Rules of the Road: Netiquette and Safety

We will share this information in class today when we discuss rules of safety and netiquette. Click on the title The Core Rules of Netiquette to review Virginia Shea's advice in the excerpt from her book.



Rule 1: Remember the Human;
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life;
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace;
Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth;
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online;
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge;
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control;
Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy;
Rule 9: Don't abuse your power;
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes!



In addition to these seemingly common sense rules, we must also be aware of safety. Although we will be the only members of our blog, and therefore we will be the only bloggers to be able to post or comment, we will still protect our identities by not using any last names, addresses, or phone numbers. We will also refrain from mentioning the name of our high school or city. Those things probably wouldn't need to be mentioned anyway because we all know where we are.



If you decide to take on a pseudonym, only the teacher will know who you are unless you decide to tell others who you are. Pseudonyms, of course, should be classroom appropriate, since after all, we are theoretically still in our classroom! We shouldn't write anything that our grandmothers wouldn't want to read. (I'm one, remember?)

Lastly, below is a link that may be very enlightening for all of us and even our "larger audience" out there. Please click on the link to read a clarification of the difference between educational blogging and social networking. Networking sites like MySpace truly differ in content and language from educational blogging, and reading this link will clear up some of the challenges we will face as new bloggers. I hope to prevent any misunderstandings which could emerge over blogging expectations. The site covers dangers, safety, language, and benefits of a knowledge based site. Read on. We'll discuss this further in class.

http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com/Blogs+vs+Social+Networking