Wow - this week has been a bit crazy at our high school. On Thursday alone, there were two fights before 10am, both a spill-over from comments made on Xbox Live and FB the night before. How do we handle this as a school? I had a discussion with each of my classes about the larger issue of teen's "fight culture" mentality - at least at our HS, students glorify fighting. I will admit, this is a prime example that our student's need media literacy skills. They need to learn to separate that medium in which people can say (post) whatever they want on a computer or website and reality. It is really easy for them to be sitting in their own comfortable home trash-talking someone whereas if they were face-to-face with that person, they may not say some of the things they are willing to say online. Is this an Internet etiquette issue? More than anything, I believe they need to understand the brevity of their comments - people can see them, people do look at them, and YOU CAN'T GET THEM BACK!
I will admit, I believe that we - parents, teachers, education arena in general, is lacking leading our students through these issues. We talk to them about sex, drugs, college, etc. but we are not guiding them through this new online world. Maybe it is because so many of us are digital immigrants. Maybe it is because we are trying to figure it out ourselves. In South Korea, they are beginning to teach Internet etiquette in elementary school. They were among the first nation's to embrace digital tek and are now among the first to see and counter-act the harmful side-effects of the digital revolution - especially on young people.
I hope that our faculty will be proactive about this issue and realize that our students have a need that we are not filling - media literacy. If anyone has any suggestions or programs your school has done I would be thankful for the help!
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