Cybersafety, Games and Social Bookmarking

Thanks to my Diigo account, which allows me to save my bookmarks online instead of just one computer, I also share resources with others online. today I received an email update that includes resources for learning cybersafety through games. The lady who shared it is helping others simply by saving her bookmarks online. Her community of followers then receive notice of what she has saved in case they want to share some of her findings.


Check it out here

Where does the responsibility start and end?

When sharing online learning with young people, like Room5ians, how far should the school go to make sure no one sees anything "dodgy", like advertisements aimed at adults...?
Do we stop young people from watching tv, reading, newspapers, walking down the main street? All of these places have mild adult content everywhere.
Does learning in the real world environment allow teachers to help students understand safe ways to cope with things they will be bombarded with anyway, outside of school?
It's like the cyberbullying issue. We ban phones to avoid txt bullying and worry about kids bullying online, but most if not all bullying happens face to face or in whispers around the playground. Do we ban access to the playground?
What do you think? Kids? Anyone?
Just wondering... :-)

Cyber Safety reminders

Hi kids - Room5ians, meet some Room 18 "Woodmonstas". They will soon have their own class blog [Gaboose will laugh - we have had no internet at school until today so blog plans have been slightly delayed] and will be becoming world famous just like you guys ... although, I believe they need some guidance from the experienced Room5ians to help them shoot to e-learning excellence.

Of course, another major requirement of successfully using e-learning in a positive way is to remain cybersafe. That means protecting your identity and avoiding trouble from cyberbullies.
Room5ians were so mature that we never suffered from any problems on our blog. We had 3 years of trouble free blogging with all the wonders of sharing our learning with people all over the planet.
If anyone had broken the rules, all children would suffer because schools and caregivers would make it harder to use the internet and to learn as connected, creative, responsible, self-directed, 21st century learning citizens of the world - just as the new NZ curriculum says we should be.

So, here are some internet safety resources online to share with parents who are concerned. Please also engage in dialogue with each other to share your experiences and knowledge. Remember the world is watching and hoping to learn along side you.

Enjoy!

http://www.netsmartz.org/index.aspx

rules of our blog

rules of our blog need to be discussed in class and agreed upon together. we must commit ourselves to sensible worthwhile blogging behaviour. it is for fun and learning but not for silly behaviour or attention seeking. we will need to use correct english, show respect to other bloggers and set a fine example fo rothers to be inspired by.
i am proud to be your new teacher - i hope we will enjoy our online learning adventure together.
:-)
please post ideas for blog rules and cybersafety ...

social, collaborative learning online

Sounds great - obviously with issues to be considered?
It's tempting for me to gloss over the potential negatives, but in responsibly educating our students, we must consider and discuss them - but with an open mind!

see these links to other blog discussions and an online documentary:

http://tinyurl.com/3cpge5

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

please add to the discussion adn have a look at these interesting blogs for educators:

http://beyond-school.org/

http://123elearning.blogspot.com/index.html

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

http://www.nextgenteachers.com/

question for educators [no doubt some of my students will read this and comment anyway]

do you believe the students should have access to the "real world" of the net, with guidance, advice, cyber safety education, monitoring by school IT administrator, etc, or should they be restricted from genuine net access and genuine collaborative social software and interaction because of the possibility of access to inappropriate content?
I ask because I am trying to achieve genuine interactive learning and there are pressures to restrict my class's access to the internet to avoid any possibility of "something going wrong".
essentially, my 10-12 year old GATE [gifted and talented education] students can learn online with greater richness and possibilities of interaction and feedback, or they can be restricted to a contained environment.
What do you think? In this case, a contract is signed by all students and if that is breached then they lose their rights to net access.
i sincerely hope some of our "readers" will begin to contribute to enable us to justify our current blogging format.