A Teacher’s Responsibility

I must confess, I have not been in the mood to write this week. School’s out and summer freedom beckons.

So, in thinking about on what topic I would write, I was browsing news sites in search of education topics and I could not escape the news of New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s personal indiscretions.

I wanted to scream “Enough already!” until I realized that the topic of Internet safety seemed to get lost in the seemingly endless “news” coverage and sophomoric jokes about this elected official’s personal problems. Here is a representative who sponsored Internet safety related legislation and fell into the very trap of the technology from which he tried to protect children.

For what seems the first time in human history, children know more about technology than adults. Children seem to take naturally to any piece of modern Internet and communications technology. Admittedly, for many adults that want something fixed on our computer or cell phone, we turn to our children or grandchildren.

While children may know intuitively how to physically operate the latest and greatest gadgets, there is a gap as wide as the Grand Canyon in their life experience and common sense for making decisions in the correct use of the technology. And that’s where we as the wise, responsible adults can still teach children about technology.

The onus is on us though to first understand the technology that kids are using today so that we can provide guidance that helps students to not ruin their personal lives and careers by doing something stupid like using their phone to take inappropriate pictures of themselves and transmitting them to the world.

While some may have sympathy for a successful adult making bad decisions that may ruin his career, it’s totally different for a child who undoubtedly has not been taught the implications that their decisions could have or the importance of responsible use of technology. One bad picture with GPS coordinates stealthily embedded and then broadcast could have devastating consequences for a child.

Please take the time to learn about how to protect children on the Internet. It is the responsibility of all of us as educators and parents to protect children.

My questions for you this week:

• What is your comfort level with the Internet?
• Do you use a smart phone, tablet computer or other mobile device?
• How many hours of training have you received on Internet safety?