Online Security for our Students

I often worry about my own online security and the digital footprint that I have made on the internet. Am I vulnerable based on the information that I have shared and how do I put out a positive image of myself on the internet? Because I am aware of the potential dangers of the internet, I worry about these things, and it also is my responsibility to help my students become aware of internet security issues and help them to become responsible and safe users of the internet.

In Anne Collier's entitled A Better Safety Net: It's Time to Get Smart About Online Safety she discusses what risks youth are most susceptible to due to how they utilize and view the internet as a tool. She discusses how in the past the biggest fear of youth using the internet is predation, and while this remains a concern it has been found that youth involved in internet predation are typically due to common teenage vulnerabilities. The possibility of youth being affected negatively by their peers especially due to cyberbullying and other agressive behavior. In the past with predation being the largest feared internet security issue the largest fear was related to physical security only. However, Collier suggests that physical, psychological, reputational and legal, and identity, property, and identity issues are all important to insure both our own and our youth's internet security. It is our responsibility, especially as teachers, to be able to integrate media literacy and digital citizenship into our classrooms. Overall, I totally agree with Collier in her analysis of online safety and hope to include these teachable practices into my own classroom. This ties well with the talk by Mark Dohn at the MACUL conference in an interesting way. He said that we should let students fail by making mistakes in the classroom with the internet. He thinks that by include security features on the technology that students use at school, that we are indirectly telling them that we do not trust them, and that we are also removing their opportunity for failure. Students should be provided the opportunity to fail with internet security, according to Mark. While I do think that failure is an important part of learning, the idea of completely removing internet security on school computers makes me incredibly nervous. What do you think? I think it would allow for more teachable moments since students don't have this added security on their personal devices....but it's still scary.

Lisa Nielsen writes in her blog about how to "Help students manage their digital footprint and effectively participate in social media." She lists three key pieces to help students:

1) Have a conversation with teens about taking control of their digital footprint.
2) Help teens determine what their digital footprint says about them.
3) Connect with others with your passions and interests

The first step involves having a conversation that makes students think about and take responsibility for their internet footprint. The next step helps students realize how what they put on the internet portrays their identity and how people see them. To better develop, discover, and uncover students' passions and interests, and therefore improve how students portray themselves online. 

Overall while these tips may be helpful to me as a teacher in informing my students about internet security and how to construct and manage their digital footprints, I am going to take some of these lessons to heart for myself. I have grown up with the development of this great tool of the internet but was never taught how to manage my own footprint. Hopefully. I'll be able to both proficiently manage my own digital footprint while also instructing my students on the importance of these practices.