Web 2.Oh

Blogging is not just for hormonal teenagers and bragging travellers anymore. Primary schools have begun addicting children to this creative high, and it's not such a bad idea. Opening up this outlet for children to express themselves, get excited and interested in using computers to communicate, it starts them on an educational journey that may end up creating more blogtastic entries such as this. This open outlet is the meaning of the term Web 2.0 - a format which has evolved to meet the needs of people for technology that builds a social platform for all who use it. Thanks to the ICT department here at Middlesex Uni, I enjoyed a documentary sharing a glimpse with a school that has become blog-crazy. The children had each taken up writing their own blog, based on their individual passions. These blogs could be viewed by any other children at the school, and so created a platform for the children to develop mutually and to explore their identities, furthering their social and emotional development. Deep. Personally, I loved it. It's a really forward thinking approach that not only informs children to the capabilities of technology, but pushes them to discover, create, and ask questions, possibly resulting in them moving into technological fields in later life. Bring on the geeks!

After seeing this, I delved a little deeper into the possible tech outlets that children could make use of. Twitter encourages children to succinctly voice their thoughts and feelings, Flickr allows them to upload and share their photos, and Pinterest gives them an online pinboard for any images they want to collect, caption or share. It's a wide web out there, and thanks to ICT in primary schools, we can help children navigate it confidently, usefully, and safely.

Of course, one big issue with this is the transmitting of private information, especially considering the innocence and lack of awareness that these children have as we race them towards the robotic future. As mature, responsible adults, and even moreso in our capacity as teachers, it is up to us to safeguard children. That's why we have to be clued up on digital identity.

Imagine Hansel and Gretel in Tron, and you've got a strong mental image of the problems we face - children littering the information highway with breadcrumbs, delicious nuggets of home addresses, personal details and alterable images, all ripe for the taking from malicious web-wastrels. Thanks to parental controls, schools' ICT co-ordinators, and school security software such as Securus, we teachers should have a good handle on keeping these details hidden. There tends to be two camps in this issue - the fear-mongerers who expect paedophiles to be waiting on every forum, and people who don't really think about it. Regardless of which camp you're in, I recommend downloading Collusion. It's a private extension to your web browser that creates a map of all the sites you visit, along with connecting links to other (third party) sites that also have access and can make legal use of any information you may submit on your intentionally-visited website. Collusion tells you exactly where your information is going, and can help to assess which websites you or your children may visit that are more harmful than they seem. Go educate yourself.