Your town's Park and Rec department is one of those things you don't really think about until you have kids. I never really paid attention to the classes and activities that our town offers until after LJ was born and I was looking for things to do with him.That was when I made the happy discovery that our town's Park and Rec department is actually very good and offers a wide variety of classes and activities for the young AND not-so-young. Not only do they offer the seasonal sports and traditional classes like hunter training, babysitting certification, and first aid/CPR, but they also offer classes like: comic book creation, video game design, belly dancing, and a variety of computer classes as well as trips to local shows and destinations.
I was looking through the latest Park and Rec booklet, when I came across a new class being offered: Blogs and Podcasting. "Wow," I thought. "How great that they are offering a class to people who might want to start blogging." I had taken a class last year on Photoshop and it was well attended by over 15 adults.
As I looked more closely at the class, I noticed that it was located in the "after school tech camp" section and that the class was being offered to students in grades 3 through 5.
Huh?
I looked at the description which stated the following:
Share your thoughts and opinions with the world! In this course, the world's eyes and ears are at your fingertips! Images, text and video podcasts will be part of your personal blog. By the end of this course you will be on your way to becoming a famed Internet Journalist!"
Knowing that many of you who read Wisconsin Mommy are other bloggers and most readers are parents, I have to ask you - what do you think about this?
Would you let your 8 year old start a public blog to broadcast to "the world"? Would you want them knowing how to set up this kind of blog without your help? Do you think children this age have the kind of perspective to judge what is okay to publish and what is not?
(I'm guessing you can tell what my feelings are on this!)
Please, I'd love to hear your thoughts!!
3 comments:
When my daughter's BFF moved to New Zealand when they were 10 (fourth grade), I set up a blog for their Girl Scout troop to use. No one else had access: just the girls (and their parents). Within those parameters, I thought it worked just fine and dandy. Without knowing the privacy settings for Park & Rec, no way.
My daughter started her blog when she was six. Mommy was doing it, and she wanted to do it, too. Back then, I had to type for her; she told me what to say. It was always just 2-3 sentences per post. Very cute stuff. Only a handful of people, close people we knew, had access to it. I don't see why not...
Patois - That kind of "closed circuit" blogging is a great resource for kids to stay in touch!
Smelly - How great that you used your daughter's blog as a way to engage with her and be involved in what she had to say.
I guess my concern is that many (most? I hope not) parents would send their kids to this class and then give them free reign on the computer. The class description makes NO mention of any safety being taught in the class. After years of working with this age group, I feel pretty certain that most of them have no idea what is/isn't appropriate for a public blog. For Pete's sake, some adults haven't figured it out yet!
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