Thursday, November 4, 2010

Internet Safety

While working on the PowerPoint presentation for class, I read lots of information about Internet safety. I did not grow up with the Internet, so I myself have to think about many of the issues that face our young children today when getting on the Internet. There are quite a few good websites out there that address safety. Some provide videos, lessons and activities that all promote Internet safety. I do think this is a topic that needs to be addressed frequently, so that it remains fresh in children's minds.

As a teacher, I need to plan in advance (which we do most of the time anyway) but if the Internet is going to be used, teachers should visit site and create a list of acceptable sites that students can navigate to. A routine I would establish in my class is students can only go to listed sites from the teacher. If that site has a link to other sites, you must ask permission from the teacher before navigating away from the original page. by creating a list in advance, and possibly setting up the links on your class blog page, will reduce possible errors from using search engines or typographical errors. It will also hopefully free you up to monitor students easier as they are not having to type.

Someone in the class posted somewhere that teachers are being asked to teach in ways they themselves did not learn. We as teachers are also students, and as long as we remember that, it will give us some flexibility to ask questions of others  and seek help when we need it. I hope I never quit learning.

3 comments:

  1. As someone that did grow up with the internet, I have to always remind myself to think about safety. Its natural for me to post something with out ever think about it.

    When it comes to students visiting the internet, I agree that teachers should visit sites ahead of time for students to visit. However, I believe if we teach our students how to safetly research on the internet the could end up finding better site than I ever could. (it also depends on the age group you work with) I would with middle schoolers, I am always suprised by the amazing stuff the find on line!

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  2. Andrea, you read my mind! I completely see the benefit of providing a "suggested links" list to students, but wouldn't we push our students even further if we encouraged them to evaluate sites based on content? Look at how much data we've evaluated as a class in 7410 (and 7400). Dr. Jo could have spent hours looking and never found the various things we've stumbled upon! While I agree that a balance is key, at the end of the day we need to open the internet up to kids and teach them how to navigate both productively and safely.

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  3. All of your comments are right on the money! We need to be teaching our students, no matter how young internet safety, because this is not really something there parents may be covering with them. But, at the same time they need to be able to assess sites for reliability and usefulness. All of this of course determines their age level, but they are never to young to start with safety. And, just like some content we cover, it will probably have to be repeated over and over.

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