E-safety, online identity and education

[crispybits]

Subtitle: On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog

 

So I recently got handed the task of leading the research and implementation of how we use digital accounts with our students with a focus on e-safety. For example, one of the most recent threads in here at time of writing is about students being effectively forced to either create or use an existing google account in order to do their schoolwork because AppInventor requires a google sign-in. I'm trying to steer clear of the specifics on individual sites or programs for now as I think that, at least for me, I need a more abstract set of principles to build on so that our future policy is consistent and coherent.

 

I've been doing a lot of reading in the past couple of weeks and the thing that has struck me as most interesting is the way in which we think of pupils and their online identities in school. Obviously no school is ideologically monolithic on this, just like no person is monolithically right or left wing politically, there's a definite spectrum with a lot of nuance for individual topics. That said, I woul classify the two main schools of thought of this discussion as follows:

 

Authoritarian/Protectionist - This school of thought says that we ban Facebook, Twitter, etc in order to protect students who do not have a full understanding of the dangers inherent in such platforms. This not only works to protect the student from being affected by negative influences on these platforms during school time and/or on school networks, but it also works to protect the school and the school staff from accusations of liability or negligence because a student has been targeted by a scam/predator/bully/etc while under our care.

 

Individualist/Educational - This school of thought says that students identities in the 21st century are inherently both offline and online in nature. Most students have a variety of online accounts anyway, and these accounts are as much a part of that student's sense of identity as the things they do and say in the real world. By blocking out this side of a student's identity we are not optimising the educational experience and are in fact preventing ourselves from providing them with the best tools in order to continue the development of the online aspect of their identity in a safe and productive way.

 

Just looking for others' thoughts on how we can balance these two philosophies. Does your school have a lockdown approach or a more liberal one and do you agree with it (and why)?

[nikaso]

We are certainly more in the A/P school of thought here, I don't think in this ever more litigious society schools can take the chance of allowing much freedom. I am all for using social media as tools in education and we do indeed as a school make extensive use of Twitter for example. A lot of students would probably be trustworthy enough to take a more liberal approach but you would always get a few whose behaviour could land the school in very hot water and schools can't afford to sit back and take a role that is oversight based rather than pro-actively shielding.

 

I've personally been involved in investigating two attempted grooming situations involving students and several other 'inappropriate private photo distribution on social network' situations and you simply can't wash your hands of the responsibility to actively take measures to protect students. If the worst happened the school would be torn to shreds not only by the media but also by the Local Authority safeguarding unit.

[IrritableTech]

Most schools will be somewhere between the two I'd suggest.

 

Filtering needs to be age appropriate as suggested by Ofsted. Some schools will be comfortable allowing some social media for older students, others not so comfortable - however that level of comfort may be around safety, or it may be around keeping students on task. The sway from one side to the other will probably derive from the ethos of the school - which is dictated by the governing body and the SLT.

 

I think you've missed a really important point however in your research so far; monitoring.

 

Protecting users is not always as simple as locking everything you can think of that might cause harm, and it stands to reason that allowing everything does not guarantee a user will be harmed. Risk and harm are separate issues, and sometimes users learn a lot from putting themselves in a slightly risky position.

 

After moving away from the LEAs filters, we have been more open as a school, however our process of monitoring usage has increased with it. It has allowed us in the past to intervene before serious issues arise, and helps us identify behavior which might be of a concern outside of the schools filtered internet connection - safeguarding beyond the school gate is another area Ofsted have highlighted more recently.