In the era of online education, it is essential to educate students on Internet Safety. With the ongoing pandemic, the lines between our offline and online life have merged and it is crucial that we learn about the right use of the internet. Students have completely adapted to the online mode of learning, where the internet is their textbook and word pads are the notebooks.
Being an educator it is important to recognize that children or students in modern times are surrounded by technology at school. Whether they are allowed to take cell phones to traditional schools or they have completely moved to the online mode, the internet is available everywhere. Therefore let us look into some points on how to be safe while on the internet.
1.Online balance and wellbeing
Life is all about balance. Isn’t it? It’s a healthy practice to monitor your digital life. Balance screen time with green time. It is equally important to spend time outdoors and have face-to-face interaction with other people. It is important to balance time between your online and offline life.
2. Present Real-Life situations
Create real-life situations for students to consider, discuss and learn. Telling them a story or giving them a real-life example would be better than again browsing the web on the do’s and dont’s of using the internet. You could teach them how to avoid inappropriate content or what to be aware of in a chat room. Students will be able to relate and reflect on these issues and may feel comfortable sharing if they have faced any such situation.
3. Choosing passwords and usernames
Put it out to your to think carefully about choosing usernames and passwords for online accounts and email addresses. They mustn’t choose anything that identifies their full details on all sites, they need to skim through what is authentic. Being a digital citizen it is important to not keep the same password for all the accounts on different sites.
4. Use course management systems
You could use course management software to communicate with students. Many sites make it simple to integrate the internet into a classroom. Use it for assigning homework, projects, and in-class projects, that way you will be able to monitor their work. Teachmint is your one stop destination for monitoring your students in an online environment.
5. News and Media literacy
Media education is an important part of educating students on the internet. Educate students how to read past the headlines, author credentials, and more to recognize fake news. It will take more time in reading but it will help students to know what is right and what is not on the internet. When trying to spot fake content, teach students on how they should check on other resources for the same story.
5. Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is when someone picks on you, threatens, and embarrasses you repeatedly using technology. It is an important aspect of internet safety. It is also a good idea to keep parents or the elderly involved if the case is of a minor student. Research tells that family participation in schooling helps in a better upbringing of the child. Students must have multiple trusted adults around them with whom they can discuss issues and feel comfortable around.
Just as mentioned at the beginning of this blog, educating students on internet safety is essential as the internet is where a plethora of information can be found and has no limit to learning, but being an educator or teacher, it is a duty to help students to differentiate between what is appropriate and what is not. Using the internet for right reasons, having it under parental supervision or control for minors, and keeping yourself safe over the web are some of the points that students need to be well aware of.
Hope this blog helps you to educate your students on it. Stay tuned to read more such guides.
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