Since many do not know how to use some social networking sites this post is intended to educate you on the proper places to learn about it. My first site that I have for you is Kiwi Commons. It's a free internet and safety resource site. More specifically on this site, I want you to take a look at the social networking guides. Their social networking guides page can be accessed by clicking here.
On their guides page they tell you all you could ever want to know on Facebook and Google Buzz privacy settings, How to use Twitter safely, Creating safe social networking profiles for parents and teachers, blogging, cell phone safety, and a few others. It's a great resource to learn all about these new technologies that all students and your children are using. To access Kiwi Commons click here. Please check this site out, you will find endless amounts of resources here to help you in this battle.
Another great site that I found which is geared more towards educators, but has some great parent sites is Common Sense Media. This site is a parent and teachers dream to know what type of media is appropriate for each grade level. The classes through Common Sense Media is based on research done by Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychology and education professor.
Here you can find information on movies, games, websites, TV, books and music. Not only do they give and let you rate various items in these categories, but it also gives you great resources on how to educate students and parents. Take a look at this awesome site by clicking here.
My last link that I think everyone should take a look at is an NY Times article on how one teacher is teaching his students about the Web which includes troublesome parts. Click here to access it.
Basically he set up a classroom Wiki, (read more about what Wiki's are here), in which he learned a lot about his students. He took what he was learning and used information from Common Sense Media (see above) to teach his students how to properly use the internet. He used group discussions and real life lessons found from Common Sense Media.
It certainly brings up many interesting discussion points in the classroom and in department meetings. I really do not think that anyone has an answer on the topic, but we, as educators and parents, need to take our heads out of the sand and realize that this is a real thing our students are doing. If we don't educate ourselves, then who is going to educate our students and children?
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