Safety First: How to Keep Our Students Safe On the World Wide Web

As we begin our blogging experience questions are sure to arise in regards to internet safety.  How can we keep our students safe while interacting with others on the world wide web?

As required by the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) schools are required to both filter content that is accessible to students via the internet and to monitor student activities online. However, even with those precautions in place, we know that some inappropriate content can still get through, especially in the area of social media and weblogs.  Because there is so much value to be gained from weblogging, simply blocking large hosting sites (such as the blogger site we are using) could prevent students from engaging and participating in valuable learning experiences.  The more valuable approach is to teach our students the necessary skills to navigate the web safely.

Here are some tips to help keep our students safe on the web, both at school and at home:

 

 

 

1.) Inappropriate Content: Should a student happen to stumble upon inappropriate content we must ensure that they have the skills necessary to navigate away from it.  One of the first internet skills our students will learn is how to use both the back arrow button or the red x to navigate away from a web site immediately.  Our focus is on getting students to get out of the inappropriate site as quickly as possible without attracting attention to it from other students.

2.) Pre-Planning: As a teacher or parent (especially of younger children), it is essential to preplan and test out search terms and results in order to better guide students through their searches.  While it is important to teach students how to deal with inappropriate material, if it is possible to avoid the material in the first place, that is always the preferred course.

3.) Decide Ahead of Time How Much Information You Are Comfortable Sharing: As an educator or a parent it is important before your children engage in web 2.0 tools, to make it clear to them how much information can be shared online.  As an educator I prefer to use only first names and photos to go with their activities/assignments, but some schools will allow full names and even addresses.  As a parent you must be aware of what your school's policies are and make it known what you will or will not allow.  As an educator make sure that you have taken parent wishes into account and set up policies and procedures that all parties can be comfortable with.

4.) The Internet Is Forever: Teach students early on that anything they publish online becomes part of their lifelong web portfolio.  I always tell my students that the internet is forever.

5.) Privacy Settings: When using 23b 2.0 tools, such as blogging, make sure to check the privacy settings and consider carefully who you want to be able to view the student work, and to comment.  For the purpose of our blog, the ability to view will be by invitation only and all comments will be reviewed by the blog administrator before posting.  Likewise, as a parent, be sure to speak with your children about privacy settings (who they want to be able to view their writing, photos, etc), especially in regards to Social Media.

Photos Copyright: rahuldesai.com, ipaeducators.ning.com, military.com, twitter.com, communities.deakin.edu.au, ice.gov

 Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed., pp. 12-15). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.