School leaders, CEOs must insist on legal and appropriate use of technology by students, staff and everyone else
You know the story.
You hear it
every day.
The message may
be printed in your policy book, preached on opening day, or placed on the
agenda of every meeting, but it still happens:
·
Teachers being fired for berating their students on Facebook.
·
Teens are charged with breaking the law for posting threats,
nasty rumors or nude photos using social media.
·
An employee makes national headlines for emailing obscene pictures
to women from his computer at work.
·
Someone is sued for slander for passing on untrue information
through the Internet.
The Internet is
a wonderful resource for teaching, learning and marketing your schools or your
business, but it must be used responsibly. School leaders, CEOs and small
business owners can all be held accountable for what goes online from the
workplace.
If the law
doesn’t catch up with them, their corporate image still suffers each time
someone at their site goes outside acceptable practice of safe and sensible Internet
use. Schools, companies and other agencies need to set standards to ensure that
everyone follows the rules. Sometimes written guidelines aren’t enough.
Ironically, one sure-fire way to keep Internet users in line is through the
computer.
“Even those who are tech-savvy are often unaware of
the consequences of online violations,” says Aim Up owner Carlos Valladares,
area representative for Promethean products and CIW-ICT Program.
Aim Up is proud to now offer the CIW-ICT program, a new and
innovative program created by Certification Partners that focuses on
Information and Communication Technologies, their fundamentals, and their
appropriate use. Though the entire suite of 10 courses is designed to raise
digital literacy in a broad range of technologies, several courses within the
suite focus directly on the appropriate and legal use of Internet services and
in particular, social media.
CIW-ICT comes with valuable tips and online resources for helping
computer users take full advantage of the resources available on the Internet,
but do so safely, legally, and confidently. Materials provided for each course
are intended to be used by teachers (regardless of their subject area) to
infuse technology into their courses as an engaging learning tool. This integration
of technology into student learning begins as early as Grade 3 and continues
through Grade 12 and beyond, even into business and industry. Courses within
the suite can be integrated across elementary and middle school curricula
district-wide to ensure an acceptable level of digital citizenry prior to
moving into high school.
Aim Up helps groups get special pricing,
provides local support and helps schools and other organizations implement the
project throughout their districts or worksites. Courses are delivered through
the web on any device that is web-browsing enabled.
Article by Susan K Maciak
Business Consultant and Author
Business Consultant and Author
For permission to reprint or quote from this article:
Contact Maciak at Aim Up: www.aimupimage.com
For help in improving your business image, contact us at service@aimupimage.com
