Internet Safety Project - Part 1

When I started working on this project, I was surprised by how many good online resources there are for parents to learn about internet safety in the context of helping their children.  I was also surprised by how easy it seemed for kids to get around most of the filters set up by less tech-savvy adults.  In many ways, today's kids really are living in a different world from their parents or even from many of us twenty-something-year-olds.

I spent found a lot of useful information on the netsmartz.org page for parents.  It had a lot of useful information good tips about dealing with particular internet safety issues such as cyberbullying, phishing, online gaming and such.  I especially liked the sections that had conversation starting questions that you could use with your children to help bring up these topics in a non-threatening way.

http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents

I also spent some time watching the PBS Frontline documentary "Growing up Online."  The documentary described in depth just how much the internet is a part of the growing generation.  They use computers for recreation, for work, and for an increasingly dominant part of their social interactions.  I didn't realize how real this online life was for them.  Some of this undoubtedly stems from how I was raised (no private email account, no Facebook, no chat rooms, etc.).  It helped make me aware of how real this all is for kids, and how much things online can affect them.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/

I liked the videos on the ikeepsafe.org site.  They were age-appropriate kid-friendly introductions to many basic internet safety practices.  The animated videos did a good job showing how divulging information in chat rooms and carelessly downloading internet content (especially pirated content such as movies or music) can easily result in viruses or other negative consequences.  They were fun and informative.  I may use them for teaching my own kids both at home and in the classroom.

http://www.ikeepsafe.org/for-educators/fauxpaw/

To answer a couple of the questions posed in this assignment:

1) How will what I have read influence my actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth?

    Kids are getting increasingly skilled at collecting and collating large amounts of digital data using all sorts of technology.  They know exactly where to go and how to search to find the answers to every one of the questions we assign them in class, and they know how to find summaries and reviews for every book or paper we could probably give them.  We can either look at this as a danger to their education by assuming that using this information is a form of cheating, or we can recognize the enormous potential these kids have of discovering material for themselves.

    I want to encourage the use of technology for helping my students solve problems.  If I can get them to actively look for solutions and help online, then I may be able to teach more complex, applicable topics and help them grow more from it.  They may think that they are just following the path of least resistance to get a good grade, but they are actually developing skills that they will use throughout their lives: how to find solutions to your own problems by collaborating with others and knowing where to hunt for the answer.

    That said, I will also need to monitor the sources that they do use.  There are dangerous or inappropriate places to find information as well (chat rooms, some questionable forums, etc.) that could easily lead kids to divulging important information or get them involved in what they should not be.  As a teacher, I have little control over what kids search outside of school, but as a parent, I can monitor my children's computer usage and make sure that they really are searching for an equation for physics and not something harmful.

4) Am I aware of the benefits and dangers children face when online with cyber bullying and online predators?  Do I know how to prevent cyberbullying?

    I had read some about cyberbullying prior to this assignment, but I guess I didn't take it seriously before.  I assumed that children would be able to easily distinguish between the real world and the artificial one they visited online.  After reading and watching some of the posts in this assignment, however, I have started to see what a real problem this can be.  Bullying is nothing new, but the idea that kids can take this home with them in the form of online interaction was surprising to me.  I didn't know that so many kids consider their online life at least as real as their non-digital interactions.  To help fix this, I will probably have my kids use generic accounts shared with the rest of the family, ones that I have access to and will check periodically.  I will hopefully be able to see quickly if any of my children are falling into this trap and head it off by blocking offenders and talking with my child to help them through the issue.