I think it's important as educators to help kids know about internet safety and cyber ethics, especially as an English teacher where I'm going to be requiring my kids to do research on the internet for papers and things. There seems to be this attitude of "anything goes" on the internet, and although I believe in free speech and the internet being open and free, I think kids need to know that just because people can do things on the internet, doesn't mean they always should. One thing I'm going to really stress is that the despite the appearance of privacy, much of what you do or post on the internet is open to the public, it's not a "what happens on line stays online" policy. I want them to know that by posting inappropriate pictures, saying hurtful things, or engaging in inapropriate relationships online, it can very easily be tracable or come back to haunt them in some way. Cyber bullying is especially dangerous because it creates the illusion of being able to be a sideline critic of people without facing them, but kids need to remember that what they say still reaches a person and can have lasting effects.
I think I could address it in my class by talking about it before we did research for a paper. I would direct them to sites I knew would be safe and take about safe search practices. I would also careful detail the meaning of plagerism now with wikipedia and sparknotes and papers online.
I think in an english class, when discussing the writing of informational texts, it would be a great opportunity to have the students create a flyer or broschure as a concrete oporational way of really getting the importance of internet safety.
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