Staying Safe

Last week I took a quick poll in my classroom. I asked several questions about internet safety and they answered by a show of hands. I asked if they used their full name on the internet, none raised their hands. So I followed that up with do you put your address on the internet, none raised their hands. My last question was if they put photos on the internet, again…no one raised a hand. Surprised by the answers, I asked them “why you are lying to me?” They looked at me like I was crazy. A few started to make comments like, “Miss Rioux, why would we share that on the internet? That’s how bad stuff happened to kids.” It was clear to me they knew they weren’t supposed to share private information on the internet, which lead me to my last question….Do you not consider facebook the internet? The looks my students had on their faces were priceless.  Students began to realize how much information is truly on facebook and how easily piece of their life could be put together.  Most of them use their full names in profiles…it was interesting to find that some students did use their middle names instead of a last name. While none of them post a physical mailing a dress, most of them use the “check in” section for place they were at in real time. And all of them had many photos on their page. As we discussed how quickly all of those pieces could come together, I believe my student became much more aware of what they should and shouldn’t (and how often) post on the internet. I also explained to them how to set security setting in facebook because so many of them didn’t know how! However I did remind them that no matter the setting someone could always hack their page! Facebook is a great tool for communication that these students are going to use no matter what, it’s our job to teach them how to be safe about it!

I truly enjoyed the safety discussion we had in my classroom because it became an open forum to discuss ways to be safe, going beyond just telling them what not to do.  As we were starting our own social network, I wanted to make sure how important their safety was to me and their parents.

With our PeriodicNetwork, students are personifying an element. Every student has a different element. I am asking student to compile information for their “profile.” Trying to get students understand that you can’t just take something from the internet and paste it in to your profile wasn’t easy. Luckily pbworks has a button on every page check for plagiarism really helped them understand that cutting and pasting wouldn’t work. What this generation seems to be struggling with is motivation to do their own work, after all there is plenty out there now for them to just copy.