6/7/22, 11:36 AM Module 1: Interactive Lecture
OTL504
Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues in 21st Century
Learning
Module 1: Keeping Kids Safe yet Engaged
Module 1 introduces students to the basics of internet safety, online privacy, and a school's responsibility
to keep students safe when engaging in online activities.
Learning Outcomes
1. Compare digital natives with digital immigrants.
2. Review the basic principles of internet safety.
3. Explain the three key aspects of privacy.
4. Discuss a school's responsibility regarding student safety when engaging in online activities.
5. Explore culturally responsive teaching and technology.
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For Your Success & Readings
In this module we will discuss the various responsibilities that schools have regarding student safety
around digital technologies and tools. It will serve as an introduction to Module 2 where you will learn
more about specific plans and policies that schools must have in place to help protect students engaged
in online activities. To prepare for the Module 2 Critical Thinking assignment, access your school or
district policies that relate to technology, focusing specifically on the Responsible (Acceptable) Use
Policy, the student technology agreement, student handbook, and any policies regarding staff use of the
internet and other digital technologies. This should include policy and expectations related to the use of
personal devices for staff and students. See the Module 2 Critical Thinking assignment on the
Assignments page for more details.
Although we are only in Week 1 of the course, you should look ahead to the other modules to see what
specific social, ethical, and legal issues we will be covering each week. Your final Portfolio Project will
require that you teach a content area lesson that integrates technology in some way and allows you to
address a particular ethical, social, or legal issue that is most relevant to your teaching environment or
the environment where you aspire to teach. The mini-social/ethical lessons you develop throughout the
course will assist you with this "just-in-time" instruction for your students. If you have questions or
concerns, please reach out to your instructor.
Required
National School Safety and Security Services. (2017). Internet, computers, and school safety.
Retrieved from [Link]
safety/ ([Link]
NetSmartz (Producer). (2017). Basic internet safety. Retrieved from
[Link]
([Link]
Ribble, M. (2017). Nine themes of digital citizenship. Digital citizenship Using technology
appropriately. Retrieved from [Link]
([Link]
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1. Being Digital
We know that digital technology is here to stay, and if we do not keep up, we get left behind… and left
behind quickly. We also know that we are now educating a group of students that Prensky (2001) called
digital nativesOur students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our
educational system was designed to teach (Prensky, 2001, p. 1).— a now somewhat ubiquitous term for
people who have grown up around digital technologies, which is really all students moving through our
education systems today. As Prensky's article came out in 2001, it is likely that you have already heard
much about the so-called digital divide between students and educators, and it is also likely that you
and your schools have taken steps to bridge that divide (though arguably there is still a large digital
divide even among school districts throughout the United States). While computers have been a routine
part of classroom and school practices for quite some time, more recently schools are integrating smart
boards, "bring your own device" (BYOD) initiatives, one-to-one initiatives (where schools provide a
device—be it a laptop computer or a tablet of some kind for each student), blended learning, and flipped
classrooms in an attempt to provide their educators with the tools required to tap into emerging
technology-driven pedagogies and the digital energies and interests of their students.
[Link]
While these types of classroom strategies and school-wide initiatives are good, educators must also be
aware that simply having the hardware or the initiatives in place is only one piece of the puzzle. There is
a lot more to know about how we as educators, and especially our students, are permitted—by law and
school policy—to engage with and use these technologies. And if we are not aware or are not trained in
how to integrate all the digital tools out there for our use effectively, chances are good that we simply will
not use them—or worse, we will abuse them. Computers and digital technology in its own right will not
change student engagement and achievement; it is how we use these tools that will impact student
engagement and achievement. This means we must be cognizant of many things when we integrate
technology into our daily practices. We have to be engaged in that integration as much, if not more, than
even our students are, intentionally integrating technology tools into our practices and remaining acutely
aware of how our students are using these tools and responding to them.
Back to Basics
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To learn more about what we need to know to improve our instructional practices through the use of
technology, we will look at some of the current and changing trends in the social, ethical, and legal issues
facing 21st century educators and students—as well as education’s collective response to those trends.
Before we do, though, ensure you have viewed the following video on how to teach your students and
school community stakeholders the very basic principles of smart, responsible, online interaction and
digital use. Like most things, once the basic principles are learned, the more complex issues we face will
be easier to address.
Brain Pop UK—Online Safety
[Link]
Summary: In this educational, animated video for students aged 7-14, learn how to keep safe online,
what kinds of situations you should turn to an adult for help, and how to identify them. Learn how to
keep your identity a secret, how to identify people who might not be a nice as they seem, and who can
help you stay safe. Find out how to avoid cyberbullying and how to keep your passwords safe. More
resources can be found on the Brainpop website
([Link]
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2. Keeping Kids Safe: A School’s Responsibility
In 2000, Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act
([Link] (CIPA) to help protect children from
harmful and obscene content accessible by them over the internet. Under CIPA, schools and libraries
receiving funding are required to have policies in place to protect children. These requirements are
imposed on schools and libraries receiving E-rate discounts for internet-related connections. E-rate,
which is managed by the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Universal Service Administrative
Company, is a program that was established in 1997 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
and was built to help make all eligible schools and libraries obtain affordable access to
telecommunications and information services, including the internet. "The E-rate provides discounts of
20% to 90% for eligible telecommunications services, depending on economic need and location…"
([Link], 2008, p. 1).
Schools and libraries must have internet safety policies established in order to receive the E-rate
discounts. The measures taken to protect children must block or filter internet access to obscene
pictures, child pornography, and pictures that are harmful to minors. Additionally, schools and libraries
must hold a public meeting prior to adopting the safety policies (Federal Communications Commission,
2011).
Schools receiving E-rate discounts and subject to CIPA are required to meet two additional
requirements. "…1) their Internet safety policies must include monitoring the online activities of minors;
and 2) as required by the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, they must provide for educating
minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social
networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response" (Federal
Communications Commission, 2011, p. 1).
According to the Federal Communications Commission (2011), schools and libraries receiving E-rate
discounts and subject to CIPA are required to put into practice an internet safety policy that addresses
the following (click through each slide below).
Download Transcript ([Link]
36bc-3de2-9950-e1efe51cf787/[Link])
Schools and libraries must be in compliance with CIPA prior to receiving E-rate funds. CIPA does not
apply to schools and libraries receiving funds for telecommunications only. The filtering or blocking tool
may be disabled by authorized personnel for use by an adult who has a legitimate research or other
lawful purpose. CIPA does not mandate that internet use by children or adults be tracked.
To learn more about CIPA and how it impacts E-rate funding, watch the following informational video,
which also directs you to a useful toolkit of free K-12 lessons around digital citizenship.
Common Sense on E-Rate and CIPA: Toolkit for Teachers
[Link]
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Summary: E-rate is a federal program designed to bring internet connectivity and telecommunications
into schools. Use this toolkit to help students learn to use that technology safely, respectfully, and
responsibly. It contains a selection of engaging, practical, and effective lessons from our K-12 Digital
Literacy and Citizenship curriculum handpicked for your classroom.
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3. Restricting Access to Inappropriate Material
Now that we reviewed some of the laws involving students and their use of the internet in E-rate schools
and libraries, we will discuss methods available for limiting students' access to inappropriate and
harmful content—while keeping the network their computers are on safe from malicious programs like
worms, Trojans, bots, and viruses.
Firewalls are designed to protect a network, filter out inappropriate websites, and keep out would-be
hackers. Without a firewall, all computers on the network are vulnerable. All it takes is one person's
mistake and all computers on that network can be exploited by hackers, viruses, or worms, for example.
Firewalls control how people use the network, what is received, and what is sent. Administrators of
firewalls can set the level of security from blocking everything, to blocking little to nothing (Tyson, n.d.).
In addition to being in compliance with CIPA, schools use firewalls for protection against would-be
hackers, malicious programs, viruses, and worms, and also to prevent students from going to sites that
are deemed inappropriate. The drawback is that many tools do not work when up against proxy sites,
which allow you to surf anonymously on sites like [Link] ([Link]
(GeekDaily, 2017), and do not filter https, which "…enables encrypted communication and secure
connection between a remote user and the primary web server" (Janssen, n.d., para. 2). Specific websites
have to be blocked, or added to blacklists, by administrators, which usually occurs after students have
been found using the sites.
The American Library Association disputed the CIPA federal law regarding blocking inappropriate
websites in a 2003 Supreme Court challenge "…based on the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution"
(Francis, 2013, para. 1). The Supreme Court ruled that:
…libraries cannot possibly segregate, item by item, all the Internet material that is appropriate for
inclusion from all that is not. While a library could limit its Internet collection to just those sites it found
worthwhile, it could do so only at the cost of excluding an enormous amount of valuable information that
it lacks the capacity to review. Given that tradeoff, it is entirely reasonable for public libraries to reject
that approach and instead exclude certain categories of content, without making individualized
judgments that everything made available has requisite and appropriate quality. (Cornell University Law
School, 2003, para. 2)
Therefore, it was ruled the CIPA was not unconstitutional. In the case of a school library, the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Missouri held that the library had unconstitutionally "…blocked websites
that support or advocate on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people while
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permitting student access to websites that condemn homosexuality or oppose legal protections for LGBT
people" (Chmara, 2012, para. 7).
Many school districts across the country find there is a significant gray area when it comes to blocking
websites, especially when blocking social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube. Many districts
struggle with teachers wanting to incorporate social media into classroom instruction and have concerns
about abuse. To aid districts in freeing teachers to engage students more through social media platforms,
Google now provides settings for YouTube use in schools that gives network administrators and other
users more options for accessing and managing YouTube resources (Ward, 2016). This is helpful to
educators because when adults vilify something, it intrigues students. Instead of denying access or telling
students they are not permitted to go to a site, providing an alternative, such as YouTube for Schools,
relieves educators of having to create barriers while working to establish a connection with students.
Additionally, we need to teach students how to engage in focused, responsible, and safe internet searches
—on YouTube or on any website. Even then, however, regardless of how carefully you and your students
use the internet, some things will be blocked. There is a delicate balance between the need to use
technology in schools and the need to fulfill legal obligations regarding student access and use.
Does your school currently block YouTube? If so, how do you access engaging videos for use in your
classrooms? TedTalk? PBS?
Widespread use of the internet, information and communication technology (ICT), and the proliferation
and use of personal computing devices brings with it additional considerations for culturally responsive
teaching (Kozleski, n.d.). To be sure, there are many. For example, among the themes for digital
citizenship (Ribble, 2017), three emerge right away: 1) those that address self-image and identity, 2)
digital communication and etiquette, and 3) cyberbullying and digital drama. We will discuss these more
in-depth in future modules.
Check Your Understanding
Embedded Media Content! Please use a browser to view this content.
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References
Chmara, T. (2012, July 07). Why recent court decisions don't change the rules on filtering. American
Libraries Magazine. Retrieved from [Link]
recent-court-decisions-dont-change-the-rules-on-filtering/
Cornell University Law School. (2003). United States v. American Library Association, Inc. (02-361)
539 U.S. 194 (2003) 201 F. Supp. 2d 401, reversed. Retrieved from
[Link]
[Link]. (2008, August 8). Office of innovation and improvement. Retrieved from
[Link]
Federal Communications Commission. (2011, May 19). Children's Internet Protection Act. Retrieved
from [Link]
Francis, H. (2013). How do schools block websites? Retrieved from
[Link]
GeekDaily. (2017). List of unblocked proxy sites to unblock sites at school, college and office. Retrieved
from [Link]
Janssen, C. (n.d.). Hypertext transport protocol secure (https). Retrieved from
[Link]
Kozleski, E. (n.d.). Equity alliance: Culturally responsive teaching matters! Retrieved from
[Link]
-[Link]
Prenksy, M. (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon 9(5). Retrieved from
[Link]
%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%[Link]
Ribble, M. (2017). Nine themes of digital citizenship. Digital citizenship Using technology
appropriately. Retrieved from [Link]
Tyson, J. (n.d.). How firewalls [Link] from [Link]
Ward, M. (2016). More ways for schools & organizations to manage Youtube. Retrieved from
[Link]
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