Podcast200: Moving Beyond the Fear Factor With Internet Safety

By Wesley Fryer On October 30, 2007 · · 4 Comments

This podcast is a recording of my presentation on Internet safety and social networking at the Safe and Healthy Schools Conference in Oklahoma City on October 29, 2007. In this session, I encourage educators to move beyond “the fear factor” in discussions about Internet safety and online social networking. Generally adults help young people learn to drive safely before giving them car keys and turning them loose on the streets of the world. Young people also need guidance and adult assistance to learn how to safely navigate the virtual environments of the 21st Century. Schools must be proactive, rather than merely defensive, in helping students acquire the skills of digital citizenship needed today and in the future. Simply banning read/write web tools on school networks is an inadequate response: Educators must strive to learn alongside students and parents how these technologies can be safely and powerfully used to communicate and collaborate.