Teaching Internet safety in the classroom

Internet safety is very important, especially when it is so crucial in our lives today.  I know that when I was younger the safety awareness was all about stranger danger and now kids these days need to be aware of so many other “dangers” on top of strangers.  Children have to be aware of copyright “dangers,” cyber bullying and privacy. 

I think the way I would incorporate Internet safety in my classroom will be early in the school year and it will be before we start any of our Internet based projects or activities.  It could be a fun two days of exploring the Internet and learning the ins- and outs of using it properly.  To teach the students I will demonstrate (appropriate) age examples of the improper use of the Internet and students will judge for themselves whether its safe or not.  I really like the ideas on the HCPS website for middle school.  It definitely makes it easy to instruct students using those guidelines. 

I definitely feel that if I learned about internet safety earlier and had all the reinforcement through out school then I think, especially with citations it would be easier to cite in college where its really important to have the correct citations or your college career could be at jeopardy. 

I also think that students need to be made aware of the dangers out there and how their actions on the Internet are never erased.  I feel that a lot of people do not understand that that once something is on the Internet its there to stay.  For kids I think that that lesson is very important to learn as soon as possible so they don’t put themselves in that situation.