Empathy and Education

This week's essential question is, "Whose responsibility is it to teach students to be safe online?"

Our class focused on "cyberbullying", "sexting", and inappropriate behavior by students, educators, and others.  There are so many issues surrounding behavior on the internet and different modes of human interaction that it becomes overwhelming.  Kids can get themselves into trouble through thoughtless actions and they can cause irreparable harm to others without even realizing it.

The main thing I took from our discussion was this: Restrictions and punishments are poor tools for keeping kids safe.  The true answer to cruelty and carelessness lies in early and continuing education, and that education must include training in ethics and compassion, not just technological savvy.

This is (I believe) a part of elementary school curriculum, where we are taught how to take turns, share, and treat others well.  In high school (my area), however, it is a very controversial topic, and as someone who grew up as a member of a religious minority, I am certainly wary of "morality" being taught by schools.  Many argue that is beyond the scope of education, or at least public education, and I definitely see that point.  Yet it is clear that the content of our curriculum, and just as significantly what we leave out, sends a strong signal about our values. 

As a science teacher reflecting on all that science has wrought in the world, I wonder if we are being careful enough to teach students about how to judge and act as compassionate global citizens.  This goes beyond knowledge, beyond skills and higher-level problem solving abilities.  Some excellent scientists have been terrible people.  There are a great many things that are possible, even revolutionary; some could cause disasters, while others could prevent tragedies.  Science has been used to do amazing amounts of good while also making possible the instant murder of millions.  Science has increased our power, both to do good and to destroy.

It is similar when we examine the role that access to the internet has on students.  It gives then access and power.  As students move further into the virtual world, it becomes increasingly difficult to control and monitor with whom they interact. We need to send them out prepared to deal with everything they'll find and yet time is required to prepare them -- time we no longer have before they're out in the wide, wide world. 

Thanks for the photo found through creative commons.

Digital Footprints

This week's essential question is: When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint?

Our face-to-face (f2f) meeting this week included Ms. Silvia Tolisano's fascinating presentation about the nature of one’s presence online presence, or "digital footprint". She emphasized that we have moved beyond the time where "digital invisibility" is a reasonable expectation for students... or even a desirable one.

Educators vary widely in their understanding of digital footprints and the emerging technologies that make them possible. Those "in-the-know" may offer advice or informal instruction, but these efforts can not be counted upon to reach all students. At my school there is little in the curriculum about online behavior other than plagiarism. Formal efforts to raise student awareness about digital footprints and cyberbullying include showing a video (see below) in which a hard copies of girl's picture are subsituted for the digital image, showing how it is impossible to remove.



This is a crucial lesson, especially for the younger grades, but is it, alone, the best approach? As with all social and global issues, we want children to understand the seriousness of our message, but we must not frighten or upset them so much that they shut the information out and ignore it. In this case, we must be careful not to engender a feeling of helplessness, especially in students whose social lives are inseparable from online media and who may not be willing to give up their online activites for safety. There is some evidence of this attitude. In his article on digital footprints and employment, Fields Mosley quotes a man who refuses to worry about his online footprint because, he says, it's beyond his control.

So, what about our students who have already made these indelible errors? What about those who, for whatever reason, are unwilling to curtail their online antics?

There are always steps one can take to improve one’s online image. In her online article, Kim Komando suggests (among other things) highlighting positive achievements online, encouraging links to these, and constructive blogging about one’s passions. This has the double benefit of showing off one's accomplishments and pushing any negative links out of the top search results.

How important is all of this to our students? A clearly written article in admissions.com cites Kaplan research showing that 10% of college admissions offices reported looking up applicants on facebook. Other social networking sites, googling, and so on are also commonly used by universities and prospective employers and the numbers seem likely to increase.

As educators, we should go beyond the teaching about the dangers of online life. Clearly, student safety is the first priority and these lessons have their place. However, we should augment our instruction with information about the benefits a digital footpring might have on college admissions or hiring. Imagine googling a young applicant to find not evidence of drinking and immature behaviors, but a blog ongoing involvement with a subject of interest like music, community service, or biology. One can easily imagine the extra boost such a result might give in the increasingly competitive admissions and hiring offices.

The place for these lessons is not as obvious to me. Some possible ideas include a few classes (perhaps in the freshman seminar my school offers) for early high schoolers on not just erasing or sanitizing, but estabilshing their digital footprint, along with all the safety instruction about identity protection, social networking behaviors, online predators and so on. The counselling office could work with all college-bound juniors and all seniors research and improves their digital footprints. Then the students would be empowered to make sure the image they're projecting (safely) to the world is the one they want their prospective schools and employers to see.

Thanks for the image found through creative commons.