Using Computers for Safe Social Networking
By: Tony Ferraro
Television, Facebook, radio, the outdoors, credit card companies, colleges, and family—life is full of so many distractions. While some of these are good and worthwhile, and may be even important priorities, others simply do not matter in the greater scope of things.
How does a Christian school stand out in the clutter of life? How can your school accomplish its goals of education, Christian community, discipleship, and financial stewardship?
Incorporating Web 2.0 technologies into the Christian campus environment can have a direct impact on any Christian school’s core objectives by:
* Extending the classroom experience
* Building better Christian community relationships
* Providing guidance and discipleship opportunities
* Building life-lasting relationships
A lot of organizations, particularly in the Christian space, have become very cautious about using Web 2.0 or social networking…and for good reason. Environments like MySpace and Facebook have been a hotbed of controversy. False relationships are built, people are duped, and kids get hurt. Police agencies across America are creating entire departments for crimes committed on these Web sites.
So, why should you feel safe?
Today’s new technologies can empower you, the Christian school, to build and self-manage your own online network, putting you 100 percent in control. You control the people, the content, and the access. In short, it enables you to build an alternativeenvironment that can be completely safe, while giving every member the opportunity to be both “known” to you and legitimate. No one has access to any content or person unless you know exactly who they are.
It also provides you with the opportunity to take advantage of today’s advances without the risks associated with traditional social networking.
So, how can you make these technologies work for your school?
Web 2.0 enables your school to extend your classroom experience beyond your traditional learning boundaries. Every class and teacher can have an independent online classroom environment where instructors can post homework schedules, engage in forums with parents and students, and post additional classroom materials, such as photos, videos, Web links, and documents.
Creating an online, interactive classroom environment engages students by making them feel that they are truly a part of something bigger than themselves. It also teaches that the school is not about a “place,” but rather about the activity of learning for life.
One of the best parts is that today’s technologies enable the teacher or teacher’s aide to manage the online classroom without having any programming experience.
Beyond the classroom, social networking has a direct impact on community relationships. Because man was built in the image of God, and God exists in eternal relationship, man has a desperate need to be known and not alone. Providing students and teachers with online profiles that they can manage themselves gives them the opportunity to engage in “real” relationship.
Facebook and MySpace can offer a false sense of relationship. There is no guarantee that the people on these sites are legitimate.
On the other hand, however, in a Christian school-based social network, the people are known and identified. If a member does or says something inappropriate, they can be suspended from the community or otherwise disciplined.
Allowing students to share their lives in a safe place online empowers them to build better relationships with other students and teachers. Further, students can participate in a community conversation that is bigger than them. As they spread their “giftedness” wings, they are able to better find their fit in the larger Body of Christ.
All of these relational examples translate into having a direct impact on the guidance and discipleship that the school is able to provide. Many administrators fear that their students will abuse the privilege of participating in an online community and that it will negatively impact the school’s reputation and ability to educate.
Here is the bad news. If students are going to abuse the school’s social network, they are already abusing FaceBook, MySpace, and other sites like them, but, no one is watching them.
The good news is that if a student does trespass their privilege to participate in the online community governed by the school, they are known. The school knows exactly who they are and where to find them. This presents an opportunity to disciple the student. They can be confronted and their behavior can be changed in a caring environment where they are known.
For the school, this means that school administration now has the ability to impact a student’s life like never before. As students blog, comment, and participate in online community, school staff members and teachers can see what is going on in their lives. It also means that parents can give their children a safe place where they can learn to be healthy participants in a global community without the distraction of secular influencers.
Finally, a school’s social network can have a direct impact on financial stewardship. As mentioned, today’s world presents so much mindshare “clutter.” People tend to focus their time where there is opportunity for relationship.
The “6 Degrees of Separation” proved that an organization can truly mobilize relationships to do something powerful. It is easy to get to donors and influencers through relationships you have in common. If your school builds better relationships with students and parents using an online community, those relationships will last longer and provide routes to funding. People support causes they believe in. Most Christian schools suffer the same consequence when it comes to building relationships. They lose them.
The world is competing for the attention and the lives of the people God has entrusted to you. As a result, it is more important than ever to intentionally build and maintain relationships with them using today’s technologies, which make it very easy to do. The investment you make today will make a lasting impact tomorrow.
Tony Ferraro is a lay minister with Sandals Church in Riverside, California, and is president and chief executive officer of 360Hubs, developer of 360Connected Church, www.360hubs.com.
Sidebar
Protecting Your Computers
By Pete Witchoski
One of the most frustrating aspects of PC ownership is the ever-changing landscape of Internet security. Modern security risks such as viruses, spyware, rootkits, trojans, and phishing scams fall under the broad categorical term malware. The average user has little idea how to identify these latest threats, much less prevent them. One of the primary reasons malware has become so sophisticated is that modern malware designers now create their programs to generate a source of revenue, rather than the traditional motives of anarchic disruption or bragging rights in the hacker subculture.
There are several methods by which malware creators can profit from their creations. Ill-gotten gains involve using hijacked computers to send spam that preys on the uninformed, renting hijacked computer networks to other hackers to use for extortion, and redirection of Web searches to pay-per-click spyware-ridden sites. Billions in revenue are now generated annually from this online equivalent of organized crime. The toughest part of policing these e-crimes is the virtual nature of their exploits. Entire global hacker networks exist without a physical mailing address, and attacks can be launched from a random Internet café anywhere in the world.
Nearly all security advisors agree that the best prevention involves a layered approach. Always start by installing all of the available Windows updates and service packs. These patches are engineered to fix critical security vulnerabilities that are routinely discovered within the millions of lines of programming code in Microsoft Windows. Next, a commercial antivirus suite should be installed that includes a real-time virus and spyware scanning, as well as a firewall. It is acceptable to add a redundant spyware application for periodic scans, but it is never advantageous to run two antivirus applications simultaneously, as they will often conflict. Extreme caution is advised against clicking on any garish pop-ups that state “your computer is already infected” and “buy now to become protected.” These pop-ups are typically malicious programs masquerading as legitimate security software, and they can cause catastrophic damage to data and applications.
Even if you follow all of the best practices and recommendations, there is still an element of instinct and awareness to safely navigating the Internet. If it looks suspicious, it probably is. Don’t follow a link in an e-mail to a Web site unless you know the source. Always use the address bar in your browser to enter a commercial URL address. Also, be cautious of mistyped addresses, as they often lead to spoof sites. Additionally, it is best to avoid peer-to-peer music and file sharing networks, as they are some of the most common sources of malicious code in the educational sector.
While it is virtually impossible to build a faultless computer configuration completely safe from malware, it is possible to minimize your school’s risk to an acceptable level by following best practices, maintaining a current subscription to security software, and having your computer routinely checked by a professional on a periodic maintenance schedule.
Pete Witchoski is an account manager and technical support specialist for Richards Computer, www.richardscomputer.com.
