Internet Use Reflection

I strongly agree that we should use the internet in our educational experiences. I feel like with out it, we would be putting our students at a disadvantage in todays technological world. There is a vast amount of information available to us as educators and to our students at the click of a button. We would be doing ourselves and our students an injustice to not provide this as an avenue of learning. However, we need to be extremely careful about making sure our students are aware of the many dangers that they could be exposed to. When necessary precautions are practiced, the internet can be a very safe and valuable tool. We must educate our students about these internet hazards and provide an avenue of learning what they should and should not do while surfing the internet.
When we as educators explore the internet, we must be mindful of the sites we visit. Since there is no premisis for checking the credentials of authors who provide information, we must protect ourselves by doing some homework. Some important questions to ask ourselves when visiting various websites is:

1. Who wrote the information and what are their credentials?
2. What is the purpose of the website, does it seem to be informational in nature?
3. Is the information credible for teaching or learning?
4. Is the information biased, or does it present various viewpoints?
5. How recently was the information written, is it up to date?
6. Why should I consider using the information, does is seem reliable and have back-up sources?

When we help our students to learn about internet credibility, we must also have them research these question as well with our help.