The Media Spot

Learning what's appropriate to say or post in a public forum, how to discern truth from fiction, and how to evaluate potential threats are lessons that are critical for today's cyber-citizens. What better way to learn these skills than by working with educationally, age-appropriate tools? Simply ignoring the issue inside the schoolhouse will not make our students safer in the real world. Some of the legislative options that have been suggested could have had the potential of blocking tools and sites that could help teach these lessons. As the Internet continues to evolve, educators must keep pace with the latest tools and threats to develop policies that strike a balance between safety while still allowing teachers to use the tools that are a part of everyday life for our students. And of course, many of these same doubts were raised about the Internet itself in its early days.