Internet Safety and Ethics for the Classroom

Martha Dillner

This article is interesting, and I believe that it is important that teachers keep an eye on how computers are used in the classroom. With young children, the internet is a fun tool for learning in an interactive way, but the possibilities for children to encounter some disturbing site are very high. I would think that schools should implement firewalls or other filters for the computers…and a more strict filter would be desirous over a less strict filter. At the same time, having grown up in a time of transition with books and computers, I always liked having books to read and research better than having computers. In order to use a computer effectively, the child must be taught the in’s and out’s of computer usage. But when the child is taught how to manipulate a computer, then he is more likely to keep working on tweaking the computer for non-educational purposes. I believe it is a good idea to teach kids some about computers, but to limit them, and maybe even not use computers at school for certain age groups. From experience, if I were a teacher, I would avoid having my students use computers from late grade school through part of high school. Students’ projects are generally cut and paste from the internet, and their time is mostly spent playing, not actually getting things done.