From Lisa Waters and the FOSI conference

Thankfully, I was able to attend the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) conference in DC. This conference is host to some of the most important conversations and research concerning online safety for students. It brings together some of the most important folks in the field and showcases their current findings, as well as provides endless resources for schools to share with their students and parents. Not to mention, FOSI serves the best lunches! And all this for Free! I highly recommend that all teachers, parents and students (MS and US aged) attend this conference. Here are my 5 biggest takeaways....

5 BIGGEST TAKE AWAYS:

1. Teens are listening! But just applying the safety rules in ways that make sense to them and reflect the way they use tech so we need to respect that and support their efforts to be safe online even if it doesn't look exactly like how we would approach this
2. Parents think they are more knowledgeable than they probably are . And, their confidence is tied directly to their own use of tech. So, the more tech savvy, the more confident that they know what their kids are up to -- but do they really?
3. WE NEED TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE CRISIS TEXT LINE -- ALL KIDS SHOULD KNOW THIS JUST LIKE THEY KNOW 911
4. We’ve got to find ways to make sure kids are seeking balance -- we’ve traded “connectedness for connectivity” and this is a road leading to isolation! How are we seeking this balance in our classrooms and how are we making it blatantly obvious that we are striving for this balance?
5. We need to have another informational program for parents to provide them with this research and to share with them resources for good tech parenting!