Rachel Young

IDT 7064

Dr. Murdock and Dr. Phillips

15 November 2014

Reflection on Integrating the Internet Safely and Ethically

1. I use the Internet everyday, several times a day. In my life right now, I am in

five online courses through the University of Memphis. This pretty much means I

am on ecourseware during all of my spare time. All five courses require me to

create projects on several types of online tools, post discussions on a discussion

board, take quizzes online, and post assignments to an online dropbox. The main

use of the Internet for my graduate courses is for research. My professors expect

their students to do in-depth research on all topics being taught throughout the

semester.

Along with graduate school courses, another way that I use the Internet

throughout the day is for personal use. Anytime I want to know something, I will

use the online tool, Google, to figure it out. Also, I have several online social media

sites in which I check as much as I can. I have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and

Pinterest. Furthermore, another main online tool that I use is email. I am constantly

checking my school and personal email because that is a main way of

communication between professors, peers, administrators, and parents of my

students.

2. I feel I do not implement much safety throughout my Internet use. I have not

put on any privacy settings for any Internet source, specifically Google. Even though

I have not set up my privacy settings, I do feel I make smart choices on my personal

business, pages, and searches. Through the main sites I visit on an everyday basis,

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., I only visit sites I am aware of. I do not

click on any pop-ups or sketchy, unknown sites. I also have all of my personal pages

on private. The only people who can view my Google, Facebook, Twitter, or

Instagram are people I am a friend with. I realize there are ways to get around this,

but it will block the not so techno-savvy people from viewing these.

I also rarely consider copyrights, unless I am using a direct quote from a site.

Based on information from this unit, there are four main “fair use” directions that I

should follow before downloading or using something from the Internet. They are:

the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the

amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as

a whole, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the

copyrighted work (Fryer). I feel like I have a better understanding of how to

correctly use information from the Internet after comprehending the texts from this

unit.

3. The school that I teach at has filters on any inappropriate website. There is a

block on websites that children ages 12 and younger should not be viewing at

school. When a student tries to access these websites, it will say “This website is

blocked” and will not allow them to view the page. The same thing happens when I

try to access a blocked page. For example, one time I tried to get on facebook and

show my class a picture of my brother scoring his touchdown for the Memphis

Tigers. Even as a teacher on a teacher’s computer, it would not allow me to access

Facebook because it is blocked on our wireless network.

Not only is our wireless network safe at my school, we also have a guidance

class that teaches the students safety on the Internet. Our guidance counselor

explains situations like cyber bullying, social media, inappropriate websites,

offensive material and much more. She does an excellent job explaining to students

the dangers of the Internet and how to protect themselves from getting involved in

dangerous situations on the media.

One small thing I do in the classroom just to be appropriate using the

Internet is through my SmartBoard. I use YouTube a lot to illustrate what I am

teaching, especially in Social Studies. One problem I have with YouTube (which I

love this site don’t get me wrong!) is that they have 15-second commercials before

the video that sometimes can be inappropriate for 1st graders’ eyes. Most contain

sexy women flaunting alcohol or new fragrances. I will turn my SmartBoard screen

on pause until the commercial is over so my students do not see this. This is just a

little extra thing I do to protect my students from offensive material on the web.

4. I think it is really important to try to steer students away from the negatives

of the Internet, especially social media. I know there are many negative aspects

when it comes to technology and the Internet, but one aspect that really sticks out to

me is cyber-bullying. I feel like people who are not exposed to this and do not know

someone who has been personally victimized in this type of situation does not really

know how many people cyber-bullying has truly effected. Fifty-two percent of

students surveyed by the i-SAFE American Foundation say they have bullied other

people and forty-two percent acknowledged they have been victims of bullying

(Bailey, 2006). It is extremely common, and sometimes people cannot bounce back

to a normal life after. Furthermore, based on information from this unit, a specific

type of cyber-bullying that many forget about is dealing with sexual predators who

attack via Internet. It is important for students to know about these predators,

along with all of the other negative aspects of it in order to stay safe from menaces.

5. Within the classroom, I feel I have not implemented the standards of ethics

with using the Internet. Besides using the school’s policy of blocking websites from

being used on our network, I do not implement much more safety. I feel like the

school does an excellent job blocking most websites that could be of harm, or just

websites students should not be on during school hours.

I feel like the best way to make sure information students take from the

Internet to use on class projects is to follow the four “fair use” directions. The

information the students are using needs to be used only for a nonprofit educational

purpose, only use a small portion of it, and it needs to deprive the author from

making money. Every teacher should make sure these fair uses are allowed when

students are taking information, images, clip art, etc. from the web.

6. I definitely feel like students should have consequences for not abiding to the

rules of using the Internet in the classroom. I think all teachers should first have a

discussion with the students on how to accurately use sources from the Internet.

Otherwise, they will not be aware of what is right and wrong. After doing so, on any

project requiring information from the Internet, the teacher should have

expectations from their students. Rather it is citing the source to following the four

“fair use” rules, they should understand how to properly use online data in any

assignment. If a student mistreats this rule, then the student needs to approach the

honor council at the school, an administrator, or some type of guidance counselor

that can have a discussion about the situation and discuss further consequences.

I am a 1st grade teacher, so the only Internet assignment I have assigned so

far is get a picture of the saint they chose for their saint project and dress up like

that picture. Honestly, I have not thought about Internet ethics before this class.

After reviewing the information in this unit, I feel I have a better understanding on

Internet ethics and how to implement them in my classroom. For the example of the

pictures, I will make sure that any image my students or I receive from the Internet

needs to be an image that was granted permission from the publishing website.

7. I feel the overall main idea that I will do to implement Internet safety and

ethics in my classroom is just focus on informing the students on how to be safe

while using the web. Other than having the guidance counselor give her course on

online safety, I can ensure Internet in my classroom by showing videos on

cybersafety, consult in various online sites, and hold ongoing classroom discussions.

I want to make sure my students understand how intense cyber-bullying has

become and how to stay away from these situations.

Furthermore, I will make sure that my students are not putting any

information, especially their phone numbers and addresses, on the web. Anything

they create on the web will be an avatar name and character instead of themselves.

Also, I will make sure a parent signs a permission slip ensuring students’

participation in online assignments. This way they are not alarmed when they see

their child’s work published online. I will inform the parents when we are doing

projects, assignments, assessments, etc. on the Internet.

Resources

Bailey, T. (2006, January 20). Bullies swagger onto Web. The Commercial Appeal, pp. B1-2.

Fryer, Wesley. "Copyright 101 for Educators: Winter 2003." Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom. TechEdge, 2003. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, 15 U.S.C. 6501 (2000).