blog#7 Internet Safety

Now that schools are relying on internet more and more, children are becoming more fluent in technology at a younger age. At this point, there needs to be a monitor on what kids are viewing on the internet. First graders are starting to create face book. The internet is making every one have easy access to any kind of topic. It is up to the parents what they allow their children to access at home, but in the classrooms it is up to educators to make sure what they allow their students to do is safe. It is very important that teachers emphasize the importance of what is appropriate and what is not. I am also talking about students up to high school when talking about monitoring them from the internet. It is so easy for teenagers especially to verbally abuse someone through the internet. Where do they learn such horrible acts? They learn it from the internet! It is scary how powerful the internet is and how influential it can be to an individual.

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/internet-safety-and-security-what-teachers-need-to-know
This website links to a ton of articles on internet safety and security. It is specifically targeted at teachers and educators and it gives them the knowledge on what teachers should know about internet safety. Researchers argue that the internet is NOT a safe and secure environment. The internet is used for people to voice their opinions, share ideas, demonstrate new technologies, publish software applications, and connect with others. These sound like positive aspects right? These ideas represent great potential in education as a way of free exchange of ideas and learning tools. The drawback to this is that it causes room for mischief, obscenity, vulgarity, and extreme danger. School administrators and technology managers know that to balance these opportunities provided by the internet with the risks, it is necessary to have a decisive plan for technology use in schools. Throughout this article it gives examples of acceptable use policies, firewalls and network security, filtering software, web publishing restrictions, teachers and technology role models, and gives links to continue the research of the topic.

I want to continue to learn more about internet safety. All teachers should be greatly involved and go into it realizing its extreme importance. I hope as a future educator, there are classes to take and more in-depth look into internet safety. I am anxious to see what the future holds with each new technology that is brought to the classroom. It can go either two ways. It can either influence students in a positive way, or lead them in the direct opposite direction. That is teachers must stress the importance and do whatever we all can to develop the potential in positive ways.
http://www.schoolcio.com/ShowArticle/1016this is another site I stumbled upon when researching about internet safety. It gives you ten important tips along with explanations on ways to implement internet safety in a classroom. The first tip is to get technological safeguards in place. The second is to put together a cuperspace safety curriculum for parents. Take advantage of already available Internet safety education programs. Have an acceptable use policy for all employees as well as students. Put an “early-warning system” into effect. Encourage teachers to become a part of the virtual world. Use the many Internet offerings that can contribute to educational creativity, but do it inside a “walled garden.” A picture is worth a thousand words. Include an image library in your “walled garden.”Create a repository for information about what works. When it comes to social networking sites like MySpace, educators should encourage the critical element—parental involvement. These tips were all found in this website above and give elaborate explanations to each.
There are many other sites that give just as much information about internet safety. It’s all over the internet. I am going to continue to research as much as I can.