Web Safety

The web can be an incredible tool for student learning. The web provides students with an unlimited amount of information, and allows kids to communicate with people around the world while sitting at their home, or classroom computer. However, as teachers, we have the responsibility of teaching kids strategies about web safety, and how to become web-literate.


There are many dangers that kids face on the web. On the website www.safekids.com , Larry Magid, discusses the major risks that kids face on the web. He states that kids can be exposed to inappropriate material, physical molestations could happen as a result of inappropriate use, harassment and bullying can happen via the web, students can get viruses on their computers, and ignorant students can run into financial and legal issues on the web. The first strategy that Magid suggests to teach kids web safety is that we tell kids to never give out personal information. Next, he stresses that students should never be allowed to arrange a face-to-face meeting with anyone. Finally, the last strategy that he suggests is that students need to be taught to never respond to suggestive messages. I think these are all great strategies, and must be explicitly taught to students.


http://www.4kids.org/ has a great strategy for teaching kids web safety. They have kids create a surftificate, which states that students understand web safety. On the surftificate, each student agrees to, and understands many important rules for web safety. The strategies that this website include the following: students learn that the Internet is not exactly like my neighborhood, students should be cautious of everyone they meet, and students will not arrange meeting without asking parents. Next, the surftificate has students agree to not give out any personal information. Another aspect of the surftificate is that students must agree that if they are in the chatroom and anyone asks them something they they don't like they will exit the chatroom and let their parents know what happened. Finally, this activity has the students agree that if anything they see makes them feel uncomfortable then they will show their parents, and ask their parents if the site is right for them.

I definitely think that students must be explicitly taught these safety strategies. The surftificate activity would be a great activity for students to complete so they can print it out and have it next to their computer to remind them of web safety.

Along with teaching kids to learn web safety strategies, students must also be explicitly educated to be web-literate. In the article, "Teaching kids to be web-literate," Alan November provides some great examples as to how teachers can do just that. First, he says that it is imperative for students to know that not everything is true. The story about "Zach" was a great example of how kids can get incorrect information if they aren't careful. Students must be taught critical thinking skills. They need to check web sites for validation. Teachers must educate students to make meaning out of what they find on the web. They must examine who the author of the article is, what qualifies him or her to write about the topic, and then whether or not it is an "official" site, or simply someone's personal webpage with their opinions on various topics. Alan November recommends that for students to research background of an author they should use ProFusion.com, which is a multisearch engine that searches many search engines at once. Then students will be aware of who wrote the article, and if it is valid. We must always teach students to question the credibility of the site and the author. November adds that there is "no link police force," and anyone can add links. Finally, he suggests that we can educate students to be web-literate by creating an activity to have students think about various websites and see if they are connected or affiliated with some of their favorite websites, and/or well known websites.

Next, in "Teacher Guide #1: Evaluating web pages," the article recommends ways to examine the web resource. Similar to November's advice, we must teach students to research who the author is. Is the author an expert in the field that he or she published? Is their biographical information about the author? Is the information published from a reputable online publisher? Is there a bibliography? Next, the website suggests that students must research the publisher. Is the article part of a site, or an individual's own website? Did someone evaluate it? Next, does the author have a particular bias, and finally what is the age of the information?

All of these suggestions are things that teachers must teach students so that they can become web-literate. Teaching students to be web-literate is just as important as teaching web safety.

Reading information on the web can be very different from information that we read from published books. Again, anyone can write an article on the web, not everyone can publish a book. This leaves room for a lot of unreliable information on the web, they we wouldn't find in books. Not everything can be trusted on the web. For a book to be published, it must be approved and edited; this is not the case with everything we find on the web.

Although some books are more reliable, there are many benefits of the web. Some of the information that we find on reliable websites are more up to date than books. We can search for almost any topic on the web and within seconds we can get information. Also, if people are interested in simply reading someone's thoughts, on a blog for example, the Internet makes that possible. When thinking about finding material on the web vs. a book, it depends on what kind of information you are looking for, and how web-literate you are. For these reasons, teachers must education all students to be web-literate.