A bNetS@vvy interview with teacher Paula White.

1) How involved are you with social technology (virtual/video/online games, websites, mobile devices, social networking sites, texting, Twitter, etc.), both  professionally and personally? What do you like best and least about the way you use social technology in your professional life and personal life?

I guess you would consider me to be extremely connected all the time.  I have an air card to use with my computer when wireless is unavailable.  I have a Windows mobile phone with data service so I can always get on the Internet.  I have profiles set up on most social networking sites, though I use them to various degrees. I am a member of many social networking sites–Facebook, Linked-IN, professional Nings, wikispaces, Delicious, Diigo, voicethread, and Twitter, among others. I use Twitter daily professionally and find it invaluable. The others I use sporadically as the need arises.

I learned to text from my grandson, and he is actually the reason I recently changed my phone plan to have data service.  He began texting me when he was 10 (he’s 11 now) and I wanted to be able to respond. He mostly uses it in place of the phone calls we used to exchange, but it is not unusual for me to get a text from him on the weekends to simply ask what I am doing, or how the weather is when I am at the lake place and he has not come with me. He texts constantly when we are together, and I often ask who’s texting him.  Thus far, he has not been reticent at all about answering me. (I guess he hasn’t begun with the girlfriends yet.) I rarely text with others, but I do have a friend who is pushing me to use it more.

I use wikispaces [a web page - in this case a members-only site-created,used, and edited collaboratively by a group of people] with my students and have had great success.  The elementary students who use it have enjoyed not only the collaboration piece of wikis, but also the opportunity to “wikimail” their friends.  I set my wikis up so that the students can ONLY wikimail members of our wikis; thus they cannot be contacted by outsiders–not even their parents–unless they have joined our wiki.

2) Will your social technology activity change or stay the same over the summer?  Will you be taking time this summer to brush up on social tech in your personal/family life or on ed tech in the classroom?

I don’t separate my professional use from my personal use, because I MOSTLY use social networking tools for my job. If I had to, I would probably limit my personal use mostly to online shopping and email, except for keeping up with my brother in Afghanistan through his Facebook page and using Skype.

In the past, my students have indeed used the wikis over the summer; in fact, last year my graduating fifth graders created several pages on the last day of school or during the first week of summer vacation.

Twitter changes over the summer significantly, as folks have more time to send tweets.  Last summer I participated in probably 10-12 professional development opportunities online that I found out about through my Twitter PLN (Personal Learning Network). I was more connected last summer because of those findings, and I learned a tremendous amount through that networking.  This year I’ll be able to contribute to that, as I attend the National Educational Computing Conference in DC and will be tweeting as well as participating on an international panel about creating and building PLNs.

Both my principal and superintendent are users of social networks, so I get support at work to use them professionally. Many [Albemarle Co., Virginia] county folks are on Twitter because of the conversations I have been involved in, and I also introduced wikis to the county teachers at a workshop in summer of 2008. Most teachers in my building are not users that I know of, other than Google docs.

3) What advice do you have for parents and educators about how they might use the summer to become more tech savvy themselves, and to better communicate with, and guide tweens and teens about the safe and healthy use of social technology?

I know that my Daughter-in-Law will monitor my grandson’s use of both his computer and his phone, as will I when he’s with me.  A simple move to do so is to NOT have the computer in the bedroom of the child, but instead in a fairly public place so that the screen is easily seeable as an adult walks by.

I have tight reins on the wikis during the school year, and the kids and parents know that, as I work to educate them as well during the school year.  I will continue to monitor that use during the summer, and one infraction loses the student his/her access. They know that, so are careful.

Some parents don’t allow their children access to the wikis at home and that’s okay with me.  I had a student last year whose only home access was when he visited the other parent during the summer, and he readily admitted that parent didn’t monitor, so I was extra diligent checking the emails he was sending and the work he did on the wiki.

4) What tips do you have for families looking to stay safe online this summer?

Paula White’s Summertime Online Safety Tips for Kids:

Rule #1 for kids is NEVER put full name or contact/personal information on the Internet on any site.  I recommend to my kids that they develop an alias, and talk about how mine is either “digitchr” or “tzstchr” on websites I am new to using.

Rule # 2.  They shouldn’t join any sites without parental permission, and whenever possible use only sites that are monitored by a known entity.

Rule #3.  If Grandma or parents don’t want to see, read or hear it, then they shouldn’t publish it.

Paula White’s Summertime Online Safety Tips for Teens Helping Younger Siblings:

1. Reinforce that the smartest thing kids can do is never putting a full name or contact/personal information on the Internet.

2. Share safe sites.

3. Explore Get Game Smart together and talk rules and safety tips

Paula White’s Summertime Online Safety Tips for Parents

1. Understand that social networking tools come out faster than any of us can keep up with them, so ask your kids which ones they use, and look them up.

2. Parents can check their child’s username here, Username Check, to see which sites they may be on

3. Parents can also see a list of web 2.0 tools here,  and ask about some of them of their child.

4. Go to the FBI’s Parent Guide.

5. Explore a sample safety pledge and create your own with your child: Click here for sample safety pledges from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Paula White is a 30+ year veteran teacher who has produced award winning visual arts projects and websites with students in grades K-5.  An Apple Distinguished Educator, an Elementary Educator of the Year, and National Teacher Training Institute Master Teacher of the Year, she received the Golden Apple for her school in 2008, and was recognized in 2007 as a Technology Innovator by THE Journal.  Paula regularly presents at state and national conferences and served on the NETS for Teachers Development Team for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Follow Paula at @paulawhite on Twitter.

As the school year rapidly comes to a close, teachers and parents should consider the fact that children and teens will soon have plenty of time on their hands — frequently unsupervised. They will have ample opportunity to explore many nooks and crannies of cyberspace. How can the adults in children’s lives make sure their online activities are safe and responsible?

Parents and teachers know how to keep children safe and encourage responsible action in the “real world.” When children are young, we keep them in safe places, ensure they are under the care of responsible adults, watch over them carefully when in more public places, and provide simple guidelines that lay the groundwork for safe and responsible behavior.

As young people grow, we provide greater freedoms – and more guidance on expectations for behavior. By the time they are teens, they will be going many places on their own. But parents still remain engaged by asking, “Where will you be going? Who will you be with? What will you be doing?”

To keep young people safe online requires applying these same approaches. Keep them safe when they are younger. Empower them to make safe and responsible choices as they grow. Research has demonstrated that teens whose parents are actively and positively involved in their online activities engage in less risk-taking online behavior.

To protect children at home (in the summer or any time) requires that parents effectively establish safe “fenced online play yards” and impart simple protective strategies. The online risks faced by children and teens include:

a)  Spending too much time online;

b)  posting or sending material that could damage their reputation or place them at risk;

c)  receiving or sending hurtful messages;

d)  accidentally accessing damaging material; and

e)  being profiled and targeted through certain types of advertising.  See Common Sense Media’s article “Mediating Media Exposure” .

Helpful family safety features are now available for parents to establish an electronically fenced online play yard. These include features like Vista and Symantec Family Safety features and the controls in Internet-accessible gaming devices. The key features of these family safety controls are:

a)  white lists that allow parents to determine the specific sites their child can access;

b)  controls for who their child can communicate with;

c)  time limitations; and

d)  retention of history file.

These features are far more robust than filtering software, which seeks to block access to inappropriate sites (although blocking is also a component of these features). 

Key safety guidelines for children include:

a)  staying on the sites that have been selected;

b)  keeping their activities in balance;

c)  thinking before they post; 

d)  handling hurtful online situations with the help of a caring adult, if possible;

e) seeking adult help if inappropriate material accidentally appears; and

f)  paying attention to when sites seek to advertise to them.  See Common Sense Media’s tips on “Selling to Kids“.

The most effective risk prevention approaches for teens is to utilize a “social norms approach.” If students know other young people are not engaging in risky behavior they are much less likely to do so. Research has shown that the majority of teens are making good choices online and effectively responding to negative situations. They have no desire to connect with online “creeps.” By identifying and promoting the healthy, protective behaviors that are the actual norms for young people online we can help more young people engage in these safe and responsible behaviors.

The foundation for safe and responsible online behavior for teens is three-fold:

1) Think before you post. Teens must understand the Internet law of predictable consequences. The more embarrassing or damaging the material they post, the more likely it will become very public and be seen by people who will judge them badly.

2) Keep your life in balance. Time spent online or using screens should not take the place of the other things that keep their life in balance – like getting together with friends and physical activities, preferably outside.

3) Connect safely. Take time to get to know people online, remembering that it is possible to create false profiles or impressions. Know how to effectively respond to hurtful messages or situations and do not cause harm to others.

The most effective instructional approach to use with teens is to ask them to discuss their personal guidelines for their online activities – first in small groups and then in a large group. This allows the more savvy students, who tend to make good choices online, to play a leadership role. Other students who may not have thought the issues through will be far more inclined to follow the sage guidance of their peers than any adult delivered guidance.

I recently used this technique with a group of teens at a teen conference. Small groups came up with sound guidance that I was able to deepen by asking further questions within the larger group discussion. Another adult reported to me that on the way out of the room she overheard one teen say to another, “Wow, there are some things I need to fix with my profile.” Addressing these issues through this kind of positive peer influence is powerfully effective.

Summertime or any time — empower your children/students to move safely and act wisely in cyberspace.

Nancy Willard, MS., J.D, is the Director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use. She has a background in work with at risk youth and law and has focused on issues of youth risk online and effective Internet use management in schools for over 12 years.

What will your kids be doing this summer? Heading to camp, splashing around the local pool, working a part-time job – and maybe still managing to spend oodles of idle time online?  How can caring adults keep up their kids’ online summer activity and behavior? 

This issue tackles summertime safety online from a variety of viewpoints.  In From the Experts, Internet safety expert Nancy Willard offers specific risk prevention tips for parents of children and teens (and see Willard’s downloadable cybersafety handout, available at bNetS@vvy’s Tips and Tools section).  In Parents’ Corner, teacher and mother Vicki Davis details four guidelines for building “a family summertime safety line.”  Our Teacher’s Desk piece features Paula White, a tech-savvy elementary school teacher who urges parents and teachers to spend the summer learning more about the benefits of social technology.  And in our Youth Voices segment, we hear from two typical kids, one age 11 and one age 15, about how they use social technology in their daily lives. 

Thanks for reading, and let us know about your tips/strategies for gaming, and Internet/social technology safety.  We’re always looking for new contributors to bNetS@vvy, and we invite you to share your stories with us by emailing internetsafety@nea.org.  Together we can help young teens make the most of technology – more safely.

Sincerely,

Mary Esselman, editor, bNetS@vvy