Glogster?

I am a teacher and feel slightly offended at previous post. I teach at the elementary level and use a LOT of technology in my room. Sorry but we are a global-technological society. Granted I DO NOT do facebook. But, glogs, blogs, skype, wiki, webquest YES. The kids love it and its a way to connect to them. I have my kids write on their blog weekly about their reading. They make book recommendations, communicate with each other ABOUT readings. It's just another form of writing. There are guidelines. They have to use correct punctuation, capitalization, grammar, ect. And in letter form. They need to know the difference between texting their BFF and writing to peers and their teacher. There are privacy settings, passwords, ect. Glogster is a poster site. My students have used it to publish their writting. I have had no complaints about my use of
technology in my classroom. But welcome all opinions, just as I am sure your child's teacher does.
If you are this highly concerned and upset, I recommend you talk to your chid's teacher. Surely if he is unable to participate there are other ways of doing the requires work.

Full discloser: I don't know a thing about Glogster. That said, my guess is that, like Facebook, there are ways to be open & visible to all and also ways to keep postings private and quite restricted. For instance, I have a facebook page to keep in touch with a very few friends who participate in a hobby I enjoy but I don't want to open it up so that all my real world friends and family see it & post to it (more because I don't want it to become the way we communicate). Consequently, I keep my privacy settings quite restricted. Even by searching e-mail or looking at the friends list of my FB friends, you won't see it.

My guess is that any responsible teacher would keep this very private, while still trying to get kids engaged & involved. Not sure I think it's necessary to use this tool, but if it is properly & privately managed, it may help reach the children & teach the lesson. Rather than worry about sicko pervs, ask the teacher for a demonstration. School home communication works two ways. Granted, the teacher should have reached out first but, since that didn't happen, I suggest you take the lead, ask the question & raise your concerns. Students do best when parents and teachers understand each other.

Three positives I see in your message: (1) the teacher has your child excited about learning; (2) your child openly communicates with you about his day (way to go, mom!); (3) you're a concerned mom who reaches out and seeks to understand what is new & unknown and who takes an active role in your child's education. Certainly, with these factors in play only good things can come out.

Schools have rigid firewalls and connection policies so that students cannot access inappropriate material. I would double-check that Facebook link, and if it really goes to Facebook, I would ask the teacher or administration about it. As far as if this is "real" education -students need to develop computer skills basically as soon as they start school. EVERYTHING is digital now and we fully live in a digital age. Nothing about that will change -our world is only going to become more digitally integrated and advanced. Children who arrive in middle school with no computer skills, internet search skills, etc. are going to be behind from day one. There are a number of programs you, as a parent, can use on your own computer and any digital device your child owns to monitor their use and incoming/outgoing messages. I've never seen a school computer that would allow access to social networking sites. I used to be the technology coordinator for a metro area high school, so I do have an idea of what I'm talking about. Discuss with your child's teacher, but understand that your 10 year old NEEDS to get very comfortable with computers, working on them, and researching with them NOW.

Please stop to consider that this global technology that is so wonderful for the classroom is also quite wonderful for every sicko pervert out there as well. I find it shocking that more people do not know what is really going on in cyberspace and are so trusting of posting their information online. I checked out this Glogster site and I would never feel comfortable putting anything that my child wrote up there but especially not the pictures and the videos that this site encourages you to post. Anyone reading this-go to the site right now. Click on any of those children's pictures-now message them...it is that easy. Do you want some perv disguised as a "friend" doing this??? Are you comfortable with strangers reaching out to your child??

Big thumbs down to any school that uses this. There are many ways to use "technology" that do not put our children at risk. My child's class had a closed website that was password protected that they "published" all of their writing/artwork on.

You're kidding! What possible good learning can come from this? I would so very much not be in favor of this. It has nothing to do with education. It is pop culture, and they get enough of that on their own time. Is this something school sponsored, or something the kids are just doing that he is telling you about? Sorry, but is this what our tax dollars are paying for? Teaching kids about social networking? Seriously? {can you tell I have an opnion about this? LOL}

the online connection at elementary schools is closely monitored. maybe call and talk to his teacher about it and have him/her explain it to you.