Teaching web safety
Posted by bmellott on July 5th, 2008
In 2006, Virginia passed into law a bill that requires teachers to instruct students about web safety and warning them about online predators. While the idea of this is noble and necessary, I cringe at adding additional requirements on our teachers. More and more, every day of the school year is being planned out for the teacher, limiting their flexibility in teaching topics with any depth. I agree that teachers should address web safety issues in their classes from the earliest grades in which they use computers, but worry that legal requirements lead to more explicit teaching of this that may detract from content area studies.
July 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Brian,
I didn’t think of the article from your point of view, but I totally agree. Teachers have enough on their plates already- and adding in additional “requirements” only piles on the stress/work. I think internet safety should be taught in a computer class - which most students have to take in middle school. For high school students, passing out a booklet/paper in which they can read and sign for themselves might be a wise idea (although who knows if the students would actually read it).
July 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I thought the same thing when I read the article. Not to mention the fact that most IT educators in the schools already do something like this and now you are forcing them to change what they have and arrange it to comply with yet another mandate.