Monthly Archive for March, 2008

Just when I had a post of the online possibilities for kids and how transformative the read/write Web can be for the little ones in terms of educational benefits for the 21st century and was excited about the new blog coach experience with Graham Wegner, I hear about the alarming news of Al Upton’s blog order of closure by the Department of Education and Children’s Services – South Australia, DECS. They alleged that there was “too much student identifying information”. From the little I’ve seen from Al’s work, mainly through his minilegends voicethread, I could notice how serious of a job he was doing with those kids, enhancing their digital skills so important in this new online order/disorder.
Kids need guidance. At home, they generally don’t get it from parents who sometimes are clueless about the richness of the Web, as well as of its true dangers. So, who better than an educator who’s passionate, engaged in the online community of educators, concerned about developing his kids’ skills for the present “real world” to help the little ones understand the subtleties of the Web? Blogging, voicethreading, this is all part of a reality that cannot be ignored. So, Al was there exploring his students’ voices, passions, drives in the teaching/learning process in a way that was meaningful to them. They were learning from each other and from international partners, blogging coaches. Probably these students would never have had the chance to learn so much about cultural issues, other peoples, and even develop their media literacy skills, ICT and information skills if they hadn’t been exploring together, in class, the wonders of Web 2.0 tools that might impact their lives in terms of advancement of their critical thinking skills, creativity, self-expression.
As for personal information, do administrators and parents have any idea of what their kids are saying or doing outside the classroom, in their online personal context? At least in Brazil, many 3rd graders already have their MSN account, Orkut, MySpace, etc, which let them be overexposed. They share photos, personal information, etc. So, isn’t it better if we let them figure out through guidance the limits by which they can be safely surfing the Web? Isn’t there too much media advertisement about the dangers of predators, pedophiles on the Net that is generating this paranoid view of its true dangers? If it were for the dangers of the real world, then should I just shut my kids in the house and no contact with the outside world out of our parent protective bubble? No! We can’t let fear and this collective safety paranoia hinder us from having healthy relationships, educational exchanges that are positive, enriching and might impact on our kids future.
What Al’s experience has shown us is that even in a country who has been evolving so rapidly in e-learning, online pedagogy, educators’ good intentions are still misinterpreted by administrators who probably haven’t even had the chance to be part of online networked social spaces, or parents who don’t understand the pedagogy behind blogging and, in most cases, don’t even grasp the concept of blogging. So, time to invest even more time and energy in establishing the links with these groups in straighter bonds so that they see what’s behind the kids’ online exchanges and perceive the educational blogging potential. Time to change. One way to start could be by reading with care Lorna’s blog “Parents as Partners” to get inspired to catalyze the shifts throughout society, and not only for the kids. Blogging will, then, be back to its honorable place in the educational context. We can’t let it be threatened by the ones who don’t know about it. We, as educators, need to show them the light so that they can see what lies ahead.