Social networks are safe – official!
Back from holiday (I didn’t look at a computer for a week!) and back to the blog. And what better start to the autumn season than this new report from the US National School Boards Association â a not-for-profit organization representing 95,000 school board members.
The study, funded by Microsoft, News Corporation, and Verizon, found the internet isn’t as dangerous as people think, and teachers should let students use social networks at school.
Tech. Blorge.com say the report warns that many fears about the internet are just overblown. “School district leaders seem to believe that negative experiences with social networking are more common than students and parents report,” the study reports. For example, more than half the districts think sharing personal information has been “a significant problem” in their schools â “yet only 3% of students say they’ve ever given out their email addresses, instant messaging screen names or other personal information to strangers.”
This chimes with my long held belief that in a risk adverse society educational institutions spend far more time worrying about potential dangers and ‘what if’ scenarios than they do in helping students learn how to use the internet safely and creatively.
A new study undertaken n the US has found “the internet isn’t as dangerous as people think, and teachers should let students use social networks at school.”
