Connected! for Students

Gr 6—10—This series sets out to clarify some essential questions involving behavior, safety, habitual use, and communication in today's cyber world. Since today's youth communicate electronically much more comfortably than they do in person, social rules must be established and enforced by authorities. Students may be fine with superficial messages sent by texting, social networks, or email, but interpersonal skills are being lost. Face-to-face communication includes body language and tone of voice which help relay the intended messages. Digital communication loses most of those cues, thereby inviting misunderstandings and misrepresentations. Digital Citizenship is the most comprehensive segment, explaining the basic modes of digital communication and their dangers. Multicultural teens deliver short monologues explaining how risks can be avoided and strategies for safeguarding against harmful messages. Female counselors and a "cyber cop" describe trends in misuse or habitual overuse of digital technology. Online Safety is a useful tool for understanding predation, ID theft, and losing oneself in a cyber life. Cyberbullying is the least effective part because it repeats images and film clips too often. The legal and social repercussions of cyberbullying are alarming, but the message is lost in boring repetition. Video footage is repeated in all three films, so viewering should be spaced over time. Overall, these films accurately explain the ethics and pitfalls of digital communication.—Robin Levin, Fort Washakie School/Community Library, WY