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Friday, March 21, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
Internet Safety Guidelines
Digital citizenship and Internet safety are two topics gaining widespread attention inside and outside of the classroom. With our current generation of students being the first to grow up with the Internet, ensuring that they know how to safely interact online is imperative to supporting their socialization and overall well-being. As educators, we share this responsibility with parents due to the ubiquity and mobility of Internet-based technologies. This responsibility is intensified as classroom pedagogy continues to include accessing various Web 2.0 tools on both school and student-owned computing devices. So, how do we as educators support computer-mediated classroom learning while ensuring that our students remain safe online?
Teaching self-regulation is imperative. According to Common Sense Media, “Young teens don’t yet have an ‘off’ switch in their brains. That means that they often act impulsively. This lack of impulse control combined with online anonymity could lead [students] toward dangerous behaviors: cyberbullying, inappropriate photo or video uploads, illegal downloads, meeting strangers -- even cheating.”
While parents have primary responsibility for supporting this cognitive development at home, teachers still play an integral role in doing the same at school. One way to begin this process in the classroom is helping students to set personal boundaries for online use. In an article titled, “The Teacher’s Guide to Keeping Students Safe Online” published on Edudemic, Jeff Dunn suggests that teachers, “Walk your students through hypothetical situations and ask them to set their boundaries and tolerance levels.” Dunn goes on to rationalize this instructional approach saying, “They can’t defend their boundaries unless they know where they stand.”
To help adolescents and teens develop a conceptual understanding of boundaries in the context of appropriate Internet use, maintaining a relationship of open discourse is key. iSafe.org encourages parents to communicate with their children about their online experiences, stating, “There is no better tool to bridge the Digital Divide.” Additionally, the e-Safety organization recommends that parents “Talk to your child about online dangers. Let them know you are there to help them get out of a bad situation.” Though directed at home use, these practices can easily be transferred to classroom expectations as well.
Nevertheless, we must understand that digital citizenship and Internet safety education aren’t solely the results of adult-intervention. Though this constant support is critical in helping our children and students to safely navigate the digital landscape, many teens are effectively doing this themselves. As a report created by the Family Online Safety Institute reveals, “Teens are taking many steps to protect their privacy and information online, particularly when it comes to the use of social networking sites.” The report titled, “The Online Generation Gap: Contrasting attitudes and behaviors of parents and teens” points out that that “Large proportions of teens say they have set privacy settings on their social networking account (81%), placed limits on who they share their posts with (65%), removed a tagged photo (54%), blocked someone from seeing posts (52%), unfriended someone due to an offensive post (50%), or marked a comment as ‘private (49%) .”
As the Internet and mobile technologies continue to pervade the classroom and all areas of students’ lives, it is crucial that the adults around them create a support system for safe Internet use. In the classroom, this begins by establishing an environment where students feel safe talking openly about their online lives with their interests, questions, and concerns. Once students realize that their teachers see their digital existences not as a waste of time, but as an extension of their identities and relationships with the world, then a positive relationship can be leveraged to further enhance the positive decisions regarding online interactions that students are already making.
Resources:
Dunn, J. (2011, October 24). The teacher’s guide to keeping students safe online. Edudemic. Retrieved from: http://www.edudemic.com/student-online-safety-guide/.
Heart Research Associates. (2012, November 14). The online generation gap: contrasting attitudes and behaviors of parents and teens. Family Online Safety Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.fosi.org/images/stories/research/hart-report-executive-summary-online.pdf.
Knorr, C. (2012, March 19). Internet safety tips for middle school kids. CommonSenseMedia. Retrieved from: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/internet-safety-tips-for-middle-school-kids.
(n.d.) Internet safety tips for students and parents. iSafe. Retrieved from: http://www.isafe.org/outreach/media/media_tips.
Teaching self-regulation is imperative. According to Common Sense Media, “Young teens don’t yet have an ‘off’ switch in their brains. That means that they often act impulsively. This lack of impulse control combined with online anonymity could lead [students] toward dangerous behaviors: cyberbullying, inappropriate photo or video uploads, illegal downloads, meeting strangers -- even cheating.”
While parents have primary responsibility for supporting this cognitive development at home, teachers still play an integral role in doing the same at school. One way to begin this process in the classroom is helping students to set personal boundaries for online use. In an article titled, “The Teacher’s Guide to Keeping Students Safe Online” published on Edudemic, Jeff Dunn suggests that teachers, “Walk your students through hypothetical situations and ask them to set their boundaries and tolerance levels.” Dunn goes on to rationalize this instructional approach saying, “They can’t defend their boundaries unless they know where they stand.”
To help adolescents and teens develop a conceptual understanding of boundaries in the context of appropriate Internet use, maintaining a relationship of open discourse is key. iSafe.org encourages parents to communicate with their children about their online experiences, stating, “There is no better tool to bridge the Digital Divide.” Additionally, the e-Safety organization recommends that parents “Talk to your child about online dangers. Let them know you are there to help them get out of a bad situation.” Though directed at home use, these practices can easily be transferred to classroom expectations as well.
Nevertheless, we must understand that digital citizenship and Internet safety education aren’t solely the results of adult-intervention. Though this constant support is critical in helping our children and students to safely navigate the digital landscape, many teens are effectively doing this themselves. As a report created by the Family Online Safety Institute reveals, “Teens are taking many steps to protect their privacy and information online, particularly when it comes to the use of social networking sites.” The report titled, “The Online Generation Gap: Contrasting attitudes and behaviors of parents and teens” points out that that “Large proportions of teens say they have set privacy settings on their social networking account (81%), placed limits on who they share their posts with (65%), removed a tagged photo (54%), blocked someone from seeing posts (52%), unfriended someone due to an offensive post (50%), or marked a comment as ‘private (49%) .”
As the Internet and mobile technologies continue to pervade the classroom and all areas of students’ lives, it is crucial that the adults around them create a support system for safe Internet use. In the classroom, this begins by establishing an environment where students feel safe talking openly about their online lives with their interests, questions, and concerns. Once students realize that their teachers see their digital existences not as a waste of time, but as an extension of their identities and relationships with the world, then a positive relationship can be leveraged to further enhance the positive decisions regarding online interactions that students are already making.
Resources:
Dunn, J. (2011, October 24). The teacher’s guide to keeping students safe online. Edudemic. Retrieved from: http://www.edudemic.com/student-online-safety-guide/.
Heart Research Associates. (2012, November 14). The online generation gap: contrasting attitudes and behaviors of parents and teens. Family Online Safety Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.fosi.org/images/stories/research/hart-report-executive-summary-online.pdf.
Knorr, C. (2012, March 19). Internet safety tips for middle school kids. CommonSenseMedia. Retrieved from: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/internet-safety-tips-for-middle-school-kids.
(n.d.) Internet safety tips for students and parents. iSafe. Retrieved from: http://www.isafe.org/outreach/media/media_tips.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
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