Teach42

Tags: | blogging, comments, dembo, moderation, safety, teach42

Should blogging be moderated?

Saw this request asking bloggers to respond and had to chime in.

A question for you: Should all student blogging be moderated?

… In general, I think that teaching students to be responsible is a far better approach than trying to block or filter everything that might be dangerous. We should more time talking about 21st century skills and how to act prudently in the world that is out there.

On the other hand, I understand concerns about student online safety. There are many more subtle issues than just a concern that students might write something inappropriate.

Let’s stop right there. When did online safety come into it? Those are two completely different issues, and really merit different discussions.

Addressing whether blogging should be moderated or not, my personal opinion is that it depends on a few factors. Pure and simple, it’s a skill that needs to be taught. I don’t mean the act of typing and clicking submit, I mean the thought process that goes into it. What does it mean to be posting publicly? What do you do if you get a negative comment? Who will actually be reading what you publish? What is the purpose of sharing publicly and when shouldn’t you do it?

The key is, that blogging is no different than most other educational activities. You need to build up to it, lay down some groundwork and ensure that your students are prepared for the responsibility. Perhaps starting off publishing behind the firewall. Then moving to publishing publicly, but with moderation before it goes live. Then going live, but with comments being held in moderation. And so on. It really depends on the age and maturity of your students. If your students are pretty responsible and are ready for it, then jump in feet first! Just be prepared to do some serious observations of everything that happens on those blogs. You darn well better know what’s going on there before you get any phone calls.

Additionally, the students’ parents need to be aware of what you’re doing. Mind you, making them aware of it does not give them veto power over the project. If they want their specific student to do an alternate assignment, that’s their prerogative, but that doesn’t signify a stop sign for the entire class. Making sure that the appropriate people are aware of what’s going on in class is very different than asking permission to do it. If it’s the right thing to be doing educationally for the students, then don’t make more of an issue out of it than it needs to be. By calling a town hall meeting to discuss whether students should be blogging, you are adding the misconception that it’s something major that requires a committee. It isn’t. It doesn’t.

Back to online safety, the reason I said it isn’t an issue is because that’s something that needs to be taught across all subjects and grade levels, regardless of whether a class is blogging. If you decided never to blog in your school or district, online safety would still need to be addressed. So tying it in to blogging once again adds stigma and power to people who are afraid of the world ‘blog’ due to what they’ve seen on the news. It’s an important issue, but it has nothing to do with blogging.

So should blogging be moderated? Absolutely… if the students aren’t ready to do it in an unmoderated setting yet. And only you can be the judge of that.