School discipline in a Classroom 2.0 world

I ran into an interesting situation a few days ago and would love some feedback on how I might handle it in the future.

I've had one of my classes sign up with a wiki service (wikidot.com) to build a class project site. That part of it has gone fairly well and the kids have had no real trouble learning to use the wiki or posting material on it.

This wiki allows members to send private messages. Predictably, I suppose, one of my students sent another student a crude message. It wasn't intimidating or anything threatening, it was just crude and kind of ignorant.

If something like that happens in class, you can deal with it by imposing whatever sanctions might be appropriate. However, this happened outside of school time, and, technically, outside of the wiki. (You are a member of Wikidot first, and then you join a particular wiki. The crude language, being used in a private message, wasn't done as part of the school project.)

I showed the student who received the offensive message how to block the sender from sending him anything else. Yet I can't help feeling I should do something about the sender. However, his offence wasn't committed in school, but he had the opportunity to commit it because of a school project that I started him on. He would not likely have found the wiki site on his own, nor would the other student. So school created the background for the offence.

What do you think? How do you handle misbehavior in an online world?

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Permalink Reply by ben reynolds on May 18, 2007 at 1:21pm

We use WebCT for our distance ed program, and one of our classrooms is called "Pizza Party." It's a non-academic discussion board for kids to socialize. We monitor (retroactively) what they write. When they say something inappropriate, we tell them (& generally move the post to a place where kids can't get to it). Of course, we warn them not to misbehave from the start.

In general, I think no one would question you telling the miscreant to straighten up. He probably thinks of it as school, but even if he doesn't, you as a grownup have the right to tell kids not to be crude in public and never without an invitation.

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Permalink Reply by Alice Mercer on May 18, 2007 at 6:32pm

Hmm, I dont' know about this being "outside" of school stuff. I think it can depend on the local/state rules. For instance, we've done suspensions for fights to and from school, and disciplined for intimidation outside of school between students if it is carrying on a conflict to or from school. These students "met" online because of your project and are in an online environment (the wiki) they would not likely have been in without that school project, this argues for some involvement of the school discipline and AUP. This issues are more intense in elementary, where I teach ( "we must protect the children, etc.")

I would certainly look at your AUP, and think about some "suspension" at least on a temporary basis of the student from school computers for bad judgement, etc. Was this a potential Title 9 situation?

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on May 18, 2007 at 9:07pm

Don't know. I'm guessing "Title 9" is an American reference, and, sorry, but I'm Canadian. Can you elaborate?

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Permalink Reply by Alice Mercer on May 19, 2007 at 11:05am

Title nine would be a complaint about sexual harassment or discrimination. Sorry I didn't realize you were a northern neighbor. I would not want to guess what the oversight issues would be for you legally up there, but I will say it would not be a clear-cut issue here (Sacramento, CA) about whether or not that was an "out of school" incident. Whatever the situation I agree with all the comments about this definitely being a teachable moment about net manners.

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on May 19, 2007 at 11:26am

This would not have been Title 9. It was basically one kid acting ignorantly to another because he thought no one was watching. It's the kind of simple misbehavior you catch every day in your classroom but it's a lot harder to spot in a virtual world.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Parisi on May 19, 2007 at 11:41am

I have had this situation with comments in our blog site. I personally like the site because all comments and blogs are checked by me before they are posted. So improper messages have not been posted and the children have been spoken to individually and as a whole about internet etiquette.

In fact, just today, I deleted a comment by a student not in my class. An inappropriate-for-school (and I think for all over) word was used. I plan to discuss this with the child who was receiving the message because she obviously knew the child sending the message and I want to talk to him - just let him know we don't use certain language online.

My feeling is: In or out of school, a site used by me for educational purposes and set up by me is my responsibility and, therefore, can and should be monitored closely by me. And I have to right to talk with anyone who posts on such a site or delete comments on said site.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on May 19, 2007 at 1:31pm

I think since this was for a class project, the problem belongs to you. But the space belongs to the class too - is there a way to have the whole class address the problem? If the message is not personally recognizable, what if you shared it with the whole class and ask them what to do? (I'd ask the recipient if they felt comfortable with that first, of course)

I'm not sure if the recipient needs to be identified to the class... so you might have to edit the message if there are identifiable elements.

On the other hand, some people say that if a victim has the courage to identfiy themselves, it helps them cope better, and I'm sure most of the class would come to their defense. That's probably your call as the teacher who knows these kids best.

Seems like you should pull the offender aside and say "cut it out" too. Then next time it happens, you just turn it over to the students to deal with.

Peer rules and punishments are pretty effective, and I think really reinforce the student ownership of the project and the democratic nature of Web 2.0. Makes it their policy and their rules for their space, not yours. They will probably be harsher than you!

This may seem like a lot of work - but in the long run, I think it would serve to reduce incidents and send the right message.

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Permalink Reply by Kristian Still on May 20, 2007 at 2:05am

Morning James,

Some 6 months ago when we (out class) fell into wikis I searched for help and guidance, slim to none. We have a classroom charter for 16-19 yr old students and decided to create a similar document for our wiki. I concur for with Diane, its a citizenship issue, its a whole class issue and its a real life issue. Ultimately you dont want students to miss out on a fun learning experience, but they need to appreciate the groups values.

I have posted the Wiki Charter on the Next Gen NING site. If you want to share it with your students, I will find the link for you, or anyone else for that matter.

Kristian