Parental Advisory – Blog May Contain Learning

Scenario Summary

• Noelene has her high school students blogging
• Uses LiveJournal
• Has set out purpose, procedure, assessment
• Students appear to enjoy activity and writing is improving

Problem

2 parents are concerned that

• its public
• strangers have commented on student’s ‘personal’ LJs

 

Response

In this scenario, there are several ways to address parental concerns without the need to negatively impact student work.  Hopefully, Noelene does not become discouraged by these parent concerns, given the success she is seeing with her students and with the balanced view that these are only a small percentage from her parent base.  It could be a simple issue of needing to strengthen the lines of communication between home and school.

Personally, I would call these parents, explain the purpose behind the activity and try to allay their fears citing the precautions I have taken including the fact that I was regularly monitoring student posts.  Noelene should develop, if she hasn’t already, a fact sheet citing rationale, statistics, research, etc.  for blogging in the classroom that can be used during these discussions. Being well versed and prepared for such meetings will leave a professional impression and be less open to further criticism.

The main justification for students to work outside of the private sphere is that they are already ‘working’ online in its various public spaces.  One of the reasons online school activities can be great motivator is that students are just excited to be doing something in school that they do in their personal life on a regular basis.  However, it is debatable how much guidance, outside their peer group, they are receiving in areas such as responsible use and developing essential skills including problem solving and critical thinking.

Noelene had apparently thought through many aspects of introducing blogging into her teaching practice including Downes’ (2004) combination of Public/Personal communication zone and a Private Personal Space (e.g., draft area where she provides guidance).  My guess is that the parents mentioned are surprised about the activities being public in nature either (a) because they were not informed by Noelene or (b) had been informed but had not paid sufficient attention until it caused issues for them directly with their child.  If Noelene had not informed them of the nature and extent of this assignment she should have.  In our District, we must seek parental approval (e.g. signatures) for any online activity which could involve the posting of information about students.  Additionally, we need to state the specific use/purpose of the material and are not to post any overly identifiable information as well.  For example, I would need to seek permission prior to recording students doing presentations and posting to YouTube for them to review and critique their own performance.  Another example, is seeking permission before posting a picture taken during a field trip to go along with a write up for the classroom website.

In the future, it might be helpful if she has students complete a questionnaire regarding their online habits including what type of information they currently post and services they use.  This information could then be used to explain that one of the main goal of this exercise is to provide guidance to students in acceptable online behavior in a control setting where skills learned can be transferred to their other online activities.  Parents are often surprised at what services, accounts, activities their children are already involved in online outside of school and more within the home sphere.

In addition to those already mentioned, Noelene could try the following strategies:

• prior to and during the blogging assignment, be providing students and parents with lessons on digital citizenship and Internet safety,
• provide parents with ongoing progress updates,
• ensure necessary policy is being followed and administration is informed,
• explore and become more familiar with LJs Privacy and Security Settings.  Could the students of concerned parents still participate in a modified version of the assignment using various settings? For example:
  • Control who comments to student journal posts – http://www.livejournal.com/support/faq/23.html
  • Make journal entires Friend-Only, Public, Private – http://www.livejournal.com/support/faq/120.html

I hope Nolene is able to strengthen her program and continue to assist her students in authentic ways especially since she has already overcome the hurdles of student motivation and performance.

References

Downes, S. (2004).  Educational Blogging.  Educause Review.  September/October 2004 Retrieved fromhttp://www.downes.ca/post/40939

Live Journal. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://livejournal.com

2013 blog services review. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://blog-services-review.toptenreviews.com/