Re: WebLabs Instant Messaging - A bad thing?

Hi all.

Today's session went very well - probably because the kids followed the
school's policy that use of the WebLabs web site must be "work related".
Many non-work related instant messages were ignored (while they all had
to be responded to on previous sessions). The kids still wanted to
communicate and they did write many messages of the sort "What do you
think of ToonTalk?", "Have you tried to puzzle game? How far have you
gotten?", "I'm doing infinity in ToonTalk, what are you doing?".

The problem I had previously is that I was OK with the kids socializing.
As Jakob put it: "This is what 12-14 year olds use the web for, to
experiment with and learn about social relations." Even though I work
with these kids 4 hours a week the majority of that time was going into
social relationships. It is too bad there isn't time for both but given
the limited time I have with the kids, I'm glad the social part has
dropped by more than half and is more work focussed.

I'm not sure the novelty would have worn off by itself. Many kids spend
many hours chatting and instant messaging from home without getting
tired of it.

Given that my kids are following the school policy I no longer advocate
turning off instant messaging.

 Best,

-ken

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jakob Tholander" <jakobth-auIyqT/[email protected]>
To: "Ken Kahn" <kenkahn-0OjJFJ8UyiNWk0Htik3J/[email protected]>; "." <[email protected]>;
<webreports-uedesign-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org>
Cc: "Richard Noss" <r.noss-xaKI+XbQf9Vaa/[email protected]>; "Celia Hoyles"
<c.hoyles-xaKI+XbQf9Vaa/[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Webreports-uedesign] WebLabs Instant Messaging - A bad
thing?


> Well, being from liberal Sweden this seems quite natural to us and not
very
> upsetting. When we have let our kids use the Weblabs site, experiment
with
> birds, or use any site of their choice this is the kind of things they
do -
> also during school hours. This is what 12-14 year olds use the web for
(at
> least in Sweden), to experiment with and learn about social relations.
I
> think it would be a pity to shut down the instant messaging since kids
need
> to learn to balance their social life with their actual school work.
And
> also, if want to take the idea of community building seriously we must
let
> the things that happen in real communities, happen also in ours. But
> probably the "charm of novelty"
> will decrease quite rapidly as the kids get used to the site and get
to
> know each other.
>
> all the best
>
> Jakob
>
> At 17:33 2004-01-23 +0000, Ken Kahn wrote:
> >Today the teacher I'm working with panicked and asked the kids to
stop
> >using the web site. The trigger was that the girls were getting
instant
> >messages from Bulgarian boys asking them if they had boy friends. The
> >Theydon Bois boys were getting messages from Bulgaria saying that
they
> >thought the girls were cute. Friendly stuff but the teacher worried
that
> >some parent might get very upset about such interchanges.
> >
> >Afterwards we met with the head of the school. She thought the
teacher
> >overreacted but suggested that the kids should be made to understand
> >that the instant messaging if for work-related purposes. Polite
> >exchanging of pleasantries is OK (e.g. how's the weather  - and there
> >were such messages) but talk about boy friends or pop bands shouldn't
be
> >permitted. Sounds reasonable to me - though it does need to be
enforced
> >by me.
> >
> >I think I would be happier if instant messaging didn't exist - it is
> >taking up much too much time and hard to control. I find it hard to
tell
> >kids that they can't look at messages they've received. Most messages
> >are friendly ones saying hi and how's the weather. It seems only
polite
> >for the kids to reply. And they are eager to do so. But there goes
much
> >of the session.
> >
> >On top of all this are the security issues - how do I know they
really
> >were Bulgarian kids?
> >
> >Another security issue is passwords. The kids use such easy passwords
> >that they can even crack each others accounts. Both girls used names
of
> >pets. One boy quickly guessed correctly his friend's password when he
> >saw it was 5 letters. It was "Homer".
> >
> >Maybe we should focus on reports where these issue don't exist or are
> >minimal.
> >
> >Best,
> >
> >-ken
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "." <jesperh-auIyqT/[email protected]>
> >To: <webreports-uedesign-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org>
> >Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 11:10 AM
> >Subject: Re: [Webreports-uedesign] Web reports site "Security" issues
> >
> >
> > > * On Thu Jan 22, Yishay Mor wrote:
> > > > Jesper, I think we need to deal with the security issue ASAP, or
> >else we
> > > > might find ourselves in a very unpleasant situation.
> > >
> > > Yes, I agree. I will put other tasks aside for a while and
concentrate
> >on
> > > this issue. Some of the proposed changes might be quite tricky to
> > > implement, but it needs to be done.
> > >
> > > Jesper
> > >
> > >
> > > -------------------------------------------------------
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >-------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ------
> phone + 46 8 674 74 79
> mobile + 46 70 482 12 51
> www.dsv.su.se/research/kids
>
>
>




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