Category Archives: Digital Citizenship

When and how should I check my child’s history on devices?

Internet_ContractToday during the Coffee Talk, I’ve been tasked with being the point person for the question “When and how should I check my child’s history on devices?”

The “when” part of the question is tricky and obviously will vary from child to child. Trust is the largest factor in this equation. It also depends on how often you’ve discussed the appropriate use of the Internet with your child, how much they’ve taken ownership of the goals of digital citizenship lessons at school, their own personal sense of right and wrong, and whether or not they even want to follow the right path. As students grow more and more curious they’ll find a way to answer their questions. Will they ask you? Will they ask a friend? Will they look it up on the Internet?

Personally, as the father of a ten year old, I would only check her Internet history if I get the sense that there is something going on that she doesn’t want to talk about. At home the computer is in the living room. When she’s on the computer I’m on the couch reading a book. When she’s at school she’s being supervised. She doesn’t ever have access to the Internet unguided. Not yet. In my mind the Internet is like New York. There are some great museums and areas to visit. However, there are also some dark alleyways harboring ill-intentioned people. I would no sooner send my daughter to New York unchaperoned than I would let her access the Internet unsupervised. That day will come, but we’ll build up to it in the meantime.

So… that being said. If you need to check your child’s Internet history it’s fairly straight forward (links below). However, there are two other things to check for when you check their history that you may not have considered.

Are there any gaps in the history?… Times when you know your child was on the Internet but there are no time stamps. Hmm, did they delete a few minutes of naughty surfing. Or is their entire history wiped clean? Uh oh, time for a serious talk. That is unacceptable.

Also check their flash history. Chances are if they erased their history they did not erase flash (not on iPads). Here’s a link to the settings manager for flash.

I realize this doesn’t fully answer the question at hand, but the answers greatly depend on your parenting style and your child’s personality. Hopefully this will give you a great starting place when considering checking your child’s Internet history.

Resources

Do you have questions? Please feel free to contact me.

 

Parent Coffee

February 27th at 8:15 AM:

Please join in the TIS cafeteria for a We R-1 sponsored discussion on parenting in the age of technology.  Our children are currently growing up surrounded by technology, which creates new and sometimes unforeseen challenges in raising children.  Therefore, this discussion will be designed to provide parents with effective tips and answer questions in regards to raising children in a culture imbedded with technology.  We will address issues such as:digital_citizenship

  • What are a parent’s responsibilities in regards to technology?
  • Are cell phones a good idea and how do we regulate their use?
  • When and how should I check my child’s history on devices?
  • Creating responsible digital citizens.
  • Dealing with cyber bullying.

Image Credit: http://dcp.lbpsb.qc.ca

How to Get Started with Blogger

Blogger is a simple to use blog site.

evenfromhere.org

image: evenfromhere.org

The focus is on producing content, not on the creation and customization of the site itself. So, it makes for an ideal place for students to create a portfolio or even to just share information on a certain topic they are studying.

The video below shows you how to get started using blogger.com so that students can sign in to it using their Telluride School District Googles Apps account.

You can pop the video out to a full size view by clicking on the rectangle in the lower right side of the video after it starts to play.

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