Presentation: Facebook for Parents of Teens.

Below are some slides I'm using to present to York School parents. Most of my talk will be about Facebook safety and based on this great resource from Common Sense Media.

Your digital footprint: Did you just step in it?

Photo licensed for reuse by mahalie on flickr

According to my Facebook news feed this morning, last night was St. Patrick's Day, and it looks like some folks had a good time. Other folks? I don't judge. Much.

Not long ago young people could mostly escape indiscretion's ephemera. Now, we all leave a permanent digital footprint, whether we want to or not. Even if your students have mastered Facebook's arcane privacy settings (they probably haven't) anything posted digitally can be duplicated again, again, and again.

Students today need to know that the web holds all kinds of personal information that college admissions officers and employers access and use to make judgements. This "digital footprint" can help them or hurt them.

Managing an online reputation is much more than avoiding cameras at parties. Students also need to know that they must present themselves as an authentic good citizen. Some may go so far to argue that an empty digital footprint is as damaging as a negative one.

Commonsensemedia.org offers several lesson plans to help students think about managing their digital footprints. Two have students play the role of a person who must decide between two otherwise equal candidates based on their online identity. Trillion Dollar Footprint is designed for middle-school students, and College Bound is for upper level students.

Both of these lessons will stimulate compelling conversation and may cause some to rethink posting that photo on Flickr. I'm talking to you mahalie.

Notes from Common Sense Media Training

I just returned from two lovely days in Palm Springs, not specifically to get away from the dreariness of Monterey County this March, but it was a welcome bonus. A dozen or so other educators and I met there to receive training on Common Sense Media's Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum.

Their mission:

Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology. 

We exist because our nation's children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.

 CSM offers a K-12 Curriculum on Digital Literacy and Citizenship, and we spent the day gaining exposure to what is available to teachers, parents, and students. Of particular interest are the lesson plans on identity protection, and cyber-bullying. The entire curriculum is based on the results of this comprehensive study from Harvard University.

Key take-aways from the workshop:

• Kids age 8-18 spend an average of 7.5 hours in front of a screen ... each day ... outside of class
• 42% of teens and 92% of middle schoolers have been bullied online
• 10% of bullied teens report it to their parents
• Online stranger danger is less of a threat than the media would have you fear
• Teaching students to become ethical digital citizens must start early. Middle school is the sweet spot, but earlier is good too.

What I liked most about the session what the vocabulary CSM has developed to help us talk about these new opportunities and challenges. 

Watch this definition of "Digital Footprint"