Journal #3 Students Dig Up Dirt to Learn About Internet Safety

Morehouse, J. (2011). Students dig up dirt to learn about internet safety. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(2), 34-35. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20110910?pg=36

Summary:

This article addresses the issue of online security. The teacher conducts an Internet activity in which the students research the Internet to collect information about their teacher. The students are then asked to draw conclusions based off of the collected information. Some were true; some were false. The teacher, then, had students browse through the Internet for information on a complete stranger, given a number of basic background bio of the stranger. The students then put together a presentation on their stranger, and came up with conclusions about the person they were researching on. This successfully made students truly concerned about their privacy and security on the Internet. The students were given the opportunity to change their Facebook privacy settings, as to limit the amount of information they give out. All of the students make changes.

This is a great way to personalize the importance of not feeling invincible just because you are sitting behind a computer screen. The things you post on your social networking sites can and most likely will turn up again in the future, and you would not want to post anything you will end up regretting in the future.

Question 1: Would you implement this activity in your classroom?

I would definitely implement this in my classroom. One of the best ways to learn is to actually go through it in real life. If my students are able to personally see that it is very easy to obtain and misinterpret information on a person, even negatively, they will probably be concerned about their online reputation and security, and will be more likely to take the content of theirpostings on social networking sites, more seriously.

Question 2: What consequences could occur from this activity?

Some students may use these researching tools to try to gain as much access possible on a person of interest. This would be a violation on the other person's privacy, and would be the complete opposite of what the purpose of the lesson is striving to achieve.