Internet+Safety

** INTERNET SAFETY **  For this lesson we were asked to create a lesson focusing on internet safety for students. Since I teach Kindergarten I developed a lesson that was meant to be an introduction to internet safety. It provides an overview of what students need to know and it is intended to be followed with additional lessons focusing on all of the areas of internet safety. We were to include both Delaware standards and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards as well.
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When planning this lesson I first had to take into consideration several things. First, some of my students have no experience with the internet and computers while others have limited knowledge. I decided that I would begin at the beginning with a simple explanation of the internet and explaining the vocabulary as I went along. I initiated a whole class discussion to see what kinds of internet exposure the students had and together we created a web of things we know about or can do with the internet. After this, a short video is shown that will give students an overview of internet safety. The video was created for young children and the content and method of delivery appropriate so as not to scare students but rather inform them. After the video, I gave each student a blank index card and they were instructed to draw a smiley face on one side and a sad face on the other. I then read them several scenarios or situations and they were to decide if the child followed internet safety or not. As a class we will brainstorm a list of important rules to remember when using the internet and then the students will each create a poster for our computer center that highlights one of the rules. This will be used an assessment tool to determine if students understand the concepts taught.

Below is a link to both my Internet Safety lesson plan and the Acceptable Use Policy brochure I created:





**__Reflection:__** Reflecting on this lesson, I realize how important it is to begin teaching internet safety to children as soon as they are old enough to begin accessing the internet. The video does a good job of outlining the important internet safety tips without being too graphic or scary. I also realize that in our school, we don’t teach internet safety at all. I think we assume since we are monitoring them so closely that there is not danger however, the reality is that they could access the web via WiFi in our classrooms during center time or have access at home, and therefore we have a responsibility to teach internet safety just as we do “Stranger Danger”. This lesson was intended to be an introductory lesson with further instruction being given to elaborate on this and other aspects of safety in a digital world and the rights and responsibilities of digital citizenship.