Chapter seven discusses critical Internet safety issues that many educators and administrators struggle to deal with. One of the major issues concerning Internet safety is the use of copy righted materials. Many students are uncertain of the laws protecting these objects and violate copy right laws out of ignorance. Another major concern is the existence of online predators. These individuals seek personal information about students for piracy or perverted intentions. Schools who allow students access to the Internet are required by law to protect students from such individuals. Unfortunately, protecting anyone from harmful Internet threats is an enormous and oftentimes difficult task. The Internet is ever changing and evolving. Often, security measures that are established can be over come by advanced coding (hacking) or other measures. There is also the issue that sheltering students too much from problems they will face outside of school fails to prepare them for such issues.
As a future business educator I am highly concerned with Internet protection and the harms of it’s restriction. It can be very frustrating as an educator to find resources that you wish to show your students but you cannot access these materials from your classroom because the side is block. It is my plan to work hard to develop a strong relationship with the technology administrator for my classes. As I gain the support and trust of this individual it will be possible for certian sites which might be restricted such as YouTube, to have temporary access permitted. I also want to know what it is about Internet security and my students that I don’t know. What I mean by saying this is that often times students find ways of getting around the preventative measures that are enforced in the school system. Sometimes this even occurs without the instructor of the course ever being aware that it has happened. By friending the technology coordinator for my school, I will be able to ask this individual what techniques the students are using to break school policies and what I should watch for to prevent this from occurring.
As previously mentioned, the real world is not censored. Company websites encourage customer feedback and usage of their sites to build upon the brand image in consumer’s minds. For this reason, it might be tricky to monitor the usage of e-commerce sites and student security. It is important that students have access to such sites and that they are familiar with the different aspects of a company site and how to use them. Yet, getting to some of the features available at these sites might be tricky when dealing with school firewalls and other protective instruments.