Wesche talked about the community that is created by YouTube, and we spoke in class about how spaces on the Internet provide camaraderie for those in search of connection. Relationships and how we interpret them have been fundamentally changed by the Internet, but have we changed the ways we teach our children about relationships? I remember being a student and learning about what it means to be a friend and how to be a good friend, and these things were taught with the assumption that interactions would happen primarily face-to-face or maybe over a phone call. We never learned about interactions taking place online with friends or with people we’ve never met in person.
To be able to make friends with others who have similar experiences to our own, but that live across the globe is truly incredible! Although, it is important to model to students what these online relationships can and should look like. After all, it is at school where we learn the most about how to create and maintain relationships with peers. Lessons in class about digital friendships can be effective, as well as possibly setting up an online space for children to interact with each other that is monitored by the teachers. For example, I may set up a space for my class and a class that my friend teaches in a different city where the students can interact with one another over given writing prompts. This may be one way that we can teach children about creating meaningful relationships online while allowing them to practice this skill in a mediated space.
In class we talked about the lack of mediation when it comes to children being online. The more I thought of this problem, the bigger it got for me. There really is no way for adults to watch over children and guide them to make good choices when it comes to the online world. Aside from teaching children about online safety and about online friendships, the only other thing to do is limit a child’s access to the Internet. It is definitely a huge responsibility that we now have in order to guide children on the best practices when it comes to the Internet and I am not exactly sure what that all entails, but I believe that it is important in order for children to fulfillingly participate in the online culture.