What to consider when you have students searching the internet?

             When I have students searching the Internet there are many things to go into consideration. First things first, for younger students I think it is important to go over some basic rules/tips to help them find the information easier. As a teacher you have to make sure they are comfortable completing the task you have assigned. Also as a teacher you have to consider what you are having the students search and what all is going to pop up with the search. If there are things you want them to avoid give them pointers to help them get to the answer faster. Overall it is most important that the students are comfortable and knowledgeable about what they are doing on the Internet. 

            I would present the Internet as a positive thing but explain the "scary" things that can happen. The Internet is a great tool and resource to find information out quickly. The Internet can also engaged to children in the topic they are learning about. However, I also think it is important to tell them about the negative things. For example some websites have adds or pop ups all over them and some websites are just not safe or appropriate for young students. As a precaution I would either give the students a list of safe websites they could go on for the information or have them ask me to check the website before going onto it. 

          There are many policies that schools have in place for the Internet to protect the students. One of them would be that on student accounts there are certain websites that are blocked to keep them from going onto them. Some schools have websites that are automatically save the each students account at the beginning of the year to use as a resource. My school had a plagiarism checker and a works cited resource automatically saved to each students account at the beginning of each school year. 

       One solution to help with this topic would be to make sure not all of your assignments given to children are not on the Internet. Every child learns differently so you need to teach in a variety of ways. Also you don't want them spending too much time on the Internet or technology in general. You want the students to be up and active when learning sometimes.