I was surprised at how much I learned in the course of this class. I thought I knew quite a bit about these topics, and while I did not learn more about the topics themselves, I learned a lot of great resources to use to more effectively teach about online safety with my students. The best resource that I was exposed to in this class is NetSmartz.org. There are a TON of great, engaging ways of teaching about all of the topics in this course. The only things that were not useful to me were the elementary resources provided, but only because I teach secondary, and there were plenty of great secondary resources provided. The hardest part of this class was completing both a reflection and a discussion each week. I felt like they overlapped quite a bit and it was hard to come up with something different to say for each assignment.
Both cyber-bullying and sexting are very serious subjects. The convenience and perceived anonymity of today's technologies has bred new ways of hurting others and one's self. The permanency of the internet makes it very important to be very careful of what we post online. The resources that I think are most valuable to share with my students are: Common Forms of Cyberbullying The story of Mike in the following tip sheet: Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism are big concerns in education, particularly with the vast amounts of created works that are available on the internet. It is very important for students to understand how to cite properly and that they "buy in" to the importance of citing ALL sources. A couple of resources that will help teach students about this topic are: http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf
There are so many different social media platforms available for use in the world. If educators want to stay relevant in today's world they need to know about the things that are out there for use. It is really cool to see how teachers are using social media in their classrooms. A great resource for seeing how educators are incorporating social media in the classroom can be found at: Not only students appreciate it when teachers are using social media. Parents also enjoy seeing what is going on in the classroom and celebrating their child's successes on a platform that they are already using personally.
Social media can also be a great way to network and engage in professional learning communities. I have gained a lot from joining a Facebook group for Family and Consumer Sciences teachers. Social media provides an easy way to share ideas and successes or failures and gain insight into what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. Social media is a great way to keep in touch with people that you do not see regularly. Or to get to know people in a way that you don't usually see (i.e. seeing into the personal lives of coworkers). But it can be scary if you are not careful about what you post, who you "friend" or allow access to your profile, or how you set your privacy settings.
There are many social networking apps that I had not previously known about (Yik Yak, Wickr, Chatroulette, Omegle, and Whisper). None of which I would want my kids to use. It is really important as a parent and teacher to stay on top of what social networking sites and apps my students are using so I can help them be aware of the potential dangers. Along with warning of the dangers, I think it is also important to showcase positives where there are positives. If I don't my students will likely ignore my guidance thinking I'm just another adult trying to tell them the "evils" of everything fun. I chose Snapchat as the social networking app to review because it is one that I know my student are using, but I know very little about. This is what I have learned:
Positive Uses of Snapchat
Negative Uses of Snapchat
While there is one blog that says you could use the "Stories" feature of the app to collect a timeline of projects or a "day in the life of..." I don't recommend Snapchat for educational purposes. There are other tools that you could use to collect a timeline of images for, and even posts on "Stories" disappear after 24 hours making it hard to evaluate. I can see the draw of this app for my students. Sending silly pictures back and forth can be fun. However, I don't see any personal or professional applications of this app for me. As long as it is used in an appropriate way and kids are careful about who knows their username it is a fun app for tweens and teens. Here is a link to learn more about Snapchat. It is scary to think about all of the information that is available about a person through a simple search online. Unless we are being very diligent about always checking (and periodically rechecking) privacy settings, only "friend-ing" people we know in the real world, and never posting anything that we don't mind anyone in the world knowing; we will not know what people are finding about us.
I love the resources found at Netsmartz for teaching middle school students about being safe online. The consequences of posting negative or unprofessional content online can be devastating. It is really important to think about what you are posting before you hit submit. It would be a good idea to wait 10 minutes or so before posting to make sure you are not posting in the heat of the moment. The following video makes this point vividly: |
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