Lesson 8: The Security Finale

For this last week in educational technology we studied the importance of security on the internet.  We place such a grand emphasis on using technology on a daily basis we have to account for the dangers that threaten our hardware.  As an educator so much of what we do is completed upon technology and I have been sweating bullets a few times when I couldn’t find my flash drive, which contained all my lesson plans and resources.  Professionally we have a responsibility to teach our students proper security measures and ethical treatment of technology.  In our ISTE standards for teachers we are to model and promote digital citizenship and responsibility.  Whenever we have students using technology we need to be teaching them the importance of maintaining security of their usernames and passwords.  We teach them to look for good and reliable sources and avoid simply opening emails and such. 

In the classroom I notice how our servers have several anti-virus programs in place that block students from going to unreliable sources that could potentially transfer malicious software.  Email is limited to using outlook because of their greater control with the school system.  Students are encouraged to connect to the wifi network within the school, but they also know they will be monitored in their usage of the net and they can’t go to several websites they could otherwise go to on their own.  I think it’s very important to teach internet security to the students because they generally don’t have much of a concern about it.  I have had to tell students about keeping their usernames and passwords safe and only used by them a lot recently.  If another students forgets theirs then another is quick  to say, “They can use mine.”  That is admirable that they want to help their fellow peers, but this behavior keeps students at risk because they don’t worry about losing their identity or what others can do with their identity.  Students really don’t think about someone else acting as them and going to inappropriate sites and then the real student get in trouble for it.  I try to explain to them that even though it doesn’t seem to matter now, they still need to help their personal data to themselves.  I don’t give students my username and password and they ask why so I tell them that anything could happen if I know that only I know my username and password.  I can’t allow myself to not have control over my username. 

This transfers to my own personal accounts.  I try to maintain security as best as I can by using a password that has capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers within the password.  I have dealt with viruses in the past and I always check to make sure emails are from people that I know or I understand the subject title.  I don’t add people to my facebook unless I know them personally and I don’t go to lots of links on facebook as well.  I know that I do need to get a more updated anti-virus program, but until I do so I try to search the web as conservatively as possible.