Of Blogs & Education

Keeping and using a blog as an educational tool is, in some senses, like any other tool; it may be extraordinarily beneficial, but may also have unforseen and detrimental consequences.

On the positive side, a blog can help to:

-Diseminate information
-Facilitate discussion
-Foster and encourage creativity
-Get students to engage with the larger world outside their geographic area

However, blogs have the opportunity to:

-Provide an environment where bullying and intolerance can run rampant
-Expose students to a relatively free and open environment with the potential for being the victim of stalkers
-Be a place that doesn't encourage dialog, but rather, diatribe

These potential negatives possess possible consequences that are catastrophic in nature. And yet these potentials are also represented in our non-online world. The true danger lies when the students technological acumen outpaces that of those whose role is to supervise and guide them through their development. When students are more facile with technology than parents, teachers and others dedicated to their well-being and growth, they can use powerful tools without possessing either the good judgment or the experience to navigate complex and potentially dangerous or threatening environments. Additionally, it is my experience that the pseudo-anonynmity provided by the web also breeds an environment where kindness and civility in discourse are non-existant. People will say things in comments and on blogs about others that they would never voice in person or out loud. This effect tends to snowball until little can be left except venom and self-righteous ego.

And yet for all of this, the web and the cloud are the places that represent the water that many people, especially students, swim in as fish in the 21st century ocean. To try to hold back the tide or not utilize these tools is a major error, since either the students would end up with atrophied technological skills or simply gain access elsewhere. Our responsiblity is to both use and model appropriate web usuage and try to draw them along in the belief that some things should be done because they are right, and not because we can.