In my second post about Matt Iverson’s book Lol..OMG! I choose to focus on chapter 6, Becoming A Conscious Creator of Content. I feel that this chapter is an important one to share with students, especially when helping them to understand the line between posting public and private information. Students today really need to be aware that what they put online can have serious consequences in regard to their safety. I know that students in my class belong to social websites that they are not legally allowed to be on. It is on these websites that they are seeing other people posting personal information such as: where they live, go to school, and play. At a young age students are not going to know how dangerous posting this type of information can be. I feel that this is especially true when they see how often other kids and parents are doing it. It is so important to educate students what can happen when their personal information posted becomes placed in the wrong hands.
I have had students in the past complain about their parents
constantly putting their personal lives and photos online, such as embarrassing
pictures of them in the bathtub or on a potty.
I understand that these pictures are meant to be shared with love, but
have they thought about how they are making their child feel? Have these
parents adjusted their privacy settings to make sure that strangers are not
viewing these pictures inappropriately?
On the other hand, I have had students on field trips asking their
parents to put pictures they just took onto Facebook. It is times like these
that I find myself reminding parents not to post other students or myself in
pictures online. Parents often forgot
that other parents, and certainly myself, do not want to be publically
displayed online.
Students are also seeing rude comments being posted online by
their parents and their friends on popular websites like Facebook and Tweeter. I am concerned with the message this sends to
our children. I feel that educating our
students that the same rule, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say
it at all,” also applies to the internet!
3 comments:
Jessica,
I think that last line really sums up a lot. I am not really sure why so much commonsense is lost through online communication. In reading lol...omg the stories presented are really eye opening. I thought about what lead these people to do these things? The 'Asians in the library' video is a perfect example. Sure the posting student may have been stressed out, possible thought she was being funny, but did she think no one would view this video? Would this girl walk up to an Asian student and rant like this? Probably not. I get the feeling she felt protected by her computer somehow. In reality though this post was much more detrimental to this student then a face to face encounter would have been. This video lives forever now on youtube. I still cannot completely get my mind around why so much commonsense goes out the window when it comes to online communications.
It’s incredible to see what gets posted on Facebook or YouTube, especially without consent of everyone involved. Recently, a friend of mine had her children’s pictures reposted onto someone else’s wall. The other person had not limited his settings so that only ‘friends’ could view them, which led to a huge fallout between several people. This reminds me of the boyfriend PowerPoint example from the book. What was meant for just a few people’s eyes suddenly became world-wide. The girl ended up withdrawing from the prominent college and it has affected her personal life. How quickly a lol moment can change into an OMG moment!
Jess, I totally agree with your final statement! If we educate students now maybe they can teach their parents a thing or two!?? I'm hopeful!!
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