Safe Surfing

By Rebecca Nassar, Educational Technology Consultant

Speaking of "Accepting Change" and "My Summer Vacation," I changed my name from "Nero" to "Nassar" this summer, but kept "Rebecca." Something that did not change over the summer is teaching students of all ages to surf safely when they dive into the Internet.

Once More With Feeling: Safe Surfing on the Internet (this time for 2nd- and 3rd-graders)

Tammy Payton of Loogootee Community Schools in Indiana has put together an excellent "Surfing Safely" lesson plan for teaching 2nd- and 3rd-grade students how the Internet works and how to use the Internet responsibly. Take a look at http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/surf/surfless.htm .

Payton used this lesson plan over the summer, but the activities involved are appropriate for use throughout the school year. Students even used a multitude of methods to demonstrate "what a file server is, the difference between a file server and a computer, and what is the Internet." (Since I'm a visual learner, many of these demonstrations helped me!)

First, no matter what the age of the students you teach, make certain that you have distributed Permission to Publish and your school's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) forms to the students and that these forms have been returned, signed and filed appropriately. Honor any parent's or guardian's request to keep a student Internet-free.

Second, ask for parent and grandparent volunteers to help with or observe students' web activities. You need one volunteer for every five children.

Third, once your students are surfing-safely-trained, you can guide them through the web of information literacy. Information literacy is a lifetime activity, especially suitable for using Internet resources.