Here are some hints. 

• When you are angry or hurt, don’t write an email, send an IM, post to MySpace, etc.  Step away from your computer and give yourself some time before responding to something.
• Write as if the person you are talking about, their parents, or your parents are sitting beside you reading what you are writing.  If you don’t think any of these people would like what you are writing, don’t.
• Remember, you can’t take back words that you have written. 
• Don’t write something that you might be sorry for writing in the future.
• Respect!  Always be respectful of others.  This doesn’t mean that you have to like everyone, but you should always be respectful of others.

We live in a time of great access to tools (Internet, blogs, MySpace, etc) that expand our world beyond Trussville.   There is a great deal of positive information and opportunities because of these tools, but we all must learn how to use them appropriately and for good.

Here are some of mine–The television in our home when I was a child did not have a remote control–except for me,  as the youngest child, I was the one nominated to get up and change the channel.  I was in elementary school when desk top computers first entered classrooms.  The monitor was not colored or even black and white.  All text was bright green on a green screen.  Floppy disks were about 5 inches squared and really were floppy.  My parents got our first computer in 1983–an Apple IIE.  It did not have a printer and had 128K of memory.  It cost $2,300.  My first mobile phone was a bag phone that only worked in my car.  My parents gave it to me so that I could contact help if something happened when I was driving back and forth to college.  I had to type my high school papers on a word processor–a step beyone a typewriter but not a full-fledged computer either.

I can’t wait to read what you can come up with…Dr. Williams