The Myspace Effect in Schools

[chiquita]

MySpace is public enemy number one in many school districts. But that doesn't mean social networking tools should be banned outright.

Full article:
http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.php...=193502102

[BellisimaJ.]

In fact, social networking will soon be allowed on Fairfax County’s 24-7 Learning portal, a hosted environment built on the Blackboard Learning System that lets teachers, administrators, and students look at classroom assignments, calendars, announcements, discussion boards, and other information.

Because access to the Learning portal is limited, and the school district can control and monitor how the tools are used, Davis believes it’s much safer than a public site such as MySpace, which Fairfax County began blocking in November 2005.

In addition, sensitive student information is protected and teachers can remind students about ways to protect themselves on the unfiltered Internet outside of school. “We believe strongly that the best defense is to educate our students and community on how to deal with these dangers and still enjoy the benefits offered by the Web,” Davis says.

Fairfax is testing a suite of social learning applications from Learning Objects called Campus Pack that add blogging and wiki capabilities to the Blackboard portal. Community High School District 99 in Illinois and Duquesne University and Seton Hall University also use Campus Pack.

I think this is a great idea for school districts---much safer than "myspace" or others that are largely unregulated.