Great advice for student bloggers

5th May 2006

posted in blogs, isafety |

Darren Kuropatwa posted some excellent advice for student bloggers back in February about keeping safe online, which were first posted by Bud the Teacher. These are so good I am going to cite them in full here:

Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for our blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.

Never EVER EVER give out or record personal information on our blog. Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important to remember if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.

Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can come back to haunt you if you don’t.

Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably try a different source.

As I’ve written before, these concepts of Internet safety are but a subset of a broader set of issues and skills encompassed in the concept of “digital citizenship.”

I am not sure exactly how I make these determinations, but I strongly believe there are several “educational bandwagons” we need to get on and stay on. Digital citizenship is one. Digital storytelling is another. Understanding authentic education as a conversation also fits in here. Anything else you’d add to this list?

On this day..

Abandoning Juice Receiver - At least for now - 2008
Beyond the Fear Factor with Internet Safety - 2008
links for 2008-05-05 - 2008
A growing global audience - 2008
A warning that came too late - 2008
Do you need a Second Life?? - 2007
Advice to curb wordpress spam? - 2006
Cut to the Core - 2006
Honda Cog Video - 2006
Major Milestone: Authenticated iMovies Online! - 2005

This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 11:03 pm and is filed under blogs, isafety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On May 9th, 2006, content to be different » Blog Archive » Peer-to-peer subjectivities with the I generation said:

[…] news Wesley Fryer notes the relationship between Web 2.0 social software such as Blogging and a child’s developing sense of identity. “What are the teenage years if not a quest for identity? Who am I, who are you, and what do I want to do with my life? What do I value, and why do I value those things? These are essential questions for every human being to ask, and the safe use of blogging tools by students can play a powerfully constructive role in that process,” he says. […]