Of Mice and Middle Years…

Tonight’s conversation in EC&I 831 has sparked memories of many conversations I have had with educators, administrators, university professors and parents on the “Social Web” in terms of it’s very real possibility of abuse, especially in terms of bullying. In Saskatchewan, all schools have been decreed to put in policies to deal with bullying in all it’s forms. In our division, bullying, in it’s “cyber” form, will be dealt with at the school level even if it occurs outside the school environment. Many would argue that education, modelling, etc. would better serve our students than a “Net Nanny” mentality. I wonder.
The problem is that it takes cases of such as, Columbine, Taber or incidents of suicide in Saskatchewan to strike fear into the hearts of school boards throughout our province and beyond. Cyber bullying, can be argued, is one of the worst kinds of bullying. As I stated in our discussion, those seeking power (bullying) find it in anonymity. How do we respond to this incidents? What about the stakeholders?

I remember a time when new schools had swing sets. Now it’s too much of a liability.
In a school environment, has e-mail, blogs, IM, etc. become, or becoming, the swingsets of a new age? Do we need technological “helmets” for everyone?

I was very surprised by the amount of feedback from my post about the garbage in the blogosphere. Interestingly enough, I guess that comment has to be qualified….the blogs I encountered were more “diaries” of personal lives/ experiences or reflections on events that I had little or no interest in, or of questionable source or validity. Yes, I found that to be, in my view, this one man’s garbage( or another man/woman’s treasure?)

So I post the question. What is a “worthy blog”? Experience of the writer in an area? Academic credentials? I understand from my readings and viewings to date that the “news” of the world has been taken from the hands of “elite” and placed into the hands of the populace….. I wonder how Plato would react to blogs in his vision of Utopia?

Wikipedia is in the middle of a similar controversy. One example can be found in a Techspot which I believe hatched the opposing camps of those who would like to leave wikipedia open to all to edit vs those who would like to have a chosen view maintain wikipedia…. I think by the very premise that there is a group in wikipedia that is “chagrined” is a topic unto itself.