Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Is "safe e-mail for students" nuts?
Posted by John Branston on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:13 PM
The first guinea pigs will be middle schoolers, notorious for their maturity, thick skins, concentration, and tech savvy. This is either (a) a green, paperless way to connect students and teachers with the conveniences of the Internet or (b) as crazy as giving each student a firearm, cell phone, squirt gun, an unlimited hall pass, and a six-pack of Coke.
Having no children in MCS, I don't know. But I have heard of very rare occasions in which email and social networks have been used for non-serious purposes as well as a tiny number of accidents and technical glitches. I would like to hear from parents and teachers on such Gaggle.Net reassurances as "the teacher is in charge," "safe, productive email for your students," "easy for the teacher to control unwanted SPAM, pornographic mail, etc."
Here are some more:
On hidden costs: "The basic advertising supported version of Gaggle is free to schools. However, you should remember that all advertising is designed to distract students."
On the anti-porn scanner (APS): "The APS analyzes on the fly all URL's included in the email message body. This ensures that the web sites acccessible by the students do not contain pornographic content."
On storing homework: "Students can upload files to their own Digital Locker. Files can be made public or private."
On message boards and chat rooms. "Teachers can easily limit student access to certain levels of chat rooms."
On making email safe: "Teachers can easily stop all of the following kinds of messages: teasing and threats, racial attacks, hate messages, sexual harassment, vulgar speech, gang language , outsider predators, other intruders."
Comments (10)
Showing 1-10 of 10
I'm sure teachers are thrilled at the prospect of taking on the responsibility of monitoring middle school students' email and chat room "discussions."
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Good to know that there is nothing more important on the Superintendent's plate... guess that means all the teachers in MCS are suddenly degreed and certified, and every textbook, classroom, and other bit of equipment is the best available.
Hey Powergamz, any interest in the superintendent's job?
This is like so many other ideas that sound "good" or "empowering", but is really nothing but a charade to divert attention away from real problems and issues. The school system can not out turn kids with basic math and language skills, and I won't even begin to go into sciences, history, study skills, or the plethora of other lacking areas of general knowledge. In a system with so many problems would it not make sense to scale back on the frivolous extras and return to the basics?
Anyone want to start a pool on how long it takes the first explicit photos taken on a cell phone to be passed around?
Inclined to agree with all these comments, especially in light of this week's test scores, which must mean there is another side. Any teachers or parents out there with a kind word for this idea? Save on books and supplies? It's inevitable? No heavy backpacks? It's working somewhere else?
I think speculation on both sides is heading in the direction of over the top. Paperless is probably inevitable. Done well it could be a great thing. But my twins got their first blog at six and their first laptops and email accounts at seven. We think it's good to raise them with technology teaching responsibility all along the way.
There is potential disaster lurking everywhere. That lunchbox may be full of fritos or full of pot. All useful tools are just as useful to our malefactors. I'm not taking a stand one way or the other. I don't know the service so I just can't say. I do know that our culture shows no signs of becoming less computerized. An that there haven't been quills and inkwells in the classroom for some time
Do I think this is the way of the future? Yes. I just want to know is there some master plan here? How will this help with the rudimentary skills that the students are lacking? Will homework have to be turned in via email? How will this affect those without net access at home? I am not trying to be cynical, I would just like to know how this is going to improve the kids' education? That is the single most important factor.
My parting shot in my first post was in fun. I do agree that no matter how many safeguards are in place there will always be the smart ass that breaks the rules. A lot like the message boards here!!! ;)
A paperless society will be inevitable, but I wonder if these teachers will be trained to monitor effectively. I also wonder why MCS is beginning with middle school. Why not elementary, since their language skills are more receptive then?
There are few adults that do not use email to communicate weekly or daily. There are almost no well paying jobs that do not use email daily. There are few students who do not have their own email or social networking account by the time they are in high school. This is an attempt to show students how to use email effectively and appropriately. The way many of these safe sites work is that the emails pass by a system administrator with flags on any questionable language, attachments, links, etc... They only move on after the administrator clears them. The "administrator" is typically the technology teacher or a classroom teacher that is utilizing the email system in their class.
The students will have email accounts and should be educated on how to use them safely.
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