The World of Social Media -- And What It Means for Kids, Parents, & Teachers

The following is an article I wrote for our school newsletter. I also posted it on our school website.

On November 20, over 300 teachers and administrators from our school division attended the Leading and Learning conference in Red Deer. This conference is sponsored by the Central Alberta Regional Consortium, which is an organization devoted to creating effective PD for teachers in school divisions in Central Alberta.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Inspiring Learners,” focusing not only on how our children can be inspired to learn, but also on how the adults in their lives can be inspired to learn. After all, we are ALL learners, even after we leave formal education.

One of the keynote speakers was Will Richardson, who is a former teacher and now writes and speaks about implementing instructional technology, specifically those known as “read/write” web (blogs, wikis, social networking, etc). At the outside of his presentation, he said his intent was to disturb us and make us uncomfortable. Then he went on to challenge us about our use of technology in our teaching, and more specifically about how we are (or are not) teaching our children to use the technology responsibly and safely.

Richardson’s own wiki offers examples of how our children are using the Read/Write web on their own, often without adult direction. We want our kids to learn how to use these tools, but they are often not being taught *how* to use them appropriately.

The Junior High students in our school have been fortunate to be part of the Emerge 1-1 Laptop project for the past three years and they are learning some of the digital citizenship skills needed in their world. Really, what it all comes down to is two things (as pointed out by Alec Couros, another presenter at the conference): 1) Once you post it, you can’t take it back; and 2) Never assume anything online is private.

But unless the adults in their world are also conversant with the technology, it’s difficult for the children to get proper guidance regarding these two key concepts. Do they have a Facebook or MySpace page? If so, do they know how to change their privacy settings to protect their personal information?

Do YOU know how to change your settings? (If not, check out http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/ for an introduction to how you can protect yourself and your children).

If you want to try an interesting experiment, go to Google and put your own name (or your child’s name) in the search field and see what comes up. That is your (or your child’s) online identity, and it’s there for a very long time. Increasingly, employers and post-secondary registrars are searching online databases to see what they can learn about applicants. There have been instances where applicants have been screened out of positions because of their online identities, which relates back to Couros’s two points; you can’t take it back, and it’s never really private.

Learning to be part of the Read/Write web is more than just privacy issues. There’s also the issue of recognizing the validity of content on the web. What is legitimate? What is not? Consuming information is far more complex than when were kids when all we had were the books and encyclopedia in the library, and maybe the odd magazine or newspaper subscription. We now have access to information from all over the world. Everyone and anyone is an author. How do figure out what is good information and what is not? Again, these are skills we learn through practice.

Take the time to see what’s out there and learn how your kids are using the web. Then talk to them about it. Together, the home and school can help our children become critical consumers – and creators – of online content. We can’t afford not to. 

Mountains...

I like mountains. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen them, I'm in awe. I'm in even more awe of volcanic mountains. And when those mountains are relatively close to home, I am humbled by the raw power that lays beneath us.

Driving through much of the northwestern US is a gift to people like me who enjoy the mountains so much. Add the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byways to the mix, and I'm in heaven. Yesterday's drive from Redding, CA to La Pine, OR fed my obsessions.

Before I go on, I have to say how much I enjoyed spending time with Ger's aunt and her family in Redding. Spending Friday afternoon at Whiskeytown Lake was a real treat and a wonderful way to beat the incredible heat. We talked about either meeting up in Tahoe to go skiing, or them coming our way to go skiing. I hope, one way or another, it comes to pass! Great people! Next time we come down, we really do need to spend more than a couple days.

Anyways...we pulled out of the Premier RV Resort shortly right around 10:30 a.m. Not bad for what we figured would be about a 4-hour drive. We travelled on I-5 north to Weed, CA, and then branched off on US Hwy 97. This route gives a wonderful view of Mt. Shasta coming from the south, around the west side and then looking at it from the north.

We stopped at Grass Lake Rest Area on Hwy 97, not too far south of the CA/OR border, to grab some lunch and check out the view. Apparently there used to be a real lake there, and a thriving small resort. However, someone used some dynamite in an unfortunate location, which resulted in a hole being blasted that allowed the lake water to drain away into the porous volcanic rock below. The resort failed not long after, but since then (almost 100 years), a thriving wetland has grown, supporting many different plants and animals.

The rest of our trip to La Pine was uneventful, except for when we were near Crescent, OR. First a big truck flashed its headlights at us, and then another driver in a pickup waved at us. We thought something was flapping off the motorhome, so we stopped in a rest stop and checked things out. Ger even climbed up on the roof. Couldn't find anything, so we kept going.

We got into La Pine around 4'ish, got set up and had a nice visit with an old school friend of Ger's dad before supper. It was still warm outside, but from past experience we knew it would cool off a great deal overnight. It's that altitude thing. It sure made it nice to sleep last night, and quite refreshing this morning. Housecoat and slippers were required as I uploaded my pictures, and had my coffee.

Today is a relax day -- I have some reading to do for the fall (thanks, guys! :-p), and today looks like a good day to do that!

Oh, yeah...I finally got my Flickr stuff all organized. All the pics from the trip are now organized into sets within the Holidays 2009 collection. Yesterday's set is here.

Ahhh...the pause that refreshes...

Standing on the Sundial Bridge in Redding. What a cool bridge!










Cooling off in Whiskeytown Lake. More pics are at the Flickr link to the right...