How might we prepare students for a life of mass-sharing?
I think it's important to give students the necessary skills to share responsibly, effectively, positively and safely. Teachers can model sharing with students by starting the year off with teacher-student shared document that could be used as a journal or notebook. Having many opportunities for students to work collaboratively online using various applications let's them practice their skills. Reflecting as a class on what worked well, what didn't and how to improve the next time will empower students to think about how they can be more effective when working within an online community.
I think students will, and in many cases already have, easily translated their group skills to online forums. Many kids play multi-player online games and IM regularly. We probably only need to teach them the finer details in diplomacy, negotiation and basic manners.
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I would also add "teach them to use these tools to empower themselves" to your last sentence. Students definitely know how to entertain themselves, but the power of these tools is very McLuhanesque. McLuhan accurately posited in the 1950's that from the main forms of communication in a society come the influencing structures for the institutions in that society. That's what he meant when he said, "The meaning is the message." It's our role to ensure students are functionally literate in these forms of communication.
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