I do parent night presentations through September for our 1:1 program and a few nights about various online topic through the school year. I’m going to use this post to collect what I think are some salient thoughts, experiences and questions & some answers. Please comment to add some more!
- Adults need to participate in their kids online life. It isn’t virtual reality, it is their reality. We are their guides, even though we might not understand the technology they are using, we teach the values they need to know and apply online
- Q: How do I know what my child is doing on their laptop in their bedroom? A1: Don’t let the laptop go in the bedroom. A2: Ask them what they are doing online. A3: Ask them to show their browser history and talk about expectations regarding not clearing the history
- Don’t let your child join facebook before they are 13. If they do they are lying about their age according to FB’s acceptable use policy.
- If your child is on facebook, you should be too, and their friends should be your friends. If they wouldn’t say hello to you on the street, they shouldn’t be a “friend”. (Steve Dotto’s suggestion)
- cyberbullying is bullying. We don’t take pens and paper away from kids who write mean notes, we teach them not to. One of our Trustees shared a story about throwing pencils at girls when he was in school. He said that they didn’t take the pencils away, they taught him not to throw them at girls.
- Social Responsibility extends outside the walls of our schools and online as well. Add Social Responsibility online to codes of conduct, positive behaviour support matrices etc.
- When speaking with kids about their online conduct, ask them how they would feel if it were directed at them. Would they have done the same thing with the parent or grand parent present, why or why not? Speak to values and relationships, not technology
- Educate the kids before we have to go to the bullet above (from a twitter conversation with George Couros @gcouros: “We need to educate as this is part of our world. Usually the problem happens before education, not after”)
- Our local RCMP detachment has dealt with students impersonating others online. Impersonating others is a crime.
- Things posted online don’t always go away when you hit delete. Digital tattoos are hard to remove (ask potential MPs who dropped out of the last federal election)
- Remember the person when commenting online. If you aren’t willing to reveal your actual name when commenting, don’t comment. Anonymity is not a license to bully others.
Please comment to add some more ideas on Social Responsibility online.