Journal #6 (SIX): "Don't Feed the Trolls"

Richardson, Karen W. (2008). Don't Feed The Trolls. Learning and Leading With Technology, 7, Retrieved 07/28/2009, from
http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=May_No_7_&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&NavMenuID=3972&ContentID=20817&DirectListComboInd=D

Karen Richardson’s article “Don’t feed the trolls” is about the use of blogging for education purposes and the room for students to abuse the purpose of blogging for other unintended purposes. Richardson then outlines some of the more common rules for civil discourse in the online environment and how students should take responsibility for the way they handle themselves online. Richardson highlights a group called MOOse Crossing that seeks to teach children in the 9-13 age group about the rules of behavior online and also how they can abide by the rules and use self monitoring to develop civil discourse online. Overall there is nothing new for me to learn from this article but it does give some good information and resources to help teach younger kids about blogging and the overall rules of Netiquette when they are online.

Are kids more likely to behave with civil discourse if shown how?
For the most part I think that most kids would but without monitoring by an outside source or without the threat of penalty I don’t think a vast majority of kids would use civility. In my experience with online gaming I can tell you that there is no civil discourse in that environment and there never will be for the simple fact that you can say whatever you want to someone because you don’t have to be face to face with them and the worst thing that can happen to you is you get banned under the screen name you are using and can simply get a new one. Without threat of penalty this will never change.

Is civil discourse taught just for the online environment or is learned even before that?
I think that the way kids act online is a reflection of what kind of person they really are and how they really behave in real life. The way children act online is a window into how they have learned to behave either through their parents of the environment they have been raised. Until this is addressed then we cannot change the way children treat each other online.