Session 3 Discussion

[Clinton]

After reading the Pew Research article. I know, it was a daunting
work to read, but what are some of the items in there that surprised
you?
What are some facts that you can use to connect to your classroom. How
can you use this information to share with parents and students to
keep kids safe online?

Remember....just hit the Reply link at the bottom of this post.

[Brock]

Well while reading the article at school I understood 53% of it, but
by the afternoon it went down to about 47%, but after a late afternoon
snack and a little nap about 63% was enjoyable. Ha Ha!

I thought that the number of kids that are using these sites was
amazing as well as the amount of time that they are on these types of
sites. Most of the kids said that they are limited to an hour of 2 a
day on the computer. After a kid gets home from school, eats supper,
does any homework, there are not many hours left in that day and is
sounds to me that the majority if this extra time is spent on the
computer, which is just a shame in my opinion. We see more and more of
our kids struggling the weight and health issues because of a lack of
physical activity and then I read some of these kids are allowed 2
hours a night on the computer, now it is all making sense.

I think that kids are starting to understand though the dangers of not
being careful on these social networks. Whether it is the parents that
are getting more informed with what is going on, or the kids are
actually getting more mature with their actions, either way I think
more kids especially the older teens are trying to be more careful. I
know that I have seen and I am sure that a lot of parents have seen
the new Dateline series "To Catch a Predator". I think this was great
work by NBC and it made parents open their eyes a little bit more and
maybe get involved with their kids more.

I think the things that were the most beneficial in this article were
the common sense things that teachers and parents might forget. At
school it is easier because of the filters and blocks that limit the
sites that students can enter, but at home it is more difficult. I
think it is the parents responsibility to put these filters on their
computer, check the history of the sites that their children have been
visiting, speaking to them frequently about the sites that interest
them and maybe looking for more together that are appropriate so the
kids can see that you are interested in what they are into and just
being able to spend time together. One of the biggest helpers that I
read that parents might not think about is having the computer in a
public room in the house whether it is a den or living room rather
than letting their kids have the computers in their own room.

[Peggy]

On Feb 3, 10:54 pm, Clinton <ad...@northern-tier.us> wrote:

> After reading the Pew Research article.  I know, it was a daunting
> work to read, but what are some of the items in there that surprised
> you?

Clint if you are reading this I need you to know that I added to the
list and I chose some and responded on my own wiki page but when I
went back to finish, my new assignment was NOT showing on my wiki
page. I did a search and found it and even updated it in a new page by
following the directions again but it is still not showing and I don't
know what I am doing wrong. I honestly did my assignment! Help!

Now here is my answer!

What surprised me the most was that kids post fake info more often on
their restricted profiles than to profiles that are not as restricted.
This seemed backward from a safety standpoint since I assumed that
posting fake info was to throw off a person from discovering who and
where you are.

Another surprise was the differences in boys and girls posting of
personal info. Girls do pictures while boys will give more personal
info such as town, last name and cell phone.

> What are some facts that you can use to connect to your classroom. How
> can you use this information to share with parents and students to
> keep kids safe online?

Since most kids are using social networking sites from home they
parent is the person who needs to monitor what the student is doing.
They should know if their student has a profile, set rules, keep the
computer in an area where they can monitor what is on the screen.
Parents need to know about the filtering options that may already be
available and that they can set.They also need to know about
monitoring software that is available.

I was encouraged to know that many parents are already aware and
doing some of these precautions. It is the less tech saavy person with
teens that may not be aware of what their teen has on a profile or
what sites their teen is visiting who leaves the teen vulnerable to
unwanted contact. Unfortunately that may be the same teen who is
desperate for some adult to "notice". I am personally glad I am not
raising a teen today. My daughter showed me her Facebook site over the
weekend and promised me she does not be"friend" anyone she doesn't
already know. I declinded to become one of her many "friends." I will
stick to contacting her by email.

[Duane]

> After reading the Pew Research article.  I know, it was a daunting
> work to read, but what are some of the items in there that surprised
> you?
> What are some facts that you can use to connect to your classroom. How
> can you use this information to share with parents and students to
> keep kids safe online?
>

First of all I wondered how creditable the report was. I see the
study was conducted as a telephone survey conducted in 2006 of a
sample of 935 teens between the ages of 12-17 and their parents or
guardians. After discussing this report with our school librarian,
she assured me that this was a worthy study of Teens, Privacy, and
Online Social Networks. This report was somewhat intimidating but it
did contain several interesting statistics. Many teens who use social
network sites limit their profiles in some way. 32% of online teens
have been contacted by strangers online. Older teens share more
personal information than younger teens. 53% of parents say that they
have some filtering software on their computers at home. 74% of the
teens surveyed said that the computer that they use is located in open
family areas of their homes.

Several facts that I can use in the classroom is the one that states
that older students share more personal information than younger
teens. I would have thought that the older teen would be wiser about
the predators that may be on the internet. This statistic shows me
that I need to implement a internet safety section into our require
Computer Applications course. With older teens providing personal
information and 32% of them being contacted by someone they don't
know, this sounds like a recipe for some problems. The other
statistic that stated 53% of the households had some form of filtering
software on their networks, and 74% of the computers were located in
"open" family areas in their homes. I know with my own household, I
do not have any filters on my network, and my daughter's each have a
computer in their own rooms. In my situation I put a lot of trust in
my daughters using their computers wisely. I know if my daughters
have computers secured in their bedrooms, I'm sure other parents may
have the same setup in their homes. When I was a teenage you had to
have a portable TV in your bedroom. Today you have to have a personal
computer. After reading this report and stats, I am now considering a
filter, and placing the computer for my younger daughters in a more
public place in our home. As an parent, and a teacher I am starting
to learn much of this information first hand.

[Melissa C]

One of the first things that surprised me was that 17% of teens have
online "friends" that they have never met. I guess this kind of sums
up
what little grasp I have of the mindset of the children growing up
with
the computer and internet access. To me, a friend is someone that you
not
only share common interest, but have physical contact with. I can
remember
having a "Pen Pal" that lived in California when I was in elementary
school.
Even though we had common interest, I would have hesitated in calling
her a
friend because of the lack of physical contact. The idea of having a
friend that I
never physically met is hard for me. I would consider them an
acquaintance
but not a friend. That would also lead me to not feel comfortable
sharing information.
I might share surface info. but nothing more than that. I think that
is where the potential
dangers don't affect teens as much as someone like me. They have
grown up with
social networks. It is there primary way of communication. The
phone is becoming
a thing of the past. It is to limited.
The other thing that I found interesting was that small town teens are
more likely
to share valid information about where they live. Teens from cities
seem to have more
of a sense of the importance of not letting people know where they
live.
People from rural areas often have a false sense of security. It
makes
sense that this would carry over into teens willingness to share
info. The doors of my
house are always unlocked as are a lot of other peoples who live in
small towns.
If there isn't a need to protect our physical homes why would there be
a need
to protect our online information about our homes?
I was glad to see that more and more parents are using filters,
monitoring computer
usage and putting computers in high traffic areas of the house. I
think for me, in my classroom
the best way I can share this info with parents is to actually show
them. Most of my parents
have computers in their homes, but don't use them. I am going to try
to use the computer
to communicate with parents more. By doing this, parents will have to
become more familiar
with the computer and in turn be more open to helpful info. on keeping
their children safe.

[Donna Williams]

I have three children in their twenties, so I wasn't really surprised
at a lot of the information. I guess that one of the things that
surprised me had more to do with the demographics of the study, with
67% of the people who responded being white and 82% of the respondents
being married. I question how that translates to the general
population.

I found it interesting that girls are more likely to post photos of
their friends than boys. Reading the percentages becomes quite
confusing to me, and I think the way it is presented makes it
difficult to see what the actual percentages are. Example: 23% of
those contacted by a stranger became worried. Then you have to figure
out how many were contacted by a stranger, which may make that 23% a
very small number in all actuality. But I digress.

It seems as if many of the students are taking precautions to keep
themselves safe while online. I guess the job of the educator would be
to help drive home the point that sharing too much information online
can put them at risk, and to make sure that they know the best ways to
keep their information sharing at a safe level. I thought the list of
what was considered "safe" to share was good information. I guess I
would tend to worry most about the students who had little supervision
at home with their online activity, and were in situations where they
were lonely and looking for their main social interaction online.
Those would be the students that I think teachers might have the
opportunity to make the biggest difference in educating them in safe
behavior, as well as possibly mentoring them into more in-person
contacts with schoolmates through clubs and extracurricular activities
at school.

My students tend to be mostly under the age of 10, so (I hope) their
internet time is already restricted. At this age, it is difficult to
get children to understand the difference between stranger and non-
stranger when in person, let alone while online. Hopefully as they
grow, they and their parents will have learned from the generations
who have already grown up through the internet some of the best ways
to share their information. I think moderation is the key, as in any
other venture. Keeping the use of the internet and social networking
sites to an occasional visit, rather than spending all one's time in
that environment is the best way to go about keeping things in
perspective.

[Debbie]

Surprisingly, I found the Pew Internet Research research report an
interesting and informative read. I was amazed to find out

On Feb 3, 10:54 pm, Clinton <ad...@northern-tier.us> wrote:

[Debbie]

First of all, I would like to offer advice to our entire class. Please
type your reactions for our discussion to a word document and then cut
and paste it into the discussion page. I wrote up some worthy
comments (at least I thought so) lst night and then had everything
deleted when I got an error message on the page and tried to post all
of my comments anyway. I sound like our students, don’t I ? You are
all probably typing in a word document first anyway, but a tip just in
case you are not.

So, here I go all over again.

Surprisingly, I found the PEW Internet study interesting and
informative. I was amazed at the involvement of parents in protecting
their children while online. More than half of parents have filtering
software on their home computers and 65% of parents check up on their
teens after they go online. Amazingly, 85% of parents have rules
about what sites their children can visit online. Parents have more
rules about Internet use than any other kind of media being used by
their teens which provides more evidence that on the whole families
have been paying attention to warnings about the need to put computers
in a “public” kind of space in their homes. In addition, the PEW
research talks about parents (45%) using computer monitoring software
on home computers. I am not familiar with monitoring software but it
is further evidence that parents are being proactive in getting
involved in what their teens do and do not do on the Internet. All of
this evidence of parental involvement is far greater than I had with
my own three sons growing up at the beginning of the digitally native
generation and I taught Internet safety. Were the problems less
dangerous in the last 8 to 12 years? I am impressed with today’s
parents in that regard.

What struck me about the huge increase in teen’s use of social
networking is the fact that social networks provide teens much needed
affirmation and feedback. I think that this is a fact that I
underestimated the importance of in teen’s lives. Students can become
part of a group of “like-minded” friends either in school or outside
of school, esp. those who may not fit in with a group otherwise. The
research also pointed out that social networks provide teens with an
opportunity to show off their network of friends and get much needed
positive feedback from others regarding the photos, videos, and blogs
that they post in places like MySpace. I appreciated seeing social
networks in a new light when the study gave the example of a boy at a
big Texas high school who used the networks to help him meet and make
friends with people in his own high school that he would not have met
otherwise because of the size of the school population. Troy High
School is such a small place that it is difficult to envision huge
schools where students can be just one of a big number.

Since girls are from Venus and men are from Mars, at least according
to the popular book by John Gray of that same title, it should not
have come as a surprise that teen boys posted different information on
social networks than did girls. However, it did surprise me. Boys
posted more private information while girls posted more photos of
themselves and their friends. Boys are more likely to post their
names, school names, and name of their cities than girls indicating
that our warnings to teen girls about their vulnerabilities online
have not fallen completely on deaf ears. According to the study,
older teens are more likely to share personal information than younger
teens. Both of these facts were encouraging to me. Teens are also
aware that colleges, potential employers, parents and anonymous
administrators may check out their profiles on social networks. It
sounds like some of the educating about Internet safety that we as
educators and parents have been doing is working. It gives me impetus
to continue.

Most of the facts of this PEW study connect to what I do in the
classroom since I work with all students in 9th through 12th grades.
What I read here reinforced that how I model and talk about Internet
usage and the need to be safe online is working to an extent but that
since not all of the percentages about safe Internet use by teens are
100%, I need to continue and improve what I and other teachers do and
are doing. I am excited about the new ways that I have thought of to
promote safe online behavior without getting too preachy, something
that teens hate. These ideas came to me while reading the study and
reflecting on what I would say here.

The information literacy curriculum that I teach is integrated with
our English department here at Troy High School. Every English class
does a different type of research project in each grade level. I work
with those students and teachers to incorporate teaching successful
and effective searching techniques so that students can be thriving
lifelong learners. Hopefully, the skills that I try to teach are
cumulative each year and build and reinforce each other as the
students move through their different grade levels.

When working with an entire class, I always use different topics as
examples for how to use the different online databases and search
strategies needed for effective Internet research. I have decided to
use Internet safety as my example search topic each year from now on.
More importantly, I have decided to use different aspects of Internet
safety ranging from the safe use of social networks to text messaging
and file sharing at each grade level so that by the time students
graduate, I will have covered many of these important safety topics
with them, all under the guise of topic selection and database use.
Of course, it will be all of the necessary topics about online safety
up until that point in time, since the world of Internet danger is
always changing and growing just as teen use of the Internet will
continue to evolve and change along with it. The beauty about doing
so is that while teaching teens in English classes I will also be
educating teachers at the same time since they follow along with their
students while I present my short teaching demos.

On Feb 3, 10:54 pm, Clinton <ad...@northern-tier.us> wrote:

[Eliza]

On Feb 3, 10:54 pm, Clinton <ad...@northern-tier.us> wrote:

> After reading the Pew Research article.  I know, it was a daunting
> work to read, but what are some of the items in there that surprised
> you?

Some of the items that I found surprising was the amount of people who
actually limit
their profiles. 66% limit access to their profile in some way. I
really didn't think
that kids were thinking all that much about who has access to their
profiles, or
what the consequences of that may be. I was pleasantly surprised,
actually!!

> What are some facts that you can use to connect to your classroom. How
> can you use this information to share with parents and students to
> keep kids safe online?

I think the proof is in the percentages. I know throwing numbers at
kids can get to
be a bit much, but using the percentages of students who have been
contacted by
strangers, or that older teens are more likely to share more
information than younger
teens, could really get to some students who usually can't be gotten
to....or to parents
who are often oblivious to what goes on with the children and the
internet!

[Rachel]

After reading the Pew Research article, I was actually surprised by
how many parents seemed to be "in the know" about their child's life
online. From the mutterings I overhear from students at school I have
a hard time believing some of those statistics - or maybe the students
I interact with are just a poor sample group? My students are always
talking about their computers in their bedrooms (which always
horrifies me). I personally believe more in the boy who candidly said
"I know more about computers than my parents do". I think that's the
case in a lot of homes. Even if the said 50-something percent of
parents are filtering and checking history, that's a big nearly 50%
who aren't!

I was also shocked at first to read that such a large percentage
(close to 70!) of students on online social networks have been friend
requested or contacted by a stranger. The fact that so many students
said they used myspace to create brand new friendships was shocking
and almost a little saddening to me....until I realized - I myself
have made brand new friends through facebook. I ran a race in
Binghamton in January and a man there found my name in the results,
facebook friend requested me with a note attached about wanting to run
together, and we've become great running partner friends over the last
six weeks. And its not creepy in the least! He's a lovely married
man, he friend requested my boyfriend and other local runners as well,
and its really given us a great community to talk about our running
all week and then plan our meeting up for long runs on the weekends.
Last September I was the facebook stalker when after a half marathon a
girl and I who were first and second in the womens' race got to
talking and we were both getting ready for fall marathons....I looked
up her name again in the results, found her on facebook, and we shared
all of our running stories for a couple of months and then got to
share our marathon stories as they happened. It just seems so bizarre
to me to hear about kids making completely new friends online, but
maybe it is okay in some circumstances? I'm all the more confused
after this article!

As for connecting this article with the students in my classroom, I go
back to the strangers issue in part four. I take students all over
the place with the marching band program and then concert band
festival season. Students are constantly yapping on the way home
about "that cute trombone player from school X" and saying before
games "oh Miss Boardman, so and so will be there because HE marches
for School Y and he's SOOO wonderful!". Then I take them to festivals
where they spend three days locked in an auditorium with other kids
only to get huge crushes that they of course believe are true romantic
love at first sight relationships in the making! And after reading
this I realize "wow - my kids go home and friend request these
people". While I see band love taken to facebook as harmless, does
all of this online banter desensitize against connecting with the
wrong strangers. And like that one girl said about her brother who
made the girlfriend online and then she moved to town and stalked him
- how accessible do our kids want to be?

On Feb 3, 10:54 pm, Clinton <ad...@northern-tier.us> wrote:

[Fitz]

I am amazed at how the kids differ -by gender and age regarding what
personal information they post and their thoughts about how safe their
information truly is.

Concerns -It is a safety concern for kids not to post personal
information - many times we tell kids to "make up a name" so as to
protect their identiy - but - What are we creating by teaching the
kids to post false information? Could the encouragement of anonymity
also open the door to future problems? I guess it could work out - if
the kids learn early that they are posting false information - maybe
they will be less likely to believe strangers on-line...

Amazed at how many parents actually report monitoring their kids -I
would have thought the numbers would be much lower. Of course we are
starting to have more parents who are digital natives themselves - so
they may be more aware of all the potentials of the given technology.
I tend forget that soon I could be old enough to be in the grandparent
category. Parents of teenagers might not be digital natives - but
most of elementary students could be digitial natives - and therefore,
could possibly keep up with advances faster that the old educators. :)