Reading Response #1

Net-Wise Teens: Safety, Ethics, and Innovation


The Internet provides kids with the opportunity to access up-to-date information in a relatively fast manner. The kids have the ability to find information and different points of view on a particular piece of information. Students can read different newspaper articles on various subjects. However, there is always the negative side to the Internet. Students can find themselves on websites that do not provide them with any relative data or websites that hack into the database of their computers. I feel that is the responsibility of the parents or guardians as well as the teachers to inform students of the negative side of the Internet so that students can be aware of it. Computers that are used in a school environment should have restrictions placed on them so that students can not access websites that do not pertain to educational material. However, there should be a way that teachers could override a particular restriction if the student needs to look at an informative website that is restricted for some specific reason. Computers in schools should also be closely monitored by supervisors. Kids should be taught to talk to an adult when they encounter problems on the Internet. An adult can most likely help the kids out to solve their problem and teach them ways in which to prevent the problem from reoccurring in the future. I do believe that the Internet is very important in a kid’s educational career. Often times, kids will not have the opportunity to use the Internet in their home environment. Schools should provide kids with this opportunity. With my plans to be a foreign language teacher, I would love to have my students to have a blog and communicate in the target language with me through the blog. Kids are very net-wise and allowing students to use the Internet in the classroom could allow the teacher to find something new to incorporate in the classroom. A student may have found a website that provides activities that could help in a future lesson. The Internet can be a great resource for both students and teachers as long as they work together and students are taught how to use the Internet safely.