High+School+Videos+(Steve,+Rusty,+Kate,+Irene,+Hollie)

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Your high school Spanish students have been extremely excited about a recent project in your class. Students have been writing scripts and acting out “commercials” in Spanish for imaginary products. You have recorded the commercials on a digital camcorder and uploaded the videos to YouTube. The response has been very positive to these videos, and several students have uploaded them to their personal MySpace pages and blogs to share them with friends.

However, one of your students, Olivia, just forwarded you a comment written in response to one of the videos in which she participated and asks for help translating. The comment is in Spanish and contains several sexual references and curse words. When Olivia clicks on the commenter's username to find out more about the person, she sees videos with sexual content. What do you tell your students about the comment and what Olivia saw, and how do you advise them to respond?

Steps to be taken: 1. Address the situation with the class. There may be others in the class who also received inappropriate comments of some nature and they may have been afraid to mention it or unsure of how to bring it to the teacher's attention. At some point (either before the specific discussion about the comment Olivia found, or immediately after the discussion) the teacher should invite Olivia's classmates to bring these potential cases up as well.

2. Discuss why the situation is inappropriate. Discussion might run like this: "Olivia's commercial has spawned an unwanted comment in response. She tried to take responsibility by looking into who posted the comment, but that only made things worse as the commentor's link led to more inappropriate material. We're not going to visit that material (audible disappointment among some in class), but I'm sure you can imagine. The fact is, we have encouraged responses from anyone on the Net and not everyone watching has good intentions. What should we do about it?

3. Discuss the appropriate course of action for students to take if they feel as though they are receiving inappropriate comments or messages online. "Question #1 for discussion: Are you responsible for the comments posted in response to something you put on the Web?" Lead students to understand that ultimately they are not responsible. "Question #2 for discussion: Do you need to take every comment seriously? If not, which should be taken seriously?" "Question #3 for discussion: Is it poor netiquette to delete a comment that is inappropriate or clearly off topic? Why or why not?" Bring up the issue of anonymity and/or impersonation on the Web. Only people with comments that clearly indicate their sincere connection with the topic deserve to remain part of the conversation online.

4. Address with students how they can prevent such situations online. Should we block all comments just because one negative one appears? Can we turn on a comment moderation feature and edit out inappropriate comments before they appear on the page?

5. Talk about tips for staying safe on the Internet. -Never give out personal information. -Always tell a parent or teacher if you feel someone has made inappropriate comments to you on the Internet. -Don't make contact with people you do not know. -Never give out your usernames or passwords to anyone--even friends.

6. To reinforce the discussion and to make sure all students followed it and understand the issues and appropriate responses, give them a short written response (such as a "ticket out") which includes a few multiple choice responses and room for them to add other thoughts or questions.

7. Consider contacting parents about the situation and briefing them on how it was handled. It may also be wise to notify administrators regarding the comment and follow-up.