Assignment #4: Reflections on Learning: Post 3

Prompt 3:
What and how can a traditional school or district learn from how virtual schools deal with issues of online safety, netiquette, and legal issues around social networking, cyberbullying, etc.
(Provide supporting evidence from class discussions, readings and resources)

Part 1: Provide supporting evidence from class discussions

In my opinion, class discussion “Overcoming Barriers” (Session 4: Using Web 2.0 Tools in K-12) was the most interesting. We made 33 follow up posts! Almost all of them were related to the “online safety, netiquette, and legal issues around social networking, cyberbullying, and whether or not teachers should be using social network sites w/ students.”
I think, all of us appreciated input of the legal experts: “In the past year, I have had four sexual child abuse cases involving teachers and students, and they all began with on line communications between teachers and students. It is a real problem. For the most part, we tell teachers to interact with students in a school setting only”

As a result, Ben Alamed, who had students on his Facebook profile, removed them all.

By the end of this discussion, we didn't come up with any solutions, but recognized the importance of online safety, netiquette, and legal issues around social networking.

As a group, we have also came up with the list of online safety resources:
- Kids Get NetWise (safety tips by age)
http://kids.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/ does a good job of breaking down
- YouTube breaks down safety by issue
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/request.py?contact_type=abuse&hl=en-US
- Google's Public Policy blog
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/02/safer-social-networking-and-self.html
- The Internet Safety Technical Task Force Report: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/pubrelease/isttf/;
- Raising Children in the Digital Age:
The Internet, Cell Phones, and Safe Parenting Report:
http://www.freecellphonelookups.com/raising_children_digital_age.pdf;
- FBI Safety Guide: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm;

Protective software list:
1. Net Nanny (Provides Internet Safety)
http://www.netnanny.com/products/netnanny?pid=10-2;
2. Parental Control Bar (free) http://parentalcontrolbar.org/pcb_features.htm ;
3. Blogs on this topic:
- http://blog.pff.org/

Part 2: Provide supporting evidence from readings and resources

After years of school cell phones ban, there is a movement in school environment: “teachers learn how students can use text-messaging to look up the definitions of words, search currency exchange rates, and find countries on a map. Among the suggested reading is an essay titled, "What Can You Learn From A Cell Phone? - Almost Anything!". Lisa Nielsen, who manages professional development at the Department of Education's Office of Instructional Technology in New York City, NY, views cell phones as "brain extenders" that students should be taught to harness productively. If she ran a school, she said, she would first make sure teachers were comfortable with the educational uses of cell phones, and then incorporate them into the regular curriculum, allowing students to use them as supplementary tools for learning (http://www.nysun.com/new-york/despite-school-cell-phone-ban-course-sees-them-as/76504/)

The administration of Uni High School, Urbana, IL, is thinking of changing the policy on cell phones and mobile devices (http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/og/news/2008/10/can-you-hear-us-now-cell-phone-policy). This policy is an excellent example of a policy that limits inappropriate use of cell phones, while at the same time give classroom teachers the option to use them in their teaching and learning.
The next objectives of cell phones incorporation into curriculum are: teaching mobile etiquette, safety, and training teachers on academic uses for cell phones.