When danah boyd says something, I always listen…

Danah Boyd – Cracking Teenagers’ Online Codes – NYTimes.com: “We need to give kids the freedom to explore and experience things online that might actually help them,” she added. “What scares me is that we don’t want to look at the things that make us uncomfortable. So rather than see what teenagers are showing us online about bullying and suicide and the problems they’re dealing with and using that information to help them, we’re making ourselves blind to it.”

I chose to go into the education profession for many of the same reasons she calls herself an activist and anthropologist. In many ways, teachers are anthropologists that are tasked with constantly studying and even attempting to understand the various tribes of youth, adults and community members we encounter with the aim of curating a learning experience or process for our students and co-learners.

One of the expressions of that mindset is how teens interact on social platforms in this world of gated communities and little time/opportunity for children and teens to have real free play or socializing time that is spontaneous and not scripted or hygienically controlled. As a teacher, I view it as part of my duty to get my hands dirty and attempt to understand what is going on in communities like Twitter or Facebook or XBox Live so that the learning experiences I work to provide in our classroom is authentic and meaningful to both myself and my student co-learners.

Fascinating time to be a teacher.