Internet+Safety

Internet Saftety

**NY Times**
New companies offering software and support for monitoring people's activity on social networking site are being hired by businesses to monitor the behavior of their employees on such sites as Facebook and Myspace. Employers say they wish to procure such a service in order to gain more control over the workplace, but some opponents to such practices call the monitoring of employees online behvaior is an invasion of privacy.
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While the idea that an employer could have unlimited access to anything I might want to post online is somewhat unnerving, would it not be simpler to just not post that thing at all? Because of the ease with which people can communicate and exchange ideas or comments all in one place (i.e. Facebook), they seem to have forgotten that people are watching. No white person would shout across a room a racist to joke to his white friend on the other side. But that white person might write that joke on his buddy's Facebook wall.

The results of a new study have shown that students taking online courses learn more than students taking those same courses in the traditional classroom environment. In fact, when quantitatively compared, students taking an online course score in the 59th percentile, whereas traditional students would score in the 50th percentile on the same test.
 * "Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom"**
 * NY Times**
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The implications of this study are quite expansive, it seems. To paraphrase a quote from the article, one thing this study finally proves is not simply some diluted form of "real" education, and, in fact, according to the study, online education is better. That this technology, now that it has been officially declared as valuable, could be used as a real and productive method of education seems inevitable. It is only a matter of time before its demand or availability increases.

This article, almost four years old, discusses "Elgg", a new social networking interface intended solely for academia. As opposed to the sites like Blackboard, Elgg allows students to create "personal learning environments" to which they can add links, images, widgets, etc., while also being allowed to communicate to other students. Even by this time four years ago, many companies were creating competing products similar to Elgg.
 * "Don't Tell Your Parents: Schools embrace Myspace"**
 * Wired**
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These products are the beginning of the future of what restricted online community products/sites will have to offer. Freedom of expression is the key. Sites like Blackboard only offer the most basic tools for communication and expression (even less so on the expression end of things): discussion boards, documents, links, etc. There is little if any room for student customization. With Elgg and similar products, students can essentially create not only a personal learning environment but also, possibly, a vast resource open for the edification of other students, as students will be able to share images, documents, links, blogs, and other resources.

Based on the suggestion of recent research, some colleges and universities are using social networking sites in a way that they hope will increase retention rates. Many freshmen in college struggle with the new and foreign environment for various psychological reasons and eventually drop out to return to something more familiar. To contend with this trend, colleges are now going to pay a company to build a social networking site specifically for the college, only to be accessed by students from that institution.
 * "Can Social Networking Keep Students In School?"**
 * NPR**
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Depending on how attractive the new site would be compared to Facebook, I'm not sure how motivated to want to add another social networking site to their already sizeable load. Most likely, every student entering college next fall will already have account. The only motivation to use anything else would be if the student were looking for college-specific events or updates. Of course, a student would first have to have the desire to get involved with campus activities, and I don't know too many who are so paralyzingly shy that they cannot themselves approach a group comprised of people who most likely have similar tastes in some regard. All that to say, colleges might do better by forcing students into situations where they must meet people, if meeting people and thus getting involved and creating relationships is what keeps students in college.

**Child Safety Group Fights For Facebook 'Panic Button'**
About a year ago, some child safety groups were pressuring Facebook to install a "panic button" on every page of the website, as some social networking sites have already done. The panic button allows users to report immediately any suspicious, offensive, or threatening online behavior. Facebook countered at the time that the installation of a panic button on every page had not proven to ameriloriate the problem.
 * NPR**
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The bottom line for children and adults is that these social networking sites are not necessary for happiness. Why else would somone who was being inappropriately contacted in the safety of their own home not simply cut off communication through that venue until the problem could be resolved? My advice to students would be, "Be suspcious of everyone online, especially ones you haven't met face-to-face."

In 2007, Virginia became the first state to require a course in internet safety for students, a response to increased reports of kidnapping and rape linked to relationships which began on social networking sites, specifically Myspace. Some state attorneys there were pushing for a mandate that would require social networking sites to force children under 18 to first have parental consent before being able to access the site.
 * "Back to School: Reading, Writing, and Internet Safety"**

The idea about requiring parental consent is one of the best ones I've heard. Parents might come to eventually regret their exertions to get this privilege after all the shouting matches with their children over Facebook. On the other hand, it also might spark some interesting discussions and foster the connectedness of the family. Regardless, giving parents the ability to exercise control over who their children communicate with is the only real way to allow parents who believe this is the best way to protect their children to do so.