Onside parents
Posted by: Dean Shareski in Blogs, Classrooms, digitalcitizenship, news, travelClarence shares this article via my Shared Feed in Google Reader and it spoke to me on many levels.
Here’s a parent who, although obviously tech and internet saavy hadn’t realized the power of the internet for his own kids:
I’ve written about my kids literally hundreds of times and published dozens of photos of them. But, I’ve always drawn the line at showing their faces. Every picture I’ve posted is a shot from the back, a photo with the face turned away, a costume disguise, you name it- I’ve become a master of the private, public persona. So I have to admit, that when I saw the YouTube video and Tasha waltzing up to the camera, I was a little aghast.
But although he was “aghast” at first quickly changed his view.
But then a light bulb went off. She was excited that the video was going online and that sense of enthusiasm was evident in each of the kids as they made their presentation.
He goes on to write about how the author of the book connects with the student.
Where it gets more interesting, is that the author of the book discovered the YouTube video and wrote about it on his blog. In fact, he wrote: “My favorite is the girl who liked Fox because he’s part of the dog family and is cute.”
Reminds me of someone and someone else
Then he “touches ‘em all” with this quote:
Anything that gets kids excited about learning is something that I will stand behind. But it takes a teacher who gets how the technology can be leveraged to make this work.
And another home run with this one:
Seeing Tasha and her friends on the computer screen, it dawned on me that I’ve been participating in an online ecosystem, but with one foot still planted firmly in a largely imaginary safety zone. I think I’ve become the technological equivalent of the parent who won’t let their kids play unsupervised in the fenced back yard at an age when they themselves used to be allowed to wander six blocks to the park as long as they promised to be home before dark.
Not only should we be leveraging our students as evidence and support for online connection and engagement but finding more parents who will support and speak out. Whether we like it or not, we have a marketing issue on our hands and satisfied customers are valuable resources.
Image: Brilliant Minds, Brilliant Hardware: Bonding Moment
http://flickr.com/photos/courosa/413146410/in/set-723361
Technorati Tags: clarencefisher, karlfisch, davidjakes, aleccouros, internetsafety
Entries (RSS)
March 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
All that and the fact that I find photos found on school websites with student faces blurred out absolutely creepy.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I referenced an article you pointed me to in the comments. Despite the research, people seem to have a gut reaction to posting kids’ photos online that no amount of thoughtful commentary can overcome. It’s not that they’re anti-technology zealots or anything (AFAIK), but the media has so drummed into the public consciousness that online=dangerous that everyone seems to just accept that at face value. I have a similar time convincing people about the likelihood of their child being shot at school - the statistics are quite clear that students are more likely to die at their parents’ hands than anyone else’s, but that doesn’t appear to penetrate the “rationalisation zone” surrounding otherwise well-informed people.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
When ever I hear some one say the word “parent” my ears perk up. I just had to comment. Show - no show. I have tried to draw the analogy to road traffic. We don’t shut down roads, stop cars from driving because there is a potential to hurt a child. We teach them the rules of the road. Children’s faces are all lined up in a row as members of a sports team - names and all in the newspaper. Maybe there is a conspiracy to keep people reading the papers for information instead of the Internet. Would like to point you to Parents as Partner webcast at edtechtalk.com. Maybe the Internet has spread the news already. We are actively engaging parents in discussions around teacher and parent relations. Internet safety and the benefits of online collaboration are on the slate of past and future webcasts. Type on over on April 7th. Love to have you join us.