 | Dr.Glenn Fortmayer is Superintendent of USD 247 Southeast. He has been a superintendent for four years and administrator for 15 of 23 years in education. He is working with Southeast on initiatives including: expanding student learning opportunities, technology integration, and increasing instruction that authentically engages students every class period of every day with an emphasis on project based learning. For more information call 620-457-8350.
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Education Issues
2012-10-03 10:00:03
Cyber safety
Q- How do schools that use so much technology ensure kids do not get hurt by the internet?
A- Cyber safety has become a serious topic over recent years and it grows in importance each school year as technology use expands. Schools don’t take cyber safety lightly. Ensuring a safe learning environment is a priority and cyber safety is a focus point. Schools work to keep kids safe when using technology through several approaches.
Most schools are required to utilize a firewall to prevent access to most inappropriate sites and materials that a student might attempt to connect to while at school. Schools also use these systems to monitor students to make sure they are using the tools for appropriate educational reasons. In addition to firewalls, many schools monitor what students are doing online. Schools often perform random checks in the classroom, remotely, and of hard drives to determine if students have been using the technology appropriately.
The use of technology is a necessary skill in the 21st century. Using technology is more than just operating software and inputting data. Students must be able to use technology in a safe, ethical, and legal manner. Parents and patrons must realize that schools cannot keep students from every inappropriate site or encounter on the internet. Many schools have transformed from the futile effort of trying to block and control everything to methods developing student knowledge and implementation of practicing appropriate use. Schools educate students on using technology tools properly. In this way, schools open students to the technology they need to learn and those tools that improve learning as a whole, while at the same time developing an educated, ethical, and law abiding user of technology.
We teach students how to cross streets or drive carefully. We educate them on stranger danger and how to safeguard their belongings. Cyber Safety is primarily most effective when treated in the same manner. USD 247 Southeast has supplied students with a wealth of technology tools that include the latest computers and now IPADS for every high school student. We implement the standard safeguards and monitor students diligently, but we emphasize the most effective safety tool, the mind. Teaching students to think safety, particularly cyber safety, is what will keep them safe while using technology at school and away from campus.
Technology has dangers. Each innovation transforms our society in ways we generally view as positives while accepting risks. Some examples are the car, airplane, microwave, and cell phones. They all have great benefits. They can all cause safety issues too. Safe operation and continually thinking safety are the essential factors in making them beneficial versus harmful. The technology tools that students use today makes learning tremendously engaging and more effective. They are also some of the tools or foundations of tools students will need in their careers. It is essential for students to work with these tools. In order to do so in the most opportune way, students can’t be protected by being blocked and restricted into a cyber-cell, they must be educated and developed into intelligent and safe users of the tools.
Interested students should contact their local districts for more information.
