Do any of you use this site for students?

[Kathleen]

I'm going to be teaching middle school LA this year; last year I was teaching Kindergarten. I'm also a literacy specialist and private tutor. THE POINT IS:
I wanted to create book lists here for students and parents to access so they can see what kinds of things I recommend (you know how people always ask). But today I noticed that some of the reviews use language that I do not want my students to use in school--you know the words--and I don't know if I can/should use the site. I know it's a big open world out there, and all, but...I'm just wondering what your experience has been and what you think. Thanks.

[jacky]

I offered joining goodreads as an extra credit option for my high school freshmen. Only one student tried it and she loves it. I recommended that she join to create her own list and reviews rather than see a list I created. I agree that the content is iffy for middle schoolers. Maybe if you create a school only account and inform parents that looking on your account is "safe" but looking at the whole site is not?

[Alex]

I think this is a wonderful way to mentor and guide students on responsible social networking.

[KJP]

I just created a group for my students, only a few have joined...but Ill give it a few weeks before I make a decision.

[Amy]

I work at a school for students with learning disabilities (dyslexia, dysgraphia...) and/or ADHD and reading is not always something that is top on their list of favorite things to do :). I recently stumbled across goodreads though and we happen to have a high population of kids excited about reading this year - so we've created a sort of dummy account (lmareads) and each of my shelves is one of my students so we can track collectively and individually.

They are in grades 3-8 and this way I can gatekeep their access, but they can see their successes building. We just started inputting info Friday, but they were VERY excited about it!

[Angela]

I'm glad someone posted this, because I've just found Good Reads about a week ago and am wondering if I could use this with my middle school eighth graders. I haven't decided yet. I'm going to keep looking around on the site.

The fact that in only a week I've had a number of people ask to be my "friend" on here worries me a bit when it comes to kids. I don't know these people and I'm sure they are harmless, but you never know. With kids we have to take all precautions.

I have found some groups on here though that are set to private and only those invited by the moderator can have access to them. That may be one way to avoid any issues when using this site with students.

I agree that it could be useful in teaching students good ways to use interactive sites like this. We all know they're already using My Space and AIM, Facebook, etc., so teaching them to use a safe site is a good idea.

[Amy]

Angela,
I know what you mean about being asked to be friends on the site. I have one account for my classes and it hasn't received any requests to be friends - I don't know if that's because of the profile description or if there was a special preference I selected in the profile.

[Penny]

I'm a Ph.D. student in Educational Technology, and I'm doing research on the educational uses of Web 2.0 technologies.

I've learned quite a bit about the Goodreads security options as I've been talking to some of the student group moderators. You have the option of hiding your profile from everyone but your friends. You can also show your profile but not accept messages from anyone but your friends.

When you set up a private group, no one who isn't a member of the group (approved by the moderator) can see the group's discussion postings. All of the groups that teachers set up for their students seem to use this option. So, it seems that there are options available for protecting the students' privacy.

[Speaking of privacy, if any of you are student group moderators who have your profile hidden or set not to accept messages, I would love to have your input on a survey I'm conducting about teachers' use of online book discussions. It's totally anonymous; I'm not collecting names, email addresses or IP addresses. Please send me a message if you're interested. If your profile is public you've probably already heard from me, or will hear from me soon. :-)]

Penny