Starting the Conversation

For the last few weeks I've been working with about half of our Year 8 classes on planning and creating their first ever podcasts. The teachers and I felt it would be a good time to start talking to the students about some safer online practices - even though they're working in a walled garden, and quite heavily protected, these are important discussions to have with students who are active on the "outside" anyway.

We kept it simple and spoke with them about not using names and having identifying details in their recordings. They've really enjoyed inventing their "podcast nicknames". We've got all kinds - BikerBoy186, Little Man, Nessie (as in the Loch Ness Monster), Sparkles, Chook, Smiles. And a sign they've gotten this very simple message from us - hubby reports he got in trouble for using their real names in his feedback comments on their wiki pages AND they've all changed the titles of their pages from their names to their nicknames.

I know this is no where near the complete induction to digital citizenship students need, but it's a step - and one that our school hasn't done before, so this is a small step, but an important one in moving towards starting conversations about cybersafety and self-protection on the internet.

Image by: publicenergy @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/75424716@N00/243387436