Chandell Asuncion

Students of the 21^st Century will need to acquire a strong set of ethics, values, communication, and collaboration skills that allow them to prosper in a global economy. For these students the Internet is an essential part of their lives that must be closely supervised.

The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative (CSEI) http://www.rrcsei.org/research.html reports that children have unsupervised access to a computer and the internet at home as early as age 5, and that by age 7, 15% report that someone was mean to them online, while 7% admit they have been mean to someone online. We are seeing the onset of cyber bullying beginning in the second grade and it’s not always the adult predator. Reports show that 45% of the cases are friends victimizing friends.

One in three children ages 9-12 report they have committed some type of online deception, abuse or crime. They have posted personal information about themselves online, which might include their first and last name, their age, photos of themselves, where they go to school, the names of their parents, teachers and friends, where they hang out, and what teams they play on. Furthermore 23.2% admit to lying about their age online.

Reports also show that 1 in 4 children between the ages 9-18 report that they have been victimized online by one or more forms of abuse within the past school year that was not reported to a grown up.

During the past school year has someone…
1. used your password without your knowledge………..………11.9%
2. embarrassed you online………………………………………..10.3%
3. bullied or threatened you online…………………………….…..6.9%
4. requested pictures of you without clothes…………………….1.0%
5. showed you pictures of themselves without clothes…………2.3%
6. asked private things about your body…………………….…….1.5%
7. told you private things about their body…………………..….…2.3%

Five rules to keep your children safe online
1. Don’t post personal information and photos of yourself
2. People may not be who they say they are
3. Don’t open attachments from strangers
4. Tell an adult you trust if something online makes you feel uncomfortable
5. Meeting online strangers alone is dangerous

Provide your children an opportunity to share their online experiences with you by discussing what they are doing online.

Join Steve Dembo and educators around the world to take the 30 day challenge.  Each day Steven will post a new blog tip, and encourage users to share the blogs and their comments with each other.  The challenge officially kicked off on November 1st and will run until the end of November 2008. To be a part of this challenge or just pick up a new blogging skill each day mosey over to Steve Dembo’s blog at Day 1: It’s all about the “About” page. Your readers will want to know who the author is and what you will be writing about.

I came across an interesting blog post today that highlights how things continue to change. Remember when our country was predominantly run by men and women didn’t attend colleges and universities.  The blog post referenced some of the statistical data that is shared by The Boys Project – Helping Boys Become Successful Men.  There mission, is the same as ours, to help young males (and females) develop their capabilities and reach the potential that their families and teachers know they have.

The following data excerpts are from Steve Dembo’s blog at Teach42 about the “Boys Project” – Helping Boys Become Successful Men.

• For every 100 girls diagnosed with a special education disability 217 boys are diagnosed with a special education disability.
• For every 100 girls diagnosed with emotional disturbance 324 boys are diagnosed with emotional disturbance
• For every 100 girls with multiple disabilities 189 boys have multiple disabilities
• For every 100 women enrolled in college there are 77 men enrolled.
• For every 100 American women who earn a masterís degree from college 62 American men earn the same degree.
• For every 100 females ages 20 to 24 that commit suicide 624 males of the same age kill themselves.
• For every 100 women ages 18 to 21 in correctional facilities there are 1430 men behind bars.

Teach42

Click here to visit the Boy’s Project – Helping Boys Become Successful Men.

Review the 6 issues facing boys, and the great list of resources available in their resource section on how you too can work on “Closing the Achievement Gap”.