The topic of privacy on the internet was introduce in my social media class this week. The class discussion made me reexamine what is the best way to help my students develop the internal systems and filters to protect themselves and their digital privacy. I love that my school uses Edmodo as an internal social media network. Edmodo uses a platform that is similar to Facebook and lets uses in the community - students, teachers, parents - to post and comment on each other's statuses. The system is used for formal and academic communication in the classroom and there are pages and groups dedicated to informal communication between students. |
These informal discussion groups are monitored by teachers for inappropriate use and passable cyber bullying, but this monitoring only extends to when students use Edmodo. If students are on other social media platforms their privacy is not being monitored. I do see a fair amount of use in the informal groups during weekend and evening times, so I believe that most of the students at my school are using there Edmodo accounts as they only or at least primary social media platform. I think that because some of the informal posting that occurs is during the school day at prescribed times that students are drawn back to those conversations after school and become vested in Edomodo.
I know that eventually my students will graduate to different social media platforms and that they will need guidance to develop skills to protect their own privacy. I decided to seek out resources to help with digital citizenship instruction. I came across a digital citizen curriculum from Common Sense Media group with lessons that range from how the individual protects themselves and the digital community to plagiarism to how to tell the difference between private and public information. These seem like quality lessons or at least a good foundation to build a really engaging and meaningful lesson form. The resources are free but you do need to sign up for an account. If you are intested in teaching K12 students about digital citizenship I suggest you visit http://www.commonsensemedia.org.
I know that eventually my students will graduate to different social media platforms and that they will need guidance to develop skills to protect their own privacy. I decided to seek out resources to help with digital citizenship instruction. I came across a digital citizen curriculum from Common Sense Media group with lessons that range from how the individual protects themselves and the digital community to plagiarism to how to tell the difference between private and public information. These seem like quality lessons or at least a good foundation to build a really engaging and meaningful lesson form. The resources are free but you do need to sign up for an account. If you are intested in teaching K12 students about digital citizenship I suggest you visit http://www.commonsensemedia.org.