It\'s not your Fathers Internet by Larry MagidI recently finished my internet safety presentation the parents at my middle school. One of the things that kept bothering my was I felt that I was telling them all about the dangers of social networking but in my heart I love social networking. I think social networking has a mix of both positive effects and negative effects on students. It is finding our way through the mess that is the problem. Often our kids know more about it than the parents.
Larry Magid created a great video that he posted on YouTube that is really interesting.
What are the kids doing on their computers typing away all night?? I have always worried about my students online but I also want to encourage them to use technology and stay up to date. In my opinion there are a lot of things online that are very dangerous for kids and adults to be using. However lately I have found a bunch of places that are really interesting and have the safety of kids in mind. This post will deal with the dangers of social networking. My next will discuss some of the more appropriate sites for teens.
Myspace is the big evil at my school. I have created an online character which is an 8th grade girl. I notified the school police officer and the school principal of my actions so that I would not lose my job. My plan was not to entrap any students but to see how many kids would accept a complete stranger as a friend. I have about 50 middle and high school friends on my MySpace account. It was very eye opening how many kids just accepted me not having a clue who I am. After a year of this test run I have shared my experiment with my studnets. I think it helped. Many of them were worried if they had accepted me as their friend and several went home and cleared out their unknow friends.
Another problem that we see in our school is when MySpace is used for cyberbulling. Kids will create a MySpace account dedicated to trashing another persons reputation and to share hate with the world. For example an account name might me “Joe Smith is a loser” Trust me the names are much more hurtful than that. Then this site is used to say terrible things about Joe Smith and everyone joins in . Some to support the victim and more to add hate comments directed at Joe Smith. It can get really nasty and extremely painful to the victim.
What I share with my students is that MySpace does not look out for teens and children. It has many features and applications witch encourage kids to share information that should not be public knowledge. The Stranger Danger lesson that my 4 and 6 year olds learn in their school needs to be extended to online strangers as well.
Facebook is another very popular social networking site that is used more with the college students but I see it moving into the high school and recently I have seen several middle school kids using it. One key difference between Facebook and Myspace is that only your accepted friends can see your site. So unless the kids accept you as a friend you can not view there information. Myspace allows you to set your site as private but many middle school kids ignore this option. MySpace allows you to use any name such as “Joe Smith is a loser” while you have to use a name on Facebook. In my opinion Facebook is still not acceptable to a middle school student.
Whether a parent or a student we need to be aware of what we are sharing and who has access to it. Some people are dangerous and some are just “fishermen” who are just fishing for more information to hack sites, accounts, and passwords. Recently VP nominee Sarah Palins Yahoo account was hacked because she gave out the answers to her password safety questions in a speech. They were her High School and where she met her husband.
Sharing technology with middle school students can be a controversial endevour. There are varying ideas as to what kids should be able to do and not be able to do on the internet.
The internet is full of fun and exciting things. I can spend hours searching the net for the most random things. Timeshares, LCD Screen cords, Disney pins, jewlery making classes you get the picture right. I often find some really neat things and want to share them with my students. The problem is not every cool thing you find is designed or marketed to a middle school student.
I recently started using Google with my 8th graders. There are so many cool things that would really get the kids excited about learning. However it also gives them access to somethings that are not allowed in our school. IGOOGLE is a great way to customize your home page. However some of the gagets that my kids found are not totally for middle school kids. The next thing we did was GMAIL. Kids all signed up and learned how to attach a file to send work to and from home. However anyone that you email that has GMAIL is also included in the side a chat feature. It takes me about a week to notice this feature. It takes the average 8th grader about 4 minutes to sniff out this feature.
I find myself checking my email and voice mail a lot right after introducing new things to my students. Parents have different views on the internet so far so good. I have not ruffled any feathers. I am sure that will not last forever. However I think that the possible negatives are far outweighed by the postitives when sharing technology with kids.
I recently saw this video and it really motivated me in my planning for next year. It really hit home that we literally ask our students to power down when the enter school. Let me know your thoughts on this.
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