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Learning about cyber safety and ethics.

Earlier this week we looked at proposed legislation in California that would change how social networking websites handle privacy and security — not just for minors online but for all Internet users. Several commenters responded that, when it comes to children online, it should be up to parents, not legislators, to handle these sorts of matters.

But arguably, teachers can also help children learn responsible behavior online. A recent survey undertaken by the National Cyber Security Alliance, Microsoft, and Zogby/463, showed that 91% of teachers, 92% of tech coordinators, and 99% of administrators believed this should be taught. The survey examined administrators, teachers, and technology coordinators at the K-12 level about their thoughts on the cybersafety practices and curriculum in schools. (Full survey results here).

This is the third year that the National Cyber Security Alliance has tested these attitudes, this year asking over 1000 teachers, 200 tech coordinators and 400 administrators a set of questions about online safety.

Despite that agreement, the survey found a huge gulf between perceptions of how well and how often cyber-safety is taught. While 81% of tech coordinators and administrators felt that their schools and districts adequately taught the subject, only 51% of teachers agreed with the statement, “My school/school district does an adequate job of preparing students regarding cyberethics, online safety, and computer security issues.”

Moreover, while approximately 60-70% of administrators and tech coordinators said that teaching cyberethics, cybersecurity, and cybersafety were required, only about 30% of teachers agreed that was the case. Of those three subcategories — cyberethics, cybersecurity, and cybersafety — it’s the latter, cybersafety, that the largest percentage of teachers said was required. But only by 33% of teachers responding to the survey.

The survey also found quite a disparate response among teachers, tech coordinators and administrators when it came to school policies. While 95% of tech coordinators said that their schools or districts required students to sign “acceptable use” policies, only 86% of administrators and 75% of teachers agreed.

A little over half of teachers or administrators said they felt equipped to talk to students about protecting their safety and privacy online and about cyberbullying. Interestingly, a higher percentage said they felt prepared to teach students the basics of cybersecurity, such as the need for back-ups, anti-virus software, and password protection. But when it comes to what was actually taught in the classroom about online ethics and safety, the common response by most teachers was “nothing.” One notable exception: about half of teachers said they’d talked with students about the Internet and plagiarism.

The educators in the survey all expressed interest in more information on these issues and agreed that being able to address cybersafety and cyberethics in the classroom was a high priority for their professional development.

Educators, do you teach cyber-safety or cyber-ethics in your class? Do you believe teachers have a role to play in this kind of education?

Flickr: P i c t u r e Y o u t h

By Sara Bernard

Technically, Facebook doesn’t allow kids under the age of 13 to register for the site. That hasn’t stopped pre-teens from simply lying about their birthdates.

But kids under 13 don’t have to be left out of the social media world. A growing number of highly protected, kid-only sites offer viable alternatives to the unfiltered Internet world out there that allow children to exercise their social media muscles (something they’re going to do anyway) without running into online predators or inappropriate content.

Of course, it’s still just as important to educate kids about Internet safety and appropriate online behavior as it is to create technological barriers between them and unsafe situations.

“As a teacher I see it as my responsibility to teach students how to engage with their peers online in a healthy and productive way,” writes teacher Catlin Tucker in response to an article about how social media is changing education. “Online communication is rapidly becoming an essential life skill. Shouldn’t we as teachers support students in learning and mastering this skill?”

To that end, here are eight kid-friendly social media options:

Dizeo: A fully-monitored site that calls itself “social networking training wheels,” complete with video and music sharing, homework help from subject-specialist tutors, and educational videos on Internet safety.

YourSphere: This one offers games, prizes, avatars, and “spheres,” or interest groups centered on sports, television, art, music, humanitarian causes, and more. Tough filters verify identities, require parental consent, perform a “predator check,” and include real, live human oversight of site activity.

ScuttlePad: Designed exclusively for kids age six through eleven, ScuttlePad goes so far as to allow “guided communication” using predefined word lists. A Facebook for the younger set, ScuttlePad lets kids connect with kids around the world, upload photos, chat, and send messages.

What’s What: Each member logs in with a webcam and facial recognition technology verifies that it really is only kids who use the site. Users are separated by grade to encourage “age-appropriate friending” and next to every message is a “Report It” button so that kids can easily get help if they feel they’re being cyberbullied.

giantHello: Kids can connect with one another, create and join fan pages, share favorite sites and ideas, and play a ton of online games. Kids user-tested the site extensively before it was launched.

My Secret Circle: This one is girls-only as well as kids-only. Girls ages eight through twelve make friends using secure “Friend Codes,” play games, voice chat, and even keep secret (but shareable) diaries.

Skid-e Kids: Expected to launch on January 7, 2011, this one claims it is “the total experience of Facebook without being on Facebook.” Features include toy and game swaps, educational questions and answers, and “movie night.”

Togetherville: A safe online experience for the whole family. Parents create “online neighborhoods” for children under ten to interact with friends and neighbors they already know and trust. Kids can create artwork, send and receive gifts, upload photos and profile information, watch videos, and more.

Flickr: The Daring Librarian

By Sara Bernard

Okay, no app is really going to “stop” cyberbullying, but a few are trying.

Perhaps the most lauded recently is the “Find Help” application on Facebook.

Often blamed as an easy venue for cyberbullies to target victims, Facebook has partnered with the monitoring site SafetyWeb to create an app that allows users not only to immediately report inappropriate behavior to Facebook officials, but also to connect to various support organizations. These include suicide hotlines and child abuse prevention centers, such as Partners Against Hate, which offers anti-hate crime education and strategies.

Other apps that claim to educate kids and parents about — and help prevent — cyberbullying:

Professor Garfield Cyberbullying: Available for iPad at the iTunes app store, this is essentially a Garfield comic strip that helps kids identify bullying behavior and provide strategies for dealing with bullies (such as how important it is to seek the support of a trusted adult).

Web Safety, Inc.’s “Cell Safety”: An application for smart phones designed to help parents monitor their child’s cell phone activity. Parents receive alerts when their children are sent certain problematic keywords (which, Web Safety says, is the world’s largest database of its kind, with 4,000 terms that “indicate a child is in harm’s way.”) Cell Safety also features a slew of other child-monitoring tools, from GPS tracking to one that prevents texting while driving.

GoGoStat Parental Guidance: The GoGoStat iPhone app was developed by Schakra, one of the sponsors of the International Bullying Prevention Association Conference, and alerts parents when kids post or receive inappropriate messages, displays the age and location of anyone their child intends to friend on Facebook, and has a panic button feature that automatically sends a report to the police in case of emergency.

Destructive Issues: This iPhone or iPod app for parents lists, describes, and provides solutions for the issues teens face. Developed by father-and-son team William and Eric Nidiffer, along with the Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force, the app targets problems like cyberbullying, gangs, depression, and substance abuse, and creates pro-and-con scenarios that help explain the reasons teenagers make the choices they do. Another, soon-to-be-released app the Nidiffers and the task force are designing, called S.P.I.R.I.T. (short for Suppression, Prevention, Intervention, Referral Intelligence Tool), will create a series of gang-prevention, solution-oriented apps for teens themselves.

All this monitoring may seem a bit too “Big Brother.” But to some parents, it’s essential. With so much attention to cyberbullying-related youth suicides, the tech industry is responding.

Flickr: ivanpw

By Sara Bernard

“The fact that we as educators even have to have discussions on whether or not social media is good for schools is sad,” writes Steve Johnson, a teacher and Edutopia guest blogger. “Social media just IS…..it’s life.”

He’s right — as of July, there were half a billion active Facebook users alone (not counting other social networking sites), and that number grows daily. So it’s inevitable that it would touch on every aspect of our lives, including education.

To that end, here’s a handful of the ways that social media is infiltrating, influencing, overtaking, and game-changing the educational landscape:

Galvanizing students: Social media, with its lightning speed and viral powers, is the perfect tool for activism, and students are no exception. Among other tactics, they’re even using Facebook and online petitions to protest school rules.

Defining boundaries: The fine line between personal and professional lives gets stickier when it involves teachers and students. Many schools and districts are having to issue recommendations, guidelines, and, in some cases, prohibitions regarding online interactions. In Massachusetts, new legislation may even threaten a teacher’s job if he or she friends a student on Facebook.

Redefining parent communication: Social media is both opening and altering the lines of communcation between teachers, parents, and students. While some teachers do a great job of using Facebook groups and fan pages to keep in touch with parents, schools are also offering cautious recommendations for parents regarding their children’s use of social media. Parents might want to be friends with their child on Facebook, for instance — both to help prevent the bad news (at Horry County Schools in South Carolina, threats prior to a school shooting were posted on Twitter, but neither school officials nor parents knew anything about it) and keep up with the good.

Stepping up the conversation about bullying: Schools have always been full of bullies, but bullies have new tools these days. While it’s often less visible than in-class or schoolyard violence, harassment via social media is prevalent and can have dire consequences. The good news is, this prevalence has spurred schools to bring cyber-bullying to light through anti-bullying forums, handbooks, and other forms of community education. The media is also bringing the issue to the forefront and helping to provide advice for parents, students, and teachers on how to help stop — and prevent — this kind of behavior.

Providing a wealth of class activities: The social media world is a teacher’s oyster. Especially since most students are already deeply engaged in social networking sites, there’s an instant buy-in when teachers offer the use of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for class purposes. Want to create a Facebook page for a character in a novel for language arts class? How about a Twitter treasure hunt? Facebook can also be a great way to showcase student projects — Stanford University’s Facebook page is a great example. The possibilities are truly endless (check here for a long list of favorites).

Connecting teachers and classrooms: Some teachers use Twitter to connect with other teachers and share lesson plans — a simple way to gather great ideas and prevent burnout. Also, sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and class wikis (multi-authored Web pages) provide opportunities for students to chat, share, and collaborate with other students, either across the room or across the world.

Flickr: Eddie~S

Amidst heightened media coverage of cyberbullying, and a quickly spreading YouTube series of videos called It Gets Better, which depicts personal accounts of harassment and support for gays and lesbians (including a message from President Barack Obama himself), the Department of Education sent a 10-page letter to schools reminding them of their responsibilities to protect students and prevent harassment.

From the New York Times:

“I am writing to remind you that some student misconduct that falls under a school’s anti-bullying policy also may trigger responsibilities under one or more of the federal anti-discrimination laws,” says the letter, signed by Russlynn H. Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights.

Compared with personal bullying in the hallways of schools and campuses, cyberbullying can escalate much more swiftly (in the form of mass texts, emails, and public social-network profiles), and can happen under the radar of school officials.

To that end, here’s a report from contributor Katie Stansberry on how educators can help.

By Katie Stansberry

Resources for Educators Against Bullying

In the last few weeks there have been several high-profile news reports about young people taking dramatic steps to escape bullying. In many of these cases, the victims have been targeted because of their sexual preference.

I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, where I attended local public schools. When I was in middle school, my closest friend was gay. He chose to transfer to a private high school focused on music and performance arts rather than face another four years in a community where “gay” was a common insult and “fag” was often heard in the hallways and on the playing fields. I graduated in as part of the class of 1999 along with about 150 other seniors. As far as I know, not one person in my class openly identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

In recognition of the many young people who face monumental challenges as they traverse that difficult transition from childhood to adulthood, I’ve collected some resources on bullying that address both face-to-face and cyberbullying.

As educators, we can help encourage tolerant behavior by modeling empathy and support for all students. Please take a moment to check out the resources below, because no child should be afraid to go to school.

• “Bullying Online and at School” e-book by the Bullying Information Center.

• Stop Bullying Now!: A fun, interactive site for kids and adults with games, tip sheets and short video clips on the issue of bullying. The site is maintained by the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration.

• Stop Cyberbullying: An extremely informative website on preventing cyberbullying written by the online privacy lawyer Parry Aftab.

• Cyberbullying: Extensive information for educators, teens and parents on the phenomenon of online bullying produced by the National Crime Prevention Council.

• ItGetsBetter: Started by newspaper columnist Dan Savage, the ItGetsBetter project is a series of videos to provide support and encouragement to gay teens who face adversity, discrimination and bullying. Celebrities who have submitted videos include Neil Patrick, Harris, La La Vasquez and Ciara, members of the cast of Wicked, Ellen DeGeneres, Kathy Griffin, Ke$ha, Sarah Silverman, Jason Derulo, Tim Gunn and Perez Hilton.
• Cyberbullying: What Schools Can Do To Stop It. A comprehensive list of tactics, such as teaching students to be cyber-savvy, combining anti-bullying education and character development with discipline, establishing guidelines of recourse, and reporting all cases of bullying to supervisors and law enforcement when necessary.

Flickr: Hannahgirl

Bullying is an age-old problem that has plagued countless kids and ruined what could otherwise be a transformational school experience for them, replacing the love of learning with fear of humiliation. Though tactics may not have changed, the tools have, and technology is the most current smoking gun.

But parents and kids are not powerless. As much as technology can be used as a weapon, it can also be used as a powerful resource of information, garnering support among peers, and putting an end to where the bad behavior begins.

Nearly one-third of teens have been targets of cyber-bullying, according to a study released today by the Chicago youth-market research firm TRU, and in the wake of Tyler Clementi’s suicide, the statistic takes on that much more relevance.

Though there’s valid reason to be alarmed, a great article by the Christian Science Monitor’s Stacy Teicher Khadaroo about the subject gives us some much-needed context about what’s already being done now and what parents can do to help: namely, empower kids to set boundaries and stop malicious actions before they escalate.

When it comes to safety online, young people’s main “knowledge gap” relates to “setting ground rules of what’s acceptable behavior … and how that technology may be used against them … where they could be blackmailed or cyberbullied,” says Richard Harrison, lead mentor for the Safe and Secure Online program, which enlists online security experts to volunteer in schools.

WHAT’S BEING DONE

Grabbing teens’ attention right where it naturally lives, MTV’s website A Thin Line asks: “Do you have digital drama?” The guides to the answers are provided by teen celebs: rapper Asher Roth representing boys or actress Michelle Trachtenberg representing girls.

Questions vary from how they feel about incessant instant messages from boyfriends/girlfriends (“It’s proof of how much he loves you” or “It’s like you’re being stalked”); how to deal with someone who’s making accusations and insults online (“Defriend them, block them, notify online service provider, tell a parent, teacher or authorities you’re being harassed online”); to how to respond to salacious photos (“delete,” “keep” or “forward”).

The blurry line between harassment and attention is further explored by juxtaposing ideas: insult/injury; him/the whole school; love/abuse; this moment/forever; curious/controlling; words/wounds.

Tapping into youths’ facility of sharing information, the site invites users to discuss tricky situations they’ve encountered, and how they reacted.

MTV also launched its “Love is Louder” campaign soliciting videos that show examples of love and support.

Teicher Khadaroo also points out that both TV personalities Dr. Phil and Anderson Cooper have dedicated entire shows to the subject.

And as part of its public information effort during October’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month, organizations like Stay Safe Online provide a comprehensive list of actions parents and consumers can take.

With so much attention from media and celebrities spotlighting the problem, what I’d love to see next year is a study that shows cyber-bullying incidents dropping. Now that would be newsworthy.