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Pandora's Box

 We cannot talk about Web 2.0 without addressing the issue of privacy. Many of us have had the experience of talking about a product and then being inundated with ads for that product on our phones. If we are to look for ways to incorporate social media into education, especially on the K-12 level, we need to figure out how to maintain the privacy of our students. I grew up in the era of stranger danger. My parents and I had a safe word in case they needed to send someone to pick me up from school. Houses in the neighborhood had signs in the window that showed kids where to run in case of danger. The internet expands the world, but with that comes the danger of exposing students to people outside of their neighborhood that might not have their best interest at heart. The problem is you can't put all the demons back into Pandora's Box. So how do we tame the demons and make them work for us?

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  1. I have this conversation with my teenage children so often, almost to the point they really don't trust social media! Social media can be such a useful tool, but there's always those out there turn useful tools into a means to destroy individuals. It seem to boil down to going back to basics, the "don't talk to strangers" aspect of social media.

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