Creative Guide for Teachers & Parents

SUBJECT & DISCUSSION IDEA #1 - Think before you click!

Online services and applications can create wonderful opportunities for creativity, networking, social engagement and learning. Online, you can research the most mundane or exotic of topics, connect with friends all around the world, watch videos, play games - the sky is the limit.

If you remember one thing about online activities, remember this: online, everything is public and it's permanent. The web is exactly that - a spider web with connections going off in a million different directions. Once you post a comment or a picture, you have no control over who copies that information or who they send it to. Do you have friends on your social networking sites? Do they have friends and so on and so on? Once something is on the Internet it can go anywhere and be sent to anyone.

Information that you post online is also very difficult, almost impossible, to delete. Once it's there it can be copied, and it also exists in computers' caches and archives. So you need to be careful about what you post - think about what you're putting up there and ask yourself: will I be comfortable in five years, or 10, with that information being online?

The key is: think before you click! Make sure you are comfortable with what you are posting before you post it.

Discussion idea:

Have you posted anything online that you wouldn't want your parents or teachers to see? How about a new crush - would you want that person to see everything you have posted? If you're uncomfortable with anything you've put up there, remove it, and then think before you click in the future.

Think about your friends when you are posting, too. Have you ever posted a photo or other information that one of your friends may not want online for everyone to see? Are you careful to monitor what your friends are posting about you?