Norms and Responsibilities

What user responsibilities do you feel should be expressed in this digital world?

The most direct norm that I share with students when using the internet at school is to ask yourself..Does this have educational value?

With that in mind one norm should be access to materials of educational value. But to use the Spiderman Cliche..With great power comes great responsibility. So students need to realize, that the greater access they have, the more responsible they have to be. Recently my school has unblocked such social media sites as facebook and twitter and some teachers have started using them to communicate lessons, assignments, test reminders with students and parents. Students have to realize that if not used responsibly then those sites could just as easily be blocked again.

Another norm that should be followed is accountability. While there is a big push towards privacy, and rightfully so, students also need to know that there is not privacy in the online world. Things you post, are there forever. With that same idea in mind, students (and adults) need to be accountable for what they post online. Many people say things online that they would not say face to face, they have a feeling of anonymity while online. That is just not the case, you need to think before you post things or say things online and be prepared to answer for those things if needed.