Internet Safety for Students

My Top Internet Safety Issues

1. It is far too easy for students to access inappropriate content, whether intentionally or accidently.
2. The Internet is like a playground without adult supervision, and therefore a breeding ground for cyber bullying.
3. There are so many ways for online predators to gain access to children and their personal information.
4. Sharing personal information is a huge factor in many other Internet safety issues, but it seems important enough to get it’s own category. Once you put something on the Internet it stays floating out there forever, even if you take it down.
5. Ways for people to connect online include email, IM, chatrooms, and social network sites. These are not well monitored for children and many of them are not designed for children.
6. When students share pictures and videos online they don’t realize that they are giving everyone in the world a window into their lives.
7. BYOD- Bring your own device- Many schools are starting this in order to get technology into the hands of more students. However, if the technology belongs to the student we have no control over the content on the device.
8. Cell phones/ iPads/ Wi-Fi enabled devices- Students have so much technology right in their pockets and many of the other Internet safety issues apply to these hand held devices even more so because they are so portable.
9. I feel as though online gaming isn’t quite as big as it once was because there are so many other avenues of communicating online. But then again, many tv console video games now connect to the internet, so it isn’t just computer games anymore.
10. One click on a link can get your computer horrible viruses.

   

  Social technologies can be very helpful to students. It gives a way for students to communicate with each other and with the teacher to enhance their learning. It reduces paper use with online quizzes and assignments. It could also be harmful to students if they get involved with people outside of school that may or may not be safe. I think we need to use social technologies so that we can teach students how to be safe online. Social technologies are also super helpful for teachers. Sites like Pinterest allows teachers to share their ideas with teachers all over the country.

   

     Teachers being friends with parents and students on social networking sites is a very bad idea. I may not post anything inappropriate on my Facebook account, but I have no control over what other people post on my Facebook. I need to keep my work like and my home life separate. If I had older students I might create a separate teacher Facebook account.

    In my district the web filter blocks a lot of things online. Anything with keywords that might be inappropriate will automatically be blocked. Many social networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Goodreads are blocked. I think that more blocked is much safer than less. Usually when we are doing research my students come across several sites that are blocked, some for good reason, some not for good reason, but we just go find another website to use. It is not a big deal.

    There is nothing set up specifically in my school to deal with teachers when their students access inappropriate content online. I do not think this should be the teacher’s responsibility necessarily. The teacher should be aware of what their students are doing at all times, especially if they are working on the Internet. The teacher should also make a point to discuss appropriate Internet behavior and train students on how to safely use the Internet. If all these systems have been put into place and a student chooses to break the rules and intentionally view inappropriate content I think that student should be held accountable for their actions.

    If inappropriate content is accidentally accessed I do not think there needs to be a protocol in place. It is very dependent on the situation, what was viewed, how inappropriate it was, how many students were involved. Disciplinary action should be taken and a loss of technology recourses should be in place. Otherwise I would discuss the situation with my principal.

           

To prevent inappropriate content from being accessed the district should make sure that firewalls and anti-viruses and web filters are in place. That will help a great deal. Schools should promote a positive climate of good character. Teachers should instruct students on correct internet behavior and do a lot of modeling.

I am usually fairly successful in searching for information on the Internet. I understand that there are different ways to go about searching for information and each has a specific purpose. I teach my students any tricks I can think of to help them when searching online. My students are in third grade, so I think that when looking for one small piece of information Wikipedia is an appropriate and easily accessible resource. I also use this a teachable moment that if something looks funny on Wikipedia we should check the fact somewhere else since Wikipedia can be edited by anybody. When we are writing research papers, we do not use Wikipedia and we use other sources online. I also just discovered that there is a way to adjust my Google results by reading level so that my students only come across things that they can easily read. That is a very good researching trick.