CoSN offers new guidance on social media use in schools

The Consortium for School Networking ^[1] (CoSN) has released new online guidance to help school district leaders rethink their internet use policies to reflect students’ and teachers’ increasing use of social media and Web 2.0 technologies. The guidance includes sample district Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) that balance legitimate safety concerns with the freedom to innovate, as well as other useful resources pertaining to the use of Web 2.0 technologies in schools. “I think we’re fighting a losing battle if the effort is to control [social media use] by limiting access and attempting to more or less close the door,” said James Bosco, who heads CoSN’s Participatory Learning initiative. “We have to think about this more in terms of how we work with our students, so it’s not just a matter of forbidding them, but [that] they understand how to use [social media] both for good learning purposes and in an ethical manner.” http://www.cosn.org/Initiatives/Web2/AUPGuide/tabid/8139/Default.aspx ^[2]