Re: Net Behavior at School

Amy Terlaga (aterlaga@www.biblio.org)
Mon, 15 Sep 1997 09:22:50 -0400 

Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 09:22:50 -0400
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19970915133104.008578dc@www.biblio.org>
From: Amy Terlaga <aterlaga@www.biblio.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: Re: Net Behavior at School

Earlier today, Joe Cadieux posted the following news item:

>From: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,14179,00.html
>C/Net Unedited
>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."
>
[snip]

Just curious.  How many libraries here in Connecticut offer Internet access
in their children's rooms?  What kind of policy do you have in place?  How
much supervision do you give your users?  Do you offer classes for them on
the responsible use of the Internet? Or (if you do offer any training for
kids) is it more along the lines of instructional use and leave the ethics
of it to their parents?  Have you encountered any problems since the
introduction of the Net into your children's room?

Thanks in advance to all who reply to this.

Amy


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy Terlaga                           Libraries Sharing Computerized Services
Bibliomation, Inc
Stratford, CT
aterlaga@biblio.org