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This week we had a wonderful presenter in my Internet for Educators class named Alec Couros. He talked about the great things the internet can provide us with but he briefly mentioned how there is also a negative side to the internet, this is going to the topic for my blog today.
We have all heard about those internet sites that dedicate their web space to the demoralizing of people (thedirty.com), where they get their users to make insensitive remarks about someone they don't know. They often function so that if you, as a user, want your post to be viewed along side the victims picture, it has to be crude enough to make it there. These sites sound scary and we have to hope that our students or ourselves never make it on them. They have been known to cost people their friends, jobs and even their lives. There are plenty of stories we hear about this stuff on the news and we constantly wonder how can this happen?How can people post these things about people they don't even know and not be prosecuted for defamation of character? Well I don' know, but I think they should.
Another scary thought is that it doesn't take sites like thedirty.com to affect someone's life via jobs, friends and their mental state. People can post negative things on walls on Facebook or send insensitive tweets. Aside form this, something more of us are familiar with, is those not so tasteful pictures at a party or bar that get uploaded on facebook. These photos could cost us our career if the wrong person got a hold of them. To top it off, students have gotten this idea that sexting is an okay practice.
So what should we do about this?
So what do we do about it? Please comment and let me know your thoughts and I'll share mine.
I teach early years, and when I was in a grade 4 classroom, I would say about half of the children were using social media, and at least a quarter of the class had their own cellphone. The majority had iPod touches, but they were allowed to bring them because the classroom teacher was the tech guy for the school. He allowed it because he saw the benefits of it. He did have one rule however, and it was that they did not use Facebook in class due to a bully issue that happened over facebook in the school. Other than that, fair game (except during quizzes or reading time).
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great post because it is something that I feel strongly about, and that is teaching students their ethical responsibilities online. I think that as educators, we need to start teaching students about things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the list goes on. We need to teach them, the proper uses, the dangers, and the ethics for these social networks. If we're not the ones teaching them this, then where are they gonna learn proper use from? Their friends? I believe that is exactly why students mis-use these sites, because they were never taught about them! They just learnt from their peers and figured it out as they went....we need to step in!!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with both of you, for one we need to let students use technology in the classroom. this teaches the students appropriate uses of technology.. also it allows us, as teachers, a medium to start a conversation about the dangers of disclosing certain information online. I think many students are left to learn about the internet on their own and can't get this guidance from home because many parents know very little about the the real dangers of social networking. Because of these things, I think that by talking about these topics in class, when issues come up, media initiates it or you have some spare time will give the students the information but also give them someone to talk to if they need. Talking about this can be a challenge as most students will have the idea that it won't happen to more but by giving examples that"hit close to home" and real concrete guidelines to the do's and don'ts , with reasons why should reach most students.
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