InternetSafetyEducation

=**Internet Safety Education | EngagingWinter10**= ... is a group project by students enrolled in the Engaging Students with Social Media course.

We have training for our students on cyber-bullying. We also have an FBI Agent give a presentation. But these are at random and are not part of the curriculum. Internet safety has to be part of the curriculum. Liability issues alone warrant it. What students used to do and say to each other is now compounded by internet usage. We do NOT teach safety enough. These issues might even be crimes. Sexting is one of the latest and it can cause students to be arrested, and has already happened at schools in America. Collaboration is the key as it was in Block/Filtering prompt. All involved in education must work together to ensure Internet safety.
 * = From: Robert Brasko

How should the districts handle Internet safety education? Should it be a stand-alone curriculum or part of the current curriculum? Taught by content area teachers or specialists? Dianne Suckfiel and Bethany Geisler Bethany and I have basically the same opinions and agree about how this should be handled. I teach middle school so this question will be different depending on the grade level. I think that districts have a responsibility to teach about internet safety. I think students/kids need to hear it from multiple sources to really take it seriously. In our school day, we have a class at the end of the day called character education. This is a time that we use to talk and teach about life skills and proper decision making. I believe that internet safety could be addressed at this time, it would be taught by content area teachers. However, if we did not have t his time, I don’t think this would be fit in to the school day for the content area teachers. Bethany has come up with a suggestion to fit this into the school day, which I really like if you do not have an extra class to teach it in.

In addition to teaching it during character education, I also feel it is important to bring an outside specialist in to talk about this with the students. Again, the more they hear it, the more likely it will sink in. We have an assembly every year, with a employee of the FBI. He comes in and discusses what happens when you send an email, post something on face book/MySpace and send a text. He talks about real life scenarios and shows videos with real students. I think the best thing is having the students see the videos and real life scenerios.  I agree that Internet Safety should be taught in schools. At my district, we have a 7th/8th grade rotation health class and they have a half year health class in 9th and 11th grades. I think Internet Safety (online predators/cyber-bullying) should be discussed in at least these classes. It would be taught by the health teacher. We also have monthly mentoring sessions were it can be discussed and has been in the past. Sometimes I just don't think the students take it seriously. I think they need much exposure to it. We had someone come into the school from the Attorney General's office to discuss this topic. I believe it was effective. I think having an assembly 4 times a year on this topic would also be beneficial. So, to answer the question I'd say yes it should be taught and as stand-alone if a teacher was hired to teach it but if not, then I feel it should be taught as a part of the health curriculum by the health teacher and/or guidance counselor.

We've also attached a very powerful video on Cyber-bullying. I don't feel comfortable showing it to students, but I feel it could be shown to parents. We've also attached a website on internet safety.

[|Internet Safety Website]

[|Very Powerful Cyber-Bullying Video]

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