EdTech: Bits & Bytes for December 2007

Welcome to the second edition of EdTech: Bits & Bytes.

This is the monthly newsletter from the Educational Technologist for Malaspina’s Faculty of Education, Julia Hengstler. It covers educational technology news, as well as tips and resources for educators and potential educators. I hope you find something useful and/or informative. Each monthly edition has a theme followed by a set of subject lines so you can quickly scan for topics of interest. Feedback on themes, content—or suggestions/contributions—are welcomed.  

This Month’s Theme: Safety Online—Safety Smarts for the Information Superhighway

Going online is a bit like heading into a cyber-Tokyo or New York City at dusk—there are tons of things worth seeing & doing, but there are dangers, too.  Would you let a 5 year-old loose on those streets alone? How about a 10, 14 or 16 year old? How comfortable would YOU be? Clearly some cyber “superhighway smarts” are needed—as well as a measure of supervision. What I call the two A’s of cyberspace—accessibility & anonymity—make it a ripe area for criminals to exploit. Despite the dangers, there is much worth seeing and doing on the Internet—what is important is to practice cybersafety.  (Note: this edition will not tackle cyberbullying—that will be addressed in a future issue.)

Sections Include:

1)      Some Concerning Internet Safety Statistics

2)      Safely Posting Student Images & Works (or What-Not-To-Post)

3)      Teaching Internet Safety Skills

4)      Internet Software Safety Helpers: Software

Some Concerning Internet Safety Statistics from WebWise Kids

http://www.webwisekids.org/index.asp?page=statistics

WebWise Kids reviewed research data regarding Internet use & safety. Here are some of the findings. (For actual study names please follow the link provided above.)

>>Re. Students & Personal Information

• 64% of teens post photos or videos of themselves online, while more than half (58%) post info about where they live. Females are far more likely than male teens to post personal photos or videos of themselves (70% vs. 58%)

• Nearly one in 10 teens (8%) has posted his or her cell phone number online

• 32% of all teens and 43% of teens active in social networking have been contacted online by a complete stranger

• Among teens active in social networking sites, 61% post the name of their city or town, 49% post their school's name, 29% post their email address, and 29% post their last name.

>>Re. “Stranger Danger”

• 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from people they don't know and most of them don't tell a trusted adult about it.

• In 2007, 8% of teens say they actually have met in person with someone from the Internet, down from 14% in 2006

• 23% of children have had an encounter with a stranger on the Internet, including 7% of children who reported having met someone in the real world from the Internet.

• 79% of sexual solicitation incidents happened to youth while they were using their home computer.

• 90% of sexual solicitations are directed to youth ages 13 and older.

• 40% of solicitations began with a solicitor communicating with a youth through an instant message or IM.

• 56% of solicitations contained a request for the youth to send photographs of themselves to the solicitor and 27% of solicitations contained a request for the youth to send a sexual picture of themselves.

• 34% of online solicitors made a phone call to the youth, 18% visited to the youth's home, 12% offered money or other items, and 9% sent offline mail to the youth's address.

• Only 5% of youth who received a sexual solicitation and 2% of youth who encountered unwanted sexual material online indicated that they have told law enforcement, their Internet service provider, school authorities, or other authorities about the incident.

Safely Posting Student Images, Works & Data (or What-Not-To-Post)

Sharing student work online is tantamount to publishing—often to the world at large. There is an extra level of effort that students will extend knowing that what they are doing will be published—and there is a certain level of pride in knowing that they have put a piece of work on display for others to see or share—whether with another class, family, friends, or the whole world. That said, there are particular safety considerations when posting student images, works, etc. online. NOTE: These safety considerations also apply to items like online team rosters, school club websites, etc.

Recently, a BC educational organization posted a video clip about a particular literacy project online. I saw it in a university classroom as part of a course. The video was professionally done in a BC school & was produced by well intentioned individuals. The video had definite merit as a literacy project exemplar; however, by watching this video carefully, I knew what individual students looked like, in several instances learned their first names, learned which teachers’ classes they were in, what grade they were in and what school they attended.  A quick Google of the school name and the teachers’ names and I had the school’s physical address.  As I pointed out to the group’s two leaders, a pedophile or kidnapper could have had a field-day with that information: Imagine a kidnapper saying, “Hey, Johnny. I heard about that great reading work you’re doing with your buddy, Elisabeth. Your teacher, Mrs. Nix told me you could tell me more about it…especially that book you really liked on dogs.” Give you the creeps? It should. This isn’t fiction—it happened and the organization subsequently edited the video.

Anytime you share information publicly—like on the Internet—you have a responsibility to protect the individual student’s identity—especially for underage students. Many of you who have done post graduate research with human subjects are familiar with this standard. For those of you thinking about post-grad research, you can become familiar with it now. For any teachers sharing student information—including pictures, articles, etc.—YOU MUST INSTITUTIONALIZE THIS PROTECTION OF PRIVACY IN YOUR PRACTICE. At a conference I attended a few years back, some teachers thought they had done a solid job maintaining student safety & anonymity. I pointed out that although they kept students’ names out of the actual documents as the authors, the names were evident in the URLs because the teachers had saved the files under the students’ names!

Does this mean you can’t share photos or student works? Of course not, but it does mean you need to do so safely. Things change a bit when you get to secondary/post secondary levels as there can be some expectation (based on more advanced age) that students can share their information. Even so, the students must give their permission to share that data—and for younger students, parental/guardian permission is usually necessary. Unfortunately, students today are much freer with their personal information that is often wise. Younger students may think it’s OK to share their full names, addresses, etc., but they don’t necessarily have the experience to make that call. Before posting, always check with your school district or institution regarding specific policies around publishing student work on the Internet. If there aren’t any, think about striking a task-force to build some. If you’re interested in wrap-around solutions, you might want to review the practices of your local publications as well. Many times smaller local papers, magazines, etc., tend to identify children with enough information that someone with mal-intent could locate them. Contact your school district to see if the local publications and school district—perhaps in partnership with the local police/RCMP—could establish some child-safe publishing standards.

Here are some tips to keep students safe when sharing work:

1)      Get permission from parent/guardian as required:

a.      does the school, district, institution require a photo release form? (By the way, Malaspina University-College does!)

b.      all original work is copyrighted, and therefore consent is needed (for a 5-13/14 year old this may mean parental/guardian consent—for older students check with your local district)

2)      Try to keep to group photos—and don’t include names.

a.      You can say something like “Our class at the Writers’ Retreat”

3)      If posting student work, protect actual authors’/artists’ names

a.      reduce to a single initial (i.e. unless you have only one “Z” or other first initial)

b.      change names to randomly assigned numbers

c.      change the name completely

d.      DO NOT include personal identification data in the file name or descriptors of the file (e.g. Word has a field where you can have notes about the document).

4)      When scanning in hand-drawn images, obscure the artist’s signature.

5)      If shooting video or recording audio, review it to see if there is enough information to track down individuals:

a.      do students call each other by name?

b.      is the school name/location identifiable?

c.      is the class/course/teacher identifiable?

d.      do any materials appear with identifications such as student name, number, etc.?

Here are a couple of links for good policy & practice:

>Creating Parental Permissions & Media Release Forms http://www.technologyintegrators.org/mediareleasesuggest.htm  (Also has policy exemplars.)

>Think Safety When Posting Online Video

http://safekids.com/2007/08/30/think-safety-when-posting-online-video/

>Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity: Safety Tips for Online Posting and Socializing

http://www.alphaxidelta.org/clientuploads/Technology/Safetytipsforonlinepostingandcomm.pdf

Teaching Internet Safety Skills

I grew up in the suburbs when it was still safe to play in the street outside my house alone, but before my parents let me out alone there were 3 requirements. One, they taught me how to stop, look both ways & listen, before crossing the street. Two, I had boundaries. Initially, I was allowed to the neighbour’s house, then given free range on the street block—then was allowed to walk a few blocks up—as long as an adult at my home knew where they could find me. Three, I was not allowed to talk to strangers. Pretty basic, right? Well, how often do we do that with students and the Internet? Going back to my cyber-city analogy—with its pockets of “safe” and “not-so-safe” neighbourhoods, how can we do any less?   Some of the main personal safety concerns for surfing students are: 1) access to inappropriate content; 2) strangers’ access to personally identifying information; 3) cyber-bullying & cyber-harrassment. The following links provide access to some basic internet safety programs. An effective program will involve not only the school & home, but larger community.

>>RCMP’s: Internet 101 (English or French)

http://www.internet101.ca/en/index.php

Canadian developed extensive Internet safety site with sections for youth, parents & educators. Main page highlights true story vignettes. Educators section geared more toward providing educational materials for youth and parents rather then specific Internet safety data for teachers.

>>iKeepSafe.org

http://www.ikeepsafe.org/iksc_educators/

A US based organization focused on Internet safety for Elementary Students—teaching them how to keep personal information private & how to avoid inappropriate content. With free registration, you receive access to materials for classroom use. Site has sections for students, parents and educators. Parent section has selection of informative video clips.

>>Australian Government’s NetAlert

http://www.netalert.gov.au/advice.html

This is an extensive resource. It provides several easy to read guidebooks in PDF form for parents (http://www.netalert.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1955/02528-A-Parents-Guide-to-Internet-Safety.pdf ); for librarians (http://www.netalert.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1956/02083-A-Librarians-Guide-to-Internet-Safety.PDF) for teachers (http://www.netalert.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/1819/01427-A-Teachers-Guide-to-Internet-Safety.pdf)

>>WebWise Kids http://www.webwisekids.org

A Califonia-based Internet safety group providing some free materials and some commercial. For a good list of relevant, enlightening statistics—go to “Resources”?”Web Dangers”?”Statistics”.  Organization produces a newsletter. The last two newsletters seemed product driven but Vol. 1, Issue 2 (Feb 06) had an article on the safety issues with MySpace.com. To find the article, Go to “News & Press” on the main site; select “Archived News Briefs” and the volume above. If you want to try it, register for the newsletter here: http://www.webwisekids.org/index.asp?page=register  Also of interest is a list of IM (instant messaging) acronyms: http://www.webwisekids.org/index.asp?page=acronymsGlossary As well as a set of other safety links http://www.webwisekids.org/index.asp?page=helpfulLinks

>>NetSafe Kids

http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/

This is a site dedicated to protecting children from sexual predators and child pornography. Gives an overview of how predators get to children and what parents (& educators) can do to help children stay safe. They provide some helpful links here: http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/res_helpful.html

>>LiveWires: Safety Games (Commercial products)

http://www.livewwwires.com/

Provides 3 levels of games on CD accompanied by a video as well as parent/teacher guides. Missing,  Mirror Image, & Air Dogs. Short video of Mirror Image here: http://www.cybercops.net/cybercops/games/mirrorimage/what/ .  University of Lethbridge evaluation of Mirror Image here: http://www.cybercops.net/cybercops/games/mirrorimage/evaluation/mirror-evaluation.pdf,

Internet Safety Helpers: Software

>>Monitoring Internet Use

Netsafe Kids (http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/ ) has some tips on how to monitor children’s use of the Internet by accessing browser histories, caches, and cookies (http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/pro_fm_monitor.html) .  They mention keystroke & screen monitoring software as well. Note the “Parent-Child Trust” subsection about possible ramifications if using monitoring without a child’s knowledge (could translate to Educator-Student Trust concerns).

>>PLNet & Inappropriate Content

One of the school-based built in safeguards for inappropriate content in BC public schools comes to us via the Provincial Learning Network (PLNet)—which provides the internet backbone for virtually every public school in the province. When students—or adults—on PLNet access what PLNet deems inappropriate content—the site is blocked. While this may be frustrating for older students doing research on criminal or deviant behaviour, it generally protects the rest of the pack. Nothing is ever a 100% foolproof, however.

>>Computer Lab Management Software

For Apple labs, Apple Remote Desktop (OS 8.1+) allows instructors to view what’s on a student’s screen, and allows instructors to “blank” a student screen.  Instructors can also restart, shut-down or wake up computers—among other functions. For PC labs, a product offering similar functions is NetOp (http://www.netop.com/netop-8.htm ). This also allows an instructor to control which applications a student may use. The company provides a free trial download. These are only two examples. There are others out there—you need to pick what functions you need based on the hardware you have, then narrow your choices. As always, when thinking about new software, ask for a trial period or budget for pilots, before going to larger scale implementations.

Thanks for reading EdTech Bits & Bytes. If you’ve enjoyed it, forward it on. Should you incorporate any of this material into your work and like to share your ideas with others, please send your experiences to the email below (Brevity in descriptions appreciated.). Also, if you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, please contact the author, Julia Hengstler.  

Stay safe online and have a wonderful holiday season,

Julia.

Julia Hengstler,

Educational Technologist

Faculty of Education, Malaspina University-College

Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

Email: hengstlej@mala.bc.ca

Phone: 250-753-3245 extension 2630