Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Internet blog sites, such as MySpace.com and Xanga.com, are receiving increased scrutiny from middle and high school administrators. School districts in Fairfax County and Arlington County, Virginia, plan on holding seminars for parents on the subject in the coming week. Among the obvious dangers are adult stalkers enticing teenagers into face-to-face meetings. In addition, personal information posted online can be read by college admissions officers and future employers. According to Parry Aftab, an Internet lawyer and the executive director of Wiredsafety.org, some colleges have expelled teenagers for violating codes of conduct after discovering photos of underage students posing in front of kegs or writing about drinking binges, and employers often look up job candidates on the sites. Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, notes that the sites have created a new set of problems for educators, including cyberabuse. As an example, he cites an incident in which three middle-school students in the Chicago area were suspended after posting obscene and threatening remarks about a teacher on a blog. While many schools prohibit the use of school computers for anything not school-related, it is more difficult to regulate use of home computers. Meanwhile, students express outrage and embarrassment about parents and other adults viewing their sites.

From Washington Post
By Tara Bahrampour and Lori Aratani
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011601489.html?referrer=email&referrer=email