Reaction to Dana Boyd's SNS podcast

Dana makes some valid points about SNS in her podcast. One of her closing statements really sums it all up for me. Dana said that the role of educators is not to condemn students for using social networks, but rather to help them learn how to use social networks to their advantage. Her recommendation, which I think is sound advice, is for educators to engage in conversations with students and discuss the pros/cons of social networks via 'what if'' scenarios that anticipate possible consequences so that students are better prepared to make good choices. I think this message cannot be underestimated, be it relative to SNS or other life situations, regardless of the subject area being taught. While there's technology curriculum standards that a SNS discussion can be tied to, most teachers struggle to meet their subject's curriculum requirements and don't have time to entertain a topic like this. I understand and respect what the state and local school districts are trying to accomplish with their curriculum standards, but I believe we're doing students a grave injustice if we only focus on those curriculum standards.

SNS is not going away. So we have two choices - we can talk about how bad and dangerous it is, which will effectively encourage students to use it more, and perhaps be more secretive about it so we're less likely to know when they need guidance; or we can accept it and help students to be wise users who are able to consider the consequences of their choices, weigh the pros/cons of each, and make informed and intelligent decisions.

Some of the considerations that Dana enumerated with regard to how we deal with students and SNS were consistent with what I learned in my short research paper. For example, some universities and law enforcement have tried to use the information (videos, pics, etc.) posted in Facebook to arrest students for underage drinking or other unlawful conduct. Students respond to this is to using false names to hide their real identity, which Dana points out this is teaching students to lie. One student at George Washington University did one better. He posted information about a huge 'beer blast' which turned out to be a cake and cookie party with the word 'beer' written with frosting on the cake and cookies. I hate to admit this, but I chuckled at this prank both times I read about it.

So, Dana's advice is that we embrace SNS, accept it, learn about, even participate in the SNS that's most popular at our school so that we can have conversations with students and help them understand all the possible consequences to SNS so they can make informed and responsible decisions.