Source: http://home.cc.gatech.edu/guzdial/uploads/28/alices-keyhole.jpg

It appears that cybersafety isn’t just for grown-ups anymore. That’s right, educators, it’s not up to you anymore to keep Johnny and Jenny in the dark about the big, bad Internet.

Andy Carvin writes at learning.now about a new bill mandating online safety education for children in public schools:

The legislation is part of a much larger bill known as the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which mostly focuses on the FCC redefining and identifying tiers of high-speed Internet services, as well as the provision of grants for broadband initiatives at the state level.

Deep inside the bill, however, is a section dedicated to amending the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Introduced by Sen. John McCain in 1999 and passed by Congress in December 2000, CIPA was created over concerns that students would use Internet access in schools and libraries to access inappropriate materials. The law, which applies only to institutions that receive federal E-Rate subsidies for offsetting the cost of Internet access, requires that they certify they have policies and technology in place to promote Internet safety, such as an acceptable use policy and filtering software.

This past week, I heard someone was being interviewed about what a district could do about cybersafety. Of course, I promptly shared what a district could do…Scott Meech wrote about the dangers of cyberbullying.

Educators definitely need to understand how powerful and dangerous this new type of bullying has become as it has greatly impacted the classroom.

Paris and Robert Strom define cyber bullying as harassment using an electronic medium (E-mail, chat rooms, cell phones, instant messaging, and online voting booths) to threaten or harm others (Strom & Strom, 2005). This author believes that the definition should also include any form of information posted on the Internet, as in blogs, forums, etc. This latter form of cyber bullying involves gossip, humiliation, and threats (Sparling, 2005).

In the year 2000 a University of New Hampshire study found that one out of every 17, or six percent of kids in the United States, had been threatened or harassed online. But in March of 2006, statistics showed that 75 to 80 percent of 12 to 14 year olds had been cyber bullied. Furthermore, 20 percent of kids under 18 have received a sexual solicitation. So cyber bullying is clearly on the rise, and it affects both genders. An American Educational Research Association study shows that female bullies preferred the use of text messaging harassment versus face-to-face bullying by 2 to 1 (Toppo, 2006).

Students need to be educated on how to deal with cyber bullying as much as learning the traditional issues of drugs, sex, and nutrition. There are additional strategies that should be employed when dealing with cyber bullying. Never respond to a cyber bully. This just provides fodder and they now know that have actually made official contact. Protect your personal information with technology and change your online information including password and screen names on a regular basis.
Source: Scott Meech, Cyberbullying, TechLearning.com

When you read stuff like this, you have to scratch your head. Or, you can get really excited the way Nancy Willard does about this:

This nation’s attorney generals have been encouraging the development of digital identification – and pressuring social networking sites to implement such identification. There is a task force that is operating through the Berkman Institute that is addressing this issue. The leverage they are using is “fear of predators.”

Are we scared? Yes. My mom today reminded me about the dangers of predators when I proudly shared my daughter had published a book online. “No,” I told my daughter, “you can’t have a web cam hooked up to your computer. They might see Dad taking a nap with his mouth open after all night blogging stint!” (we keep an extra bed in the computer room where I usually take a nap…quietest place in the house, if you don’t count the keyclicks…soothing actually).

Andy ends his entry with this question, ” So how would you implement the policy in your school district?”

Simple. Along with standard technology integration professional learning opportunities (face to face) mandated by the Curriculum & Instruction superintendent, required for job advancement (snicker), I’d offer online courses tracked by a learning management system. These online modules (via Moodle) could be completed by new and returning employees required to work with children. Don’t complete the modules successfully? You have 1 week extension each time you fail…3 strikes, you’re fired.

Now, quick, someone want to help me develop those modules and market them to K-12 local education agencies (e.g. schools) ?

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