A Teacher's Journal: Learning to be Safe Online
By Bill Ferriter, sixth-grade teacher, Salem Middle School
While it is not a part of my required language arts and social studies curriculum, I recently spent a good chunk of time talking with my students about Internet safety. As a tech-driven teacher, I feel strongly that there could be no more important lessons for students to learn in today’s day and age.
Interested in what we talked about?
Then check out this collection of resources and advice that I posted on our classroom website:
Internet Safety Resources
There is no arguing that the World Wide Web has given you the opportunity to become smarter – and to have a lot of fun while doing so!
But at the same time, the Web can be a dangerous place too. You might come across people who don’t have the best intentions and who can hurt you. They may be kids your age who decide to try to bully you or they may be adults pretending to be your age – which is even scarier. Because the Internet is largely an anonymous place, anyone can pretend to be anyone. The person who IMs you pretending to be an 12 year old student at a local school might really be a 32-year old person who lives in the next town over.
So how do you keep yourself safe? How can you continue to use the neat tools of the Internet without having to worry about those with bad intentions?
You constantly think about Internet safety. You never use your real name, give anyone your address, post the names of your brothers or sisters or school, or pair a picture of yourself with details about your hometown. You also NEVER reply to anyone that contacts you digitally unless you personally know who that person is in real life.
If someone tries to IM you saying that they know one of your friends, be suspicious. If someone suggests that you meet in person, be really suspicious. And if someone asks you not to tell your parents about something you’re planning, be REALLY, REALLY SUSPICIOUS!
Want to learn more about Internet Safety? Then check out these sites. They’re some of the most important websites you’ll visit during the course of the next year:
Netsmartz
This site was put together by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children – and it is the most valuable site included on this list. It includes resources for students across all grade levels. Most interesting are a collection of videos that talk about the dangers of unsafe Internet practices that are targeted for use with middle school and high school students. Each video comes along with a companion “activity card” that serves as a viewing guide and a reinforcement tool. Sections that include valuable information for parents and for teachers are also included.
Online Safety Guide from Get Net Wise
This guide--put together by a coalition of Internet service providers and computer companies such as Dell and Microsoft – is designed to break down Internet safety issues for parents, teachers and students. It includes separate sections and guides for children and parents of different age and grade levels. It also includes a list of the different kinds of Internet tools that kids are using (social networking sites, instant messaging, e-mail) and the risks associated with each. Finally, it includes a searchable list of the kinds of tools available to parents and families interested in keeping their children safe at home.
A Crucial Conversation
This is the text of a conversation with a 14-year old girl about her Internet use that reveals how unsafe and unaware some children are about the importance of staying safe online. In it, she discusses her own personal social networking site and her online habits. Many of them are highly risky. Then, this child’s mother is interviewed, revealing her unawareness of her daughter’s online practices – and her struggles as a parent to juggle her child’s growing independence and need for privacy with her responsibilities to protect her child. This is certainly a “must read” for any middle school parent that is interested in increasing online saftey in his/her home.
Think Before You Post Video
This TeacherTube video – produced by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children – challenges you to think about what happens when you post your own picture online. I hope you’ll think about this video before posting images of yourself on social networking websites like My Space. That’s a dangerous practice that many kids never think about.
Think Before You Post Website
This website was designed by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to accompany the video listed above. It includes a wide range of information on how to keep yourself safe in a variety of different digital locations. You can learn about safe e-mail, IM, chat room and MySpace practices.