Internet safety for our kids

After reading several articles about social networking sites, I think Steve Burt’s statement: “The question is do we trust what we’ve taught our students enough to let them use them? I hope so.  If not, that says much more about us as educators than our students as users.” says a great deal.  Many educators are nowhere ready to incorporate social networking into their classes.  There needs to be much more education of the educators about social networking before we are able to allow students to participate at school.  Having said this we need to move forward and do it now by educating each other or ourselves.  Students are using this medium and they need to learn how to use it safely.  As Burt also mentions, “Schools and IT folks will forever be trying to ban sites using all types of different filters, but I think it is pretty safe to say this is a lost cause.” Three cheers on that statement.  This is what contributed to the decision in our district to block the category blogs because of the nightmare keeping up with new sites. I think in The Guardian article Dr. Joanne Bryce’s comment; “By banning such sties there is danger that schools miss an opportunity of educating young people about the importance of being responsible online.” is the reason I have been against filtering/blocking.  We end up protecting the students but only in the school environment not in the real world.  We do not provide the students with the tools to travel responsibly in cyberworld.The key is trickle down by educating faculty and they in turn can educate students.  Maybe we need a DARE type of program for surfing the web.

Debbie