Reading Reaction #3

Hello, Readers out in Blog-Land!

It’s been cool and dismal in normally sunny Florida this week, which I shouldn’t really complain about since the rest of the nation is buried under mountains of snow.  But, because I am used to wearing shorts and t-shirts with flip-flops year-‘round, I don’t always remember to bring a sweater, and like today, I am sitting at my desk, shivering.  I could sneak in a space heater, but the last time I did, it overloaded the circuits in my office, and knocked out power for half of the building.  I think if I tried to bring in another space heater, it would probably be confiscated as being contraband. 

And I don’t blame “them”.  You see, we have to have rules when we work in schools, no matter what level it is that we teach.  The rules are made to protect us.  We’re not supposed to have space heaters here because they can be a safety risk:  they can start fires, someone could trip over the cord, and they can knock out the power to half of an entire building.  So the custodial staff or the maintenance department sets guidelines to protect all the people who work or attend my school.  They have to think of all the scenarios that might happen because of space heaters and make informed decisions on whether or not they think that they are safe.  As a teacher or employee, it is my responsibility to adhere to those guidelines, whether or not I agree with them (or sit, shivering, under a blanket).

The same thing applies to all areas of the school, as well.  Those in charge (the administration) have the responsibility to protect all of the people who work there or attend there.  We absolutely cannot have a school that is not safe.  I am in total support of school safety.  That being said, that protection can be frustrating, when you have keys to your classroom but not keys to the building or when you want to access a perfectly educational video on YouTube, but the site has been blocked.  So where do we draw the line?  And who decides what is safe?

We were posed with this question:  Is it more unethical to allow threats to students/schools or to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?  That could be considered a loaded question to some, but to me, it’s a no-brainer.  I think it is more unethical to allow threats to students/schools.  Our job is to protect our students and allowing them to access the Internet free from restrictions is just asking for trouble.  I can hear some teachers moaning now, “But what about that awesome video I found on YouTube?  My school blocked that site!”  Well, first of all, you can download videos from YouTube by adding the word, “kick” to the web address (www.kickyoutube.com/restofthewebaddress).  Secondly, has the same video or similar video been uploaded to another website, this one teacher/student friendly?  Next, is this the ONLY resource that will support the lesson being taught?  And, lastly, is showing the video REALLY necessary? 

Chapter 8 in the textbook, Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom, is about computer security, Internet safety, copyright, and ethics.  It is imperative that schools safeguard their computers against viruses, unauthorized use, information theft, and hackers.  In addition, schools also need to protect the students from seeing inappropriate content, controversial subject matter, or inaccurate websites that might fool an innocent visitor.  (For example, have you ever gone to the website, www.nasa.com?  Don’t bother.  NASA’s real website is www.nasa.gov.)  In the year 2000, “Congress passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act ... to protect children from obscene, pornographic, and other information considered harmful to minors” (Shelly 492).  As a result, public libraries installed filtering software to avoid such sites.  I read that some people say that when schools block certain sites, it violates their freedom of speech, but that argument was upheld in 2003 (Shelly 492).  I agree with that argument, and quite frankly, I am not sure if I care about whether or not children have freedom of speech.  They are minors.  We have the responsibility to protect our children.  PERIOD.

In our textbook and in our instructor’s supplemental materials, we were given a lot of information about cyber safety and protecting our students as well as protecting our computers.  We had the opportunity to read the how’s and why’s of Internet security in the following articles:


The 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics
Lift the Cell Phone Ban

But how would a parent protect their children?  Most likely, families don’t have their own IT department hidden away in the closet, so what can they do about it?  I feel it is part of our job as teachers to educate our students and our students’ parents in this area.  I found a neat site called Internet Safety Day that has a parent’s guide.  Inside are guidelines to assist parents in opening the doors of communication with their children in the areas of instant messaging and chat rooms, cyber bullying, and cell phones.  In the guide, the authors write, “Most parents would never drop a teenager off at the local mall known to be a hangout for thousands of registered sexual predators or allow a strange adult to visit their son or daughter’s bedroom. However, many of those same parents wouldn’t think twice about allowing their child to sit in their bedroom using online chat rooms with complete strangers or hanging out in social networking sites known to have registered predators” (ISD 2011 Parent Guide 4).   Parents can utilize parental controls on their computers as well as programs such as Net Nanny to block inappropriate content.  Also, in my opinion, I think children should have their own accounts on their parents’ computers so that they cannot get into or change any sensitive information on the computer.  Recently, my six-year-old nephew accidentally rearranged the start menu and task bars, as well as hid some icons when he was using the computer.  Now he and his sister have their own account, and their parents have to use a password to get onto their computer.  By creating separate accounts, the children cannot accidentally delete any files or modify any settings.  In addition, their parents can block certain programs and websites, certain words in search engines, as well as track their computer usage and sites visited.  About 15 years ago, I gave my dad my old Apple SE30 computer.  On it was a little program that ran whenever something was put into the trash can:  Oscar the Grouch came out and sang, “Oh, I love trash!  I love it because it’s trash!”  Well, when my dad’s seven-year-old grandson came to visit, he put every icon on the computer into the trash, just so he could see Oscar pop out over and over….  We not only need to protect our computers from viruses and other security risks, but also our very own kids!


As children become more and more tech savvy, we have to be more diligent in our protectiveness. Computers are instruments of communication, and, ironically, the best way to protect our children is to communicate with them – OFF of the computer. 

Until next time… let’s keep our kids safe. 
 

~ Christi

References:

Family Safe Computers (2011).  ISD 2011 parent guide. Retrieved from http://www.internetsafetyday.com.

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.