Net Behavior at School
News Item (sufflib@tiac.net)
Mon, 15 Sep 1997 06:18:41 -0400
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 06:18:41 -0400
Message-Id: <3.0.32.19970915062405.007c2470@tiac.net>
From: News Item <sufflib@tiac.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: Net Behavior at School
September 12, 1997
As more politicians push for classroom Net access, parents and teachers are
struggling to come up with with solutions for some of the problems that
come along with the Internet.
Although sound bites from politicians who promise "wired" schools make the
evening news, so do stories about students plagiarizing essays from the
Internet, teenagers being stalked by adults in online chat rooms, and
technologically precocious students hacking into schools' computer systems.
The University of California at Berkeley Extension is teaching one of the
first courses aimed at giving administrators, parents, and teachers answers
to these problems.
"Ethics, Access, and Equity in Technology," taught by Ana Solomon, will
include topics like copyright law, intellectual property, profanity,
pornography, online etiquette, and gender issues related to technology.
"In schools, there need to be some guidelines for how to use technology,"
Solomon said. "It's very easy to break the law and not know it. Because the
Internet is coming into so many homes and classes, it has the potential to
be a very powerful and dangerous tool, and there need to be guidelines."
In the class, students will also formulate a "fair-use policy." Now
mandated by the California Department of Education, a fair-use policy is a
contract made between pupils and schools in which students, parents, and
teachers agree to a certain level of behavior while using the Internet and
school computers.
The fair-use policy, "puts in black and white and on paper what everyone's
responsibilities are," Solomon added.
Although she acknowledges the many ethical pitfalls that educators come
across in offering technology to their students, Solomon felt that the
Internet and computers can be an invaluable teaching aid.
"If we do not give our kids a chance to use this technology, we are denying
them a tool of the future."
From: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,14179,00.html
C/Net Unedited