Cyber+Safety+Activities


 * __Office of Instructional Technology’s Cyber Safety Activity Overview__**

//The DOE has approached this most important topic in several ways://


 * __1. Via Professional Development and Parental Awareness__**
 * The Office of Instructional Technology, working with the Office of Parent Involvement and the Director of Library Services, scheduled a series of workshops in SY 2006/2007 to address this important topic of Internet Safety. Across the City, more than 100 Regional Librarian Representatives, Regional Instructional Technology Specialists, Parent Support Officers, and Technology Coaches received formal Cyber Safety training by a federally funded, not-for-profit foundation i-SAFE. Their job is to further train their colleagues in schools. Strategies for schools and home, curriculum and family training were provided. This training is also provided for more than 100 educators (teachers, librarians, coaches, leaders, etc.) from across the city during summer 2007. Additionally School Library Services and the Office of Instructional Technology have partnered to provide educators with the opportunity to attend this professional develop on a monthly bases across the 2007/2008 school year.
 * 22 principals across the city were invited to a demonstration i-SAFE Student Assembly Program, that they will able to turnkey in schools across the City.
 * The **Guide for Parents and Families 2006-2007** distributed city wide (and currently on the DOE website in 9 languages) provides concrete ways to answer the question, “**How Do I Help My Child Learn to Use the Internet Wisely?”**


 * __2. Via Classroom Instruction__**
 * What are students taught?
 * Students are empowered with skills to use the internet safely, appropriately and acceptably.
 * Students are reminded not to post or transmit photographs or personal contact information about themselves or other people without their parents’ consent. Personal contact information includes, but is not limited to, home address, telephone number, school name, school address and classroom.
 * Students are reminded that having “online relationships” with strangers is fraught with peril. When e-mailing or messaging someone, students do not know whether their correspondent is actually the person they profess to be, or a predator. Students should be warned not to meet with someone they have met online without their parents’ approval and participation. Students should also be encouraged to promptly disclose to their teacher or another school employee any online message they receive that is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable.
 * We have distributed 2 posters for classroom use:
 * Student Responsibilities
 * A short version of the IAUP
 * More information is available by referring to the DOE’s Internet Acceptable Use Policy (IAUP), available at [|www.nycenet.edu/offices/diit/internet/iaup.pdf].


 * __3. Via Filtering and Technical Solutions__**
 * Going online provides students with “access to the world,” but it can also expose them to evils of the world. The DOE’s Division of Instructional and Information Technology is always working on the latest methods of keeping our wireless access secure and eliminating access to “rogue” wireless connections from our schools. To this end, the Department of Education **centrally** filters students’ internet access, blocking undesirable and dangerous sites. This is true whether the access is through wired or wireless connections to the DOE’s network.
 * In addition, **every school building server** has Symantec Web Filtering Security.
 * However, no technical solution is foolproof, and nothing is better than a teacher or a parent actively monitoring the use of the Internet by students.
 * For example, when students log on to the Internet using a wireless connection/network their computers may be in range of other wireless networks not belonging to the DOE. If these networks are not secured (do not require an ID and password to logon to them) and have no filtering system in place, students may be able to access sites incorporating pornography, violence, and other undesirable content.
 * Remember, thousands of inappropriate sites appear on the Internet each day. It is impossible for any filtering software to keep current on a daily basis. For this reason, we use a simple web form where Principals can request a change in filtering for their school.