Students as Collaborators

After reading Leif Gustavson's piece about working with youth, it made me think about how I use technology in my own classroom. While I've tried to broaden my own and my students' knowledge and use of technology in Spanish class, I also limit it because I'm afraid of the possibilities of what could happen. The majority of students will start with an idea, run with it and produce something creative, but there is a small percentage that will push the dividing line of appropriateness in school. It is for this reason that I use my wiki as a website to share class information. I'm afraid that if I open it up to student users, they will abuse that privilege and add things that are inappropriate or demeaning to others. I don't do this out of an irrational fear, for I have had this experience in the past. Every year we do an interdisciplinary project and each year it involves students using technology to post information about themselves. And every year I have 3-4 students behaving inappropriately. But, I see how well we all are able to communicate our thoughts about the movies, for example, and I want to believe that high school students can do the same. I guess it just means that I need to take a risk, trust, and have a policy in place for those who test the limits.