Week 1: Internet Saftey

As we start our journey of communicating in a networked society, it is important that you fully understand the nature of internet publishing. Many of you are familiar with social networks such as MySpace or Facebook. However, those sites are geared toward social networking and meeting and communicating with friends. The purpose of our communication is to use blogs and forums as a learning tool, an extension of the classroom, not as a place to socialize.

With this in mind, your first task is to make sure there is no personal information in your blog or forum profiles. Make sure you do not show your e-mail address on your profile. If you choose to set up a blog attached to your student blogging profile, I would recommend that you name your blog and give it a description that identifies it as a school blog. Your personal blog should not be connected to your school blogging account.

Once you have completed the first task, you are ready to begin today’s assignment. By the end of class today, you should be able to recognize the potential dangers of irresponsible blogging and internet publishing, and contribute to an “acceptable use” policy for your class period.

Your assignment is to read the following texts:
Schools grapple with policing students' online journals from USA Today.
Student Blogging Handbook from Mr. Hunt’s website. Pay close attention to the section “Important Reminders about Blogging”
A New Online Safety: The Means, not the end from NetFamilyNews.org

After reading the articles, start a thread in the forum and answer the following questions:

What are some of the potential dangers of blogging discussed in these texts? Which of these concerns are legitimate? Why or why not? What other dangers are there in blogging that were not discussed in the texts? What should students keep in mind in order to practice responsible blogging? Suggest 2-3 rules you think would be appropriate for the class to follow as part of an internet publishing policy.