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WNY Student Suspended for Tweet

As a Technology Education teacher in the 21st century, it's my job to educate kids on the technologies that shape our world.  Social media technologies have the power to reach so many in so little time.
 
Yesterday, a local high school student in our WNY community was suspended for his inappropriate use of twitter.  I plan to use this as a "teachable moment"  with my students.
 
Take a look at the story produced by WGRZ and the embedded video below.  Pay attention especially at the 2:40 minute mark where news anchor Maryalice Demler provides commentary.  She nails it when she says that kids should make these mistakes early in High School--not when they are adults in the real world where their job may be at stake!  What a perfect advocacy point for teaching social media skills in the K-12 world!
 
Before we jump to "blame, ban, and block" social media from our schools let's consider what happends when kids are not formally educated on the benefits and pitfalls of social media in our society-- a society that increasingly relies on using social media for communication.  Pretending it doesn't exist is not going to make anything better! 
 
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