Raymon W.

Anything is possible!

I actually think most teachers/principals don’t do podcasts, etc because they don’t (1) feel comfortable NOT being the “expert” and (2) don’t know how to manage the “unknown” in the classroom.

Bah… it’s okay with me. I know there are students in the classroom that may know MUCh more about all of this than I .. and that is COOL and helpful! I appreciate the team effort when taking on the unknown/unexplored in class. =)

Alicia -
Maybe with your help, your teachers and principals will find out how engaging and interesting these things are =). Go for it!

This is from a 5th grade student:

The principal at your school actually LIKES the podcasts? My principal would probably go crazy if he saw the podcasts. He doesn’t like stuff like that. I wish he did. Anyway, we don’t use Quizlet at our school, but I wish we did.

To get around the concerns of the “chat”, I created a private group for my classes - and they all know that I can “monitor” their chat. I required them to use a name I would recognize (from our class forums/website or from class, etc) so *IF* comments get out of line, I can manage it that way.

To be honest, the chat feature is no different that managing a classroom. Let’s say I pass out a class activity, students are going to be on/off task as normal - totally dependent on my classroom management and our mutual respect or activity requirements.

While the private messaging is not monitorable from the same standpoint as any electronic activity - email, web messaging, myspace, etc. Again, I truly believe that boundaries are established more through mutual respect and maturity. I know that not everyone will use the tools for beneficial/helpful gain - but I also know that I can NOT control *everyone’s* behavior/choices. If there is “bullying” etc via messages, I hope that the affected/impacted parties would bring it to my attention just like any other action in the classroom that may harm/bully.

I hope this hurried response to this interesting discussion is comprehensible. I’ll check back when I have more time to get further involved with the discussion.

Though your disposition indicates you do not plan to implement the features suggested by Julius Polonius, will you please consider the privacy options mentioned, or increased privacy options in general?