Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Budd:e is an engaging learning experience that offers interactives to play for points, while teaching important cybersecurity and safety behaviors. The site keeps your interest through the building of a personalized robot or cyborg. Cybersecurity and safety topics covered in the package include advice on malware, securing personal information online and tips for safe social networking. Choose from primary or secondary activities based on age range, then begin. A demo is available to try without sign-in; however, registration is required to fully use resources on the site such as saving and resuming previous activities. Teachers will find a vast library of resources such as lesson plans, video explanations of the online activities, and Australian curriculum maps. This site was created in Australia, so American English speakers may notice some slight differences in vocabulary and/or spelling.

tag(s): cyberbullying (23), internet safety (67)

NetSmartz'''® is an interactive, Internet safety resource that uses 3-D activities to teach how to stay safe. Games, videos, and activities provide information using three characters - Clickie, Nettie, and Webster. This site has more than just your typical topics, such as: Inbox Defender Don't Open That File: A Computer Virus Game, The Password Rap, and much more. Router's Birthday Surprise is a new addition to the site and it includes a teacher's guide for classroom use along with an ongoing activity that can be saved and revisited at a later time. Although this site states that it is designed for ages 5-17, our editors found most of the activities were designed for elementary and middle school ages.

tag(s): computers (20), internet safety (67)

This site contains all the information that educators and parents need to keep kids safe online. There are resources, articles, videos, and links to help teach students about digital citizenship.

tag(s): cyberbullying (23), internet safety (67)

Founded in 1999, NetFamilyNews has become one of the leading sources of current technology information for parents. Subscribe to the site to receive a weekly email of the latest articles. Parents that subscribe to a web reader can add an RSS feeder to receive the updates. For information on a specific topic just make sure the www.netfamilynews.org button is checked under the search box before you search otherwise you will be searching the entire web using Google. Monitoring a child's use of technology is a difficult daunting task. NetFamilyNews will help parents make knowledgeable and informed decisions.

tag(s): cyberbullying (23), internet safety (67)

Memolane create a very slick timeline from programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, Wordpress, and several others. It could also be used to capture a classroom life. There are several choices for privacy settings, ranging from only you can view to public. The unit of measure on the timeline is days. The timeline runs across the top of your window; at the bottom is a bar to quickly navigate to any date. You can build as many lanes as you like, write titles, annotate them, and choose which services you would like to include in the lanes. You can pin individual memos to a lane if you don't want the entire stream. You choose start and end dates for lanes to tell the story of a specific event or span of time. Finally, you can add music to your timeline, too! Be sure to watch the introduction video (using Vimeo or flash) to see just how slick Memolane is. NOTE: The home page features random Memolanes from the public, so you should preview it just prior to showing it to your class. A "recent" Memolane included profanity, so PLEASE preview. Avoid the problem by opening Memolane to your account before projecting it to your screen or whiteboard. While in class, steer clear of "Explore" where the general public's Memolane's may include discussions inappropriate for the classroom. Instead, select one or to specific examples in advance to share.

tag(s): digital storytelling (40), flickr (8), images (115), internet safety (67), multimedia (17), timelines (35), twitter (23)

A Thin Line provides advice to teens so they can recognize unsafe online behaviors. This website, produced by MTV, provides young adults with fact sheets, videos, and discussions on several online safety issues.

tag(s): bullying (41), cyberbullying (23), internet safety (67)

KidRex is an engaging, safe search engine for students that is powered by Google Custom Search and Google SafeSearch technology. In addition to typical filters applied to searches, the site maintains its own database of inappropriate websites and keywords to further reduce the possibility of inappropriate search returns. The search engine is easy to use and similar to a typical Google search. You simply enter the search term and a list of sites is returned. Inappropriate search terms are returned with an "Oops, try again!" message. Before using the site, be sure to click on the Parents link for a quick overview of how the site works.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): internet safety (67), search engines (41)

The Google Safety Center is a one stop shop for teachers and parents for information about keeping children safe online. The site provides instructions and resources on how to use Google tools to safely access the internet. The site even includes "video tips."

tag(s): internet safety (67)