Lesson 8

Wow, I can hardly believe this is our last class and post! As a student with a non-teaching background the information we’ve gathered has been valuable to me in preparation as a future teacher.  I think evaluating internet and computer safety is a great way to wrap up this class session.  While it’s great to utilize all the many tools we’ve gathered, we need to make sure we as teachers provide the utmost safety to our students. 

On a personal level we’ve all heard of stories of identity information being taken which can be quite damaging to a person.  Although this is of a different level than a school computer we much try to insure security on our personal computers as well.  This would also include if children have access to the computer and insuring that monitoring is in place.  There are times that sites may appear that aren’t at all intentional.  I have to share a personal experience of such a situation.  When I was a graduate student in the community nutrition program at EKU, one of our classes visited the computer lab to do some subject searches.  We each were at a different computer.  When we were asked by our instructor to do a search for breastfeeding, we were all in shock at the images and sites that were displayed in our search.  This instantly proved that something this innocent in an educational setting with educational intent could be taken in such a disturbing way.  On personal computer we can insure there is a program to detect viruses and periodic scans.  Although most of these programs require a fee or subscription, it is quite worth it to protect all the information we store on our computer.  There are also a variety of monitoring tools or blocking programs for children.  It’s also a great idea just to monitor your child on a computer by checking what they are viewing. 

Although I’m not a teacher at this time, I’ve been a student and I’ve seen some of the security measures in place.  If a university computer was used at the previous institution I attended, you were required to login with a secure password.  You were also encouraged to logoff your computer as well when done.  I’ve also experienced similar protection at workplace environments with computer use.  I was in the habit at a previous job to lock my computer when I left even briefly to protect myself and confidential client information.  That workplace had an IT department that monitored and provided support for the computer systems.

Some of the etiquette that we’ve discussed with internet use with students will be emphasized once I become a teacher.  I believe with proper support from the teacher and monitoring we can keep our students safe on a school’s computer system.  

I was a little nervous about the blog in the beginning, but it’s been a nice outlet for what we’ve learned each week.   I’ve also enjoyed reading some of the other’s as well.  Fall session her I come!