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Digital world presents challenges for all of us

Junior high and high school can be a tough time for anyone. Most adults remember some incident during high school they’d prefer to forget.

Junior high and high school can be a tough time for anyone.

Most adults remember some incident during high school they’d prefer to forget.

But now with social networking sites, camera phones and texting, one off-colour picture in secondary school can be forwarded to hundreds of people and attached to a person’s name possibly for decades from now, searchable by future employers and others.

In recent cases, issues of “sexting” — sending inappropriate pictures by phone — have even landed young people in trouble with the law.

Provincial team teacher Bruce McGillivray and digital librarian Theresa Paltzat, both with the Edmonton-based group 2Learn.ca Education Society, helped Central Middle School parents navigate the issues that come up with the Digital Generation and the Digital Citizenship now required to be online. The talk, put on by the parent’s association, at the school’s library on Monday drew around 30 parents, students and teachers. 2Learn.ca is a not-for-profit group that provides resources to teachers, parents and students.

Paltzat said as part of digital citizenship it’s important for students to understand there is a standard of conduct online that they must follow while using digital tools and if they need to tell someone something they must consider what is the proper format for telling them, whether it is face-to-face, by phone, e-mail or text.

Paltzat said one challenge can occur when students feel they can be anonymous on the Web and give themselves a separate identity online, thinking that no one can track their activity online, which isn’t the case. She said sometimes students may misrepresent themselves by giving an older age or a different identity so they can say something nasty about someone else, but all of the information is traceable.

She described everything young people put online as a “digital tattoo” or a “digital footprint”, but she said unlike a footprint on the beach this is one encased in concrete that can’t be so easily washed away.

She warned parents not only about what their sons and daughters post online, but about the photographs their son’s and daughter’s friends or others post and tag with their names, which can be searchable by many more people.

Shelley-Anne Goulet, vice chair of the Central Middle School’s Parent’s Association, said technology now is very fast-paced and students are learning much more than she did at their age. However, despite the challenges, Goulet sees the Internet as a fantastic learning tool for her children who are able to search information such as song lyrics and other items and have the information immediately.

Online resources for parents that were suggested, included: www.2Learn.ca, www.texted.ca, www.connectsafely.com and www.bewebaware.ca.

sobrien@www.reddeeradvocate.com