Reflection-Internet Safety

This week has been insane, and stressful. That's life sometimes and you just have to roll with the punches.

This week we learned a lot about internet safety and how to evaluate a website. Since the internet is here to stay it is very important to make sure that we as teachers help the kids in our classes understand the dangers of the internet, and how to use it wisely. That's right. The internet is not going anywhere, and we need to use it in our teaching. Not only is it a wonderful tool for us as teachers, it can be a great enhancement to the classroom, and your students education. With kids as young as 3 learning how to use the computer now days, we have a responsibility to help our kids understand how to use it as a powerful tool, but how to be smart and safe while using it. Teach them not to open emails from people they don't know. Explain to them the dangers of giving out personal information online, and give them rules about when they can use the computer and where they can use it.

One important part of teaching our kids how to use the internet is teaching them how to evaluate the websites they use. They need to know that not every website contains accurate information. They should be able to ask themselves some key questions to find out if the website is a good website to use as a resource. Some examples of questions are:

* What are the resources this author/website uses to back up the material?
* When was the information on this website last updated?
* What kind of domain does it have? (.edu, .org, etc.)

By teaching them some internet basics they will have a better knowledge of how to safely use it for the rest of their lives.I have found some really great websites that help teach kids about internet safety through games and videos made specifically for them. If you want to check them out go to my uen site (link in post below) and click on Internet Education. They are listed under my bookmarks. :)