Blog Post 7

The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law dealing with access to offensive content on the internet by minors.  It has several requirements that the school districts are required to enforce.  If a school can certify that they follow all of these requirements, the can be eligible for a discount on their E-Rate program.  According to the article 'The New CIPA Deadline' in THE Journal,  E-rate funded schools need to have a plan in place that teaches students about online safety and cyberbullying by July 1st, or risk losing their discount.  This is due to a new CIPA regulation.  The article goes on to give resources of how to teach this curriculum to students, and other things teachers can/need to do.

In my classroom, I would definitely take advantage of the free websites that have activities, tools, and presentations that I could use to effectively teach my students how to be safe online and the consequences of cyberbullying.  I could also role play with my students in the computer lab.  I could set up several different scenarios dealing with online safety (a 'stranger' asking for their address) or cyberbullying (a 'friend' calls another person a name on a social networking page), then ask the students to come up with the best way to avoid danger or stop a cyberbully.