Blog Safety

I feel that I, myself, have learned a lot about internet safety over the last few years. I myself have had myspace accounts, facebook accounts and photo albums that I usually never thought twice about in terms of security. But as the internet keeps growing, I myself have been maturing. I have learned to edit, revise, monitor and secure the information that I post, so I appreciate the similar need for classroom use. Teachers themselves need to be so careful about what they post about themselves, that I feel more comfortable about helping students do the same. The following are some important guidelines for using the internet in classrooms.

1. Avoid using any major identifying information such as home address, last name, phone number, photos, or any personal information one might not want a stranger to access.

2. Maintain open channels of communication between parents, students, and faculty. There should be no surprises and no secrets about what is being blogged for classroom use.

3. All comments and posts should be approved by the teacher. Students should be taught what this kind of material looks like, but the teacher should ultimately be able to control what gets posted, for the safety of the student.

4. Care should be taken to secure the blog from outside or unwanted viewers. In some cases, a blog might be intended to address a wide audience, in other's it might be necessary to restrict the posts to the class itself.

5. Students be taught and exposed to tips for navigating the internet safely when using the blog. Often, information and websites that are not conducive education can leak through even the most effective filters, but teaching the students how to handle those situations is far more important that placing simply placing huge blocks or denying large amounts of information to students.

I hope to learn more about this, especially because each school is different about the kind of access they allow to teachers and students. I hope to add to this list before implementing blogs in my teaching.