District Administration - June 2010 - (Page 54)

Cybersafety in the Classroom teachers use the Web more in instruction and research, they should always be providing examples of good use and explain why it is important.” But still, a new survey shows that a significant number of teachers feel insufficiently prepared to handle that new responsibility, having received little professional development to help them discuss those topics with students. A recent poll released by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), Microsoft, and Educational Technology Policy, Research and Outreach (ETPRO) shows that only 56 percent of the 1,003 teachers surveyed in December 2009 and January 2010 felt that their districts do an adequate job of preparing them to discuss with students topics like online ethics, safety and security. Only about one-third say their districts require those topics to be taught in a classroom setting. Although both district administrators and teachers see teaching Internet risks as important, “that desire doesn’t translate down into what is actually happening in the classroom,” says Michael Kaiser, NCSA executive director. Curriculum Integration In part, the problem is that the Internet landscape is changing so rapidly that programs that focus on specific Web tools or sites quickly become out-of-date as youths move on to the next online trend, according to Steve Dembo, online community manager for Discovery Education, which provides professional development on Internet safety and security issues, among other educational services. He says that even the schools that are doing a “solid job of addressing these issues often feel that they are still far behind.” And districts need to rethink their approach, experts agree. So how should teachers be trained to provide lessons to students in online security, ethics and safety? And which school staff members should be responsible for teaching them? The responsibility should be shared among all the teachers, not just library media specialists, who have traditionally tak54 June 2010 K-6 students create posters depicting Internet safety topics for an Internet Safety Poster annual contest at the Portsmouth (Va.) Public Schools. These are the first- and second-place winners. en a lead on the matter, according to Ann Flynn, director of education technology at the National School Boards Association. Weaving lessons on Internet safety and security into the regular curriculum also is important, she adds. “It really should be a rethinking of the curriculum that we already offer to make sure that these skills are being incorporated into the content when it’s appropriate, because there really is no time in today’s instructional environment to create another course,” she says. Many districts are using Web sites that offer Internet safety and security curriculum that districts can use, she says, such as of the curriculum, because in this day and age, with high-stakes testing and everything a classroom teacher has to do, when you are asked to do things of this nature it has to be part of the regular curriculum and not be an add-on,” Streeter says. In addition to NetSmartz, a free resource for videos and classroom activities for all grades on the Web, the district uses its own lessons, as well as other online resources, like “Professor Garfield,” which features the famous cartoon cat teaching Internet safety and ethics. Some other districts simply point teachers to online resources to provide ideas for “We need to start on Web usage education as soon as students are on the computer.” —Linda Sharp, director, Cyber Security for the Digital District program, Consortium for School Networking NetSmartz.org, developed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Portsmouth (Va.) Public Schools, which uses NetSmartz and other resources, finds ways to incorporate Internet security and safety content into the regular curriculum, says Karen Streeter, supervisor for instructional technology and media services. Some areas do dovetail logically, like adding an online component to Englishlanguage arts teachers’ discussions of plagiarism and proper citations. But the 15,000-student district, which has an Internet safety plan, has also tried to include safety lessons in less obvious subject areas. Elementary schools have had kids design posters on Internet safety and security issues they learn in class. “Part of the task we were given is to make it a part teaching Internet safety, often relying on librarians to do the work, says Nancy Butler, a Portsmouth technology resource teacher. In contrast, she says, her district’s policy is that Internet safety is everybody’s job. The district, which began its Internet education efforts in 2007, used NetSmartz and other resources to prepare a curriculum guidebook that instructs teachers at each grade level what they are responsible for covering and what lessons and activities they should be using. Each year, Butler and other instructional technology teachers give presentations to other teachers about the curriculum, the responsibilities of teachers at each grade level and implementation of the district’s Internet safety plan—not just for the benefit of new teachers but also as a reinforcement tool for those teachers who District Administration http://NetSmartz.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2010

District Administration - June 2010
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Sustainability
Conversations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Innovative Leaders Take the Phone and Run
A New Dawn in the Sunshine State
The Die-Hard Communicator
Cybersafety in the Classroom
Persuading Teachers to Go Rural
Product Focus
Research Corner
Professional Opinion

District Administration - June 2010