Students need Facebook lessons: Trustee

A Catholic school trustee is calling for the development of curriculum that would teach students about the potential pitfalls of social networking sites like Facebook.
Bruno Iannicca, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board's trustee for Ward 7 in Mississauga, believes schools should be helping students understand the dangers of sharing personal information on public networking websites.

While there are a host of benefits to this kind of electronic interaction and expression, he suggested, young people need to be aware the technology can be used in a harmful manner.

“As wonderful as it is, it’s also a concern for parents,” he remarked. “I think it would be in the children’s best interest to put something together.”
Social networking, and particularly the use of Facebook, has become a routine part of daily life for many students.
Parents and Board staff are also among hundreds of millions worldwide that use the popular site to connect and share information with friends, as well as strangers.

Sharing what are sometimes very personal images and comments with a wide audience has become so commonplace and easy that the potential dark consequences of putting our lives into cyberspace are often overlooked, Iannicca suggested.

“I don’t think we prepare (students) for what Facebook could do,” he told fellow trustees at a recent Board meeting.
The Dufferin-Peel Board should take a lead role in addressing the concerns some parents have on this issue, he said.
“Bruno makes some good points,” said Mississauga wards 1 and 3 trustee Mario Pascucci.

Associate director Ralph Borrelli also agreed and noted the Board does teach “media literacy” at some schools.
There's also a Board policy to control the use of personal electronic devices by students, employees and visitors on school premises, Borrelli added.

All cell phones and other personal electronic devices must be turned off while in school or on school field trips.
Policy guidelines cover a variety of devices, including those used for communication, entertainment, data management, wireless internet access, taking photographs, playing music and recording images or sound.

Borrelli said the Board tries to educate parents about monitoring their children’s use of social media.
The proliferation and advent of technology makes it difficult for the Board to keep up with the issues policy and media literacy curriculum may need to address, he conceded.

Board staff will develop a report based on Iannicca’s suggestion and present the document to trustees.

Comments by others - 3 - to this web-page at time of posting;

messi May 6, 2010 9:39 AM

With all due respect Mr. Trustee

This is an issue between the child and parents. The police officers that come into the school's every year already more than adequately cover this issue. However, Mr. Trustee the community would appreciate if you would do something about not being able to fire bad teachers or hold them accountable for their actions. There are more important issues to address before using much needed resources on a duplication of 'services'. There are issues in the school's that need addressed, bullying (by a teacher), threats & intimidation (by a teacher), the breach of confidentiality (by a teacher) when a student or parent dares to ask a question or question a decision or action. These bad teachers act without consequences because it is either too difficult for a principal to deal with or the principal is too closely linked to the teacher (ie. personal friendships because they were once a peer). By not dealing with the bad teachers it is the good teachers that lose and the students are damaged the most by the emotiona

Agree 1

MISSISSAUGAWATCH May 3, 2010 6:25 PM

The Value of Facebook: Lessons to anyone attempting to comment at the Mississauga News

Make sure you've linked your Facebook account so that you have the option of copying your MissyNews message over to Facebook. I've had as many as four political comments deleted at one time in under five minutes here by UNtaggers. Regarding social media, if educating people on the dangers of stuff had any impact, we wouldn't have so many fat people waddling about (I'm getting to be one), smoking cigarettes --or experimenting with the joys of unprotected sex!

Agree 1

Randy May 3, 2010 3:18 PM

No wonder kids and adults are so overweight these days. All their social time is spent sitting at the computer instead of getting out and participating in activities.

Agree 1

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