Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sharing What I'm Doing

Just watched Dean Shareski’s “Sharing: the Moral Imperative” talk and realized I have not blogged in a long time. So thought I should update you on what I’m currently doing in my school.

The grade 5 and 6 students just watched the opening two episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation that deal with the main character, Emma, meeting a “16 year old boy” Jordan on-line. She is 12 years old and thinks Jordan is cute and into many of the same things that she is. When he tells her he is coming to her city on a school trip, even though it is summer, she agrees to meet him. Her friends tell her it is a bad idea but she lies to them and sneaks away. At the hotel she meets Jordan’s “teacher” who lures her up to the room to join the boys for pizza. When she arrives at the room she realizes the teacher is actually Jordan. Luckily, her friends hack into her e-mail, showing how some passwords can be easily guessed. They discover that “Jordan” must have also figured out her password and has been reading Emma’s e-mails and then sending her messages that seem like he can “see into her soul.” They also discover the hotel where she agreed to meet Jordan and they let Emma’s mom know and in the nick of time Emma is rescued and “Jordan” arrested. As the police take away her computer, as evidence, the officer warns the mom to keep the computer downstairs so the cyber-stalkers can’t get into her daughter’s bedroom.

I’ve shown these two episodes annually for the past 5 or 6 years. I bought the DVDs for about $60.00 and it was one of the best investments I’ve made. The story is relevant, well acted, and quite riveting plus, it sparks great discussion among my students as to who they can trust on-line, the dangers of meeting someone they only know on-line, how a person can pretend to be someone else on line, where a computer should be kept at home, what you should tell your Mom and Dad, creating strong passwords and who should be allowed to know your passwords. In this day and age where most of the students in grades 5 and 6 have a Facebook account it also leads nicely into privacy settings and what it is safe to post on-line. We are following up this discussion with sessions on the “Passport to the Internet” site.