Wednesday, May 14, 2003
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Wednesday, May 14, 2003 |
Cleveland Elementary School students get a visit from the Internet CoachBy MICHAEL
BOYLAN
The students at Cleveland Elementary School are in class when the Internet Coach makes his daily appearance on The Discovery Channel's popular program "Operation Discovery," but he was still a familiar face to a number of the students at an assembly at the school last week. The Internet Coach, played by RJ Coleman, has been touring elementary schools in the Southeastern states recently. The tour, sponsored by BellSouth, reinforces internet safety rules. The coach began his program by asking the students what a coach does. The answers ranged from "teaching and explaining what to do" to "encouraging players." One student answered that a coach sometimes benches players, but the Internet Coach got all of the students involved, starting with warm-up exercises that included working out typing fingers and mouse hands. The Internet Coach then gave a brief overview of the World Wide Web. "I like to think of the web as one giant stadium," said the coach. "Over 800 million people use the Internet and not everything you see online is true. Some things are just one person's opinion, which is why it is important to ask questions about what you see. Is this a good site? Are my parents O.K. with it? Is this the truth?" The Internet Coach went on to tell the students that they should always ask their parent's or an adult's permission before they go online, be very specific when searching for something using a search engine, and protect their identities. To illustrate the importance of protecting one's identity, the coach played catch with a student volunteer. The student was to bounce the ball back as he answered questions and the game sped up very quickly. After asking a series of general questions, the questions quickly changed to more personal questions, getting answers that identified the student's name, address, school and more. "Teams often have secret playbooks," said the Internet Coach. "You should always use your screen name and never give out your real name, phone number, address or personal information. You should also never send someone you don't know your picture." The final part of the program featured the Internet Coach telling the students about a powerful tool they all have: the ability to log off. This could be used if they encounter a site or person that they are unsure of. Catherine Douthard, technology specialist at Cleveland Elementary, felt the program was very important. There are over 130 computers available for use by students at the school, all with Internet access, as well as Windows 2000 or XP and run Office 2000 or XP professional in addition to educational software. "The technology is integrated into the curriculum so the students learn to use these applications, like Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint while studying the subject area content," said Douthard. The Internet Coach performs this program in front of 10,000 kids a year. Since March, he has brought his program to every state in the BellSouth service area. In addition to the program at Cleveland Elementary, the coach also visited North Fayette Elementary School as well as a school in DeKalb County. They were the only three schools in Georgia to get this program. The Internet Coach started as a stage actor and took his interest in technology and created this program. He has received a lot of positive feedback since starting the program three years ago and feels that education about these issues is the best thing for internet safety. For more information on the Internet Coach, visit www.internetcoach.com.
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