We break our Myspace/Facebook program** for students into 3 parts:
1) The Dangers
2) Protecting Yourself
3) How to Use the Tools Positively and Effectively
In the actual talk, we spend only about 1/3rd of the time on the first two parts and 2/3rds on the last part. The reason is studies show that students are actually fairly safe online, and if you break down the crime stats of a big city and think about Myspace as one huge city, it is much more dangerous to hang out in New York than on Myspace.
The problem with our approach is it is much easier to market the program if we focus just on the dangers and feed off of people’s fears. I know in some talks I’ve said, “Educate your students now so your school isn’t the next national headline.” That is scary and motivates people to action, and by action I mean hire us. But is it right? I don’t think so. How effective can I be if I go in and tell students how to be safe online and then show stats that say they actually are fairly safe online? I’m not really teaching them anything new.
The real learning for the students is in the positive uses for these sites and our challenge is to market that side. I know in the long run we are right, we just have to convince that people as quickly as this cartoon can about the dangers.
