Internet Safety

We will begin by reviewing how educators can effectively educate students on becoming responsible digital citizens. The overarching question is: do students know what they are doing and the effects social media can have on their lives? As educators, what is our responsibility to teach them? It is for each of us to decide how much we want to inform students, families and co-workers and what that means.

To introduce the negative effects, one has to only open the newspaper and read the latest scandal whether it’s in Washington D.C., or at a University or in your own school district. To be informed and able to create a plan of action, we must first know what we are dealing with.

One way to begin, is to support the community: have the school staff; administrators, educators, and community members on the same page. Provide lesson plans, plan community nights for feedback, and faculty professional development seminars.  There are programs in place that can be introduced to administrators and faculty to streamline this process. In addition, there are a lot of resources that can be adapted to student’s grade level and educators teaching style.  The topics covered include:  Common Sense Educators; Internet Safety;  Scams and Schemes: How to protect personal information; Gender Stereotypes Online;  Safe Online Talk; Teaching Strategies.