Today we had guest speaker Jesse Miller talk to us about internet privacy and safety. This is a very big topic for us as we are going into Education. We need to understand these things in order to keep ourselves protected but also to help our students. We have been the first generation thats 24h day is completely different from the generation before us. We were the test bunnies. We grew up just as all the big websites started. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all became big when I was around 10-13. I have had accounts on all of these since then. Privacy is being talked about more now but it wasn’t then. Scrolling through old Facebook memories is embarrassing. Old selfies and random posts can be deleted but they remain out there. I can search myself on google and photos will come up. Some are from Facebook and others are through hockey. Either way someone can search me and find a picture of me even if it may be outdated. I’m glad privacy is being discussed a lot more however it will never not be a problem. That idea of whatever you put online is there forever still remains. For me, my Instagram and Facebook can be searched up before a job interview. Now this doesn’t scare me as I may have some bad selfies and some random 13 year old posts on Facebook but I never did anything bad or overshared. Anything with drinking or other things I would never share. I have seen other peoples things. There are horror stories I have heard of things going around the school and out into the community that people have been charged for. People have lost jobs for trying to gain “clout”.
In terms of me becoming an educator these things need to be talked about. I have seen kids that rely on the ipad in front of them in the restaurant. What I did not think of was someday I may be teaching them. How do we work with that? Parents who allow their children to constantly rely on technology and then send them to us in a school are setting us up for a tough time. I think technology has a part in school but children need a seperation from it. This is a little nerve-racking to think of.
I’m thankful for this discussion and how Jesse said he can be reached to discuss any issues we have. I think people just need to understand the repercussions of their actions. Putting children online could be a media consent violation. In becoming teachers we are responsible for educating kids on how they can use these technologies responsibly. These technologies will not be going away anytime soon and therefore we need to be better at educating people about what can happen.
These are some of my other notes from todays class:
– password changes
-social media is social – privacy is not strong
-difference between generations – we are the first generation to go in a 24h day completely different than the generation before us
-kindergartens with phones (kids who go from sing ipads/phones all the time to in the classroom)
-banning cellphones in schools – you’re the educator its your space
– violent video games cause violent kids (not true)
-trying to fill media broadcast with non experimental data
“We shape our tools and thereafter, they shape us” – John Culkin
