Schools' dilemma: Block or educate?

Student social networking has schools in a bit of a quandary, a new survey suggests. Thirty-six percent of school officials polled recently said students' use of social sites is "disruptive" at school, but at least half of school districts don't yet have policies addressing student use of such sites, eSchool News reports, citing an email survey the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent out to people attending its annual Tech + Learning Conference in Dallas earlier this month. "Only 35% of the educators, administrators, and school board members who … responded said their districts had policies to address the use of social-networking sites by their students"; 50% said their districts had no such policies; and 15% weren't sure. In schools where there is one, the most common policy appears to be simply blocking access to social sites, according to eSchool News. In this and various news reports, I'm seeing a growing number of educators and legal experts saying that not only is merely filtering ineffective (with all the workarounds students are aware of), but it spells missed opportunities to teach students safe, responsible use of the social Web. Among the experts saying this who are cited in this meaty, in-depth article are Anne Bryant, executive director of the NSBA and Harold Rowe, associate superintendent for technology at the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in Texas. This view seems to be based on a certain realism expressed by Jeff Hunt, director of instructional technology for the Indian Prairie School District in Illinois: "By their very nature, explained Hunt, schools themselves are social-networking sites," eSchool News reports. "Just as students congregate on the Web to chat with friends on popular Web sites, they gather in schools in the hallways and cafeterias to socialize. It's only natural that the Internet would become an extension of that interaction, he said. For schools, the challenge is finding a way to harness that power, without compromising the safety and integrity of their students."