Keeping Students Safe Online

Like any one of us in IT 443, I can truly say that I check my email everyday and have my phone with me all the time. It is a part of my life, just like it is for many children in the world. We can't change it, but we sure can help educate our students about the Internet and how they should behave when on it. This article, "Keeping Students Safe Online: What Works", was really informative in learning about what schools, educators, parents and really the community need to do to regulate and help youth use the Internet safely.

The article mentioned how schools need to help teachers, parents and student learn the skills in Internet safety, which I think is vital. It is so important to have everyone involved in creating a positive environment and in having expectations for students when they are in the Internet. Students are not just on the Internet when they are at school researching; they are also at home. Therefore, schools and parents need to be on the same page as to what students can and cannot do on the Internet. Students should know their responsibilities when using the Internet in all environments.

I thought it was interesting how the article mentioned how we shouldn't teach it with a 'fear-based curriculum', but rather teaching students about appropriate online behavior and digital media use can help young people see online risks. A fear-based curriculum made me think about how parents or teachers would try to scare children into thinking that if they go on the Internet, someone can steal your information or something bad could happen to you. I agree that it is not the best approach in trying to scare them with facts about what could go wrong, but really teaching them about just the Internet in general and how there are risks. In doing so, I am hopeful that cyberbullying, identity theft, predators, cell phone misuse, and file sharing will diminish. I honestly think that these things are happening because young people don't know about the Internet. You see first graders with an iPod Touch surfing the Internet. Do they really know what they are doing? No! Everyone needs to be educated about the Internet, including what is appropriate and the risks.

When reading the "Four Steps to Change" in the article, I liked the idea of having students use journaling. It made me think about the movie Freedom Writers, and how students would express their thoughts and either leave it in the area where the teacher could read it or leave it in the area where it was private. I think it is important to talk about the risks with students and to hear what they already know and feel about the Internet. The ten tips that are listed in the article are a great list of things that schools, educators, parents, communities and even young people should take into consideration so that we can keep students safe online.

Transliteracy

Yesterday, I was in the first grade classroom where I work as a reading tutor. I was reading with one of my students and she said that she didn't feel like reading right now. I responded by telling her that even though you don't feel like reading at this moment, you are always reading. Literacy is everywhere, and this article really touched on how print isn't only in books anymore, but has transferred to technology. However, reading isn't the same in a book as compared to reading something on a laptop. The article mentioned, "teachers may be 'less literate' than their students", which means that children are being exposed to all different kinds of literacy models that include technology. We as teachers, need to be educated on the latest devices in order to teach students how to analyze and synthesize information on the Internet.

I liked how the article explained that print in a book is easier, because there is a structure to how read the text (left to right). However, print on the Internet is so complex with all of the hyperlinks, labels, websites, text and illustrations that students really need to be informed on how to navigate and read them. I think teaching students about the Internet and how not all information on the web is credible is very important, because some students might think that, just because something is on the Internet it must be true.

The slogans the article presented were also very helpful. My favorite was "Know Your Destination", because I think it is so important that students have expectations set out before they are free to navigate the Internet. The Internet has so many resources and information; and not all of it is appropriate for students. Students need to be set with a guiding question so that they have a clear reason as to why they are the Internet looking for the answer.

I Can't Think!

Did anyone else feel like they had received information overload after reading "I Can't Think"? I thought this article presented interesting findings about how our brain works when receiving information. Being the organized person that I am, I personally thought that if we have more information about something, then we could make a better decision. However, after reading this article I can see now that sometimes more information isn't always the best. When researchers studied the brain activity in an experiment, they found that people who were given more information, resulted in their prefrontal cortex to fall off. When I read that, I was shocked! How can a part of our brain just fall off? But, the more I read the article, the more it made sense. For instance, when there is a high stakes test coming up, I study for long hours on the all of the material. I want to make sure that I know everything; however, I have a hard time knowing when to stop studying. There was a time when I stayed up studying for a test, and when I went to take the test, I completely went blank on some questions. Why does that happen to us? Is it because our prefrontal cortex popped and now all the information that we learned before is just scattered? 

This makes me think of a saying that is said when people are trying to make a decision; "clear your mind". I never really deeply thought about what 'clearing our mind' entailed, but it makes sense. We are so addicted to knowing about things (well at least I am sometimes), that we just accumulate more and more information to the point it becomes impossible to make a good decision, unless we go over each and every piece of information again, which results in one huge headache. This is important to remember when we are teaching our students. If we get headaches and stress out when we receive a ton of information, then we know to not do that to our students. We can only hold so much information at once. According to the article, our brain's working memory can only hold seven units of information. Therefore, we shouldn't teach our students about the Civil War and the five oceans all at the same time. 

I think my previous thoughts about 'the more information the better' has definitely changed. I know now why I get headaches at the end of class or sometimes after a conversation with someone; there is just too much information being passed on that my brain just can't take it. From now on, I am going to try to not want to know everything, but go with my what I already know so that I'm not popping my prefrontal cortex anymore!