Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A Common Sense Approach To Internet Safety

As educators, no matter our title, we are all responsible for teaching kids about the right and wrong ways to use the vast resource known as The Internet. Google and Common Sense Media make that job a little easier with the video I have embedded below.





I like that there are 3 audiences. First, telling parents they need to be involved and know what their kids are doing online and limiting the amount of time they spend online. (Yes, believe it or not, there are some parents out there that have no clue...) The video also speaks directly to kids, telling them why it's important to keep their information private and how to do it. Lastly, speaking to teachers and students the section on information literacy is often left out of discussions like this. Kids need to know where their information is coming from and whether or not it is reliable. And teachers need to understand, they need to reinforce that with their students, both in examples and practice.

So the next time you do a parent meeting to talk about Internet Safety (you do do that, right?) you might could use this video. What other resources do you use? Leave me some in the comments section and I will compile them and post.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, I think this is an excellent video. I will use it in sessions with parents. As a parent (who works in IT) I have given "Internet Safety" information evenings with parents in the past. This year, we will experiment with a short series of sessions, offering parents hands-on time with various applications which their children use, e.g. ClubPenguin, Bebo, Facebook, etc. -- as well as hands-on practice with anti-virus software, child safety settings, etc. We'll see how it goes... there is definitely interest in this approach.

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