Category: Internet Safety

NEW lessons can be found via the top toolbar under DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP BY GRADE. You’ll find a number of activities grouped by categories to include in your classroom experiences. These offer the opportunity to integrate into your curriculum throughout the year. More will be coming.

Whenever we think of Digital Citizenship, ‘internet safety’ always seem to pop up as the first area of concern. While this may be true, we would like to consider that this topic is nothing more than offering our students opportunities to make critical choices with their behaviours (whether they are online or face-to-face).

One consideration for ‘internet safety’ is how we deal with our passwords. They are our gateway security to information. We use them to access many sites like banking, online documents, games (eg. Minecraft, Webkinz), or purchasing sites like Amazon and iTunes. At school we use passwords to log onto our computer accounts. How do you know a good password when you see one? Or are you the type that uses the simplest ones to aid your memory and share them with your friends? Click here for a classroom activity on passwords.

Now that you have information on passwords, it’s time to put your knowledge to action. Check out these activities to see if you can be stumped!

• Intermediate: http://www.nsteens.org/  Try out some or all of these activities.
• Primary: http://www.netsmartzkids.org/RoutersBirthdaySurprise/Movie Clicky the Internet Safety Robot
• Early Primary: http://www.abcya.com/cyber_five_internet_safety.htm  Hippo and Hedgehog Play it Safe

FOR PARENTS 

Relationships are the most important factor in keeping communication lines open between yourself and your child. (Check out February’s posts on Relationships and Communication.)

Read Tips on Internet Safety.  Take a look around the house. Are there areas that might need to be addressed? Have a discussion with your child (it’s never too early).

Getting to Know the Apps your Kids are Using!

Instagram (or Finstagram, Rinstagram) is an online mobile photo, video and social networking service that allows public or private sharing on the app, as well as through other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Flickr.

Learn about Instagram here.

Questions to think about.

1. How is using this connected to instant feedback?
2. What might be potential risks using this app?

Talk with your family. 

What images might be ok to post? What might not? How will children deal with images that are posted by friends? How can a family empower children with knowledge to make decisions?