On Will Richardson's blog, weblogg-ed.com, his most recent post (as of oct 9, 2009,) is a musing on the rather extensive list of "don't"s in a certain school district's computer / internet use policy.
Will says that he was struck by the amount of guidelines that the district provided to their faculty and students regarding the use of the internet for school purposes. I agree with Will's general feeling, that if faced with this list, I would not be too enthusiastic to use the internet in my classroom. I would be terrified that I would unintentionally disregard one of the ultra-specific rules.
I agree with Will's assessment of the situation-- that if we make it a point to consistently teach our students how to appropriately use the internet in school, giving them a strong understanding of ethical and appropriate use, the need for extensive "don't" lists will disappear. We would be able to assume that our students can judge for themselves if they are about to commit an inappropriate action. This calls for a lot of trust, but I believe that given a proper foundation, students are usually willing and able to take the reins in appropriateness judgment.
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Anne,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to Will's blog post. I really enjoyed reading both the post and the comments by educators in the field that followed.
Dr. Burgos