Miscellaneous Elective Activity

                                                                  

              Parental Controls and Your Students

Objective       For future recommendations to parents, the student will evaluate parental controls – both capabilities and limitations.

Objective     The student will evaluate one server’s parental control ability, and post it to a  forum that will enable the SLM class to have an overview of parental controls available.

Overview     As teachers, we embrace the use of the internet for our students’ learning.  In the course of giving assignments to students involving the web, we sometimes instruct them to search websites for information.  While we want them to be careful, it is important to realize some sites may be blocked for the students.   It all depends on how strong the ”parental controls” are.   Many parents are internet-savvy; some are not.  Some gladly grant permission to their child to search a site; others won’t go outside of their parental control parameter.  Or, in some cases, the parent is simply not available to grant permission.  We do not want our students to be coming up on “due day” and saying “that website was blocked – I couldn’t do my homework.”  Hence, a working knowledge of the major internet providers’ parental controls is necessary.  

Activities        There are two activities for this assignment.

1)     Find out what parental controls your particular internet service provides.  If you are a parent, check into your child’s (protected) web account and try to break through to the outside world through use of search engines.  If possible, find a particular web address that you can use as a control, for instance, “white house”, followed by a suffix.  (You’ll be surprised what happens when you hit “.com” as opposed to “.net” or “.gov.”)  Does your service block all the potential transpositions?  If you are not a parent, create a parental-controlled account for a theoretical child, and try the same thing

2)   Type “parental controls” or something like that into a search engine and see what you can find available through the web.  Which software package makes the most sense, and why?  Would you consider recommending any of these for the parents of your students?  Consider these questions in assignment 2, below:

Assignments  1)    Create a 1-2 page handout for parents entitled “Parental Controls and Your Child’s Assignments” or something like that.  Include your expectations for parental controls.  Example  Explain in your handout that you do want the students to access the web to research school projects, but this should not be used as a “pass” to have free rein.

2)  Write a 200-word overview of your provider’s parental controls settings, and any independent ones you may have found to recommend and post it on the appropriate discussion board.  Cite one example of a website that is blocked and one that may “get through”, if any.  This will be a handy reference for your fellow SLM students so that when they get out in the teaching/library world, they will know what to expect about student’s internet capabilities.  Example

Submission – Email Assignment 1 as an attachment to the instructor with the following subject line: SLM521-Lastname-Parental Controls Elective.   Post Assignment 2 in the forum named "Parental Controls" on Blackboard.  Read and respond to the posting of one other student. You need not notify your instructor by email of your posting.

         

Rubric        

 

unacceptable

developing

accomplished

Assignment 1

Handout discusses some facets of parental controls

Handout displays some knowledge of parental controls; communicates adequately with parents

Vivid, eye-catching handout captures the essence of the parental dilemma; reaches out and connects effectively

Assignment 2

Brief description of internet service provider’s parental controls

 

Brief, well crafted, engaging summary of the information or topic you would like students (adult learner) to explore

Presented in a way that will engage their interest

 

Bibliography   Here are some sites to get you started:

10 Internet Filters Reviewed   Filters are certainly the starting point in managing parental controls, and this site has current reviews of the 10 most popular filtering sites                   

http://www.kidswatch.com  This is a software package for sale, but the length they go to in order to convince you to buy is illuminating

http://www.cybertipline.com  This is a good catch-all site with tips on reporting abuses, resources and law enforcement

                     

http://www.earthlink.net/software/free/parentalcontrols  Earthlink doesn’t limit its offering to Earthlink subscribers; you can use their software on any

internet explorer.

 

http://parentalcontrols.blogspot.com  As its name implies, this is a blog site chock full of information about how to control your children’s internet activities.

 

ISTE

Standards   This activity addresses the following ITSE standards:

 

                   III. Teaching, Learning and the Curriculum

 

A.    Facilitate technology-enhanced experiences that address content standards and student technology standards

D. manage student learning activities in a technology-enhanced environment

          VI.  Social, Ethical, Legal and Human Issues

              D. promote safe and healthy use of technology resources