Pattyjane’s Weblog

Instead of writing two ejournals, I decided to do one for checking into my school/district policy and for cybersafety. The district I work in has each student sign an intenet acceptable use contract which has been approved by the school board. Every student has to sign it each year before they are allowed to use the computers at school. The computer teacher discusses the policy and has a cyber safety information night for students and parents. Few parents attend but I think it’s still good to offer it for interested parents. As colleagues we share our concerns and information on cyber safety at staff meetings and through our anti bullying program. In order for a teacher to use a program, like ePals, we have to check with the technology director first. Most of our computers have extensive blocks so students and staff can not access anything not approved. Since I work at an elementary school K-5, we have very tight controls with no access to lap tops as yet.

For the rest of this ejournal I will write about some of the sites I visited concerning kids and cyber safety. The first site I went to was called Stopcyberbullying.org. At this site I learned about the concept of cyberbullying and that sites for combating it existed. The site gives children an easy to remember motto, “Stop, block, and tell” There was also a a Call for a “bloggers code of conduct” by Tim O’Reilly whereby the blogger would own their own comment and take responsibility for the tone in which the message is conveyed. I also learned that March 30th was “Stop cyberbullying” day and that the purpose of it is to mobilize a global conversation about various forms of online harassment and how to combat it. I thought this was a really great idea. We have a bullying program at our school and many of these ideas were extended to cyberspace. It obviously needs to be defined and talked about to raise awareness of the issue and make it clear that it is wrong and has potential negative effects on the target and consequences for the bully. I think I would use a cyber survey to find out how my students use the internet and find out what sites they go to. I’d include some questions about cyber bullying, the same way we take a survey each year on “regular” bullying. The next site I went to was cyberbullying.org. At this site I found a defintion which I liked: “cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm.” by Bill Belsey. I thought it helpful to get a clear definition, one I could use with students. At this site there was a link: www.bullyingcourse.com which I went to that discussed the fact that a lot of educators (even those new to education and right out of teacher ed programs) do not know much about how to teach their students how to be safe online, so there are course parent, students, and teachers can take online to learn more about it. The next site I went to was Staysafe.org. There were links to staysafe for kids, teens–where you could find out what’s hot/new in cyberbullying and how to avoid being a target. I went to the link for elementary kids. At the teen site, there was a short movie called, “Predator” made by a 14 year old Utah boy named Trevor about online predators. It was about 6 minutes long and showed a boy meeting someone he met online who he thought was a girl. Instead a man pulled up and lured him into his truck. The boy manages to escape and call the police. The movie was very well done and and by acting out what can actually happen made a very important point about the hazzards of meeting someone met online. I also went to the Cybersmartkids.com.au site. I went to the educator link as part of the info on “protect your family.” I checked out the cyber rules list for kids, with the thought of using them with my own students. I went to “Chat danger” and read the story of “what happened to one family” which I think took place in England, but the girl was lured by a sex predator to meet with him 4 times and he made indecent sexual advances toward this very confused girl. She eventually told her parents who helped her and called the police. Also at this site I took a Chat room quiz. The format of the quiz is that it give you different senarios and you have to provide a response. I chose some of the least safe responses to see what would happen. The quiz gave me answers which provided advice and then listed some consequences. It was written to make the participant think critically about choices regarding meeting someone from a chat room. This was an interesting foray into cyberbullying and cybersafety. I picked up a lot of ideas to use in my teaching, including surveying my students’ use of online communicating. One thing is that I’ve never been to a chat room. But now I feel as though I am in a better position to advise them, than I was before whether I go to a chat room or not.

Lesson Plan for students about Online Safety (Adopted from Cybersmart Survey and Cyber rules)

Lesson Plan Title: Cyber Rules for Students

Concept/Topic to Teach: How students can become Safe and Cyber smart

Objectives: Students will be able to tell what it means to be safe and Cyber smart. Students will learn to identify potentially unsafe cyber situations. They will know when to ask for adult intervention and or advise.

Required materials: Access to a computer at the school lab with a link to cybersmart.

Step by Step Procedures: 1. Tap students prior knowledge or understanding–use an informal survery to ask: Who thinks they are a computer wiz? What sort of things do you like to do online? Who goes to chat rooms and uses email and ICQ? Why is this cool/not cool? What friends have you made online? What risks are there in communicating online? (Has anyone had any bad experiences?) How would you define cybersmart? Why is it important to be cybersmart? 2. Introduce the activity: Students will turn on their computers and go to www.cybersmart.com au. Have them read RU cybersmart. (Independent Practice) Then they will take a 15 minute quiz using the information they just read. Teacher will circle the class helping students as needed. Have students turn in their score when done. 3. Have an open discussion–Ask: Who thought the characters did the smart thing? What would you do if… What do you think being cybersmart means? Why is it important to be cybersmart?

4. Closure – Reflection: End by developing cybersmart rules with students. Check it against Cyber Rules from the Cybersmart site and suggest rules they may have overlooked. (eg. Ask parent before giving out name, address, photo, personal details, to anyone on the internet; Meeting people online may be fun, but they might not be who they say they are; Keep your password a secret; Don’t fill out any forms or give out any credit card information; Tell your parent if anyone says anything rude or upseting to you online or sends nasty pictures; Don’t accept any offers that seem too good to be true – they probably are.

5. Extension: Students make posters for the computer lab on some of the cyber rules they’ve discussed. Students could plan a cyber safe awareness day and make presentations to younger students.