Childrens School

Students are learning how to manage social media, online behavior

Like many kids her age, Bloomingdale High senior Tranae Robinson has dozens of social media applications at her fingertips and routinely logs into at least seven of them on her smartphone–Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest included.
She admits teens could be more mindful of Internet safety and how they present themselves online, especially now that she and her classmates are allowed bring their own devices to school.
“It’s very nonchalant, the way we handle it,” Robinson said. “We don’t try to filter ourselves. Not everything is as private as you think.”
This school year, Robinson, along with every other student who attends a Hillsborough County (Fla.) public school, will be trained in how to handle themselves safely and responsibly online. The initiative goes hand-in-hand with the new program that lets them bring their phones, tablets, and laptops to school.
They are learning about the dangers of cyberbullying, how to create secure passwords, how to avoid identity theft and how to leave a positive digital footprint on their devices.

“It’s very important,” Robinson said. “Students are going to have them regardless. If the school district educates us, it will be more of a positive than a negative.”
Sixty schools so far–including all 27 high schools and most middle schools–have been approved for the bring-your-own-device program. Instructional technology supervisor Troy Suarez expects all schools will be on board by the end of December. Students will use the once-forbidden devices during class, for learning.
“It’s no longer, ‘We see it, we take it,’” Suarez said. “As we are rolling this stuff out, it’s a responsibility for us to prepare our students to be safe while they’re using technology, and teachers as well.”
Throughout the school year, media specialists will use information from curriculum-providers Common Sense Media and Netsmartz to form their own lessons, said John Milburn, the district’s supervisor of elementary library media services. Some media specialists use school morning shows as a platform. They also visit classrooms and teach in school media centers.
“As a parent, we’ve always sent our kids into the world to develop, learn and grow,” Milburn said. “We taught them to be safe, who not to talk to, where to go if you get in trouble. This is just another world–it’s a digital world. But they still need to know how to be safe.”
At the middle and high school level, media specialists have to get a little more creative because students bounce from classroom to classroom throughout the day.
For them, topics like determining whether information on a website is valid is incorporated into school orientation and into the school day when possible, said Christine VanBrunt, the district’s supervisor of middle and high school library media services.
Nikki Rideout, a media specialist at Woodbridge Elementary School, said teaching students how to act online has become part of her job.
“The media specialist position has changed so much,” Rideout said. “We are no longer keepers of the books. It’s an instructional technology piece we’ve brought under our wing.”
So far this school year, Rideout has met with several classes each week and other teachers have requested that she work with their classes, too. She has the students practice their social media skills on Edsby, the district’s online gradebook and communication site.
“The students are so receptive,” Rideout said. “We need to capitalize on that. By the time they get into middle school, it’s almost too late to fix it.”
The rollout of digital citizenship lessons in September was followed by the launch of a new website that describes for parents the benefits and dangers of 17 social apps.
The site also includes resources for teachers and information about the digital citizenship curriculum, which was selected by a school district committee formed last spring.
Included in the list are Vault, which is designed to hide other apps, Kik Messenger, photo-sharing service Snapchat, and the Tinder dating app.
An example of a warning to parents on the site: “Tinder’s terms of use indicate that it can be used by anyone 13 and up, but the app’s widespread reputation as a hookup site, its use of location, and its lack of privacy settings make this a no-go for teens.”
Robinson, the Bloomingdale High student, is getting a little extra digital citizenship training this school year–she is taking Social Media 1, which is being taught for the second year by Heather Hanks. Hanks, who also teaches journalism and photography, became the first Florida teacher to offer the class last school year.
“If we’re putting devices in the hands of our students, they need to be equipped to deal with the consequences,” said Hanks, who served on the district’s digital citizenship committee. “The county has kind of shied away from dealing with it before. Now they’re embracing it.”
Last spring, Hanks’ students created videos to share with students across the district, spreading a message that they should not carry themselves differently in the online world than they do in the real world.
One video shows a teen standing in the middle of a crowded hallway at school, yelling everything she is thinking. In another, a student shares her keys with others, showing that passwords shouldn’t be shared.
This school year, a social media course is being offered at two additional high schools, Hillsborough and Robinson.
School board member Cindy Stuart said she would like to see more schools begin offering the course.
“The student message is very strong,” Stuart said during a recent school board meeting. “It’s stronger than my message when I speak to my 16-year-old.”