Safety and security of our students, learners and even ourselves is something we all need to consider when using Web 2.0 tools.  How do we keep our students safe and how do we keep our information secure?  I propose that we begin by teaching our students to become Digital Citizens.  The ISTE offers many guidelines on how to teach students to be digital citizens and recommends the following Four-Stage Technology Learning Framework for Teaching Digital Citizenship in the current issue of Learning and Leading with Technology:

1. Awareness – Engage students to become technologically literate.  Students need to know whats appropriate and not appropriate when using different digital technologies.
2. Guided Practice – Provide students with guidance on the appropriate use of technology.  Students need to know they’re in safe a environment where take can explore and take risks with the support of their teacher.
3. Modeling & Demonstration – Teachers and other adults need to be positive role models to demonstrate what it means to be a good digital citizen so students can follow their example.
4. Feedback and Analysis – Adults should offer constructive criticism and maintain an open discussion about how technology can be used in school and in society.

With the support of parents and others in the community, teaching digital citizenship can improve the safety of the classroom and online in general.  If we instill these values in our students today, will safety and security be less of a concern in corporate tomorrow?

Currently, safety and security is an issue of concern at the corporate level.  I’d think we need to set similar expectations and maintain a code of conduct when using tools in the corporate environment as well, but a blog post by Michele Martin may suggest otherwise.

She was an instructor and facilitator of an online Work Literacy course that presented various Web 2.0 tools for learning professionals.  The 5 week course had 3,000 visitors with 749 creating profiles and posting on each others walls.  There were 60 forum threads and 45 blog posts among numerous other communications.  Through all of this communication, she didn’t witness a single inappropriate or unprofessional exchange, nor did she receive complaints from any participants.  The only potential issues she witnessed was when there were a few participants that were there to sell a product.  In these cases, the other participants mostly ignored them so in a sense they were self policing and didn’t acknowledge this behavior.

Can we leave this self policing to chance in a corporate setting?  If not, how much control do we need to have over the tools we use?  If we provide too much control, will learners be discouraged from using the tools?