Challenges of Intermet Usage

A classroom in which each student has a computer with Internet access would be such an exciting opportunity for myself as a teacher and for the students involved! However, this “blessing” would clearly not come without some struggles. I believe the biggest challenges are those of privacy, safety, copyrights/fair usage. The privacy of students must not be compromised by any classroom internet usage. The privacy issue may get cloudy at times, as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requires parental permission to gather any personal information from children under 13. Teachers may, however, give consent by acting on behalf of a parent during any online school activities. However, to protect students’ privacy, a teacher should monitor the websites students visit and should be aware of the privacy policies for specific sites – particularly those requiring a log-in. To help meet this challenge, I will use the following website, which gives specific tips for teachers for how to manage the privacy of students: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec10.shtm.

The issue of safety is also a major challenge. Pornography is rampant on the internet and school filtering systems can be inadequate. As a teacher, I must teach responsibility for online actions. Students should be taught how to deal with problematic websites in appropriate ways. As a teacher, I must meet the challenge of finding ways to “reduce exposure to inappropriate material and how to give young people skills to mitigate any possible effects they might experience from encountering sexually explicit or inappropriate material online.” (http://books.nap.edu/readingroom.php?book=youth_internet&page=ch10.html)

Finally, having a classroom in which each student has a computer with internet access requires meeting the challenge of teaching students to understand the complex copyright issues that currently exist. With the vast amount of information on the web, students must learn to determine what materials are under copyright protection. Students using the internet in the classroom must learn how to determine what information is relevant and valuable, but then must also learn when and how it is appropriate to use.

As a teacher, I hope to be able to meet each of these challenges (as well as many others not mentioned here…) in order to make the use of the internet private, safe, and lawful.