Reflection on Parenting

Two years ago I had the opportunity to speak at an 8th grade graduation ceremony. One part of my message to the parents of the graduates was to be a successful parent you need to know your child's friends and approve of them because you are who you hang out with. I was reflecting on that comment this morning and trying to apply it further to the Internet world we live in today.

Today parents need to educate themselves about social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook. Most parents have never used these sites and do not understand the value, importance, or even point behind such sites. They do not know how to access them and lose track of what their child is doing on them.

I want to say first off that I love social networking sites I think they are a great way to communicate with friends, rediscover lost friends, share pictures, connect with musicians and other talent out on the web. I believe these sites have a specific value and that they are appropriate for anyone above the age of 13. I do believe parents should take an active part in their child's presence on the Internet whether it be through a social networking site or elsewhere.

How can a parent do this? You have two options, join the site your child uses (probably both myspace and facebook) or sit down with him/her and let them show you. Don't approach it from the "I want to snoop around" p.o.v. but from the "I'm interested in learning about these sites and how people use them."

Where do you go from here? Setup ground rules. Just like you have rules for when your child can go out, where they can go, who they can hang out with, curfews and such, you should have the same for the Internet and social networking sites. I am not going to give you the rules that will work in every situation, unfortunately parenting is not that easy and no such rules exist. I will give you some things to think about so you can develop your own set of rules that fits your situation.

Things to think about:

• Should you have your child's password to their email and networking sites, not to be abused and intrusive but as an issue of in case something happens to you this information may be useful.
• How late can your child stay on the Internet? Where can they access it from, family room, kitchen, bedroom?
• Open request policy that states you can use facebook/myspace if I can request that we sit down once a month or how ever often I feel necessary and we can look through your account together. This may help build trust and responsible usage.
• Who are their friends listed on these sites? Where did they meet them? If they have a friend listed and you don't think he/she should be on there make them take him/her off the list.

Remember that these sites are ways that friends can connect when their not together, a way for them to express themselves digitally, and a great way to share information (pictures, videos, writings). Just as you should know your child's friends and approve where they are going and who will be there, you have the same responsibility for their online presence. Yes this is new, but it is new to them also, they are only teenagers.

Harnessing the Internet in Education

While reading my daily news on cnn.com I found an interesting article titled, “Man Jailed For Creating Crosswalk, Vows More” (www.theindychannel.com/news/15181455/detail.html). The article sounded interesting and I read about the incident involving a young gentleman who believed he had a moral obligation to paint a crosswalk at an intersection for the safety of the local residents because the town government refused too. His actions and recent touch up work resulted in him being jailed for 10 hours. The article provided the exact intersection in Muncie, Indiana.

Intrigued by the topic and of the defendant’s belief he was morally obliged to perform this task; I wanted a first hand look of the crosswalk. I opened my web browser and went to maps.google.com I entered North St, Muncie, Indiana. The site brought me to W. North St. I knew the intersection was North and Dicks Street. I zoomed in on the area and moving from west to east I looked for Dicks Street. After locating the intersection, which is about 7 blocks east of Ball Memorial Hospital I zoomed in as far as Google Maps would allow. I clicked on Street View and was able to view the intersection as if I was standing in the middle of it. I scrolled left until straight in front of me was the painted crosswalk.

The crosswalk was very convincing and looked professionally painted. I’m sure with a little more research I could find information on the traffic in the local area. This intersection is near both a hospital and Ball State University, which tends to lead to more congested and dangerous traffic situations.

Try finding the intersection yourself. Below are a summary of the links I used plus the link to the final solution (the crosswalk view).

Article - www.theindychannel.com/news/15181455/detail.html
Map – maps.google.com
Intersection – North St. & Dicks St., Muncie, Indiana

Link to crosswalk view - The answer.

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Learning Something New - Wikis

As this new semester starts I was preparing to teach one of my night classes at County College of Morris, Routing I. This semester we are using an updated online book and I was reading through the first chapter to become more comfortable with the new content and organization of the book. I came upon the topic of wikis and I thought well this is a nice addition to the book. Wikis are something I do not have much experience with and had no intention of dealing with in the future. After reading through the books description of a wiki I clicked on a link that led to a video explanation of wikis put into general terms. I was so impressed by the video that I am now looking for a way to include wikis into our current technology production.

I've embedded the video I watched so that you too can have the opportunity to learn more about wikis. If you are interested in starting a free wiki wetpaint.com offers free accounts.



(credit: Lee LeFever, Common Craft)