"Safe and appropriate"

I hope that my students would at least have some grasp on how they should be “safe” on the internet, but after hearing so many instances of negative things occurring on the internet, I would definitely take the time to remind them what they shouldn’t do. Hopefully I could present this content in an appealing manner by incorporating a video clip or two (particularly this one on cyberbullying that I couldn’t find to post its link), and maybe give students a fun-fact quiz of some of the internet safety statistics I would come across. I would give students an “internet permission slip” to inform students and their parents my code of conduct for working on the blog, which would go hand-in-hand with the school district’s policy. The expectations would be clear, and student and parent signatures are giving consent that they are agreeing to adhere to the policies. There will be serious consequences if a student uses inappropriate language, posts inappropriate content, talks negatively to another student, etc.  Things always need to be "safe and appropriate!"

There are many things that I would like to iterate/remind my students. I would encourage them to only use their first names if possible, but to never post personal information like their address, phone number, locations they plan on going to, etc. There is no need to put up specific information that could allow people they don’t know to find out too much about them. Students always need to think of who their audience is, since all information put up on the internet is there for anyone to see: There’s no such thing as “private” online. Students need to be reminded that their passwords need to be kept private and should never be shared with anyone, not even their closest friends.

Since I would be incorporating blogging as a form of assessment within my classroom, I need to nicely introduce students into what is expected of them. When we would first be starting out with blogs I would encourage students to have a “model” blog to measure up to, which could be either mine or another colleagues. The first few assignments will slowly ease students into the concept of blogging, where they would get reading other blogs first, and then begin responding. All assignments will have a rubric explaining their level of participation and quality of work, but as always, the whole “safe and appropriate” issue will always come to play.

Using the internet, particularly the idea of a blog, has such great potential from an educational standpoint. I really hope that my students will take things seriously when it comes to our course, as well as their outside social networking. The responsibility of teachers and parents definitely play a large role in reminding students what is “safe and appropriate,” compared to what is not.