Consulting - Faculty In-Service

Cyber-Smarts for the Already Gifted and Talented: For Faculty and Staff by Katie Koestner

Do your faculty members know what a Hotornot rating is or how it can affect a student’s self-esteem?  Have any of your staff members received Facebook Pokes from students?  Do they understand the consequences of video phone technology in the academic setting?  Do they know how X-Box live outings might affect students’ interpersonal and language skills?  Do they know what BitTorrent Programs do?  Do you know how predators use MySpace, Facebook, and Wii to locate their next targets?

"Cyber-Smarts" effectively bridges the gap between adults and today’s cyber-generation caused by the explosive growth of the Internet, video games, and other popular technologies.  These technologies have revolutionized youth social scenes in ways we are only beginning to understand and unfortunately many of us have been left behind, completely unaware of the risks offered by these technologies. 

Part 1:  The Overview

This interactive program begins with a tour of popular websites and other technologies frequented by adolescents and highlights insights on youth online behavior.  Our program’s content is a compilation of research on the incidence of various technology related experiences of today’s teens, work with over 500 schools, insider-information directly from teenagers as well as partnerships with technology-focused institutions and the FBI.  The program covers everything form deciphering secret IM chat codes to understanding the techniques of online pornographers to the avocation of online gaming. 

Part 2:  Case Studies

Next, the program gets all participants involved in case studies exploring the gray areas and intersections between teaching and technology.  Each case is drawn from the presenter’s experiences with schools as well as current news stories and legal cases.  Faculty and staff will help to negotiate clearer boundaries for themselves and their community in setting expectations for the use of various technologies with students and peers.

Some of the topics we will cover include:

• Acceptable Use Policy potential issues
• Intellectual property issues
• E-mail correspondence and privacy
• Chat – IM
• Blogs
• Use of .com sites and commercial enterprises online by faculty
• MySpace – Facebook – to use or not use?
• Profiling future employees and students
• Plagiarism
• Music downloads and file sharing-P2P
• Copyright violations
• Video technology
• Cell phones incl. iPods and iPhone
• Filtering
• Personally owned devices on campus and in use on school property
• Jurisdiction – school events
• Pictures/photos on school’s own website and elsewhere
• Third party use of the logo on other websites
• Portal technology – log ins accounts for students, parents, and staff
• Virus protection, anti spyware
• Identity theft
• Free speech – rate my teacher/coach
• Pranks and practical jokes
• Intersection of other policies, i.e. bullying, harassment, and sexual exploitation
• Physically tampering with hardware, etc – computer settings
• Vtunnel and how students get around firewalls/rules
• Gaming and downloads – using up bandwidth
• Discrimination - Hate sites (White Power group on Hot or Not website)
• And more!!

Sex, Lies and Videotape: Defining Sexual Misconduct

This in-depth look at sexual misconduct challenges your faculty to expand their cognitive understanding of sexual assault issues, as well as negotiate the difficult balance between compliance with reporting requirements and instinctual preservation of community equilibrium. A variety of case studies engage your staff in weighing between responsibility and culpability, between seduction and coercion, and between intoxication and incapacitation.

The faculty learns when a third party report would bring “actual notice” standards into play. The concepts of deliberate indifference as delineated by federal case law are explained. We discuss teacher-student relationships, student dress, sexual harassment, and any other topics of concern. Although sexual misconduct can be a divisive issue, this workshop creates an atmosphere of greater understanding and caring about the school environment as a community of trust.

Responding to Sexual Misconduct

Students often perceive their teachers as trustworthy confidants, telling them the darker and more personal aspects of their lives. This workshop informs faculty on how to assist a student who has been sexually abused, assaulted, or raped. The program offers a detailed discussion of the steps to follow when providing support, from medical assistance to rebuilding trust. Legal reporting responsibilities are elucidated.

Armed with knowledge of the characteristics of Rape-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the faculty is able to watch for students exhibiting these symptoms. Staff members learn how to be sensitive to a student’s needs, while maintaining professional teacher-student boundaries. Several real life case studies are used to cover complicated situations.

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