend fit into the school systems of today? I don’t pretend to have experience as a teacher working within a school system, but I do have experience working with a school system as a parent. In addition I have experience working with adults and technology within a corporate bureaucracy. Trust me, working with adults over the age of 40 and new technology can be a challenge. Even more a challenge, is working with new technology and upper management within a large corporate bureaucracy.

Social Networking then and now

I have two teenagers at home; my daughter is a sophomore in college, and my son is a junior in high school. My children have grown up never knowing a world without computers. Having had computer in our house since the time they were toddlers, (remember BBS’s, Telnet, or CompuServe?), and having access to computers in school since the time they were in kinder garden, working within that framework is as natural to them as putting on a pair of shoes. Being the age they are, they have also been exposed to the social networking and how it has evolved since the beginning. However, this technology also has a very bad dark side to it. Kids can unknowingly give out personal information, or post things online that can’t be erased later. Not to mention the damage rumors and gossip can cause. Plus, in terms of internet access within the school its self; it is a huge distraction that can take away from the time kids have to learn. As a result social networking sites are blocked in all the schools in our area.

Parent Teacher Blogs

I don’t particularly disagree with the blocking of social networking sites within the schools. However, I do feel that parent teacher blogs, or even school corporation blogs could be very beneficial. In the high school my kids attended there was a system for reporting grades called Edline. But the problem with this system, besides not all teachers using it or keeping it up to date, is that its only one way communication. As a parent, how many times have you asked your kids; what did you do at school today? Or, do you have any homework tonight? Or even attempted to help your kid on a subject, you either know nothing about, or you haven’t looked at in over 25 years. Only to be told by the kid, “They didn’t tell us how to do this”. Parent teacher blogs could be very useful, and allow parents to interact with teachers. From a tax payer’s point of view, a school corporation blog would allow parents to interact with local policy makers on how decisions are being made and money spent.

Time - Cost of Blogging

One of the other big problems with initiating class based blogs, or blogs in general is that it takes time and dedication to keep them going and interact with them. From the perspective of one who has tried to initiate programs that involve people voluntarily dedicating additional time, it’s a real hard sell. It’s also been my experience that most bureaucracy move very slow to adopt technology that takes dedicated resources, despite the advantages. That being said, I sure if you looked hard enough you’ll find schools and other organizations that thrive on this technology, but it’s wide spread usage to its full potential may have some time to go yet.