Safe surfing

guest commentary by Traci Holland, media specialist at Fairview Elementary School in Fort Smith

The Internet is a powerful tool that has come to add value and efficiency to our lives at home, at work and at school.

It is also a dangerous place for children.

Each of us can recall the horror stories of on-line predators, and the sad endings to stories of children who have given just a little too much information to a person who they had come to think of as their friend.

As an educator, I am compelled to use the Internet as a classroom resource. I cannot afford to ignore the wide-reaching access to knowledge that it provides. But, just as we teach children the basics of grammar and mathematics, we have to teach children the basics of Internet so that they can use the World Wide Web to its highest power. Internet Safety is one of those basics.

The idea for an Internet Safety week came after attending a Congressional Summit on keeping children safe while online. As representatives of the various organizations were speaking, I was wondering about the best way to approach Internet Safety at our school. Empowering our students with the ability to know right from wrong while online is the task we need to accomplish. We all teach our children how to be safe in the “real” world, now we need to be just as responsible and to teach them how to be safe in a virtual world.

Returning to school, I spoke with my administration about starting an Internet Safety week in which we teach the students how to protect themselves from people who may want to harm them online. After receiving approval, I built a curriculum for elementary students which I piloted last year with Fairview elementary students. At first, I thought that this may be too young to begin, but I was amazed to find out that a high percentage of our 4th graders had a social networking site, and our 6th graders had already been asked either to meet with an online friend, or asked for their personal information. Every night some of our 6th graders were going home and updating their social sites to reflect the safety of the lesson they had learned that day. The whole unit was very successful.

This year the district has decided to draw attention to the importance of Internet Safety by conducting Safe Surfing Weeks during the last two weeks of October. All elementary students will receive three lessons. The school counselors and media specialists will be responsible for delivering these lessons. The students will also be responding to an Internet safety writing prompt in the classroom.

Kindergarten through 2nd grade students will receive lessons on personal safety. They will learn to check first with trusted adults before going anywhere or doing anything another adult wants them to do. As these students get older they will be able to transfer this knowledge into the virtual world.

Third and 4th graders will receive lessons on the sharing personal information and that people are not always who they appear to be online.

Cyberbullying both online and on cell phones will be the focus in 5th grade. The students will learn how to not be a bully, and also how to respond if they are cyberbullied.

Our 6th grade students will see many videos of real-life stories of kids who made bad choices while online. Most lessons are centered on lesson and videos from the Web site NetSmartz which is run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

These are initial steps toward what we as parents and educator hope to be a safer environment for all children. You are cordially invited to link here to explore the curriculum designed for Safe Surfing week.

We also offer many thanks to The City Wire for their support in this very important endeavor.