Trading Classroom authority for online community

Should Teachers Allow Students Access to Internet in Classrooms
Why Kids in Classrooms Today Do Not Need Any More Wild West in Them: “Trading Classroom Authority for Online Community” is a Bad Idea
As Rorabaugh notes, the Internet has evolved from a once “primitive” place to a kind of digital Wild West. To maneuver one’s way through the digital world, one must be able to navigate platforms and forums, where civility is often lacking and where shocking surprises always await. Some see this as a danger and two hundred years ago they likely would have been the same ones warning others not to venture to the frontier or try to tackle the Wild West. Yet, as Perkins-Gough, Tough and Domhardt et al. all point out, children cannot succeed—academically or professionally—without developing grit, resilience, and determination. Rorabaugh’s argument is that bringing the Internet into the classroom and allowing students to engage in self-directed learning can help to build that grit, resilience and determination as it allows them room to spread their wings in a controlled environment (under their teacher’s eyes) and begin sifting and sorting through information online, using their own powers of deduction to determine where to go next on the journey for answers. Rorabaugh states that it encourages active participation rather than passive reception of information from a teacher. With the Internet, students are like sleuths in a digital Wild West, and giving them that opportunity is like giving them training in simulated combat: they are on the “front lines” of the information war and must put on their critical thinking caps if they want to come out “alive.” That is the point Rorabaugh makes repeatedly in his article on why the classroom could benefit from a bit more Internet. The problem with this is that while, yes, kids do need to develop grit and resilience as other researchers have noted, they also are very vulnerable to misinformation and still require a great deal of guidance. Even Dante the poet had a guide in Virgil when he traveled through Hell.
Rorabaugh’s argument rests on the notion that too much submission to authority in the classroom can make kids soft and far too pliable. It can cause them to spend their whole lives looking for others to tell them what to think, to give them the answers to memorize, and to direct them throughout their careers. Even Tough and Perkins-Gough would agree with that: Teachers who do not challenge students to be active learners and to take ownership of their education are failing to give them the one thing they need most—an opportunity to develop grit.
However, there is more to receiving an education than simply tossing access to information to students like raw steak to a bunch of dogs. There has to be some guidance and some consideration given to how these students will approach information, how they will interact with it, and how they will form their convictions. Teachers are not just life guards, sitting on the edge of the learning experience, watching with a whistle in case someone goes down. They are active participants in the educative process, too, and their role is critical to the success of the student.
Self-directed learning is a great idea for students who have the discipline, grit, determination, wherewithal and presence of mind to be that kind of student. However, many students do not have that same drive, initiative or even ability to know how to direct themselves or what they are interested in. Given the choice of what to consume in the digital environment, they might wander into the nearest digital saloon (to extend the Wild West metaphor) and begin passing the day playing digital cards and downing digital whiskey. How is that going to help them to develop grit and resilience?
The digital world does offer opportunities for learning in a controlled environment—there is no question about that. But to fully take advantage of those opportunities students need to already be formed and developed: they should already possess the grit and determination needed. Two hundred years ago, no one would have taken a classroom full of students to the frontier, dropped them off, and then said, “Okay, now survive.” But that is basically what teachers who give their kids free reign to the Internet in the classroom are doing in the 21st century. Kids are not adults and do not have the same discipline that adults have. Their curiosity is abundant and not exactly moderated by temperance. That is why teachers need to be there to pump the brakes and to keep everyone on the right track. A brief visit to the frontier may be acceptable, with a proper tour guide—but dropping the kids off on the frontier for days, weeks or months is inviting a catastrophe for education.
At higher levels of education, such as college, online learning has grown in popularity because it allows learners to overcome space and time obstacles. Adult learners know that they need a degree if they want to be successful in the world—and so they are willing to be disciplined and to use the online learning environment as a way to reach that goal. Students in primary and secondary education are more likely to see Internet time in the classroom as free time—a way to escape from the teacher for an hour or two; a way to have fun and goof around. It is like digital recess.
Can the Internet be useful? Yes, it can—but kids need guides, and self-directed learning should not be something that a teacher can expect all students to engage in. Teachers should be very careful about how they introduce students to the digital Wild West that is the Internet. There is a lot that goes on there, and students may come away from it the worse for wear.

Works Cited
Domhardt, Matthias, et al. "Resilience in survivors of child sexual abuse: A systematic
review of the literature." Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 16.4 (2015): 476-493.
Perkins-Gough, Deborah. "The significance of grit: A conversation with Angela Lee
Duckworth." Educational Leadership 71.1 (2013): 14-20.
Rorabaugh, Pete. “Trading Classroom Authority for Online Community.” Hybrid
Pedagogy, 5 Jan 2012. https://hybridpedagogy.org/trading-classroom-authority-for-online-community/
Tough, Paul. How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.