Reflection on Safety and Ethics
When it comes to the internet I have always been a frequent user. My personal practices include downloading custom content for the Sims, researching information for my classes, and shopping online. So, I guess you can say that I was not aware of how much I was at risk when using the internet. As I reflect on the numerous times I have purchased items off Ebay using Paypal and downloaded music for an IPod I feel bad about not stopping to think twice about the ethics associated with how I was using the sites. Before reading the material for this class I realized that I was thinking like mostly everybody in America, "Well if it is on the net, it must be free." This kind of thinking is wrong. By first critiquing my own practices of how I use the internet it is necessary as an educator to educate my students in the proper way to use the internet and get information from it. My critiques will include going to other websites to download music so I will not be faced with copyright infringement. Next, I could educate my students on the proper way to use the internet by including a safety and ethics unit over the internet in my curriculum to be done during the beginning of the year. “Not only do educators have a responsibility and legislative mandate to model ethical, legal, and appropriate respect for US copyright law in their own teaching, but they must also educate the next generation about the importance and requirements of intellectual property law (Fryer 2002-03). Like Fryer, I feel that if more people were educated on the internet’s use there will not be so much copyright infringement going on. After all ignorance is bliss.
Memphis City Schools does publicize its acceptable use policy on the net stating how students and employees must fill out and sign an access release and authorization form acknowledging the rules of using the internet under its network (MCS 2008). At the beginning of every year, only for incoming freshman, the students are told to take this form home and get it signed. When brought back this form is placed in a filing system until the student graduates and employee leaves the system. I am not sure where this filing system is located, but I do have a couple of problems with this process. First of all, anyone can sign a form. Like most parents, they usually sign a form brought home by a student without fully understanding what they are signing. I feel that students and employees should have to complete a couple of modules on a program so that they fully understand the importance of using the internet, kind of like the Isafe program used by Shelby County Schools. That way more people who use Memphis City School’s network will be better informed of its policies and rules. Lastly, all students and employees should have useful log-in and passwords to access the school district’s network, rather than the generic ones that are used now. If this was done it would be easier to monitor the system’s use more effectively.
Since Memphis City School has a set practice of internet use in place I do the best I can to implement proper internet use in my classroom. Whenever my students need to use the internet for an assignment that I’ve given them, I make sure to list the websites that they can use. These websites have been checked by me to be ad free and credible. When completing the assignment I constantly monitor students when using the internet to make sure that they are staying on task with the assignment and not venturing off of the websites on the list.
Now that I am more educated on the importance of maintaining safety and ethics while on the internet, I see the importance of setting a good example for my students. It would not be ethical to teach students to use the internet in a certain way and when I use my own personal computer, I do not practice what I preach. I need to do a better job at downloading material from the web and educating myself on being safer on the internet.
Fryer, W.A. (2002). Copyright 101 for Educators. Retrieved June 28, 2008 from
http://www.wtvi.com/teks/02_03_articles/copyright.html
Memphis City Schools (n.d.) retrieved June 28, 2008, from
http://www.memphis-schools.k12.tn.us/admin/it/division/aup.html