Look Both Ways Before You Double Click

I'm going to be serious--yes it's possible.

In case you hadn't heard, there is this revolutionary thing called the Internet. If you haven't heard of it, how in the heck did you get to this blog? Anyways, like all things, if it is used correctly, it can be a great thing. Mankind has a habit of taking things that can be beneficial and also making them destructive. As an educator, I would be a fool to not realize two things: (1) The potential abundance of learning resources found on the Internet and (2) The potential abundance of danger found online.

This week's assignment I found quite necessary--not that I like to work mind you (I'm a man--it's in my DNA). The reason it was necessary is it reviewed the basics of internet safety and addressed how to approach my students with its use. One part of the assignment asked me to respond to the following 4 requests.

Why we should or should not use the Internet in education? Well, we want to learn stuff, and there is stuff on the Internet. Any educator out there will tell you that there is good stuff and bad stuff to learn. There are good books, good magazines/periodicals, good films for education, and bad ones. The Internet is no different. There are good websites and bad ones. Unless you want to completely shelter a student from both the good and the bad, the Internet should be used as a learning source.
Why we should evaluate the sites we use? We evaluate the sites we use because as a general rule you should always validate the sources you are teaching from. You could be a master of logical fallicy, but eventually you will get asked "How do you know?" If you don't have a fool-proof answer, you aren't validated in your teaching.
The questions you would ask yourself to evaluate a site. I would ask the following questions: Does this site enhance or detract from the lesson I'm teaching? If I were the parent/guardian of a student looking at this website, would they be ok with it?
Ways you can keep your students safe while surfing. First and foremost, always keep the computer they are using in a public area. Second, review with the students all the traps, pitfalls, do's and don'ts of browsing, etc. Finally, if you can, install filters to prevent not so nice websites from being accessed by them.


The Internet can be a fun and safe place. Again, I repeat, it all depends on how you use it. For example, check out this video link: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=6882&title=We_Didn_t_Start_the_Fire


Did you enjoy that? Of course, it's Billy Joel for crying out loud. Did you notice you were learning something? I know it wasn't intentional, but I bet you learned a thing or two. That was 4 decades of review set to music with visual aids. Videos can stimulate both visual and audio senses, both handy in teaching. Guess what? Here's the kicker--you found it on the Internet (gasp). Don't you feel good about that? The great thing is that there is more where that came from.

Just watch where you click--there is a lot of #$%*&! out there.