Growing Up Online Reflection

Technology is obviously a huge part of the lives of young people. From watching this video I didn’t really learn anything that I was not already aware of before. Well, let me take that back, I did learn that kids are spending more and more time online than I had thought before. It seems very time consuming to keep up with everyone that is online. In a way I think that it is excellent that kids are learning how to use technology to keep in touch with friends and family around them, but in some cases it may be a little excessive. For example, in the video where the kids are in social situations with one another they are still highly involved with the computer instead of interacting with one another. I don’t particularly spend that much time at my computer unless I am doing research or homework. I am not someone that “grown up online” but as a parent and as a future teacher I need to be aware of the type of lifestyles that kids have and that includes what they are doing online. Parents and teachers can not dismiss the way that kids are living, they need to be aware of it and monitor it the best way that they can. Using monitoring software is not the way since kids are sometimes a step ahead, like the boy in the video that said he knew how to manipulate the parental control software to get to what he wanted to online.
Before this video I didn’t think much about addressing students on any of their outside of school activities. The parent comments in the video have changed my mind. They seemed very disconnected as to the world that their kids were living in. I think I need to be someone neutral that can discuss issues as I see them arising. As a future teacher I think the main thing I need to address in my classroom is the safety issues about using the internet. I think that it is ok for students to have these sites and friends online; they just need to know that everything that they put on the internet is public. I would want students to think about what they are doing and saying online. Such as asking them whether they would say or do the things that they are posting in a public place where everyone could see. That is basically what they are doing even if it seems a world apart because it is online.
My kids are not quite into the social networking sites yet. So I haven’t had to deal with any of these issues with them so far. The video did teach me something that I was unaware of though. I did not know that “club penguin” was a kid’s social networking site in a way. My son does use that site; I thought it was just games. Parents and teachers are not going to change how kids are communicating. But we can try to teach them how to do it in a safe way and not to devote their entire day sitting in front of the computer.