Lesson 8: Netiquette

 March 12th, 2021

The main objectives of the lesson were: 

• Identify the basic rules for proper communication in virtual environments. 
• Learn to use the main rules of use in communication contexts in virtual environments. 
• Learn how to use tools for the creation of comics. 
• Acquiring and applying good habits in the use of communication rules.

Netiquette is short for "Internet etiquette” and it is a code of good behaviour on Internet: email, social media, online chats (Instant Messenger Services), forums, website or news sites comments, etc.  

There are two fundamental milestones in the history of style rules: 

• The document RFC 1855 (Request for Comments 1855) of 1995. This document was the first reference regarding rules of etiquette for the Internet. 
• Netiquette, by Virginia Shea 1994. In 1994, Virginia Shea published this work, which has become one of the classics of / on the Internet. 

Here are Virginia Shea's 10 general rules of Netiquette: 

Rule 1: Never forget that the person reading the message is indeed human with feelings that can be hurt. 

Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of online behaviour that you follow in real life. 

Rule 3: Writing everything in capital letters is considered as shouting and also makes reading difficult. 

Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth. 

Rule 5: Show the good side of your person while you stay online. 

Rule 6: Share your knowledge with the community. 

Rule 7: Help keep debates in a healthy and educational environment. 

Rule 8: Respect the privacy of third parties. 

Rule 9: Do not abuse the advantages that you may have. 

Rule 10: Excuse the mistakes of others

There is a 21st adaptation of netiquette:

• Avoid posting inflammatory or offensive comments online “flamming” 
• Respect others' privacy by not sharing personal information, photos, or videos that another person may not want published online 
• Never spam others by sending large amounts of unsolicited email. 
• Don't troll people in web forums or website comments by repeatedly nagging or annoying them. 
• Stick to the topic when posting in online forums or when commenting on photos or videos, such as YouTube or Facebook comments. 
• Don't swear or use offensive language. 
• Avoid replying to negative comments with more negative comments. Instead, break the cycle with a positive post. 
• If someone asks a question and you know the answer, offer to help. 
• Thank others who help you online.

There are different ways we can apply netiquette such as for email. When composing an email message, it is important to use good Netiquette. Include a subject that summaries the topic of the email, write a greeting, end the message with your name or "signature.”: Name, [your position and name of Company] (if you have a job), E-mail address and Website/blog/… URL. If you want to send an email to multiple recipients, you can simply add each email address to the "To" field. If the email is primarily intended for one person, you should place the additional addresses in the "CC" (carbon copy) field. If you are sending an email to multiple people that don't know each other, it is best to use the "Bcc" (blind carbon copy) field this factor hides the email addresses of each recipient, which helps prevent spam. 

The netiquette for forums, chats and social networks. Let's think before what we want to communicate, to whom, what reaction we expect. It may be that what we are going to ask has already appeared before, so if you ask again something that has already been resolved, show that you have not read the forum and your question may seem banal and be ignored. 

The structure of messages should be: 

• Say hello. 
• Do not write in capital letters. 
• In academic forums, anonymous messages are usually forbidden, without signature. 
• Be polite. 
• Writing rules to be understood: correct use of spelling and syntax, clarity and readability.

Reasonable use of attachments: 

• Size 
• Usability: when sending attached files, the use of open formats is recommended. If a proprietary format is used, the recipient may not have the necessary program to view it. 

Rules to foster the collaborative environment 

• Empathy. 
• Quote, do not copy. 
• Use the emoticons. we will use emoticons: small drawings made with keyboard characters that help us express our emotions (only be used if we are sure that the receivers will understand their meaning). Make interesting contributions to the forum. Check before sending.

Here are some intelligent uses of the forum: 

• Write correctly, not writing when you are angry, or to bring tension or to criticise in public what can be done in private, but do not stop writing for fear that a sincere opinion can hurt someone. Allowing time can be a good idea. 
• Maintain a polite tone in the discussions. Base opinions with arguments. It is important to be constructive and not loose energy in personal discussions. The most sensible thing is not to think badly of others, to always consider that we can be interpreting with excess of passion what we read. It is better to wait before answering. 
• In case the behaviour of someone in the forum is clearly offensive, we must communicate it privately to the author and put a generic commenting the forum. Let's give the option to that the intolerable attitude is a mistake that the author can correct.

You can create educational comics. You can create comics in different ways, the most important ones are as a tool for teaching or as a tool for assessment. 

To create your own comic for teaching a concept or a topic (tips) : 

• Focus on one main concept. 
• Open with a hook that may catch the attention of the students. 
• Create the timeline of the story by working backwards from the end to the start, this is a great point not to confuse the listener from the central theme. 
• Make your main character likeable and relatable for your students, they may feel they are not perfect but have strengths and weaknesses like everyone else.

For this lesson we had to create a comic talking about a specific issue about netiquette. We had to use Pixton to create the comic. Below we can observe the educational comic I have created: 

This comic shows the main issue of cyber bullying which is one of the main topics that we covered in this lesson about netiquette. We learned about how we should not use bad words or make fun of individuals online as we are not aware of how it is going to affect them. In the comic we can observe the effect that such a small comment can have on a person's feelings or mood. Therefore, the comic shows the consequences that one could have to go through if they did such a comment on the internet. 

Overall, this class was really useful as we got to know the general rules that we have to follow in the internet and how to act in a proper way. We also got to know the use of educational comics and how we can use them in the future to teach others a specific topic or lesson. This is especially effective for younger students thus, it will be great when we are giving lessons to children in elementary.