Okay. I am registered as mcalpi14 on Whyville. I created a cute little avatar just for me, and I am ready to be a citizen. My first stop is in the Welcome Lounge to get my Chat License. I am not sure what the chatting is, but a license sounds important, so I better get one.
………later on………..
So, getting a chat license is Whyville’s way of making sure that each person knows the rules of chatting and knows what to do if someone violates the rules. Apparently no private information is to be shared, and the avatars for the Whyville employees have beanies. I like this chat licensing feature. It explains their standards in a clear fashion and provides kids with ways to handle unsafe chatting. If I had my class doing this I would make it kind of a class responsibility to report any offenders on the site and explain how it takes everyone to make a community safe. This is a great launching point for a class discussion on internet safety. I would want to focus on what information we share and do not share, why it is important not to share personal information, and what our classroom consequences will be if someone is caught using the internet in an unsafe way.
As a side note, I do recognize that internet safety is a huge concern when using this type of program, but I feel that the fact that Whyville is a semi-controlled environment makes it an ideal place for kids to get their feet wet in the internet world. It’s my opinion that talking about the issue and teaching kids how to safely use the internet is a much better course of action than hyper-censoring kids’ internet experiences.
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