During my personal migration into developing an understanding of online social media tools and their possible place within an educational context etc... I undertook to build an online/cloud 'fear wall' where colleagues were able to ask the same questions I now see everywhere.
The fear is real, but so to is the idea that these fears are not restricted to the educational environment but are in fact societal.
How do young people navigate these apparent minefields?
They are guided.
Was my fear wall useful?
To some degree, it did however quickly become surplus to requirements as the personal fears within our group dissipated through open discussion and understanding of functions available with web 2.0 tools.
As an example; students and educators, both, tend to keep their work private or semi-private until they are confident with the tools and have edited some work to a degree where they feel they have said/developed something of worth.
They then tend to choose to show their work and have peer input/comment into their work, therefore becoming public, possibly even collaborative.
The below link is just another supportive snippet that suggests that we need to keep advancing our pathway into the 'living curriculum'.
Social media find place in classroom
My own child (8 year old) is quite comfortable around online activities. her school embraces the 'good' in the web 2.0 world and helps students' to navigate the correct and safe pathways.
I Now Realize:
The 'fear wall' is only really necessary for migrants into the online world. The digital natives are quite capable and understanding of the 'new boundaries'.
They make them.
The digital migrants 'walls' are very transparent to digital natives and we (migrants) must be honest and brave enough to learn from the natives for the betterment of open communication and shared experiences.
A learned response?
Yes.
Does it take long?
No.
Do we need to be brave?
Buk Buk Buk.
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