Social Media & Students

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For this final post of this course, we will be discussing Social Media and Students.  This is a topic that has been discussed throughout this course.  Our first priority as parents and teachers is to join forces to teach our children the right way with the “do’s and don’ts” or the “basics” to get a head in life.  Technology and how one interacts with it is a huge part of not only our students but the rest of our lives.  There are careers that our students must be tech savvy in order to compete in the world that we live in today.  Throughout this course, we have talked about the importance for our students to become digital citizens.  By teaching our students about being digital citizens and being safe online, we as educators can expand their use of social media and technology in a positive way in and outside the classroom.  For my consent letter, I had students learning how to keep an online journal using Blogger.  I felt that Blogger was the best way for students to get use to using not only the computer but also this social media outlet in a positive and expressive way.

According to the article, 3 Ways Savvy Teens Can Showcase Themselves Using Social Media, students can use social-media outlets to showcase their academic work, athletic pursuits, and community-service projects.  Students can use social media as a business opportunity. With social media outlet LinkedIn, students can build a strong resume for college recruits to look at what types of activities and community services that they do in and outside of school. Twitter offers some of the same attributes as LinkedIn in terms of building a strong resume.  Twitter also allows students to follow positive people such as their local library, favorite college or hobby.  YouTube can allow students to keep a V-Blog (video blog) about topics that they like to talk about.  Some students use YouTube to promote their athletic skills for college sport recruitment.  Some students have made YouTube into a business based on how many subscribers follow their channel. 

Students can actually make money off of their YouTube channel. For example, Isaac Carlson has a YouTube channel named, Wotso Videos.  Carlson discusses fun theory topics for fun people based on movies from Disney, Pixar and Dream Works.  Carlson hosted these fun videos has been doing this since high school and through college.  He has a total of 350,000 subscribers and over 80 million views.  Carlson also uses other social media outlets to promote his YouTube channel.  I am not sure of how much money Carlson makes but, I heard that he makes a nice “little” living off of what he does on YouTube.  Some students have even done, “How To” videos to promote their services or web series.  I did not know that people can make money off of YouTube and that it is a big thing among students and adults. YouTube has a section on their site called, Earn Money With YouTube - Creator Academy YouTube.  This section of YouTube has tutorials about how people can actually make money off of their YouTube channels.  I feel that if we as educators teach students how to promote not only themselves but also their talents through social media, then social media will not be seen as a bad thing.  I think that students should learn how to brand themselves through social media.  Creatively branding your passion and talents through social media in a positive way will be the new wave in terms of students in the United States bridging the technology gap with the rest of the world.  As a matter of fact, I am going to use what I learned in this class to promote my hobbies and what I like to do and try to brand what I do in my librarianship.

References

Trautman, Stephanie (2017). 3 Ways Savvy Teens Can Showcase Themselves Using Social Media. Common Sense Education. Retrieved on February 25, 2019 at https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/3-ways-savvy-teens-can-showcase-themselves-using-social-media?utm_content=buffer6c7ad&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Linetsky, Timothy (2019). How to Earn Money on YouTube. Wiki How. Retrieved on February 25, 2019 at https://www.wikihow.com/Earn-Money-on-YouTube

(2019) Earn Money With YouTube - Creator Academy YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved on February 25, 2019 at https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/revenue-basics

Media & Social Media Literacy

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For this week’s blog post, we are discussing media literacy and Rheingold’s thoughts on social media literacies.  It’s kind of funny that we are discussing media literacy because this is the topic that I have chosen for my second miniature project for this course.  I am learning that certain states want to incorporate media literacy into the school’s curriculum for students.  According to Media Literacy Now, the state of Illinois legislation has a bill (House Bill 5096) on the floor to include media literacy in the school code.  Lawmakers in the state of Illinois are requiring that school districts must incorporate internet safety lessons.  These lessons are to be given every year starting with students in the third grade.  These lessons must include topics such as safe and responsible use of social networking websites, chat rooms, electronic mail, bulletin boards, instant messaging, and other means of communication on the internet.  According to the Center For Media Literacy, media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in various forms.  The main purpose of media literacy is to make sure that individuals develop useful skills that they need to be critical thinkers, communicators and active citizens in today's society while interacting with all types of media.

According to the article, Attention, and Other 21^st Century Social Media Literacies, Howard Rheingold, stated that there are five social media literacies that are structure together in order to build on each other when it comes to social media literacy. The five social media literacies are attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness and critical consumption. Attention can be gained by understanding how people think, create tools and teach each other to use them through socialization.   Participation is achieved when the student interacts with the tool.  Participating with a “social” tool in order to get an idea across to others describes collaborating with others to get the message or job done. Collaborating means people can work together in order to get more things accomplished. Network Awareness has to do with social networks expanding with technology in terms of using more than one medium to communicate a message or idea to the masses. Critical consumption is based on evaluating what and who is trustworthy.  I feel that all five of the social media literacies are still valid to this day with one exception. 

 I feel that “Participation” literacy needs to be merged into the “Collaborating” literacy.  “Participation” literacy sound redundant to me when you have “Collaborating” literacy basically doing the same thing.  When collaborating ideas through social media with other people in a group that basically means that you are a contributing participant in the collaboration process.  I think that “Critical Consumption” of social media literacy is essential for students to know.  As I am typing this blog post, my 8^th grade students are just finishing up their research papers.  During the research process, I have talked to them about credibility in terms of researching the person who wrote the material that they are utilizing in their research papers.   I told my students it’s important to find out if that person is knowledgeable in terms of the subject matter that they are writing about.  I let my students know that anyone can write a book or create a website or article based on the topic that they are researching.  Just because that person wrote about that topic does not mean that they are knowledgeable or creditable about that topic.  A person’s words could be just their opinion or false accusations about any topic instead of stating the facts. With some restructuring, I feel that the concepts of both media and social media literacy should be enforced in all grade levels continuously because these fields are forever changing and evolving along with the advances of technology.

References

Rheingold, Howard (2010). Attention, and Other 21st Century Social Media Literacies. Educause Review. Retrieved on February 18, 2019 at https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-media-literacies

Illinois Legislation. Media Literacy Now. Retrieved on February 18, 2019 at https://medialiteracynow.org/your-state-legislation/illinois-legislation/

Mission: Media Literacy. Center For Media Literacy. Retrieved on February 18,2019 at https://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more

CIPA & COPPA

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For this week’s blog post we will discuss CIPA and COPPA.  CIPA stands for the Children's Internet Protection Act.  According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website, this act was created in the year 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene material that can be found over the internet.  This act requires schools and libraries who do not receive discount internet access through the E-rate program to follow certain guidelines in order to be in compliance with this act.  Schools and libraries must have internet access filtered, monitor students’ activity on the internet and teachers must teach students about cyber safety.  My school district is in compliance with CIPA.  It is stated in the school district's Student Technology Responsible Use Policy.   Underneath the section about CIPA in my school district's policy, there is a section about Responsible Use Policy (RUP) that is with connection with the school district’s compliance with CIPA.  RUP states that CIPA only applies to school-owned technology on the SHSD 151 Internet/network, on non-school networks and offline and; privately owned technology that is connected to the SHSD 151 internet/network and on privately owned networks while on school property.

My school district monitors student’s internet activity within all four schools and from the district office.  My school district uses a program called, LanSchool Teacher Console.  According to the company’s website,  LanSchool is classroom management software used by schools to monitor students' activity in a digital classroom. It includes a screen monitor, keystroke  monitor, teacher-to-student chat feature, URL monitor, and camera monitor and microphone access.   This software is also used on the public side of my library. Also each school within the district has a technology teacher and an IT person that goes over cyber safety and the student technology responsible use policy.  If students do not abide by the rules, they can be suspended off of district own technology for the whole school year.  Their online work will be paper-base.  However, the student’s policy does not mention anything about COPPA.

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COPPA stands for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.  According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), this law was created to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13. This act was passed by the United States Congress in 1998 and took effect in April 2000. One of the main goals of COPPA is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online.  I know that when parents register their students online for the school year, they have a choice to give their consent or not in terms of showing their students name and picture online or in the school’s newsletter.

Both CIPA and COPPA are supposed to protect our students and I feel that only CIPA does just what it is set to do.  Then again, CIPA might cause problems in public libraries because certain tax payers who use their own public library feel that they should use the internet any way they please.  However, COPPA is not really protecting our students and it’s because of their parents.  I can remember being on Facebook one day and I get an invite from my cousin’s son. Before I even accepted the request, I gave her a call.  I told her that I got a friend’s request from her son on Facebook and I wanted to know if she knew that he was on Facebook.  He son was only 10 years old at the time.  She knew that he was on Facebook but he was only allowed to log on when she was in the room.  He was supposed to get approval of any page or friend request that he wanted to add to his page by her.  She let me know that I can deny his request and that she will talk to him about the rules that was set for him.  My biggest concern was his age and the fact that if he logged on while she was not in the room.  He might have logged into his account outside the house.

Most parents care and most don’t when it comes to their children and social media.  Some parents feel that it’s harmless.  However,  when something serious happens, then they blame the schools for not teaching their students about being safe online.  The schools do their part of educating the students and the parents (if parents show up to school related activities on this topic) but the parents must remember that teachers only what their students only seven hours a day.  The other 17 hours in a student’s life per day belongs to the parents.  It is the parent’s responsibility to control what the child does at home and online.  Nine times out of ten, parents don’t even know that their child has a social media account until it’s too late. This is because their students lie about their age in order to get their own accounts.  

According to the research study, Why Parents Help Their Children lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’, COPPA does not force companies like Facebook to restrict access to children under the age of 13. Rather, it seeks to make certain that parents are informed about website data collection policies and have choices and tools to express their preferences when sites want to collect data about their children. This study also points out that in terms of age restriction and maturity, parents do not understand the relationship between Facebook’s minimum age requirement and COPPA. Parents often encounter age restrictions that are culturally understood as being about maturity in terms of the drinking, driving or enlisting in the armed services.  Parents need to get in the right mind set in terms of their children utilizing social media.  If you are a parent that allows your child to have an account at an early age, then talk and monitor your child’s online activities.  If not, then still talk to your child and still monitor their cell phones because chances are they have downloaded social media apps through those cell phones for use.  I think that CIPA and COPPA creators need to revisit their guidelines to make them stiffer.  I also think that libraries and school districts need to invest in technology events to educate students and parents more to bridge that gap.  I know that my school district does a technology night every year for students and parents.

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References

Boyd, D., Hargittai, E., Schultz, J., & Palfrey, J. (2011). Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’. First Monday, 16(11).  Retrieved on February 12, 2019 at https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i11.3850

FCC (2017). Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). FCC. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

FTC (2018). Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). FTC. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 at https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule

South Holland School District 151 Information Technology Student Technology Responsible Use Policy. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 http://www.shsd151.org/downloads/information_technology/student_technology_responsible_use_policy.pdf

Digital Tattoo Me All Over The Place Why Don't You

This week’s post is about Digital Tattoos. A digital tattoo is a permanent tattoo of any information that we post online.  However, some of our information is based on what was already known about us based on online or paper forms filled out by us about us. According to the article, What Is A Digital Tattoo & Why Does It Matter?, quoting UK Safe Internet Centre, “your digital footprint is the mark that you leave behind when using the Internet and can shape your online reputation. Your digital footprints are made up of the content you create, post and share; as well as the content that others post, and share, with you and about you”.  
This week’s project, I decided to “Data Mine” myself to see what information was online about me.  I searched my name by using  Nuwber, Google, Pipl, YouTube, Radaris, Block Shopper and Spokeo to access information about myself. I can tell you this, some or most of the information out there about me is not correct but it was fun to see. However, it was kinda of scary seeing that all know that I am digitize all over the place.  It made me wonder about how many people believe what they research about me because most of it is not true.  I have screen shots of each website that I have visited to find out information about myself below. Each website searched has a detail description about my findings.

Nuwber (https://nuwber.com/)

I search my full name with and without my middle initial.  I found two results when searching my name both ways.  The first result my age range along with the city that I currently live in along with two of my relatives (my mom and one of my sisters) that are associated to me.  The second result only had my age range, the city that I currently live in.  I click on the second result for more information about myself and it showed my accurate address and a google map of where I lived.  The first result would have showed where I use to live at my mom’s house.

"Kaleena T. Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Nuwber.com

 "Kaleena Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Nuwber.com

Google (www.google.com)

I searched my full name with and without my middle initial in quotations.  I made sure that I was logged off of Google Chrome and double checked my searches using Google Chrome at work and I got the same search results.  When I search “Kaleena Woodard”, my search results showed that my name was on certain sites such as, mylife.com (which has my incorrect age), YouTube, Spoke, and whitepages.com.  Images of me or what other images could be connected to me are displayed in the beginning near the center of the page.  When I searched “Kaleena T. Woodard”, my name can be found on Google Sites, nuwber (under my mom’s address and phone number), mylife.com (which has my incorrect age), my twitter account name, ratemyteachers.com, and YouTube.com.  There were no images of me of what could be connected to me on this page.

"Kaleena Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Google.com

"Kaleena T. Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Google.com

Pipl(www.pipl.com)

I searched my cell phone number. I have had this cell phone number since 2007. A person by the name of David White profile appeared on the search result. This information was incorrect. Underneath David White’s profile the names “K’tanz Tanz Woodard” and “Kaleena T. Woodard (708-339-6478)” appeared.  “K’tanz Tanz Woodard” was just part of the name that I used on my old Facebook account before it was hacked.  It states that this name is associated with another name.  This “other” name was one of my friends who were listed as a “friend” on my old Facebook account.  “Kaleena T. Woodard(708-339-6478)” is my name with the middle initial plus my mom’s house number.  When I clicked on this profile it listed two addresses for me. One is my moms and the other is where I current residence, which is located in Harvey, IL.  My siblings and mother’s name are listed at the bottom as associates of mines.  The name “Kaleena Woodlar” is listed as an additional name but my name is misspelled.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

YouTube (www.youtube.com)

When I searched “Kaleena Woodard” on YouTube, My profile appeared a long with an upload of my power point presentation of a project that I did for my collection development course.  When I searched “Kaleena T. Woodard”, only my collection development course video appeared.

“Kaleena Woodard”

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and YouTube.com

 "Kaleena T. Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and YouTube.com

Radaris (www.radaris.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  My correct age, the addresses associated with me and people that I am associated with.   The city of Kankakee, IL was listed because I went to college there for one year.  The information that was incorrect on my profile was the “other “ name associated with mines which is “Kaleena Woolard”.  What was also incorrect was an 815 area code number that was not mine,  and the fact that a “Donald Woodard” or “T.W. Woodard” was associated of mine and they are not.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Radaris.com

Block Shopper (www.blockshopper.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  I could not search my address because it came up as an “error” page.  All my information was correct based on the mortgage papers that I signed and the recent tax bill that I just received in the mail as I create this post.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Block Shopper.com

Spokeo (www.spokeo.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  All my information is correct expect, I  am not known or associated with the name “Kaleena Woodar”.  I also do not have a relative by the name of “Marcus Woodard”.  However, the only brother that I have name is “Marqie Woodard”.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Spokeo.com

        I also recommend search yourself on White Pages (www.whitepages.com). You can search yourself by address, any telephone number associated to you, your name and the city and or town that you reside in. This website is a good site as well to use to search information about yourself.

References

Treyvaud, Robyn (2018). What Is A Digital Tattoo & Why Does It Matter?. Family Insights. Retrieved February 5, 2019 at https://familyinsights.net/advice/what-is-a-digital-tattoo-and-why-does-it-matter/