You are on page 1of 6

Margareta Tripsa

Ed. S. Instructional Technology

Nov. 2016

M7 Internet Safety and Tools of the Future

Blog Post: https://goo.gl/PJtPg2

1. INTERNET SAFETY

Teachers and parents need to model and require that their children practice digital citizenship. They need

to monitor the use of technology to ensure childrens safety because the internet can be a dangerous place

for the users who are not equipped with strong knowledge and skills about how to navigate this space. To

keep students safe on the internet the teachers need to teach them online surfing or navigation skills.

Blocking websites, heavy online restrictions, and limited internet usage do not represent teaching online

safety. Teaching online safety and digital citizenship require teachers to equip students with the

knowledge and skills that are necessary to empower them to be effective and ethical internet users. Two

important steps are getting parents involved and providing students with resources. I have put together a

variety of resources for the students at my school. Because elementary students and middle school

students need different resources, the list is rich to fit their needs. It includes games, songs, videos,

scenarios that requires them to problem solve, guideline, posters, and different activities.

My favorite resources of internet safety and digital citizenship:

BrainPOP- Online Safety video plus activities

BrainPOP video- blogs

BrainPOP video- Internet Search


Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum- lessons provided by Google; include

Common Core Standards, as well.

The Importance of Teaching Digital Citizenship, by Common Sense Media- videos

Digital Citizenship Videos for kids, Common Sense Media

Step by step guidelines provided by Common Sense Media. Includes links (on the right side) to

resources that students can use to learn about digital citizenship

Digital Passport (3-5 grade)- web-based course for students

Digital Compass (6-8)

Digital Bytes (9-12)

Digital Citizenship Pledge- PDF lesson, iBook lessons, Nearpod lessons

Posters

Digital Citizenship for Home, EdTechTeacher

Digital Citizenship Week: 6 Resources for Educators- published by Edutopia on Oct 14th, 2015.

Copyright, by CoolCatTeacher

Understanding Copyright and Fair Use, Common Sense Media

Privacy Playground, Media Smarts

Lee and Kims Adventures, ThinkUKnow

Welcome to Hectors World, ThinkUKnow

PBS Webonauts, PBS

Iggey and Raspers Game, Kidscomjr

Sandy Liptak created a nice, student-friendly poster:


A few years back, I created the following 7-rule to Blogging Safely poster. When working with young

students, teachers need to make sure they spell out the rules, and use nice visuals.
2. TOOLS OF THE FUTURE

2.1 Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources provide teachers with a plethora opportunities for differentiating instruction

free of charge. OERs are educational materials that are in the public domain or are shared with an open

license. Anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share open educational resources.

UNESCO believes that universal access to high quality education is key to the building of peace,

sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Because of the multiple

benefits that come with using these kinds of resources (cost efficiency, differentiation opportunities,

increases availability to instructional materials, availability of up-to-date resources, quick access to

instruction augmentation resources), OERs seem to be promising tools of the future.

A few disadvantages might be potential language and cultural barriers, technological issues such as

connectivity, lack of human interaction, or possible quality concerns.

The OER Commons webpage seems to be a great resource.


2.2 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

A MOOC is an open online course made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number

of people. In other words, a MOOC is a a free Web-based distance learning program that is designed to be

accessible to large numbers of users.

My favorite MOOC is Coursera. Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and

organizations from all over the world, to offer courses online on a wide variety of subjects for anyone to

take. People can enroll in a variety of courses from cooking courses to astronomy, computer science,

engineering, health, etc. It was founded in 2012. It provides users with over 1,000 courses from reputable

universities such as Stanford or Yale.

As early as 2013 I enrolled in 3 courses through Coursera and I truly enjoyed the quality of the

educational resources available:


I would note three great advantages of MOOCs: they offer equal rights to education, the opportunity to

collaborate with people from all over the world, and the availability of a wide range of programs. Some

disadvantages would be the fact that the teachers have to deal with a huge audience therefore feedback is

hindered, the lack of opportunities to interact directly with the teacher, and the high dropout rate. Some

MOOCs offer badges and certificates, and these incentives motivate some people to complete the courses

they enroll in.

Coursera. https://www.coursera.org

OER Commons. https://www.oercommons.org/

UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org

You might also like