As we read in Sara Roncero-Menendez article, The Online Activity That’s Keeping You
Unemployed, “The Internet is forever.” As we are progressing into a more
tech savvy world the Internet seems to continue to grow and play a bigger and
bigger role in our lives. When I was growing up I remember not having a
personal email account or social media website until the end of high school.
Today, children are on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter before they even
know how to fully read or write. Because the Internet has so much to offer and
it is accessible with practically anything we use in our daily lives we have allowed
it to play this big role in students growing experience.
Since children and young adults consistently using social
media they are with out knowing, adding to their online portfolio. With smart phones people are able to take a
picture and instantly upload it onto a website. I am sure if you are posting 5
pictures a day onto Facebook in middle school and high school by the time you
grow up you are going to wish quite a few of those weren’t available for the
whole world to see. It is our job as adults and educators to teach student the
right way to use these websites. We need to teach students the impact the
Internet can make on their lives forever. The Internet can determine if you do
or do not get into you favorite college, if you get offered your dream job, or
even if you are accepted into a social group. What you post on the Internet is
permanent and it allows others to judge you based solely on the information you
provide. Students need to know that once you put a something up, it is there
forever.
It is important that we teach students to
represent themselves in a way that they are proud of. If a parent, grandparent,
or adult mentor were to look on a student’s website that student needs to be
able to own what they post and be proud of what they have created. I hope to
teach students the right way to use the Internet and influence them to
positively represent themselves. Who knows, that post they added 3 years ago
might be a game changer in their life.
You made valid points and I agree with you, but the more I think about it I start to wonder, is it really our job as the child's teacher to teach and monitor how they portray themselves online or is that the job of the parent/legal guardian? I think that we can model what is appropriate and have frank discussions, but think about everything we have to accomplish throughout the day.. Do you think we'll have enough time to cram this into our lesson plans as well? Just a thought! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteJulia- I know what you mean! I think it really depends what you have going on in a classroom to factor into this decision. I did a lot of work at a high school where students did all of their work on iPads and laptops. I think they had a total of 2 or 3 physical books. If this is the case, then I definitely believe it is our job to guide them in the right direction of how to act and portray themselves online since that is where they are doing all of their work.If it is a class of 1st graders who are learning how to read and type... probably not the same case.
DeleteI remember my first experience with email was in either 11th or 12th grade. I started wondering how long we will use email. After reading your piece I started realizing that there are other social media sites I had not even considered. I rarely use instagram but I know its more popular with a generation younger than me. Snapchat is one I have no experience with but I have heard of it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you believe we as teachers have a responsibility to teach our students how to be good citizens online. This reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a friend that is a teacher. I asked her what she has learned after being a teacher for several years. The comment that stayed with me was when she said she realized she was not just a teacher but a mentor, a friend, and also a parent to her students. The students spend so much of their lives with us that I think we do have a responsibility to teach students how to behave online. This will be even more true if we are using computers in the classroom.
Haha, I know that there are a few pictures floating around online I wish I had never taken. I can't remove them but they were at least set to private so no one can see them, thank goodness! I think I grew up in a time that I had access to the internet, but we hadn't developed the firm strategies to prevent things like this from happening. But now we're learning the ways to help our future students and kids to not make our mistakes!
ReplyDelete