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As a pre-service teacher in the 21st century, technology can be our best friend or our worst enemy. Students can talk to anyone at a moment's notice and have all types of information at their fingertips, but the moment the internet crashes, the classroom bursts into flames. In the world of technology, how do we make sure our students are safe online, both in and out of the classroom?
Some of the most common things are taught to students since they were young; don't tell strangers your personal information, make sure you know who you're talking to online, and other types of similar information. But beyond that, do adolescents know how to be proper digital citizens? Digital citizenship is a person who uses the internet regularly and effectively. In other words, most of today's society are digital citizens. As teachers, it is our job to make sure that our students and ourselves are being proper citizens on the internet. That means we have to be constantly watching our digital footprint.
A digital footprint is our trace that we leave on the internet, and that doesn't have to be just social media. This can things that you buy online, websites you visit, and everything in between. For most of us, this might not seem like a big deal, but as our students begin to start jobs and look into colleges, this could make or break their success. Some jobs look into things such as your grammar, the words you use, and the photos you post online. There are even some colleges that may not accept you based on the things you post online.
So, what do you do? One of the biggest things that you can do is be careful of what you're posting. Think of it as a show and tell to your religious great grandmother; would you want to show her? No? Then it might be better to leave it offline. Other things you can do would be delete some of your more risque posts, or make your social media private all together. While you shouldn't have to completely limit your speech and expression to your friends and family, there are some things that people don't need to see online.
Speaking of your rights, many individuals know that they have the right to free speech, but where does that fall when someone is harassing you verbally? For many individuals in the United States, this has become a hot button topic, and there are so many grey areas that we aren't sure what is hate speech and what is freedom of expression. However, if you are hurting someone else, that is considered hate speech. Speech is considered hateful or oppressing when you are harassing someone based on their gender, sexuality, race, disability or anything in between. It is also important to understand that while the United States has certain laws, social media has international usage, and freedom of speech isn't always guaranteed. Regardless, being cruel and hurtful to someone online repeatedly can affect your future in many ways, including massive fines and jail time.
However, one of our top priorities is keeping students safe and on a successful path, so how do we do that? As schools, we typically have students change their passwords every now and then to something so people can't hack them. This is also transferable to other passwords they have with their emails and other accounts. If you see someone trying to get in? It might be time to change your password. Students can also remove their cookies so they can't be tracked, and they always have to make sure they go onto secure websites. If the website isn't secure? Definitely best that they don't put their personal information there.
As teachers, most of our students do their research through academic journals and articles online. However, how are they able to tell when something is real and something isn't? What types of resources are okay to use? How do they know their sources are credible? Well, one of the best ways to know is seeing how much of the information your source has is similar to other sources on the internet. If it seems like a common occurrence, most likely your information is credible. Also, avoiding sites that are more opinion than fact is an excellent way to make sure that the sources you're using are credible. Watching out for known unreliable sources such as The Onion is also a smart idea.
Finally, as we know, most of us have large amounts of screen time between work, school, and pleasure. While all of these are useful in their different ways, how much screen time is too much screen time? While there are sources that state young children shouldn't have more than 2-3 hours of screen time per day, what should adolescents get? How can we limit this in a digital world? In some ways, especially on IPhones, we can see how much students are on their phones, as well as what apps they are on the most. For parents, they can help their kids limit their screen time by setting an amount they can use a day. Finding that perfect balance might be hard, but it's better for their eyes and also better for them to disconnect every now and then too.
Humans aren't perfect, and especially little humans, we are going to have missteps along the way to being a great digital citizen. It's always okay to have fun online, but just make sure you are being safe and not hurting others in the process. Show your personality, because employers like to see who you are as a person too; just make sure you show all of your best qualities and know what you're talking about.
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