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Are you confused by terms that educators use? The Lexicon of Learning might be just what you need.
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Internet safety is so important that the Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act in December 2000 to address concerns about children's access to inappropriate internet content when using school and library computers. Although the law has been challenged in the courts, as reported by Mary Minow (2002), online safety is important for all children and particularly important for students in their early teen years who are making the transition between the greater influence of their parents to that of their peers. Students need to understand the importance of not giving out personal information of any kind to online strangers, including their passwords and photos. They need to understand that the rules of communicating face-to-face apply online; hence, cyber-bullying is wrong, as are cheating and plagiarism. Harmful words said face-to-face hurt and the memory might fade in time; however, words stated online can stay forever. While those words might be intended only for their peers, those same words might come back to haunt the students if read by parents, teachers, college officials, potential employers, or law enforcement agents, for example. Email and Attachments Students and anyone who uses email also should be cautious when opening email attachments. Attachments, particularly from individuals you do not know, might contain code that is harmful to the computer itself, and enable the computer to be invaded by hackers, viruses, and spyware. Access Control and Filtering In its most recent findings, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that nearly all U.S. public schools in 2005 with Internet access used various technologies or procedures to control student access to inappropriate content. Leading the approaches were blocking and filtering software (99%), teachers or other staff monitored Internet access (96%), parents signed written contracts (79%), students signed written contracts (76%), monitoring software (67%), honor codes (53%), and school restrictions to its own intranet (46%). Leading methods to inform students and parents about approaches included via school policies or rules, newsletters, messages posted on the school web site, school bulletin boards, and pop-up messages when students log-on to computers or the Internet (Wells & Lewis, 2006). Filtering enables you to control what sites users can or cannot access based on pre-determined criteria set at the administrator's level. Schools can prevent students from accessing sites with sexual, violent, gambling, and non-educational themes. But with so many sites out there, setting the filtering criteria so that relevant sites are not blocked and then maintaining the Web filter's site database can be a challenge. An ability to authenticate users and identify their activities on a network can be an important accountability feature, particularly for students who try to access blocked sites (Careless, 2007). Stephanie Olsen (2006) notes that students know how to create Web proxies, "to route Web traffic through an anonymous domain name or circumvent content-filters" (para. 6). Web filters can be software or hardware based and those of high value to schools are not necessarily cheap. A sophisticated feature to look for is one that "constantly records and rates new Web sites as they appear, then sends this data to your Web filter to keep it up to date" (Careless, 2007, p. 10). However, there are free web-filtering services. OpenDNS (DNS stands for Domain Name System) provides content filtering, phishing protection, domain blocking, adult site blocking, web proxy blocking, and a domain whitelisting feature. This latter gives the user final say in what is blocked. There's no hardware to buy, or software to install. Get the latest news, research papers, and legal documents on Internet filtering at Filtering Facts, maintained by David Burt. Online Safety Resources 123elearning is a wiki for educators to help them better address cyberbullying with students. The site has videos, lessons, slideshows, rules for online safety, discussion, and additional resources. Cable in the Classroom has a series on Internet Safety, Parenting the MySpace Generation, and Managing Media. For example, parents are provided three simple Internet safety rules and the how to's for their implementation in How to Ensure Your Children Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly: Strategies for Parents: set rules, use parental controls, and instill media literacy skills. Cyberbully.org, the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, provides "guidance to parents, educators, librarians, policy-makers, and others regarding effective, empowerment strategies to assist young people in gaining the knowledge, skills, motivation, and self-control to use the Internet and other information technologies in a safe and responsible manner." The site also has numerous resources to help combat cyberbullying. Family Online Safety Institute has resources (a questionnaire) for web site developers to label their content so that parents and those concerned about Internet safety can use filtering software to allow or disallow access to the web site based on content of the label. There is free filter software available for individual users, ICRAplus. Internet Child Safety and Child Internet Protection from helpwithpcs.com addresses internet child safety, child security in chat rooms, websites with unsuitable images, spam email with unsuitable images, and provides suggestions for internet security and email filter software. iKeepSafe.org teaches children to safely navigate the Internet through a virtual playground, Faux Paw the Techno Cat's adventures in storybooks, an animated video download, and educational games. Educational materials, including worksheets and tests, are also available for parents and educators. i-SAFE America provides age-appropriate K-12 curriculum to schools in all 50 states free of charge. For example, students can learn about cyber citizenship, personal safety, cyber security, intellectual property, cyber bullying, and predator identification. There is also a professional development program for educators, law enforcement personnel, parents, and community members. Kidz Privacy, as the title suggests, contains resources for kids, adults, teachers, media, and businesses for protecting privacy of information. Resources also address the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Play It Cyber Safe: The goal of this Web site from the Business Software Alliance is to empower children, parents and teachers to prevent cyber crime through knowledge of the law, their rights and how to avoid misuse of the Internet. Download a free curriculum for grades 3-5 and 6-8 and a teachers guide. Types of cyber crime are defined, including financial, hacking, piracy, cyber-terrorism, pornography, and in school. Additional resources and research are provided.
Surf Swell Island from Disney Online introduces preK-6 students to Internet safety material in a series of three adventure games, each featuring a Disney character. Concerns addressed: privacy, viruses, or netiquette (guidelines for behavior on the Internet). Mini-quizzes reinforce what was presented in the games. Visual and written references to wireless devices (they can have Internet access, too) are woven throughout, particularly handheld PCs. Technology & Learning eBook: Keeping Students Safe Online Securing the Learning Environment Addressing the Challenges of Internet Assisted Learning. WiredSafety.org provides "special information designed to teach younger Internet users how to surf safely and how to have fun doing it. [The site has] a report line so that you can report bad sites, or get advice if you've found something online you don't know how to deal with." For Your Computer Safety GetNetWise provides tips for thwarting hackers and viruses, tools to prevent your computer from being compromised, and advice on how to take action in case of trouble. There is also a section about teaching students about online security. How Firewalls Work by Jeff Tyson, posted at HowStuffWorks. Spyware Daily tackles issues of Spyware, Adware, Internet threats, Email Protection, Hackers, Instant Messaging, Web browsers, and more. There are links to other sites for tools and additional information. This is the blog of Anti-Spyware company ParetoLogic Inc. in Canada. In Free and Low Cost Software to Make Computing Easier Miquel Guhlin (2005), a Texas school district instructional technology services director, suggests software and provides advice on compressing multiple files for transfer as an email attachment, setting up your own Web server, FTP server, and Email (SMTP) server; protection from spyware/adware/viruses; and selecting alternative browsers to Internet Explorer; and ensuring that your email is private, not public.
References: Careless, J. (2007, April). The filtering challenge. Technology & Learning, 27(9), 8-10. Available: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604370 Guhlin, M. (2005, March 1). Free and low cost software to make computing easier [Online]. TechLearning Magazine. Available: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60401735 Minow, M. (2002). The Children's Internet Protection Act: The recent district court decision in context, for librarians and library patrons. Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC. Available: http://www.llrx.com/features/cipa.htm Olsen, S. (2006, Apr. 19). Kids outsmart web filters. CNET News. Available: http://news.com.com/Kids+outsmart+Web+filters/2009-1041_3-6062548.html Scrogan, L. (2007, Aug./Sept.). AUPs in a Web 2.0 world. EdTech magazine. Available: http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/august-september-2007/aups-in-a-web-2.0.html Wells, J., & Lewis, L. (2006, November). Internet access in U.S. public schools and classrooms: 1994-2005 (NCES 2007020). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007020
See other Technology Integration pages: Part 2: Technology Integration Resources: Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Part 1: Essential Questions | Part 3: Web Page Design | Part 4: Multimedia in Projects.
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Comments? Are you finding resources at CT4ME of value? Contact Dr. Patricia Deubel: deubelp@neo.rr.com
http://www.ct4me.net/technology_integration_resources_3.htm Last revised 06/13/08 Author: Dr. Patricia Deubel |
Tech
Resources (Page 3): 
As
you integrate technology into your instruction, remember to teach your
students about Internet safety.
Get
a promise from students to be LARK, and when they cross the line, ask
them if what they did is LARK, that is Legal, Appropriate,
Responsible, and Kind. It’s an acronym they most likely
will remember, suggested by Pamela Livingston (2007, Aug. 3) in her
Free
software is available from sites such as 
