The Internet As an Educational Tool? Not While The "Sleaze Factor" of Pornography Is Uncontrolle

There is no doubt that the internet provides enormous educational potential. Teachers have known this from the very beginning. Unfortunately, the "bottom feeders" of the internet have been equally aware of the potential for wealth from the "Sleaze Factors" of (1) plagiarism, (2) unethical and unsafe issues, and (3) pornography. Until there is a way to eliminate, or at least control these issues, allowing open access to the internet for anyone under the age of 18 should be considered negligence; and schools simply will not be able to use the internet to its full educational potential. I dealt with the first two "Sleaze Factors" in other articles. This article will concentrate on the pornography issue.

I discussed this issue a little bit is another article, but pornography is such a serious issue for schools that it can't be discussed too often. Obviously there is a great deal of money to be made in pornography, because pornographers spend so much time, money, and effort in creating sites for people to stumble upon. It isn't sufficient for the thousands of interested people to go to published sites for their pleasures. Instead, these site owners also have to trick other people into going to their sites as well. This should be a crime!

As soon as schools could afford to do so, they started creating computer labs and adding internet access to those labs and classroom computers for the benefit of students and teachers alike. For a short time, the ability to find educationally sound websites was, indeed, wonderful. We had a new resource at our fingertips that would revolutionize education. Some people were predicting the end to schools and elimination of the need for teachers within a very few years. These predictions never take into account the "bottom feeders" of the world, who, for whatever reason, must destroy everything good.

Before this process of creating computer labs with internet access was even complete, students started finding that if they misspelled the name of an educational site or accidentally made a wrong keystroke, porn sites appeared. Needless to say, parents were NOT happy! Schools immediately started installing filters on their systems that would not allow certain sites to be accessed. Then, all likely misspellings needed to be added to the list of "cannot be accessed." Then, frequently researched topics brought porn sites instead. So schools started adding seemingly harmless words to the "cannot be accessed" list.

I taught mathematics. Seems like a safe topic, doesn't it. Wrong! I know I am naive, but I really don't understand what these people get out of forcing word after word off the acceptable list. Schools have no choice but to continue this process. Our tax payers very much resent having schools providing porn to their children, and rightly so. Parents have also been forced to put filters on their home systems in order to protect their children. Now, we have schools starting to buy class sets of iPads--the newest technology, but again filters become an issue. It is all very sad!

With all of these "Sleaze Factors" at work at the same time, legitimate research sites are becoming few and far between, plagiarism is more of an issue than most students and parents even realize, and using unfiltered computers is just plain dangerous for our children.

There are no simple solutions in sight. Certainly First Amendment Rights are important and need to be considered, but the safety and educational importance for our children are at least equally important. As a society, we need to be making some very important decisions related to the hierarchy of importance of these concerns and we need to do this sooner rather than later.

The only positive thing about all of this is that schools and teachers are becoming more important than they ever were. Where else can you trust that the people involved have your child's best interests in mind? It certainly is NOT on the internet.

Why The Internet Will Not Eliminate Teachers or Schools As Some Have Predicted

Recently, I read a few articles about the future of education. In each case, the author was predicting that the massive collection of knowledge of the Internet would make traditional schools obsolete. Teachers and schools will become unnecessary. I don't claim to be any kind of visionary, but there are many reasons this prediction will not come true.

During my teaching career, I experienced the entire "technology in the classroom" movement from the first arguments over allowing use of small four-function calculators in the classroom, to the introduction of the first computers for classroom use, to graphing calculators, the developments of the internet and the World Wide Web, interactive white boards, iPhones, iPads, etc. I heard the predictions and I've watched what actually happened. Consistently, the reality falls far short of the prediction.

The Internet is by no means a new educational tool. The Internet has existed for many years and its benefits for teachers has been advanced for all of those years. In the early days, once school computer became prevalent enough to allow for 1 or 2 computer labs and schools could access the Internet, there actually was a short period of time when students and teachers frequently used this educational tool. There are many excellent educational sites that have provided wonderful lesson plan ideas and materials for classroom use.

It didn't, however, take very long for parents and schools to discover that there was a major problem developing with allowing open access to the Internet. Those of us who are naive and always see the good and the positive potential in people, and who expect the same from everyone, were caught off guard by the arrival and rapid increase in the amount of pornography on the Internet. Suddenly, we had students watching porn in our school libraries and computer labs!

You can argue First Amendment Rights all day long, but that won't change the fact that the majority, if not all, parents do not want their public--paid for with their tax dollars--schools allowing, even providing, porn to their children. The solution to the problem became and will continue to be the #1 reason that schools or any educational facility--even homes--will never be able to use the full educational potential of the Internet: FILTERS!

I wish I could make that word as big and flashy as it needs to be to convey the full impact this has made on the educational uses of the Internet. While parents demand tighter and tighter controls on what their children can access at school and are finding the need to do likewise at home (as witnessed by the rapid increase in the number of websites devoted to providing filters for home computers, iPods, iPads, etc.), the "Internet Bottom Feeders" keep developing ways to circumvent those same filters. (My growing cynicism is telling me that the people providing the filters are likely the same ones making the filters necessary.)

The list of valuable educational sites that have become unavailable continues to lengthen as porn sites appear with every possible mis-spelling or keystroke error a student might make. The length of the list of seemingly harmless words that now have to be filtered out would shock most of you.

Is the Internet set to eliminate teachers and schools? Certainly not anytime in the foreseeable future. With much of their internet access now heavily filtered, it has become very difficult for students to do any meaningful, valid research.

There are many other reasons that the Internet is ceasing to be a viable educational tool for children. The Internet becomes more dangerous to our children every day, and the information found there is often false or plagiarized. Sources can no longer be trusted. These issues will be discussed in other articles; but for now, schools and teachers are more important than they have ever been for the trusted, truthful exchange of information.

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The Internet As an Educational Tool? Not Until The "Sleaze Factors" Of Unethical And Unsafe Are Gone

The "Sleaze Factors" of (1) plagiarism, (2) ethics and safety issues, and (3) pornography are quite literally eliminating the internet as an educational tool for schools. I dealt with plagiarism in a different article, and I will deal with pornography in another. This article will deal with the concerns schools and parents must face related to ethics and safety with respect to our students. The number of ways this is touching our children's lives is growing exponentially (maybe a future math lesson), and schools simply can't keep up.

Ethics And Safety Issues: A "Sleaze Factor" Ruining The Educational Value Of The Internet:

The safety issues surrounding the internet have been known and talked about for a very long time now. We all are pretty well-informed about on-line predators stalking our children; and this issue is usually more of a home issue than a school issue. Television networks have done show after show where they have "set-up" some of these online predators and we have seen over and over their typical mode of operation. These same programs have offered suggestions for ways to know what your kids are doing online and ways of knowing to whom they are speaking or texting.

There is a great deal of software available now to allow you to track your children, know who they are calling or texting, and see what pictures they are receiving and sending. (Teens tend to do these at school.) Many teens get livid about privacy issues, but as long as they are under your roof and you are responsible for everything they do, safety outweighs privacy. If you are having any problems in this area, notify your school and teachers. They may be able to help, and at the very least, it may help them understand what may have become behavioral issues at school.

A few things that experts keep suggesting, but too many parents are still not doing:

(1) Never allow a computer in a student's room--you cannot know what they are doing until after the fact. Prevention beats correction!

(2) Place the computer in a high traffic area, not a dark corner. Your goal is for your child to never know when someone will walk by. (Don't allow computer use until an adult is home.)

(3) Have the computer screen facing out at all times. Check on your child frequently. Know what sites they are visiting right now--not just on the report you read later.

There is much more information online about safety issues, so if you haven't already done so; educate yourself.

The ethical issues surrounding the internet are growing rapidly and in ways we never imagined:

(1) Cyber-bullying is not a new topic, but it is one that must be continually discussed. Even young children are posting questions like "Who is the cutest boy?" or "Who bothers you the most?" on school sites that teachers create just for their own classes so that the students will be safe. Certainly that teacher will remove these questions and any responses, but children must have reinforced for them every day--maybe several times a day--that these questions can lead to unwanted and serious complications.

We have young children committing suicide because of the mean things other children often say. It was bad enough when students were passing bad notes in class about someone, but now we have even worse things being said online. Young children do not understand that the internet is not private--it is not just between a few friends. They also do not realize that what they write is there forever. These concepts must be reinforced and reinforced and reinforced. They need to develop a "Do no harm" attitude.

(2) Ethical issues are becoming more of a problem every day. This may include plagiarism. (Does your child know what that means and that it is illegal?) It may include privacy issues--like posting someone else's picture without their permission. Worst of all, it may include issues of inappropriate personal issues. More and more students are posting pictures of themselves doing very inappropriate behaviors. Sometimes they are "just emailing to a friend" but the "friend" posts it to the internet. Regardless of who posted it, it is now there for the entire world to see and it is there forever! Children of all ages need help to understand that they have no control over the internet.

Sadly, there is a growing problem with ethical issues related to teens and teachers. This new generation of teachers that has grown up with the internet seem oblivious to the fact that if they post a picture of themselves drunk on the internet, they will likely be fired. They also believe their students will never see it. NOT TRUE! If you overhear your child discussing such a thing, report it to the school. Also be aware that teens are very fond of taking inappropriate pictures of themselves, or other students, or even teachers and posting them, again without permission. To all young teachers, pay attention to this!

The legal issues surrounding the internet are often vague--but not to schools. If is inappropriate, the involved people will be dealt with harshly. Faculty members fired, students suspended or expelled. These issues must be discussed and discussed frequently--by both parents and teachers!