" ... Valley High School student in Nevada was reprimanded for writing [blog], “Kill Alaina!” (a class-mate he found irritating) and for making a vulgar comment [in a blog] about a teacher. In another case, a student at St. Martin High School in Mississippi was suspended for three days after using her blog to call a teacher “perverted.” ... "
Okay, I know this topic is a very heated topic and at the same time I might be blacklisted and etc, but I have to talk about this because I think it is a very heated issue and everything is not exactly black and white here. In the above quote, I think that's stepping a little too far in terms of making a blog to kill someone or calling your teacher "perverted". But let's put things back into perspective for a sec.
Let's just say for the sake of argument that I dislike this class and I dislike my instructor and I blogged about it as an assignment perhaps for a class reflection or some sort. My classmates and instructor read my blog, should I be reprimanded for that?
Should I be reprimanded if my criticisms were constructive and respectful? Some people might argue that if we establish ground rules then this would not have happened. In my humble opinion (IMHO), if we establish ground rules on blogging, then we will only see only one side of the story and I think that defeats the purpose of education blogging. I would love to see what some of you think about this.
In addition, I love this class and the above mentioned is just AN EXAMPLE (notice the caps).
5 comments:
You raised a very interesting point -- great example to make your point. I am glad you DO like the class.
We live in a country that protect the rights of freedom of speech. However, after Columbine, Virginia Tech and all of the other mass shooting sprees, people are very paranoid about young people saying hateful things in a blog. Schools have to take these things seriously and look into them for the safety of their students and to protect themselves legally.
Ken, you are right that this brings up a heated topic: How far do we have to go to protect ourselves? Look at Homeland Security? Scary! Look at the NRA? Even scarier! Human existence is out of control and the population is too big for anyone to control. Schools in general are institutions that lack proper funding and therefore lack proper leadership. However, when a child cannot express their feelings, we have to ask ourselves, WHY?
If a child wants to accuse his/her teacher of being perverted then she should do so by contacting the authorities. The problem is that the student could be accused of slander and Americans are protected legally from slander. Nevertheless, I am aware that youth feel unheard and uncomfortable when confronting adults, and therefore, blogging is a path to express what is going on behind the doors of the classroom. Parents and school administrators should take accusations made in blogs as a red flag that should be investigated. However, this could become a wild fire and a waste of time. How do we protect ourselves and at the same time protect freedom of speech?
Part of school is teaching students about such concepts as nuance, context, and appropriate behavior... and therefore students should be made to understand that what is appropriate in a private, personal blog is not appropriate in a school-sponsored blog. They need to learn to write for their audience and the context, and if they write inappropriate things in a school-sponsored blog, then getting reprimanded for doing so will be a valuable lesson, which could keep them from getting in trouble at a future job, or even with the law, down the line.
The above refers to school-sponsored blogs, of course. I don't believe schools should have the authority to reprimand students for anything they write in their personal blogs. However, students should understand that blogs are generally freely-searchable, and that it is unethical and illegal to slander others. Perhaps an "ethics" component should be included in all Web 2.0 courses?
One solution mentioned in the article is to use remotely installed applications where the blog has limits as to who can view the blog (ex. only teachers and parents). If we are trying to emulate a classroom learning setting, the teacher is the one making the assessment, so he/she should be the only one with access. OK, so I am a bit of a Nazi teacher, but with certain student populations, there has to be some control!
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