Week Two Reflection

I think we often assume that because students have often grown up exposed to the Internet and using online technologies they are automatically comfortable with them and know how to use them. This is, obviously, not the case and instructing students in how to use online resources safely and effectively needs to be part of their education. This is not something they will necessarily be able to pick up on their own, nor is that the best way for them to do it. Just as we all needed to adapt to the online world, students will need instruction in how to make sense of everything they find online. We may call them “digital natives” but the landscape is often just as foreign to them as it is to us.

Given that the technological landscape is expanding at an exponential rate, I think it’s important to not just teach specific skills for specific resources, but also to teach general online etiquette and ethics. That’s one of the things that I liked most about the resources we were given this week—there was a lot of information about general behavior and theory, not just about how to use a specific technology. If students are equipped with a general idea of how to behave in an online environment they will be able to adapt those ethics to new technologies—and to their off-line lives!

One of the things I do worry about is using too many scare tactics to warn children and teens about predators online. Yes, it is a real danger—just as it is a real danger in the offline world. I worry that by being overprotective we may prevent students from learning how to protect themselves. I think there’s a crucial balance to be struck between letting children roam the Internet without limits, and keeping them so protected that they don’t learn how to prevent, recognize and avert dangers on their own.

The technology landscape is changing so quickly that it’s often difficult for the legal system to keep up. Given that that’s the case, I think it’s crucial for us to be thoughtful, reflective users of technology—just because something may, for the time being, technically be legal, that doesn’t make it right. Until the laws catch up with technology—if they ever do—I think it’s a good idea to keep the Golden Rule in mind when communicating and using resources online.

Even though it’s somewhat embarrassing to admit it, one of the things I learned in exploring this week’s resources was everything I’m doing wrong with creating passwords. While I wasn’t making some of the more obvious mistakes (i.e. using “password” as my password), my passwords could definitely be a little harder to crack. I’ve started changing my passwords using the tips I found through several of the websites from this week.