I have a bebo page.
I have had students ask to access my bebo page, this is one of my private spaces. But these invitations led me to have a look at these students sites. Many of these students have public profiles where anyone has access to their pictures and comments – that becomes more apparent as you look at their pages. Looking through these pages led me onwards to wanting to talk to the students in class about their use on the internet, as it was apparent that some students were not ’safe’ in the use of their sites. With my new role as a lead teacher I have been able to go through some classes and talk about cybersafety with students and I have focussed on the medium of Bebo. It has been an interesting set of discussions and every class has had different questions, scenarios and ideas to share which has built up my knowledge of students use and ideas of social networking, especially Bebo.
What intrigued me was the set of literacies and online knowledge that these students were lacking. Within the 1 hour sessions that we have been having many of them have re-thought aspects of their online appearance – from the posting of images, text, emails, bebo comments or the sharing of personal information. It’s amazing how a small piece of knowledge can stretch so far.
One example of this is that many of the students when asked, had no idea what ‘Terms Of Service’ meant – these are the basic rules that by signing up to Bebo (or any site) that you agree too. All of the students who I asked who had a Bebo page had not looked at these and were surprised when I alerted them to the fact that the 2nd rule is “Must be 13 years or older” to access Bebo.
In discussing the use of students and social networking sites with colleagues I have had to acknowledge the different opinions and levels of thinking in regards to the use of social networking sites such as Bebo. And these opinions are varied – from education for students to straight up blocking of the sites.
I, personally, have a very strong philosophy that the education of these skills outweighs the blocking or dismissal of these sites. If we want our students to function within the realms of technology and the internet in a safe and effective manner we need to educate students to the expected norms for these things. They need to become responsible citizens using technology in the same way we teach them to be responsible citizens in ‘real’ life. I continued this conversation on twitter with a few colleagues and achurches made a great tweet:
“…exactly, banning drives it underground – bring it out and social norm will come into play – u cant be mean in public.”
There are so many factors that come into play when we talk about social networking – from individual skills and knowledge about keeping safe to the expectations of family and friends, to what we, as educators, expect from our students. The only way to keep our students safe is to allow them access to the knowledge and a safe and effective safety net of people who they can communicate with.
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach states that…
By doing these kinds of things we can teach and model digital citizenship. As educators we need to help teach the kids the responsible ways to use the tools. Lincoln said.. the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next generation. Part of our job is to indoctrinate in this case — responsible use of the new technologies.
We teach them not to talk to strangers and not to answer the phone when parents aren’t home. Educators traditionally have had the responsibility of helping the next generation understand how to use the tools safely.
What do you think about the use of social networking sites, such as Bebo, for children younger than the sites age limit? What do you personally think about the banning of sites vs the teaching of knowledge and skills?
Going Pro! »« Bloggers ahoy!!
to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
I agree. Having been part of a digiops project where we used a variety of new technologies in the classroom, (mobile phones and chat etc) a huge part of our programme was focused on safe practice through responsible practice. The students owned their online behaviour as they created the rules for responsible use. I really liked this quote from Chris Betcher yesterday. nice quote about website blocking “you don’t teach kids to eat properly by locking the door on the fridge”
A past student of mine invited me as a friend on Bebo. I took one look at the information he was sharing on his page and was very worried about things. There was no way I was going to accept the friend request but I was also aware of the fact that as a high school student (and I apologise to high school teachers who may be doing a good job in ICT but they are few and far between) I knew that he was not going to be getting the guidance on how to keep himself safe. So what to do. I decided that the students in my class were my priority and I see it as every teacher’s job to teach kids to be safe, in any situation. We teach road safety, we teach stranger danger, for goodness sakes we even teach sex ed! So why all this fuss about teaching kids to keep safe online. We figured out the old “cross your legs and be a good boy/girl” doesn’t work in sex ed so therefore banning youtube, Bebo, Facebook etc is not going to work either.
Nice post. This is a discussion that is happening in schools through out NZ and right round the world.
I don’t believe in white listing sites, having strict restricted lists that limit access to only approved and checked sites (it reminds me too much of China). This does not teach our students responcible use, rather students will work around these restriction and gain access anyway.
Rather I support an open access process, unacceptable sites (the obvious ones) are blocked, but there is active monitoring and concequences for unacceptable behaviour.
The most effective concequence I have seen is showing the parents the site or sites that their son or daughter has visited. Showing the parents the cyberbullying, the unacceptable content they have posted or the pornography (or worse) they have viewed. Then putting in process, with the parents, suitable and appropriate concequences and more importantly support.
We too, have this kind of dilema with Bebo at our Intermediate School. We block Bebo at school, but as we all know it is at home where the students are using it. Newsletters home to parents to encourage them to look at what their children are doing online don’t seem to get the message through. I have spoken to groups of students who thought that their spaces were private, only to find that I could tell them details about what was on their pages, and they too didn’t seem to know or care, that ALL of them were under the age limit of 13 years old.
One parent I spoke to, about a particular photo their daughter had posted on her bebo site, couldn’t comprehend the inappropriateness of it until I showed her a little bit of photo manipulation – that shocked her. But she had no idea what her daughter was doing online. Unfortunately neither do many parents. They don’t see the information that their children are posting about themselves and others or the inappropriate nature of the language they are using. One parent had no idea that their son posted his home address and cellphone number on his Bebo page!
So we MUST continue to educate our students in class about Online Safety – information – communication – collaboration etiquette, just like we continue to educate our students about manners, healthy eating, cleanliness etc. And we MUST continue to educate/inform our parents.
I agree with Jane. There needs to be a more proactive approach to cybersafety….more consistent too. It sounds like you are being the process in your ICTPD cluster on the right foot. I would be interested to here how it develops over the year. Perhaps something more stuctured and formal needs to be implimented, or perhaps ‘more education’ for staff is concerned. It’s hard when staff are not familiar with how the ‘Net ‘works’. They find it difficult to teach something they don’t understand.
I agree 100% about educating rather than forbidding. They will experiment, and they will try out social networking. Rather let them know pitfalls, make them aware of the reasons, and give them the tools they need to stay safe. I’ve seen with my own daughter how devastating cyber bullying can be. We need to empower our students with the skills they’ll need when this happens, and remind them that the real-life values, like honesty, caring, quality and so on, all count in the cyberworld too!
I had a similar experience when a student wanted to by my ‘friend’ on MySpace which I didn’t accept. It led me though to look at her profile, and consequently the profiles of many of our students and I came to the same conclusion as you – that they sure do need to do some thinking about they way they are portraying themselves. But, blocking is definitely not the answer.
Barb
Hosted by 