Internet Safety: "Phishing Scams in Plain English" by the Commoncraft Show

Free Laptop-Tracking System & Anti-Virus Content Security Software

How It Works

Users install Adeona onto their laptops, which then set up encrypted connections to the open source OpenDHT storage servers on the Web. If a user loses a laptop or is the victim of theft, another download and a password allows him to track his device via last-known Internet protocol (IP) addresses and Internet nodes that were used to connect to the missing machine. Users are the only ones to see the information about their laptops -- not outside companies or law enforcement agencies. For more information, visit: http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/ and http://us.trendmicro.com/us/home/

Combating the Internet's Negative Consequences

As Educators who advocate for Ed Tech, we have to work to educate schools, parents and students about the issues that affect children in an online world. The Web site, ChildrenOnline.org, offers practical articles, resources, research, and a monthly newsletter on the topic. The book, Safe Practices for Life Online, is intended to show middle and high school students what scams target them and how to use the Internet more safely. A teacher's edition of the book will be available through the International Society for Technology in Education in November. In August, they'll self-publish a third guide, intended to help parents set appropriate limits around technology use and talk to their teens about how to protect their privacy online.

**Information on this posting was gathered from the Journal Article: "Mitigating the Internet's Negative Consequences" by Dian Schaffhauser

How to Set Up Your Own Safe Cyber Community!

You may find this site useful if you want to create a "walled garden" of safe Web 2.0 tools you can use within your school's intranet, or even Internet, but have complete control over. So, a quick review of the tools available for those who want to "lock" things down and eliminate social networking OUTSIDE of school environment during the school day. Visit: http://mguhlin.wikispaces.com/walledgarden

FREE Internet Safety Curriculum & Professional Development

i-SAFE's education component provides students with dynamic, interactive, up-to-date Internet safety curriculum lessons online, in the classroom, and in the community. These lessons employ peer-to-peer communication and cooperative learning activities to help students retain this valuable information. i-SAFE provides a free Professional Development Program (online or face-to-face) and all the materials necessary to train and certify you. For more information, visit: http://www.isafe.org

Ten Tips for Internet Safety!

Protecting students from Internet dangers and distractions while still reaping its benefits is on every educators' tech priority list.

1. Get technological safeguards in place.
2. Put together a cyberspace safety curriculum for parents.
3. Take advantage of already available Internet safety education programs.
4. Have an acceptable use policy for all employees as well as students.
5. Put an “early-warning system” into effect.
6. Encourage teachers to become a part of the virtual world.
7. Use the many Internet offerings that can contribute to educational creativity, but do it inside a “walled garden.”
8. A picture is worth a thousand words. Include an image library in your “walled garden.”
9. Create a repository for information about what works.
10. When it comes to social networking sites like MySpace, educators should encourage the critical element—parental involvement.

**Adapted from Ten Tips for Internet Safety by Sheila Riley, June 1st, 2008 Edition of School CIO: K12 Technology Leaders

Beware of Terror in the Classroom

Many adults, based on their own perceptions of traditional, face-to-face bullying, may not recognize cyberbullying as a real threat. We must education ourselves to be aware of the 21st century terror in the classroom, cyberbullying.

What is Cyberbullying?

Bill Belsey, President of Bullying.org Canada says, "Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others".

Nancy Willard, author of "An Educators Guide to Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats" breaks down cyberbullying into the following categories:

• Flaming. Online fights using electronic messages with angry or vulgar language.
• Harassment. Repeatedly sending nasty, mean, an insulting messages.
• Denigration. "Dissing" someone online. Sending or posting gossip or rumors about a person to damage his or her reputation or friendships.
• Impersonation. Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material to get that person in trouble or damage their reputation.
• Outing. Sharing someone's secrets or embarrassing information or images online.
• Trickery. Tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information and then sharing it online.
• Exclusion. Intentionally and cruelly excluding someone.
• Cyberstalking. Repeated, intense harassment that includes threats or creates extreme fear.

For more information, view: www.bullying.org and www.stopcyberbullying.org/

FYI: A New Kind of Bullying

Cyber bullying is something that happens around the world every single day. Cyber bullying can come in the form of text messages, prank phone calls, instant messages, comments on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace or a Web site devoted to making fun of a classmate. Be aware of cyber bullying in your classroom so you can stop it before someone gets hurt.