Social Networking

Last week I was invited to talk with a group of 3rd and 4th graders, ages 9 and 10, about internet safety. I've been doing talks to various classes and groups of students for almost four years now and my approach has changed over this time. I don't focus so much on the scary stuff, like a bad person meeting you offline and abusing you. I deal more with social responsibility issues, and the importance of maintaining control over your accounts and passwords.

This particular class had 18 students in it. They live in a middle class community, so it was not strange to find that 17 of the 18 reported having the internet at home. Of this 17 students, 14 reported that they are allowed to use the internet unsupervised by an older brother or sister or by an adult. I was very surprised to discover that 7 of them have a computer in their bedroom, with unsupervised access and that many of them use webcams to talk with friends as well as relatives. Five of the students said they have Facebook accounts ... and, of course, none of them are 13 or older.

We did talk for sometime about the importance of passwords and keeping them secure. Some had stories of MSN accounts being misused (not by them, but by people they knew) to send bad messages. Some of the activities I did with them pointed out things they still do not know or understand (such as identifying a good person to be a friend on the net based on an audio or textural clue). Recognizing that there are a lot of situations that can be presented to them that don't allow them to clearly understand who they are chatting or messaging with, they just didn't get.

I was very pleased that the teacher in the class took notes during the session and has followed up with parents on some of my thoughts about how to not only be safe online, but also the importance of being socially responsible, keeping themselves from internet bullying activities, and reporting things that just don't seem to be right online.

It only takes one

On Friday I was working with some students talking with them about internet safety and presenting some scenarios to them regarding passwords and disclosure of personal information. With one group of grade 5 and 6s I let them know that I had visited their PICZO sites and they were surprised by that. It confirmed my belief that many students do not realize how public the web is and the tracks they leave behind for others to follow.

Just before the end of the day, one boy came to me to say thanks for bringing this forward. He had recently been "featured" on a boy of the month page and his picture had been posted their without his permission. Both complimentary and uncomplimentary things had been said about him on this page. He was able to talk to the author of the page and let her know how he felt about this. She apologized and said that she would remove the page that night.

It takes only one event like this to make me feel good about a day of workshops with kids.

Teach good decision making

In her Tech for Learning Blog, Cheryl Oakes writes:

"We need to give our students permission to make good decisions. We need to help them build those guidelines to make those good decisions."

She makes this quote in the context of online discussion leading to offline meetings. I have had many similar experiences as the one she posts about in this article. I've travelled to California and to other states to meet people I have only otherwise met online and it has always been a postivie experience.

I attempt to incorporate these ideas into the internet safety lessons I deliver to students, but I get these kids on that topic for less than an hour. I encourage teachers to do as Cheryl suggests and find ways to teach good decision making.

Thin Edge of the Wedge?

I am a firm believer that students need to learn to use the Web 2.0 tools that are available to them in a constructive and ethical manner. I also teach internet safety to students, teachers and parents. I am opposed to blocking sites where students can read or post blogs, podcasts, and videos. I'm fortunate to work in a school district that understands my point of view. When things happen as a result of a YouTube posting, instead of a knee jerk reaction to block the site, we try to look at the episode as a "teachable moment" or as an incident that requires alternative discipline measures. So far, that has worked and the site has remained open.

In the course of my recent classroom discussions with elementary school students regarding keeping safe on line, protecting passwords, not discolsing personal information, etc. a number of students have offered to show their website creation work on the service Piczo. Quite frankly, I was alarmed at some of the information being disclosed, the personal identifiers, the photos, both fun and risque. The interchange in the chat/feedback areas with hurtful language. The pages for voting on what kids are hot and who are losers. And, the linking that takes place on these sites, the web of sites one can visit just by having access to one student's page. I don't think a lot of these students clearly understand how visible and public their spaces are.

Although I can make the case to open up website development opportunities for students to create and share, I see no redeeming value in using Piczo as a service to do that. I think it is causing more harm in our classrooms than good from sites that the students create at home.

The wedge has been placed under my values and beliefs about modern day computing and while I don't like it, I have taken the steps necessary to block the site, and its derivatives, from access within our district network.

And, once the block was in place we recorded over a hundered attempts to access the domain. At 1:30 pm. On a school day. What's wrong with this picture?

One thing I have learned this week is that I need to go beyond my plan to teach effective and ethical use of the web tools, but to also take a more indepth look at what students in my district are actually producing from the comfort of home.