Nothing to Lol About: To Dodge Threats to Students from Social Media, Districts Are Choosing an Unfortunate Solution: Blocking Technology That Has Substantial Educational Value. New Filtering Tools Offer a Better Option

Beginning of article

BRUNSWICK COUNTY SCHOOLS (NC) IS NO ENCLAVE FOR TECHNOPHOBES. Students in all grades have full freedom to visit instructional websites, construct web pages, experiment with digital media, and participate in online educational activities. School administrators strive to have all students pass the North Carolina Computer Skills Test before entering ninth grade.

Brunswick's nearly 12,000-strong student population no doubt has many avid social networkers in its ranks. Yet the district's open spirit toward technology in education pinches up at the sight of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. "Our county does not use social media," says Julie Sloup, media coordinator at Brunswick's Virginia Williamson Elementary School. "They're pretty much blocked in our school system, pretty heavily filtered."

It's not a natural position for Sloup to be in. She is in the technology vanguard, having won a prize for creating an interactive website that includes a "Digital Detectives" section, where students use databases and other online research tools to find answers to questions and then submit those answers through the site. The site also hosts a "Battle of the Books" contest, which invites students to discuss their favorite books on an online discussion board. Other features include fun monthly survey questions, feedback features, and lists of student resources for course assignments.

However, that's about as far as Sloup wants to go right now with her students. "The site is a way to introduce kids to the educational uses of online media," she says. "I'm trying to integrate them slowly into purposeful uses of technology. I know some of the kids already have Facebook and Twitter accounts, and for my fifth-graders, before they go to middle schools, we'll have a lesson about using social media safely." Sloup's conservative approach is the norm in K-12. According to a survey by the National School Boards Association (NSBA), 52 percent of schools block access to and prohibit any use of social media on campus. It's a move that, judging from that same research, would seem to be counterproductive. The NSBA study found that 96 percent of 9- to 17-year-old students participate in online social networks; of that group, 59 percent use social media to talk about educational topics, and 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But schools fear the predatory behavior that lurks around social networking sites, where the exchange of personal information can make users sitting ducks for hackers, thieves, cyberbullies, and scammers. So they're caught in what appears to be an all-or-nothing choice: take advantage …