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

After reading this article, I became much more aware of the dangers of posting personal information on the internet. I have always been the type of person to not really worry about the possible consequences of sharing online, especially when so many other people are doing it as well. I thought the posibility of someone looking up individuals' identities seemed a little farfetched. However, this article informed me that it is much more common and easy than I previously thought. People often search for questionable personal information during an interviewing process to find reasons no to hire you. Also, maintaining a professional demeanor at a current job can be ruined because of something online. The author's approach to writing this article was very effective. Making his readers learn how easy it is to find specific information about a person by having them actually try it themselves, makes more of an impact on the severity of the issue. With the popularity of social networking websites and the youth now getting involved, I feel that it is a teacher's responsibility to encourage technology but also to provide them with the knowledge that this article entails so they can continue in safety.

Question1: The article showed the dangers of posting information online. How would I, as a teacher, be able to encourage students to not post personal information online?

Answer: If I tell them the consequences and give them the tools to set their posts private, I think they will be influenced enough to not post publicly. Also, encouraging them to not share personal information that they wouldn't share to a stranger could help them realize the dangers as well.

Question 2: Learning about the consequences and dangers of adding information online, who do you think should be at blame: the person posting, or the people using the information in a negative way? Also, do you think this unsafety is a negative aspect of technology?

Answer: The personal information is posted by the person, so, it is therefore the fault of the person allowing it to be read by all who sees it. However, it is simple to fix. We just need to encourage more people to avoid posting personal information and it wouldnt have an effect on technology at all.

NETS-2