tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post6059631685662983621..comments2024-03-13T06:04:34.407-04:00Comments on The 21st Century Principal: Administrator’s Dilemma: Facebook-Yes or No?John Robinson Ed.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14155145743617621924noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post-3429094572214853742010-12-10T15:18:54.299-05:002010-12-10T15:18:54.299-05:00I agree. I think it is two separate issues. I thin...I agree. I think it is two separate issues. I think you have to argue the filtering issue on different merits, because, frankly, I'm not sure Facebook is the best social media environment for educational purposes any way. One Tweeter reminded me of Edmodo, which is an excellent social media-like environment, which has tools specific for teaching.<br /><br />Because of my English teaching background, I suppose I feel queasy any time there's talk of filtering and blocking, but I know it's a reality.John Robinson Ed.Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14155145743617621924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post-80555441927227696112010-12-10T13:26:12.500-05:002010-12-10T13:26:12.500-05:00Hey John,
I was interested in the feedback you...Hey John, <br />I was interested in the feedback you'd receive when you tweeted the question the other day. Thanks for sharing the post.<br /><br />I guess I wonder if there are not two separate issues at play. <br /><br />One issue is whether to block facebook or not. This boils down to a "filtering" issue and I am not a big fan of filtering content at high levels for many reasons. I would echo your point about the issue often being a personnel issue rather than a technology issue. This argument could be applied to many of the sites that are currently blocked in some schools. <br /><br />I would add that the second issue may be about whether to "use" facebook in education. A lot of the feedback you received seemed to be about the ways classrooms or schools can use facebook to communicate with students and parents. I am a little leery of this because I think schools and teachers should be careful of implicitly endorsing a site that doesn't have a great record for protecting their users' privacy. I am reminded of a recent brief blog post by Darren Kuropatwa "Why I Don't Trust Faceook" http://dkuropatwa.posterous.com/why-i-dont-trust-facebook<br /><br />So while I am not against the use of facebook to communicate with the community and wouldn't argue the points on filtering, I would be careful how much the school is embracing this platform.Emoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07759157281770198847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post-37669171913766188432010-12-10T08:20:21.128-05:002010-12-10T08:20:21.128-05:00Sure, time will be wasted on Facebook, but time is...Sure, time will be wasted on Facebook, but time is also wasted being on cell phones, reading newspapers, and looking at ESPN.com, but those aren't banned or blocked. Blocking Facebook for employees is a slippery slope. Once administrators learn that staff is spending an inordinate amount of time looking at basketball scores on espn.com, is this site going to be blocked next? Besides, blocking the site for staff seems to be taking the easy way out. If it is a personnel issue, you do what you do for all personnel issues, you address the issue with the staff member. The Facebook issue is not a technology problem, it is a personnel problem. For students, the issue is the same. If teachers are monitoring students properly, then they should not be wasting an inordinate amount of time on the site. School administrators use "blocking sites" as a strategy because it let's them attempt to accomplish a goal without confronting the real issue. I have to also disagree with you regarding the "user-friendliness" of Facebook apps on smart phones too. Try the Facebook app in Android. Very easy to use, and looks just like the web app for the most part.John Robinson Ed.Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14155145743617621924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post-6152236984645685822010-12-09T21:00:25.821-05:002010-12-09T21:00:25.821-05:00I agree with your statements until the last paragr...I agree with your statements until the last paragraph. I think it would be a waste of student time and resources to allow it, and I know firsthand that it isn't that "user-friendly" to use on a web-enabled phone. If it's not on school computers, it will be accessed MUCH less in school, so it's not futile. And of course it "could" be used for educational reasons, but I'd guess that might top out at 5% - 10% of use if Facebook is open to students.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post-68474720094920171462010-12-09T20:29:46.975-05:002010-12-09T20:29:46.975-05:00Thanks for the write up on this. I'm in the m...Thanks for the write up on this. I'm in the middle of an action research myself on how educators could use FB in the HigherEd/K12 setting. I'm hoping to facilitate discussions with a network of educators, and to also discuss different strategies for setting up spaces. I guess I'm imagining the filter allowing student access... ok maybe not soon in k12, but obviously in Highered, there might be a better fit/opportunity. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Educators-exploring-FB/146161948769295Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com