Classroom Internet Use in Christian Schools
By: Dr. Dennis W. Mills

Safety, caution and common sense can keep the Internet safe. Taking your students online will open up a whole world of educational opportunities, literally. It also will present them and you with opportunities to come in contact with inappropriate material and subjects.

The Internet can deliver pictures from Jupiter and Mars into your classroom, and it can also bring inappropriate photos. You can download great works of literature and documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, into your classroom computer, and you can just as easily get instructions on how to build pipe bombs or mix chemical explosives.

The reason for that wide variety of content: No one person or agency is "in charge" of the Internet. Consequently, there are very few rules governing what kinds of things you'll find online.

The positive and educational information far outweighs the negative or harmful material. As an educator, however, you should be aware of some of the potential problems you might encounter when you connect your classroom computer to the Internet.

Many schools are developing online guidelines to handle such issues. The guidelines often include rules for the types of online materials that can be downloaded into classrooms, as well as how that material should be presented to students.

If your school has an online policy, make sure you and your students understand it thoroughly before connecting your classroom computer to the Internet or any online service.

If your school doesn't have online policies in place, help develop them. Make sure parents and other members of the community are involved as well. The best policies are ones drafted with input from all aspects of the school community.

Once your class goes online, keep track of what your students do when they are on the computer. While they are getting accustomed to using the machine, you might want to stick to detailed lesson plans.

But be sure to allow some unstructured time to allow your students to do some computer exploring on their own. This is how they will really learn to use the machine and software. Remember, though, that "unstructured" does not mean "unsupervised." You or another adult should always be close by in case a student stumbles onto something inappropriate.

Some schools install site blocking software.

Here are some suggestions for online safety that have been compiled from computer experts, educators and law enforcement officials:

1. Instruct your students never to send their full names and addresses or phone numbers to other online users. Because computer communications are anonymous, you never really know who is on the other end of your online conversations.

2. Discuss computer rules and online safety precautions before allowing your students to log on. Make sure parents know that appropriate online behavior is expected of their children. Many schools require students and parents to read and sign acceptable use agreements before students are allowed to go online.

3. Keep computers in public areas in classrooms and schools. Machines that are tucked away out of sight are harder to monitor.

4. Periodically check the computer's hard disk for unacceptable files or material. Look for files that end in extensions such as .gif, .tiff or .jpg. Those are binary picture files that could contain inappropriate content.

5. Don't allow students to load their own software or programs onto the school computer without you checking it first.

6. Inform parents about precautions they can take to guard against inappropriate computer use at home. Things to look for: inappropriate binary picture files (see #4 above), large phone bills (indicating downloading of large binary files) and secretive computer behavior.

7. Whenever possible, spend time online with your students. You'll not only be able to monitor their online time, you'll learn a lot from them.

8. Regularly scan your computer for viruses. Text files cannot harm your computer, but if you download pictures or programs, you run the risk of computer virus infection.

9. Save any inappropriate messages, pictures or files you find on the school computer. Often, computer experts can trace the origin of the offending material.

10. Educate yourself. Become familiar with the options available to limit your students' access to information you might find objectionable.

Dr. Dennis W. Mills is the founder of Christian School Resource net (CSRnet), a non-profit educational organization that was created in to help Christian schools and educators utilize the vast information-rich Internet, along with other appropriate technologies.

When to Use the Internet in the Classroom
The Internet is a useful tool and extension of your learning resources whenever you or your students need to know something that is:

1. Not well-covered or current in your textbooks, learning resource center or classroom library

2. Based on data collected by governments or public interest groups

3. Likely to require specialized knowledge

4. Best understood from eyewitness accounts

5. Fast-breaking news (voting results, earthquakes, economic data)

Classroom use of the Internet is also good for:

* Collaborating on projects with students all over the world

* Getting real-world experience in researching and evaluating information

* Publishing students' projects and publications

Source: CSRnet