What students need to know about the internet

As I was talking to a friend last week, she was sharing her frustrations about her daughter’s use of social networking sites such as Facebook. I was shocked; not at the fact of what this young lady was writing, but the fact that she had a Facebook account at all. This 9 year old young lady was fully indulged in all that Facebook has to offer which includes: reading others (often older peoples) random and often inappropriate posts, seeing pictures that a 9 year old maybe should not see, and also posting things without the understanding of the enormity and permanence of the internet. This was a warning sign to me that we must begin to address things such as internet adequate, internet responsibility, and internet credibility early on in a student’s academic career.

In Alan November's article "4 Thing That Every Student Should Learn...But Not Every School Is Teaching," he brings up a huge red flag in our academic and education system. We must begin to address internet issues with our students. I have read several of my younger cousin’s posts on their social networking accounts and I do not think they truly understand that, I CAN SEE WHAT THEY ARE WRITING. Either that or they are just being irresponsible and lacking empathy and respect. I do believe parents play a large role in monitoring what their son or daughter is doing on the internet, but using an education setting is a great way to reach a large population of students.

I have taught internet safety in my health class for the past 3 years. It seems to open eyes, but overall the kids seem unimpressed. Am I getting to them to late in the 10th grade, or does more time need to be spent. I am looking at revising curriculum and would like to use more real life examples. Next year I want to stress the permanence of the internet as well as the enormity. I want to stress that their specific friend network is not a safe haven for random outburst and inappropriate pictures and comments.