This is an optional exercise, instead of reading one of the articles, you may want to watch this show on Tuesday evening and share with colleagues/administration at your school.
You can also use this as one of your reading assignments and post a short reflection in the class blog. I was just notified of this show by my principal.
FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES THE RISKS, REALITIES AND MISCONCEPTIONS OF TEEN LIFE ON THE INTERNET
FRONTLINE presents
GROWING UP ONLINE
Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/
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11 comments:
I watched Frontline last night, "Growing Up Online". I didn't find anything all that shocking or new.
I thought the "PTO Mom" believed she was doing the right thing sharing the online photos of the high school kids drinking online. She stated many of the parents where pleased to have the information and many thought she should mind her own business. I found it surprising that many parents prefer not to know and they were upset she exposed their kids. She also appeared to have paid a high price with her son. In retrospect, I wonder if she would have handled it differently knowing her son’s reaction.
You can also watch online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/
Did anyone else watch?
How is your school addressing Internet Safety? Are parents invovled in the sessions?
Hi Mary,
I did watch Frontline last night. I would have to agree that there wasn't anything in the program that I haven't experienced first hand or new.
I believe many parents just don't want to know. It's interesting that these parents felt the "PTO MOM" had exposed their children when wasn't it the children and the video taker the ones exposing themselves?
Our Tech. Director has had two grades 3-12 parent night meetings to discuss online safety with the community during the past two years. Both times just over a handful of parents have shown up.
What I thought was interesting about the show was that many of the children talked about not networking socially with people they do not know. My apprehension with this ...is how do you know the person you are corresponding with is the person you believe it is to be and not someone else?
I was left feeling depressed and let down after watching this show last night. It seemed that the producers of the show chose to focus on the negatives associated with Internet Use among teens – especially social networking issues.
There were many positive things they could have included, but they barely touched on, for example, technology uses in education and the use of the Internet in education. They highlighted how one student doesn’t “read books” anymore and then interviewed a teacher who felt that the reality of Spark Notes is here to stay and needs to be recognized and dealt with instead of banned. I think that a teacher could adjust their assessment methods to fit with a Spark Notes or a full novel depending on how they chose to run their course.
Evan Skinner, the PTO chairwoman, was over-the-top with her zealousness in my opinion. I think she was out of line to e-mail all of the parents after the train incident. I don’t think it was her “responsibility” or position. I think she would have been better off to call the parents she was especially close with and let them know. Those parents would have called others, and word-of-mouth would have taken care of it. Her real responsibility is to her own family – her own child in this case. Because of how she handled it she isolated him and caused a real strain on their relationship. I think it will take a long time for him to be able to trust her again.
~Tina
We have had folks in from the District Attorney's Office to talk with students about Internet Safety and I believe we also had an info. session for the Parents. We had info. sessions specifically about MySpace, too. We never get more than handful of parents to show up for these things, just as Sandy wrote - even if we offer refreshments!
When I taught at our Elementary School I did a unit on Internet Safety with the kids that included materials produced by the Salem Public Schools. It included an online quiz and a certificate they could print out and color. It was very informative and a big hit. I don't know if the person who took over after me has continued this or not.
Tina, as part of our Intro each year in the lab (going over lab rules ...) we do include a lesson on internet safety especially with our third graders. There are several websites that we use; the kids always seem to enjoy this lesson:
Hector's World and
Surfswell Island (Disney)
Sandy
Tina,
I share some of your reservations about this piece focusing on the negatives, but I think it could be an important tool moving forward. We have used the iSafe program in Tyngsborough and found that many parents don't have the time or interest to attend a forum or go through the relatively long and dry self-paced program themselves.
By making the video available online, PBS is hopefully packaging some of the information in the iSafe program in a more digestible format for many parents.
While it's not perfect, it might at least make parents aware of the issues around social networking.
I also watched the frontline program. One of the most interesting comments made was, "this is the greatest generational divide since the advent of rock and roll." Rock and roll was seen as THE source of all evil---50-40 years later I think the fear of rock and roll was a little unfounded and unneccessary---The internet is not as foreign to parents as rock and roll was to the previous generation of parents. We don't have that much to fear from it.
I agree that the PTO mom thought she was doing the best--but if there is one parenting tip I have learned from my own mother that is--you can't change other peoples children--take the best care you know how of your own children. Her poor son (yes he is guilty of drinking--he can only blame himself for that mistake) but his mother overstepped her boundaries when she contacted the other parents--I am pretty sure most parents are aware of what goes on with teenagers and drinking (this is one common experience that teen agers and parents share!)
I was very interested in the veteran english teacher who was "fight the good fight". I could see how concerned she was for the future of these students. I do agree with her in a sense that modern students have lost some of their ability to focus (the one teenager admitted to this when he said he doesn't have time to read a book). It sometimes seems the studiousness has been taken out of the student. But in the end the internet and other technologies are not going away and we all know that they can be used to reach students--and if used effectivily they can actually bridge the gap between school and real life.
Overall, a good program---did a nice job of presenting both sides and left the viewer with room debate the issues (something we can do as a class).
I missed the live broadcast of the Frontline tv show, but watched it online. So many things were going through my head. When all the buzz about Myspace began, my older daughters were in High School already. My first instincts were to prevent their access, but I quickly found that they always seemed to find ways around it. They and their friends were determined to maintain the social contact that can be there for them 24/7. Now that my third daughter is in eighth grade, I am not so uptight and keep tabs with open communication.
I soon found that the key was to allow access but not until they had been versed in the ways of appropriate vs inappropriate use of communications over the internet. In doing this, their social networks became “locked down” so to speak. This was fine to all the “non-friends” they now didn’t encounter on the internet, but this also prevented my access to their world. I can only move on with this knowing that we have had the discussions that they need to stay safe and smart while they are online. Keeping it private seems to be reassuring that they won’t so easily come into harm’s way.
This program made me go back into my teen years to somehow try to relate the need for teens to have contacts with friends on a regular basis. The telephone connected to the wall in the main area of the house, the kitchen, was how I could keep in touch with friends when I was home. There was no privacy. Did that prevent me from getting into trouble, or if I really wanted to get into trouble, wouldn’t I just find some other way, like going to a friend’s house where a phone was in a different and private location. Are teens really that different today, with the difference being that they are able to have more privacy, live out some of their fantasies, that teens of yesteryear could only dream about?
I am finding my own experiences engrossed more and more around the use of technology. “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Cell phones and text messaging are great ways to keep tabs on my kids and husband. I can’t imagine how it would be without them. My oldest is away at college and I found that through instant messaging, she had more to say than when we talked on the phone or even when we were in person. It was a comfort zone that allowed her to express herself more freely. When my kids get home, they barely say hi to me and go online to chat with their friends. I can even see that if they don’t have the online contact, they can be left out, or “out of the know”. In the last 2 weeks, I have been finding myself doing the same thing, trying to get online as much as possible to learn about the Web 2.0 tools, to communicate with my group, see what they posted. It can be all consuming. The key is to know when to draw the line and be sure that social lives evolve around both personal and cyber contacts, that we know what to look for to assure and communicate safety for our children, embrace the world of the 21st century and learn to survive in it.
I found much of the Frontline episode mirrored my own family life. I have three children (14, 13 and 10 years old). Yes, everyone has a computer in their own bedrooms. My two younger children are computer savvy but do not use their machines for social networking or for social online games. As for my fourteen year old, a large part of his life seems to be centered around the social activity occurring on his computer. He does have a Myspace and a Facebook account and does have several IM windows going at one time. So far, he has been fairly open about his online activity (he has shown me both accounts and doesn’t usually hide windows when I walk into his room). I will admit I don’t know how anyone can do their homework with an ipod playing music in their ears and several IM’s or other conversations going on at the same time. But it seems more the norm than not.
Like most parents, I worry about cyber bullying and possible online predators as well as inappropriate postings that could harm a student’s reputation or future. We have had this conversation at home many times but I think it will just have to be kept repeated over and over again to make sure they are careful when they are online.
It is hard for our generation to understand this technology shift and I could sympathize with the English teacher who was not using multi-media in her classroom. I think our students still need this type of interaction. The teacher my son talks the most about is his social studies teacher who uses no technology in his classroom but has open and interesting discussions and really tries to get his students to see the world from different points of view. I think what is most important is that our students should not loose sight of the purpose of technology. The purpose that technology is there for us to use in constructive ways and not to become slaves to it. I, also, think that the teenage years is difficult for parents as our children are trying to find their own identities, want to make their own decisions, have a need for social contact and want privacy. I think keeping those lines of communication open (even if it is through IMing with your teens or sending emails) is all we can do to keep them safe. It was interesting listening to the children of the mother who was trying to be so protective. The daughter said instead of using the computer in the kitchen she would use a computer at a friend’s house. If teens want their privacy, they will find a way to get it.
I agree with Julie in that "I am finding my own experiences engrossed more and more around the use of technology" and that "it can be all consuming". It seems like so much of what I need to get done involves a computer monitor and being online...and I don't know that it is always a very satisfying or enriching experience.
I think of my childhood - AIM chat and email were just emerging as I headed off to college so there was plenty of time during my youth to play outside, get excersize, imagine... I look down my street every afternoon and although there are 8 youngsters in houses only a few hundred feet apart, I rarely see any kids outside and NEVER see them playing amongst themselves. Maybe that will change as they get older... but I want to be sure that my own kids get an adequate supply of fresh air and sunshine daily. Eventhough I love web 2.0 tools and learning and using about all of these amazing apps - I wonder how I will manage the ever increasingly distraction that technology has become. I do NOT want them to have the greenish "monitor glow" that my complexion has become...
Here's my frustration with blogs...
I spent 20 minutes constructing and editing a response to this posting ... and it didn't post when I chose publish...
I don't have time to repost.
Maybe it's moderated and will show up later - but I doubt that.
My teachers have had the same frustration with the blogger site I set up for Tech Integration discussions...
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