Journal Article Blog The Fourth

“Don’t Feed the Trolls. Using Blogs to Teach Civil Discourse” by Karen Work Richardson

Richardson’s article talks about teaching students how to be civil when using the Internet to publish their own comments. There’s potential to abuse Internet technology, like attacking other students and posting harmful comments and rumors about each other. Richardson says that incivility is part of Web culture. Teachers need to show their students that there are guidelines of civil discourse on the Internet, just like there is in the real world. The rules of civility in the classroom are the same rules of civility that should be used on the Internet. She wants teachers to teach their students that with “push-button publishing” then need to use reflection and self-restraint. They should talk about ideas instead of people and getting personal with their comments. Teachers need to create a comfortable and safe environment for their students to feel like they can discuss without the fear of being attacked. One thing Richardson mentions is the rule about “don’t feed the trolls.” You’re supposed to ignore the posters that are being very negative and trying to start trouble. If you don’t respond to them and pretend like their comment was never made, then the troll will have a difficult time starting the trouble they were hoping to start.


I think teaching civil discourse on the Internet is very important. First, you want to make sure your students will feel comfortable when the class is using things like blogs and discussion boards. If they are afraid that they will be attacked by fellow classmates, they may be reluctant to post, and that could have an impact on their grade and learning experience. Second, these guidelines could be very important outside of class, as well, in helping to try and create young people that are more civil to each other than the adults are who re using the Internet now and who are running our society. People seem to feel like it’s okay to be a total jerk to someone as long as they are posting their comments on the Internet. In my opinion, they seem to forget what effects they have on fellow human beings and lose sight of the fact they're talking to a real human being, not a cumputer. You could hope that civil discourse instruction in the classroom would translate outside the classroom. You hear a lot about, I think it is called cyber bullying, where young kids get extremely hurt by what their peers say and do to them on the Internet. Some kids end up trying to harm themselves, and some succeed. Obviously that won’t stop just by teaching civil discourse guidelines for the Internet, but it should at least make you’re Internet classroom environment safe, and maybe it will enlighten some kids.