Is there such a thing as privacy online?
Can and will the Internet take over my future? “ Use and abuse” are the first words that come in my mind, but isn’t that with everything we undertake? With learning new skills to participate in society we always have to think of the consequences. “No pain no gain”. Challenge yourself, “trial and error”, gain experiences, and make choices! BE AWARE about the pros and cons. The Internet is made for us so that information can be shared, so we all should be concerned about personal stuff we put on it.
Here at ISB our grade 6 will be going one-to one computer next year where I will be teaching EAL Humanities!!!! This feels good, I’m thrilled, but can we, teachers, parents, and students handle the good, the bad, and the ugly? Will I as a teacher be able to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to integrate technology meaningfully into instruction in specific content areas? I am a digital immigrant teacher with an open mind who has passed the behavioral stage, thanks to this course, and although I still feel overwhelmed at times with the speed of learning to use information technology, I am all for it!!!! Strategies to improve my productivity are tested on a daily basis. “Hey I’ve created a Google Doc for our group to work on our EUP Middle School collaborative project.” One of my colleagues says and I feel relieved! Why? Because I know now what a Google Doc is and it will really be an effective tool for our teamwork on this.
This second part of the COETAIL course has these very useful topics that will help with the awareness process of the consequences when we give our kids a school computer to increase their learning. To strengthen a community of practice between students, teachers and parents ISB needs AUPs to provide the proper context for learning to take place.
So how to take the issue of privacy online into account?
Our students all use blogs and are expected to follow the Middle School blogging guidelines. I particularly like the following questions students, (and teachers as well) should use to decide what is appropriate to post on your blog.
Ask yourself:
Is this something I want everyone to see?
Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?
What could be the consequences of this post?
Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?
Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?
What will I cause by writing this post?
Would I want someone to say this to me?
Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?
Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?
Who is the original creator of this work?
