למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

School district leaders seem to believe that negative experiences with social networking are more common than students and parents report. For example, more than half the districts (52 percent) say that students providing personal information has been "a significant problem" in their schools, yet only 3 percent of students say they've ever given out their email addresses, instant messaging screen names or other personal information to strangers. Similar differences occur between districts' beliefs and students' and parents' reported experiences with inappropriate material, cyberbullying and other negative incidents.

In districts where structured online professional communities exist, participation by teachers and administrators is quite high. ... These findings indicate that educators find value in social networking — and suggest that many already are comfortable and knowledgeable enough to use social networking for educational purposes with their students.

Reexamine social networking policies. Many schools initially banned or restricted Internet use, only to ease up when the educational value of the Internet became clear. The same is likely to be the case with social networking. Safety policies remain important, as does teaching students about online safety and responsible online expression — but students may learn these lessons better while they’re actually using social networking tools.

Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value. Educational leaders should work with social networking companies to increase services that are explicitly educational in nature, via informal or formal initiatives that highlight educational offerings.

תוויות: גלישה בטוחה, דיווחים, כלים חברתיים