Rights and Responsibilities

I would like to think that we should all have the right to privacy, safety, learning opportunities, and freedom of speech when using the internet.  Of course, we are all aware of hackers stealing financial information and even issues with election tampering (allegedly) that are certainly causes for concern. We hear all too frequently about predators luring young people into dangerous situations through deception. The internet provides so much information and opportunities for all of us to remain life-long learners (does anyone remember the days of card catalogs and encyclopedias?).  The internet also provides the opportunity to express ourselves and share our ideas with a much wider range of people. It really is a world-wide web that has the potential to draw people from all walks of life closer together creating greater understanding.

The responsibilities that go with these rights are many.  Most of the same skills we would teach in and social/communication class would apply to the internet also. We have a responsibility to not post private information for ourselves or others on the net. Photos from a rowdy party or an angry rant on social media are all too easy to post in an moment of extreme emotion and/or impaired decision making, so we have to teach students about the consequences of making these types of decisions. Just like the freedom of speech we cherish in our personal contact with people, we need to be sure to teach students that they don't have to believe what others are saying, but they can respond respectfully or even just not respond at all. We need to teach students students to be safe ad to understand that not everything they read and/or see on the internet is true and/or safe (try this at home stunts??).  Students need to be taught skills to evaluate the constant flow of information literally at their fingertips everyday, to make safe and informed decisions about what is facts vs. opinions and truth vs. deception.