For one of our ICT inputs we were looking into internet searching and safety. This is a topic I feel is so important to incorporate into schools, the internet plays such a huge part in our day to day life. The internet is such a great tool and provides so many opportunities and learning experiences, however, there also many dangers and hazards which our children must be aware of searching online and also communicating online. Children are beginning to use the internet younger and younger now and providing children with information on what to do and what not to do on the internet can help keep them safe.

Sharon introduced us to some websites for internet safety such as ChildNet and Doople Me. I looked further into these and found them very useful. Child Net  provides information to teachers about teaching children how to use the internet safely. It also provides information for teachers how to remain professional online and within the workplace. ChildNet also gives helpful advice to parents with on how to encourage their children to use the internet safely.  I feel its so important for parents to be aware of what their children are doing online and if parents have more knowledge about internet safety they can really help keep children safe. Child Net provides a area in which children can access games and tips about internet safety. There was an acronym of SMART I found on Child Net which I thought would be great for children to use as a way of remembering how to be smart and stay safe online:

SAFE: Do not give out person information such as phone number, house address or passwords when chatting or posting online.
MEET: Do not meet someone you have only been in touch with online as this can be very dangerous. Only do so with parents’ or carers’ permission and even then only do so if they are present. Online friends are still strangers even if you have spoke to them for a long time.
ACCEPTING: Do not accept friend requests, messages or emails from people you do not know, They may contain viruses or nasty, inappropriate messages.
RELIABLE: Some people or websites may lie about who they are or the information may be false. Always check information by looking at other websites or books. If you like to chat online it is best to chat to people you know.
TELL: Tell a parent, carer or adult if there is something or someone online which makes you or someone you know feel uncomfortable or asks you to do something you are not happy about.

I also thought Doople Me was a very useful tool. This is a website in which the children can create an avatar which represents the way the look. This allows the child to use this as a picture online rather than an actual photograph of themselves. This protects the children identity. I feel that this website is also a good tool to witness how the children view                   themselves. I made my own one and it was very simple and straight forward!

Throughout this input I also learned a few valuable skills when it comes to searching online. I am the number one culprit for using google for any questions or help I need. I was aware that some websites you have to careful of as they can portray false information. However I was not aware to how to condense your search so you are not getting so many results and also the other search engines available to use. After the input I felt that it was my job to educate children how to search correctly and also the other search engines such as AOL Kids.  AOL Kids is a search engine which caters for kids. On the homepage it provides popular and suitable websites that kids can use such as Disney and Fun Brain. I feel this would be a good search engine to use in school as search engine such as Google can sometimes have content which is not suitable for children.  Sharon also introduced to us some presentation tool such as Prezi and Animoto. These are different ways and ideas of putting together to make presentations more fun and interactive. These would be both beneficial for teachers and children to use.

Overall, I feel this input was very useful as it give me an insight to different resources available to keep children safe on the internet without scaring them completely of using the internet. It also provided me of different resources to use in class with the children not just for internet safety but across the curriculum areas. The internet is a wonderful resource which we are so lucky to have and having the knowledge to use it appropriately will help to keep children safe online. Be smart, stay safe!