LET.IT Happen!

Over the past few weeks I have had the privilege and opportunity to participate in several thought-provoking and engaging discussions with parents in our school community surrounding the concern of Internet Safety and their children. After reflecting on these conversations, I have decided to republish a post that I wrote months ago in response to the PBS Frontline Special: Growing Up Online. I encourage you to read, watch the program (either in its entirety or just the areas of interest to you) and then respond via commenting on this blog post below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feelings surrounding this vitally important topic.

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I have compiled the following list of resources for the Trinity School Parent Community in alignment with the Internet Safety Parent Seminar that I facilitated on October 23^rd, 2008. Below you will find direct links to the most informative and valuable online Internet Safety Resources I found throughout my extensive research on the topic. If you have any questions about the seminar, the resources below or Internet Safety, please feel free to contact me.

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I don’t know if anyone else had the opportunity to watch PBS’s FrontLine Special: Growing Up Online that aired on Jan. 22, 2008. If you missed it, I strongly urge you to take the time and watch it. You can watch the full program online here.

The program is phenomenal. That’s the only word I can think of to describe the way it hit me. It really opens your eyes as to what is happening out there in our students’ daily lives. The stories/chapters within the program truly amplify just how “out of touch” we are as, so called, “digital immigrants.” It blatantly points out the huge generation gap that continues to exist between adults and children growing up in this era.

So I wonder – how do we protect ourselves? our students? our children? But more importantly, how do we prepare them to live in an online world where there are no true “boundaries” or “rules”?

With all the activity happening online there are no immediate consequences to one’s actions. Kids will say things online that they will not say to a person’s face, for instance insults and threatening remarks. People will post pictures somewhere online for everyone to see that they would never show in real life. We ask ourselves why? One answer may be clear, we have inhibitions for a reason. There are certain places and situations where we should not tell dirty jokes, there are things that you do not allow others to see. However, the internet and online social networking permits and even encourages people to engage in what we have been taught not to do. People can talk nasty and dirty without knowing the hurt they caused by seeing the look on the other person’s face, or getting “red-faced” themselves. Knowing when it’s appropriate to cut into a conversation or when to just listen; knowing what you can say to your best friend verses what you can say to someone you hardly know are all social skills that are developed in “real-life” – face to face – society. The internet makes bullying, insulting, threatening, and picking on or making fun of someone easy to do. Yet, these same acts are very hard to do in person. Therefore, kids are turning to cyber space to engage in these hurtful, disruptive acts.

My questions still remain the same. What now? How do we prepare our students, children and each other to live “protected” and “safe” in an online world?

I know we (the “digital immigrants” – both parents and educators) need to embrace the tools that they (the “digital natives”) are using; including social networking sites (myspace.com/Facebook), blogs, wikis, IM, etc… I have never denied that fact. The first steps is to embrace these tools and utilize them in the classroom and to our advantage, yes, but what are the next steps?

What about preparing our students/children to deal with the “dark side” of being online and clickable? How do we prepare “the future” to handle negative, but impactful, situations online? How do we teach ourselves and our students to live in a society where these factors are fundamentally a way of life?

I am currently taking part in an online professional development course offered by CyberSmart!. During the second week of the course, we were given the opportunity to explore issues related to privacy and safety by watching video clips of experts in their CyberSmart! Knowledgebase.

I watched a number of video clips interviewing Bill Modzeleski and Dr. Ted Feinberg about cyber bullying and the responsibility of educators concerning online safety. Bill Modzeleski is the Associate Deputy Under Secretary for the U. S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Dr. Feinberg is the Assistant Executive Director for the National Association of School Psychologists.

They both define what cyber bullying is, characteristics of cyber-bullies and their victims, and how it differs from the traditional face-to-face bullying we are accustomed to seeing in schools. They also provide their views and opinions on what can be done by educators and the community to help address the issues and concerns about online safety.

On the question of how we can address our concerns about online safety without “closing the door” to online learning opportunities, Bill Modzeleski makes a solid point by saying:  “The balancing act is to protect our kids without going so far overboard and we’re so protective that we don’t allow our children to engage in the effective use of the cyberspace tools that we have.”

I feel this is a very powerful statement and completely agree with his point of view. I have often found myself making this point to fellow teachers and to parents inside and outside of my classroom. Everyone’s gut instinct is to “shut it down” when they hit a “bump in the road”. Simply denying our students access to these online learning tools is not going to protect them, but rather hurt them in the long run. Instead of “shutting it down” we should be teaching them how to deal with cyber-bullys or inappropriate things that may occur while utilizing the internet and all the tools it makes available to us. The more we can teach them about how to deal with situations the more prepared they will be when the inevitable happens and they come across unwanted situations. By not allowing them to experience the tools and opportunities available to them, and teaching them about how to handle certain situations, we are denying them valuable learning experiences, opening them up to possible harm and danger and making them vulnerable to these situations.