Social networks have far reaching effects on students, at home and school, have been a concern of parents and educators since the phenomena has taken hold. Mastodon is structured in such a way that it could be an important tool in educating youth in the appropriate and healthy use of social networking by creating a walled garden inside the Fediverse that cultures young internet citizens.
To that end I envision a stand-alone appliance that can be brought into the classroom as a education and discussion tool about the physical reality of social networking, that your data is always somewhere real. It allows for discussion about who owns data and why young people should be actively managing the exposure of their identity though any digital means.
The Appliance
The appliance is a small computer and attached storage that are self-hosted instances of various federated platforms that would a classroom administrator would like to explore or find useful. The default suite could be Mastodon based, backed with Peertube for content hosting, along with software and tools for management, user signup, connecting instances, etc.
These internet connected appliances would use existing communications network technology to safely and securely federate with other education appliances. Opportunities to engage and connect with other classrooms around the world and within the school would be the primary benefit of the appliance. The secondary objective would be to provide classroom time to instilling the ideas of being good internet stewards, and the importance of authenticity in real world social networking. All of this can be done utilizing the full benefits of the decentralized model, by which a group of instances can interact and collaborate in a walled garden version of the greater Fediverse, an Eduverse perhaps. Student profiles could be migrated with the student as they advance through school and upon graduation provided to them so they can integrate it with whatever social networking tool they prefer.
Direct Benefits
- Safe, moderated environment for learning online social skills
- Moderated on a local level
- Easily connects to other classroom appliances
- No advertising or user data collected without explicit permissions.
- Private storage for classroom digital assets (Classroom videos, pictures, and projects)
Conclusion
Social skills in the 21st century must include an awareness and comfortableness in the online realm while still valuing privacy and intellectual property. A class room tool as described would be a huge part of providing affordable solution that limits liability of the school, minimizes administration duties, and keeps students and teacher connected.
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