They agreed that internet safety was important. I asked whether it was any more important than teaching their kids about any other safety matters. The consensus seemed to be that it was at least as important, if not more important. It seemed that the one thing that stuck out for the women was that their children could access more people and more things more easily with the internet, than if they didn't have it. Everyone seemed to be very concerned about their children meeting someone offline that they'd met online - and that it would be unsupervised.
They all knew about the experience with the youngest woman's sister posting to her MySpace account that she was 23, when in reality she was 15. We had a discussion about what we would do if we found out our kids were doing something online that we didn't think was appropriate. They all wanted to know how the mom had handled the mistruths on the MySpace account. Apparently, the young woman had been confronted, but had told her mom that one of her friends had changed her age. I was surprised that the mom, sister and other ladies in the group believed her. Perhaps I'm just too cynical - cause I didn't. However, it brought up a topic for the class - don't share passwords.
As the discussion progressed, we came back to this example several times. It turned out that the girl was meeting someone offline that she'd met online. All of us were surprised. We asked if there were any repercussions for this and there didn't seem to be any. This was a little bit of an eye opener - cause they knew this young woman (or at least they knew the mom and the sister.) Everyone seemed to be of the same opinion that this wasn't OK. One lady pointed out to the woman with the 14 year old that her child would be in high school next year - and what would she do if her son started doing this.
We discussed chat rooms and whether MySpace was similar or different than chat rooms. They all agreed that they were. Samantha had them go into a Spanish chat room. One lady said they were totally ignored until she said something with a sexual overtone and all of the sudden she had lots of "friends." It seemed that the ladies had the same opinion about chat rooms that many of the teenagers expressed in surveys - they're icky.
We discussed cyberbullying. They couldn't understand why kids wouldn't just ignore people who were mean online. I explained that it probably has to do with the child - some probably don't care, but others are really sensitive. I also suggested that this becomes permanent and anyone online can read it which makes the problem "bigger" than something that might be contained in a classroom. We also talked about how most of the friendships online are also friendships (or acquaintances) offline. This probably compounds the problem. The ladies liked the MySpace feature that allowed people to block folks they didn't want to talk to.
At the end of the 1.25 hour chat, we asked for things they'd like to see in a class that they thought would be helpful. The ladies specifically asked for us to give them specific examples of the consequences of unsafe internet experiences. The suggestion was made that we need to teach them all about how to access things online because they thought familiarity would help them teach their kids.
At least two of the women are considering purchasing computers for their home. We discussed whether they would have internet access and they both hoped to. They wanted us to teach them about filters and how to set them up. We talked about using anti-virus protections to keep the porn problem to a minimum. We also mentioned one of the best practices suggested by almost every internet safety tip provider - keep the computer in a family place, not a bedroom.
The quietest woman is very reflective and kept saying that parents need to have a good relationship with their children and this should prevent problems. They all supervise their children well so think this will help prevent undesirable internet experiences. I brought up cell phones and sexting and asked how they're going to monitor this. This brought us back to the 15 year old and whether the mom should be constantly checking her MySpace account. The woman in our group (who's her sister) said that the mom doesn't. They all thought they would insist that their child provide them with their password. Although this sounds good, I thought that they might be in for surprise when their kids have more than one account.
Samantha suggested that they do some homework and talk to others about their thoughts. The comedian of the group said she was going to go talk to the mom of the 15 year old for her homework. She said she also thinks that this is the lady she needs to teach about internet safety.
Report for school
Where I am now - 1st Report
I'm ready to start on lesson plans.
Progress made since last report
During the 1st week, I have met with all of the ladies as a group. We discussed the study - our expectations - their expectations. We met with the ladies individually for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the person. Some ladies were much more willing to speak in this interview than others. (Please see 11/15 blog post for week 1 for details.) After the interview, they took their computer use assessment. All of them passed very easily. I was very impressed with the ladies who were willing to try speaking English with me on the individual interview.
This past week we did another group interview to have them get a feel for what they were all thinking about internet safety. It started slowly, but they quickly warmed up. (See blog post for 11/22 for details.) I thought it was interesting that none of them tried to speak English at all during the group session.
I think we have some solid ideas for lesson plans.
Potential Problems
Trying to cram lesson plans into 1 week.
We are still unsure how AZ House Bill 2008 is going to impact residents of public housing, and thus how it could impact this study. This bill requires all persons receiving public benefits (except those of an emergency nature - in other words, we wouldn't deny police or fire protection) to provide specific documentation to prove citizenship. My feeling this week is that management is trying to minimize the impact on 11/24 and possibly spread it out as each person recertifies their income and documents for a new lease. Other AZ public housing authorities say it doesn't impact public housing; however, our attorney and the state housing authority's attorney disagree.
Although so far, the ladies have found babysitters for the kids, this may not last.
Ways I plan to solve the problems
The lesson plans aren't a problem - it's the research. Without my laptop (destroyed in flood caused by defective plumbing), I'm having some issues; however, I'll just try to stay later at work, borrow my sister's laptop or something like that. The problem with using the Mac for research is that it is not currently in a comfortable location (flood issues) and causes my neck and back to hurt.
I think that all of my ladies are safe from imminent repercussions from HB 2008 - at least for the time being. It still looms, but isn't as threatening as the last time I reported.
Samantha and I have been prepared for kids ever since the 1st time the ladies brought them. We have explained to them that if it becomes necessary to bring them - we'll just deal with it. We've got a stash of toys and crafts ready to go. It will be distracting - but it's life.
Help I need
I'm not sure I need help right now. We'll see how next week goes.
Where I am going next
Next week, we won't meet with the ladies. We did ask them to bring us any ideas they had, but we'll have a very short week so may not hear from them until the following week.
Instead I plan to work on lesson plans.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment