Hello, I'm Ms. Misty Hill, newly hired 3rd grade teacher at Washington Elementary School in Medford, Oregon and I'm sitting here with our School Principal, Jeff Graham. Jeff has invited me to lunch today to discuss the prospect of getting more involved in online activity for our students and what we can do to promote security and privacy for our students as they begin using these resources.
One very important rule of thumb to keep our privacy is to keep our information anonymous. Although it was written concerning a much broader, more serious topic, Lori Andrews' mention of anonymity on page 65 of her book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did can be applied right here in our elementary school computer lab. Andrews talks about our right to freedom of press and further our right to publish these things anonymously. This can be done quite simply for things like emails, blogs, and other sites that require usernames. Email accounts can be created quite easily these days and there's nothing saying your name has to be real. Creating a list outside of the computer which assigns students to a nickname or number can be a great starting point. Create an email account through Gmail or Yahoo for each student using their assigned nickname or number rather than their actual name. This email can now be used to sign into other websites including blogs which can be used for class writing assignments anonymously to everyone except those who know the nicknames.
Social networks should not be used in schools. Many schools have internet filters that prevent access to inappropriate websites as well as to social networks. Even my high school didn't allow access to Facebook or MySpace. Andrews states on page 6 that, "Not only does Facebook make the private public, it makes the public private." Throughout her book, she also talks about Facebook's part in the death of our privacy. Facebook is something to be played with at home, not in school, not only for distraction reasons, but because it jeopardizes our efforts to keep privacy in our school's internet usage.
Something else to consider when moving to an online teaching method is to set specific sites for students to go to rather than always having them search. In the filter Bubble, Eli Pariser talks about how our searches and online activity change the way we see the internet. Two people may sit next to each other and type in the exact same search items and get very different results. Since this is true, our students may find different websites than we intend on them viewing and they are unfortunately not always appropriate. Teachers should preview and select specific websites for students to go to and/or teach students methods for weeding out good and bad information on the internet.
As long as we do these things, we will hold onto our privacy for our school and our students.
You make some very valid points Misty. There are, however, a couple things that I tend to disagree with.
ReplyDeleteWhen our house first got the internet, my mother wanted me to create a fake name when creating my first e-mail account for privacy reasons, and no one knew who I was. Everyone kept deleting my e-mails because they didn’t recognize the name so they figured it was spam mail. Also, it sends a message of unprofessionalism in my opinion. If the students are wanting to keep this e-mail for future use and try to e-mail about job inquiries, they might get confused reactions when the e-mail address name says one thing and the e-mail message says another. I guess I don’t see the harm in putting your name with your e-mail. I can see the harm with putting your name with your bank accounts and other important private information, or not wanting to put your name on online blogs or posts if you’d like to stay anonymous.
I do, however, agree with the other two points you make. Facebook should not be used in schools and it is very helpful when teachers post the reading sites when taking an online class. Facebook has no intrinsic value in the classroom. It’s mainly a tool for students to waste their time, but I guess there might be a student who puts value into Facebook and can prove it. Who knows?
I agree that social networks can cause a problem when it comes to keeping what we want to keep private, private. However, I do not agree that social networks should not be used in schools. Where Facebook might fail as a suitable network for the school setting there are other networks available strictly for school use. Edmodo is a good example. They offer a secure place for teachers and students to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications. Currently Edmodo has over 7.5 million users. In addition, there are companies like Bloomfire that offer software allowing districts to set up their own internal social networks. Social networking certainly has a place in the classroom with some adjustments, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that teachers should select some websites that they want their students to view when doing research. However, I also believe that putting too much restriction on where students can search for information is not beneficial. I feel students also need the freedom to explore on their own. If the school's firewall and controls are strong enough that should prevent them from going to any inappropriate websites.