2017 Annual Conference

Brittany Woolf

Elementary

Students have an extraordinary level of access to the internet, and are often the internet experts in their homes. This presents a new challenge for teachers, counselors, and other educators.  In this presentation, I discuss staggering need for internet safety education in our schools, present the interactive intervention I created to educate 3rd-5th graders about internet safety, and report the positive student outcome data and supportive community feedback from the intervention.

The internet has seeped into every aspect of our lives; this is especially true in our education system.  Today's students have more access to the internet than those that have come before them, often having access to phones, personal computers, Ipads, video games, and other internet capable devices. With students having never known life without the internet, they are often the experts in their homes, as their parents likely did not have internet access like what is seen today.  With this “internet overload”comes a unique set of challenges for keeping children safe, informed, and aware of the role they play in their own safety.

After noticing the need for internet safety education at my internship site, I developed a program for students grades 3-5 that can be delivered as part of a school counseling curriculum. There was a great deal of community support and many counselors, parents, and teachers were vocal about the lack of internet safety education, evidence-based interventions, and clear role designation of who should be giving these kinds of lessons.

 Therefore, as a result of this program, participants will:

1. Be more aware of the severe need for internet safety education in our schools,
2. Learn about an innovative internet safety program developed and delivered by a school counselor,
3. Learn how to incorporate the program into their school counseling curriculum, and
4. Learn about the positive outcome data from both students and community members about the program

The program would be interactive, as I would have the audience participate in a selected scenario, the way that my students did.  I would also be providing any counselors or teachers who wanted to incorporate the intervention in their schools the scenarios/power point lesson I created, the pre-test and post-test questions used to collect data, and the parent brochure that I provided to all parents in my school.