Google Buzz makes me nervous.
Not because it is yet another social media channel that I don’t need (am I turning into an old codger?) but by the fact that is was basically built in to my google ecosystem without my permission and with no way to disable it other than deleting my Google profile. Buzz can be turned off from your gmail, no longer giving you updates (which I’ve done by the way, don’t try to find me there) but there is no way to actually disable it.
The reason I’m nervous about this is that I’ve always loved Google. I use the search engine ravenously, I have gmail, I use iGoogle in my classroom. I use Google docs as one of my own personal applications and push it heavily in my classroom as a tool of choice. I’ve switched to Chrome lately as a browser. This is a company on the move, developing web applications for the hyperconnected folks like me who rely on a host of low cost (or no cost) web services. I’ve seen this as a model and tried to push the students in my classroom to realize the power of the connections that are possible.
But now I’m left wondering if the emperor has no clothes…..?
Nothing Google offers are open source applications of course. They never have been. While the price has been right for teachers like me with basically no budget to use on their classrooms, I am now beginning to question the “cost” of these tools. The data that is collected about what is being searched for, the data that is being collected about tool use patterns. Google Buzz has damaged my relationship with Google. it has made me question my relationship with the company. And in times like these, where relationships are all important, I’m given pause.
I’ve also had my students use Google Docs and Gmail. The minute they saw the Buzz icon they started using it. What could I do? What I don’t think the kids realize is how public everything they say is. My grade six class got into an online fight which lasted 78 comments and involved at least 3 different (and arguably unrelated) conflicts. This happened the last day of school before holidays and I didn’t read it until the weekend. I’ve copied the discussion to my vp and we’ll deal with the whole thing next week. Kind of an “interesting” “teachable moment” about a lot of things.
Thanks Patricia so much for stopping in here and leaving your thoughts behind. This part of their online lives, the out in the open for everyone to see part, is definitely something that we need to work with our students on. As a teacher, this is of course problematic. As well, having the tools there, without the ability to disable the parts of them that are questionable, makes them difficult to use for learning. This reminds me of when I first started using RSS in the classroom and my students all had Bloglines accounts. Then over one weekend, Bloglines added the ‘feature” of having pictures that were popular and favourited across the net appear in your account. No safety settings and no choice. As you might imagine, the pictures that began to appear from millions of other users of Bloglines were not exactly what I wanted MS children to have access to. That was the end of my using that tool in the classroom.
Transparency has a price, privacy. As an advocate of being transparent at school, I am constantly weighing tools in terms of the impact they can have through transparency. When I first went to buzz I noticed google chats between students I correspond with in China. Think about the implications this has with China’s desire to monitor their citizens. All tools that allow transparency must have options to allow for privacy. How can I teach my students about the mistakes they make when they do something “dumb” when it is already shared with their entire network? I haven’t even addressed buzz with my students yet, honestly I am afraid to (but also afraid not to!)
Hi Clarence,
You hit the nail on the head with this post. I’ve been thinking many of these same thoughts since I was suddenly faced with Buzz showing up in my inbox. I hate how Google just opted you in without giving you the chance to set permissions. I clicked on Buzz when I first saw the logo just to see it, so apparently this automatically sent out invites to all my contacts.
I’m also worried about the amount of data mining Google is doing. I love using their various tools with students, particularly Google Docs. But I hate the idea that I’m pushing tools with students that enable one of the most powerful corporations in the world to collect data for potential marketing purposes.
So it seems as if we’re stuck with this. The tools are great and the tools come at no monetary cost. They come at the cost of privacy and the possibility of data mining and of tieing our students into a system like this; early, that does not respect their privacy. Do you take the tools and use them, knowing that you ar exposing your students to data collection? Do you not use the tools and therefore not teach your students how to use them, leaving them without vital skills? Do you set up your own applications (ie. Moodle, etc) and have to learn a whole lot of new skills (well, I know I would anyway). What are the implications of all of this? What are our choices are educators? What are the consequences we face as educators? What are the ethics involved?
Thanks for this information Clarence. I had not had a moment to look at Buzz but had started to hear about it, none of it very good. I was able to delete Buzz before it had been used. I have had a very slow start with my school on any of these tools. I used Gmail and GoogleDocs. I’ve thought about the loss of privacy and haven’t felt what I was losing was more valuable than what I gained. I still think I’d use them in school with kids but it does need to be with eyes open. There are questions there which we need to keep near the front of our discussions as colleagues and with our kids. Keep musing on the answers.