In a
recent article published in the August 29, 2016 issue of Time magazine, Tyranny
of the Mob: How trolls are ruining the internet, author Joel Stein claims
the web is turning into a “sociopath with Asperger’s. Stein claims that if you
release too much personal (emotional) information on the internet, your interpretation
of the internet’s reaction can be devastating. “Psychologists call this the
online dis-inhibition effect, in which factors like anonymity, invisibility, a
lack of authority and not communicating in real time strip away the mores
society spent millennia building.” (Stein, 2016.) So, the question for us
teachers is, how can we try to stop this culture of hate and intellectual waste
online? These Digital Natives still seem to be holding on to the idea that anything that happens
online is not part of their real life. The skills they use for communication on
the internet are completely separate from the skills they use to communicate in
school and with their friends face-to-face. It is part of our job to prepare
our students for the future, and it is obvious that ALL aspects of the internet
are going to be part of our future, including the dreaded “comment section” on
websites.
ISTE 4
states teachers must “promote and model digital etiquette and responsible
social interactions related to the use of technology and information” (2008). In
order for us to teach students how to behave like we are part of a civilized
society on the internet, we must follow what I like to call Common Sense
Teaching Rule #1: Show them how. However, to show students how to communicate appropriately
on the internet, we will need to use online communication tools in class. This
can be frustrating when one does not consider the “big picture” when engaging
in online communication with their students.
Lead By Example
At my previous school, all teachers were
required to have our students work in an online reading program that was
supposed to increase their reading comprehension skills. Within the program,
there was a ‘chat’ feature in which teachers controlled the settings. Teachers
decided if students would be able to message each other, message the teacher,
or post on a message board. They also had the option to shut the feature off.
So, a few months went by and we all used the program with our classes. We were
all surprised to find that the program trainers were coming back to our school
half way through the year to do a follow-up professional development session
(Follow-up training?! That almost never happens!). During that second session,
the trainer asked us how we were enjoying the messaging feature in the program.
Eight out of 9 teachers in the room said they had completely disabled that
feature after a few uncomfortable experiences. They spoke of students posting
on the message board with incorrect grammar, or posting about topics unrelated
to the program content. One teacher mentioned that a student posted his opinion
of a story the class was assigned to read, but his posting indicated that he
did not understand the main idea of the story and he had confused all of the
other kids. Another teacher explained that she disabled the messaging feature
because too many students were messaging her asking for help with their
assignments. I hate to admit it, but I also disabled the feature a few months
prior to this meeting. I felt bad when a student would send me a message that I
was not able to respond to. With all of my responsibilities as a teacher, I
figured I did not really have time to be reading all those messages and
responding in a timely manner.
Looking back, I am horrified to think about all of the missed opportunities we had to model digital etiquette in our classroom. If I was participating in that meeting today, that conversation would have gone in an entirely different direction. Here are some of the things I might say to those teachers if I realized how important it was for us to model behavior in online communities.
To the teacher who disabled the
message board due to postings containing improper grammar: What message are you
sending to your students when are essentially taking away their ability to
express their thoughts on a story just because they are having trouble
spelling? This might discourage the students from ever posting in an academic setting
again. You are essentially telling them that they are not welcome in this
community. Most of my 5th grade students do not know how to use any
features in a word processing program, including spell check. This would be a
wonderful opportunity to have the students practice typing their responses in a
program that will check their spelling and grammar before they copy-and-paste
their response online. Teach your students that there are tools they can use to
avoid mistakes and to proof read their work!
To the teacher who disabled the
message board due to students posting unrelated messages: Why not use this as
an opportunity to teach your students about the appropriate placement of their
comments? Demonstrate that there is a time and a place for their ideas, but
this particular message board exists only to discuss a particular assignment.
Maybe this serves as an indication that the students need a safe place where
they can communicate about non-school related content. If a student is posting
about his basketball game in your ELA message board, this student is not aware
of the separation of social media for personal/academic use. This student will
be “that guy” who inserts a link to his pyramid scheme website in the comments
section of a CNN article.
To the teacher who disabled the
message board because of incorrect responses: I literally cannot think of a
better opportunity to teach your class the “don’t believe everything you read
on the internet” mentality. Kids need to learn that there is a possibility
information someone posted online might not be completely true. They need to do
their own research in order to determine what is true and what is incorrect.
They also should practice expressing their concerns in a positive, respectful
way. The teacher should model how a response to a posting containing inaccurate
information should look. “Billy, I like your idea about the story, but did you
read the part about ______?”
To the teacher who disabled the
student-to-teacher messaging feature because too many students were messaging
her asking for help: Isn’t it your job to help your students? Think of it as
incorporating reading and writing with communication skills: the student needed
to think about how to ask a question in written form, and then they need to
read your response and use the information you gave them to solve their
problem. I would argue that a teacher providing help via live-chat is providing
assistance that requires students to think more deeply about an assignment than
the teacher who just answers a question verbally. By disabling this feature,
you are sending the message to your students that their questions annoy you and
you want to shut them out.
And finally, to myself, the teacher
who disabled the student-to-teacher messaging feature because I did not have
time to respond to all of my students’ questions: You need to find time to respond to the
students’ questions daily. What message am I sending to my students if I
require them to spend a few hours working in the program every week, but I don’t
spend any time in it myself? How am I supposed to foster an online learning
community if I am not present in that community? The students need practice
with online communication, and they need to feel like their messages actually
go somewhere. By ignoring them, I was only adding to the beliefs that messages
sent out over the internet have no consequences and are not “real.”
In a previous post, I said “Older teachers talk about
computers as if they were weapons: the single force that will destroy the American
Education system.” It is time for ALL educators to realize that computers are
not destroying our education system—people on the internet are. We must fight
to teach out students how to use their education to make the internet a place
worth having. We can’t allow our students to treat the web as “I’mRight.Com.”
We must teach them how to appropriately express themselves online, as well as
in person. It may not seem like much, but including activities for students to
practice basic communication with any online social tool will lead to the
creation of ‘good habits’ on the internet. Our digital happiness depends on it.
Hi Stefani! I absolutely loved reading your post. It was engaging, funny, and informative all at the same time. My favorite humorous part was: "Older teachers talk about computers as if they were weapons: the single force that will destroy the traditional American education system." I had this image of a Stars Wars lightsaber attacking a laptop :) On a more serious note, I am very surprised, like you, that the 5th graders were unaware of how to use a word processor program. This was a great learning experience for them and a simple project turned into new knowledge that they will continue to use as they advance.
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about how teachers can still improve their student's knowledge even if there is not the availability of technology. Basic skills are definitely a foundation that students can build on. In addition, you make a great example of how far some of us have come (me included) when we started with a floppy disk and now we are using cloud services. Life is all about learning, adapting, and applying. Thank you for the great post!
Mel Smith