Using the Internet with Younger Learners

More and more teachers are using technology in the classroom and it's something more and more used nowadays. These devices are often most effective when connected to the internet, which offers a vast amount of resources that cannot be found in traditional resource books (or maybe is cheaper, or less harming with the enviroment).

 Up-to-the-minute videos, songs, and educational games provide authentic language models and make classes more varied, relevant and attractive to younger learners. The internet also offers learners the opportunity to practise their language skills on their own devices, encouraging learner autonomy.

But while the internet is a wonderful teaching and learning tool, it can pose great risks if not used safely. These can be related to: content (young people viewing age-inappropriate websites); conduct (children posing as older than their real age; 'sexting' – an exchange of sexual messages or images, or placing images of other children online); and contact (including targeting children through chat rooms or social networking sites). If not educated about these risks, young people may put themselves in difficult, even dangerous, situations.

It's important that teachers know what to do in this situation. It’s definitely worth checking with the school authorities what the e-safety policy is, what procedures are in place, and who to contact in case of an emergency. If there’s no such policy, it’s worth looking up local child protection organisations that can help in such situations. It’s also worth talking to parents about internet safety, since quite often they are not aware of the risks at all. 

The most important thing is making sure that learners, when using computers, tablets or mobile phones in class, know what websites they should be looking at and keep to them. Careful monitoring of students as they do their work is essential. This might mean re-organising the room in a way that allows you to stand behind students as they work. In other words, you need to be able to see what they can see.

Finally, talk to the children about internet safety regularly, and if assigning homework that requires using the internet, we can make a list of websites that are safe to use and make these available to parents.