Doing Something about Internet Safety

For the "doing" part of the internet safety assignment I talked to my mom about Internet Safety. 

Here are her thoughts about the Internet and how to use it safely:

What do you think of when I say internet safety:
• Identity Theft
o It is horrible.
 o Personal experience, when purse was stolen, had remember last check I had written. Was able to stop it. Police found purse.
o When they steal Social Security Number, hard to defend it.
o Don’t understand all the ways you can steal someone’s Identity. But it is bad.
o Credit can be affected, can run lives.

• Chat rooms: Go outside and meet a real person.

• SPAM: Hate it, get it all the time. Don’t know how I got on the list.  (I then explained that sometimes if you reply to spam, and "unsubscribe", that they  can sometimes get your

• Myspace: I think it is useful tool that can be misused by unsuspecting teens.
• Kids being stupid on Myspace, and giving away too much information and so forth.
o Don’t really know a lot about it.

• Facebook: It is awesome.

  o Great social networking tool, without being stuck face to face.  

• Cyber bullying: Think about the lady who impersonated a child, and said mean things          about a teenager on myspace, that the teenager committed suicide.

• What prophets and apostles have said about it:
o Can be used for good or bad, Need to get rid of addictions.

• Do you feel the internet is addictive?
o Yes, have a hard time going to bed, well, I’ll just check my e-mail. Or playing s

spider solitaire.

• What did you do before the internet?
o I wrote letters, I called the operator, I used phonebooks, I had encyclopedias.
       o Has society become lazier as a result of technological advances?

• Used to take children to library..research, now it’s all just clickty, click.
• I sure would hate to give it up.
• Text messaging:
o Think it is horrible and good at the same time.

• At schools, people used to talk to each other in the hallways, now it seems like everybody   is buried in their phones, miss scenery.

Lack of Human interaction.
• Good way to send message quickly, and not interrupt people.
• Less intrusive someways.

• Twitter:
o Don’t understand the whole thing.
o Seems more inane, who cares?
o Facebook is more personal.
o Time waster. Not interacting with people.

• Overall, has technology has made our lives better?
o Yes.

• Do you think it has separated our families physically, mentally, emotionally?
o Not personally, but I can see how it might.
o Mentally: Socially Isolating. Spend hours online.

• Do you think that the popularity of video games has decreased with the expansion of the    internet. (versus online gaming increasing)
o Yes, games are free online, you have to buy a gaming system…etc.

• Passwords: Do you know how to keep them safe?
• Not really (I then gave her some tips on how to make her password safe, like capitalizing, using numbers, and maybe using symbols.)

What I Learned After Class Presentations

One of the technologies that I learned about was the use of the SmartBoard. I wasn't really sure what it, was, but now I know what it is. It seems like it is more than just an interactive whiteboard, but a valuable learning tool. The presentation that I saw helped the students learn about dipthongs, and paired pictures with the words they were working with. This could possibly help English Language Learners, and many other students. I hope that the schools that I work with are equipped with a SmartBoard.

I also learned about the value of finding quizzes and other things online and using them in the classroom. The presentation that I saw emphasized the value of finding valuable resources on the internet and implementing them in various lessons. There are so many good resources on the internet that can help enhance lessons and help teachers stay in touch with the ever advacing technological age.

Slideshare Reactions

After watching the different slideshare presentations I feel inspired to used technology more in the classroom. I felt like while I was in the practicum, I HAD to use technology in order to fulfill a technology quota. However, I found that as I used technology in the lesson, it made the lesson easier. The students really liked using the Promethean Board, and actually wanted to learn more, and learned more efficiently because they were actively participating. I hope that I will be able to be as creative as some of the slideshare presentations I saw, and that I will be able to use technology in the classroom. I also hope that I will be at a school that has a lot of technology that I can use in my classroom. 

Internet Safety Reading

What article did you choose to read for your fourth article? Fighting Internet Filth by Mario Hipol

What were the most important things you learned from the readings? I learned that I should not be afraid of letting my students use the internet. If I am well informed, and can inform my students about being safe, then they will be. 

How will what you have read influence your actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth? I will use the suggestions given in the article to educate myself, and my students about being safe. There are a lot of really good suggestions for what to do when teaching children what to do about internet safety. 

How can you use what you have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends? This article gave real life tips that can be used to help protect the family from the bad things that can be found on the internet. Although the article is mainly for parents, it can be applied to teachers as well. By having an open dialogue between parents/teachers and children/students about the safe things one can do while on the internet, a positive environment can be created. 

Some of the tips from the article are: 

Monitor what sites have been visited on your computer.

Use an Internet filtering tool

Teach your children to use favorites or bookmarks.

Teach your children to use credible search engines.

Use a pop-up blocker on the Internet.

Teach your children to be cautious in downloading free software from the Internet

Teach your children not to use free peer-to-peer or chat-based programs to download material.

Teach your children not to open spam e-mail.

Discourage your children from visiting chat rooms.

There is even a glossary in the article with certain terms that a parent, or even some teachers might not know

Glossary:

Browser: A program that allows users to navigate and view pages on the World Wide Web. Two common browsers are Explorer and Netscape, but there are many others.

Chat room: An online forum where users can communicate with each other in real time.

Instant messaging: Exchanging messages in real time between two or more computer users.

Internet service provider (ISP): The service you subscribe to for Internet access.

Search engine: An online service that enables you to find information in Web pages on the Internet by searching for specific words or phrases.

URL: Uniform resource locator, or the address of a Web page.

Virus: A program designed for malicious purposes to “infect” and disrupt the normal functioning of a computer.

I thought that this article was very informative and I feel a little bit more computer savvy after reading the article.  I feel like I will be a more effective teacher, and parent. 

To read the entire article, please visit this link.

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