Willard, Nancy. (2007). A Web 2.0 Approach to Internet Safety. Education World. Retrieved April 7,2010 from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/willard/willard008.shtml
This article was about Internet safety. It discussed what some of the problems with current safety approaches and also solutions to those problems. She also stated six key components to ensure Internet safety for schools. They were: educational use, supervision and monitoring, meaningful consequences, accidental access to porn, inappropriate blocking, and Internet safety and responsible use education.
Educational Use
Teachers have to make sure that when they have students on the Internet doing certain assignments for class that they make sure it is educational and fun. If an activity is boring students are more likely to get off task and start surfing the web and could get into some bad sites.
Supervision and Monitoring
Teachers and administrators should not solely rely on blockers to ensure that students are going to safe sites. They need to be supervised and monitored regularly. When I went to Washington High School last January for paraprofessional the classroom laptop sets had a laptop only for teacher use and she could see every students monitor all the time. This was good because then she could see when a student was getting off task. I think all schools should have that program.
Meaningful Consequences
There should be consequences that are meaningful and that should help students not to repeat the same actions that got them in trouble in the first place. Willard suggests that taking away a students right of the Internet all together just causes more trouble. She suggests that the student can use the Internet they just have to be closely monitored. I think that would be a good solution. A teacher couldn't watch the student 100 % of the time that they are on the Internet but they could make the student stay close to them or have their monitor facing the teacher at all times.
Accidental Access to Porn
Not all blocking systems are 100% full proof. Sometimes a teacher or student can accidentally access a porn site. If it happens to student should immediately turn off the monitor then report it to a teacher or an administrator. This happened to me once by accident when I was in school. I was doing a report on pirates and I typed in "pirate" to google image and a picture of a lady wearing only a pirate hat showed up. I immediately closed out of google but didn't tell the teacher because I was afraid I would get in trouble. If students know that they will not get in trouble if they report it right away, that would be a good idea.
Inappropriate Blocking
There are many websites that are blocked but should not be. There are many teen sexual health websites that are blocked that could be useful to students. Willard suggests that the blocking should be up to the library media staff because they are trained in that kind of thing. They know about good websites that would be helpful for students and that should not be blocked.
Internet Safety and Responsible Use Education
There should be better programs that keep up with the changing environment of the world wide web. Most programs now are for web 1.0 but that is getting old. Also there needs to be more education for staff and students. They need to know how to protect themselves on the Internet. Teachers need to know how to help students stay safe on the Internet.
The Internet can be a very dangerous place but it also can be a very useful, helpful, wonderful place. There just needs to be boundaries to be set to make sure that students can get the full, wonderful, value of the Internet.
