Childrens School

Adults tackle question of how much social media is enough, but not too much

With smartphones and tablet and laptop computers now as common as pencils and notebooks in many classrooms, schools and parents alike are having to figure out how to guide students’ use of technology.
Access to the internet for students can mean access to a world of information, but it can just as easily get them to social media sites and apps. That can enhance their learning experience, educators say, but it does come with risks.
Piedmont’s schools are in the fifth year of a program that issues laptop computers to all students in grades four through 12. Students in kindergarten to third grade also use mobile devices in the classroom.
“We allow the use of social media, especially at the high school” said Piedmont Schools Superintendent Matt Akin.

The school system’s position on social media and internet usage has changed over time, Akin said. Instead of blocking most sites, Piedmont’s policies shifted toward a middle ground.
“YouTube was one of the first things we unblocked, because we saw all of the educational videos our teachers could be using,” he said.
As Jacksonville City Schools Superintendent Jon Campbell pointed out, students’ use of social media is here to stay.
“Social media is something that’s going to be there, whether we advocate for or against it,” he said. “We have to deal with it.”
Jacksonville schools began distributing tablets to students in grades four through 12 in 2013. Campbell said that popular social media apps, like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, are blocked and cannot be installed on the devices.
But there’s no way for school administrators keep students from using the apps on smartphones, he said. Such devices are linked to the internet through connections independent of the school.
As Roy Bennett put it, “the genie is out of the bottle.” Bennett is student services coordinator for Oxford schools, and he said administrators feel they’re playing catch-up with a generation that grew up online.
“It’s a challenge to stay a step ahead,” he said. Oxford students in middle and high school are given Apple laptops that they can take home. During the school day, social media sites are blocked on those computers. Bennett acknowledged that there’s nothing to stop students from accessing the sites on their own devices.
Internet etiquette
Instead of giving devices to its students, the Calhoun County school system encourages them to bring their own. That approach allows students to bring personal laptops, tablets and smartphones into schools for use on collaborative assignments.
Jenel Travis, technology director for Calhoun County Schools, said students use a specially set-aside network that provides them with Internet filtered according to federal standards, but does not block social media sites.
Smartphones and some tablets may have access to a cellular service provider’s unfiltered wireless network. Use of that network is against Calhoun County Schools’ rules, and students can be punished for it–if they’re caught.
“If they want to do something that isn’t great and they get off our network, they can do that,” Travis said. “That’s the network parents provide, and it’s out of my control.”
Travis said schools’ technology initiatives could be hamstrung if internet access on their networks was locked down completely.
However, school administrators and educators can try to teach students how to use social networks responsibly.
“We have a responsibility to teach our students good digital citizenship,” Campbell said.
That phrase refers to acceptable online behavior, such as being aware of privacy protections or reporting cyberbullying, and it’s one school administrators are using more often.
Campbell said Jacksonville teachers teach digital citizenship through an internet course, where they emphasize that anything students put online could follow them around forever.
“We call it a ‘digital tattoo’–once it goes out there, it’s always there. You can’t just wash it off,” he said.
Piedmont Superintendent Akin agrees that educators have a responsibility to teach students what they should and shouldn’t post online.
“We’ve dealt with a few issues where kids say things online they shouldn’t say. We had that 10 years ago,” before social media became popular, he said. “We try to hold our students accountable.”
‘Lock it down’
School administrators say parents share some of that responsibility, and each of the schools with technology initiatives has hosted training sessions to familiarize parents with their children’s devices.
Jeremy Jones’ three kids attend Piedmont Elementary, where they use iPads, iPods and MacBook laptops in the classroom.
Jones, who works in information technology for a local institution, said he wants Piedmont’s initiative to work, but worries that administrators did not give enough thought to blocking sites students shouldn’t use.
Jones said that at home, he controls what sites his children can visit and when they can visit them. His son can spend unlimited time on school-related websites; only an hour on others, he said.
Jones acknowledged that lots of websites have legitimate educational uses, but said “it’s a fine line” between the useful and harmful. Schools will always be behind in getting technology to control students’ Internet use, he said.
“You’re either going to have to lock it down, or deal with the consequences,” Jones said. “One consequence is, I don’t like it.”
He’s not ready, he said, to let his kids roam the digital world on their own.
“My son’s already asking me about having a Facebook,” he said. “Absolutely not.”