Internet Safety

* Why we should or should not use the Internet in education-
We should use the Internet in education. The students (and the teachers) have endless information at their fingertips. The benefits to teaching is only limited by the knowledge of the teachers. The Internet opens the world to our students. There are definite drawbacks, but these can be avoided if handled correctly. In order to use the Internet the teachers and students should understand Internet safety.

* Why we should evaluate the sites we use-
Website are not monitored for accuracy. The example of the high school student, who wrote a paper based on one website claiming the holocaust never occurred was eye opening to me. As teachers we should teach our students to view information on the web with a certain degree of skepticism. Our students wouldn’t get their information about a topic from just anyone with an opinion, but would look to a scholarly sources, the same should be true of information found on the Internet. We should teach the students how to look for citations and learning about ways to tell if the author of the website is creditable.

At least 3 ways you can keep your students safe while surfing
1- Monitor our students at all times while they are on the Internet in the classroom.
2- Have students complete an assignment teaching them about Internet safety.
3- Create Google searches engine for the students ahead of time for certain research topics.
4- Give the students strategies on dealing with cyber bullies and Internet predators.