I am a very private person so I value finding ways to keep personal information off the web when it isn’t necessary. Many of my Grade 4 students have email addresses already and it amazes me how many of them include factual information including their first and last names. When we set up email addresses for class I will promote aliases like we did for our class. I am going to try gaggle this year so that I will hopefully have some control. We’ll see how it goes!
As for security I have had to be careful where my students go on the web. I often link desired sites to our class site and direct the students to it. When the students are allowed to use the web a little more freely we review the rules such as click the Back button if you get to a site that doesn’t contain the information you are searching for. I am also encouraging the students to look at the address and reading its short blurb before blindly clicking on it. These are just a couple of things I do with my Grade 4’s.
I read someone else’s comment about sites being blocked at school. I have argued this blocking since it started! I think we are doing the students a disservice! We need to teach them how to use the web effectively and responsively. If they are blocked from sites they aren’t going to know what to do when they stumble upon them outside of the school environment (and most likely unsupervised). We have tried educating our parents but very few come to our information sessions.
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Gaggle looks like it would be a very useful service for K-12 email.
I tagged it immediately. Good find!
It was interesting to see the class web site and blog that you have for your Grade 4 class. I like your layout. It’s easy to navigate and to read.
I agree with you Nicole. I talked about blocking the sites to the school division but it seems that would take time. How are we going to prepare students for the future if we are not even guiding them through this process.
The gaggle site is new for me. I added the link on my blog. Thanks.
In this class we have signed up for numerous new services which we all agree to a contract at the click of a mouse. I gotta say, that kinda scared me, because we must use the tools that are expected of us and frankly I haven’t read those agreements.
I am also amazed at the ability of the kids to not care about those agreements or not know what the possible consequences of their actions on the web might be (Can you say Facebook and YouTube). I guess that’s why their is a constant battle at school to block out sights because as adults we know what some of the consequences might be.
There has to be a serious look at internet citizenship skills and teaching kids online etiquete. Sometimes I feel a bit too paranoid (with 2 small kids at home) but it is something school boards need to think about with foresight or (worst case scenario) after something bad happens as a result of these tools/sites.
Hello Nicole: I don’t think that I have made it around to you just yet – so here I am. In front of Lyle goes Dana and behind goes Mad “er”: I was to be a girl but am over it now – going bald is much harder to accept.
I agree with all of the comments on your page here in regards to teaching “internet citizenship skills” and proper “web etiquette”. We can as adults or educators do all the blocking we want to, but (unfortunately) the cancer will still get through… What we have to do is give our students/children the tools/skills and mindsets to restrict, recognize and manage it… before, while and after it arrives: proactive vs reactive.
I mean if those in our charge (and I’m sure that no one here is immune) can get into danger zones right before our very eyes and somehow manage to disguise this from that of even our 6th sense (teacher withitness) – what pray tell are they doing in our abstentia?