Before encouraging our students (especially children and adolescents) to create wikis and blogs or to upload their work onto the Internet, there are some things we need to consider.

1. Does the school have any restrictions regarding use of the Internet with students?  Some schools in the United States do not allow students to use certain sites (e.g., Wikipedia) because of concerns about accuracy.  Schools may have firewalls set up to block Internet access (or prevent access of certain websites).  The Children's Internet Protection Act  of 2000 requires American public schools to have an Internet safety policy and to protect adults and children from "visual depictions that are obscene, contain child pornography or are harmful to minors."
2. Students using the Internet for research need to be taught how to evaluate the content and purpose of the website (e.g., .edu vs. .com) as well as the bias of the writer(s). See the list of links to various web-evaluation sites (courtesy of my colleague, Steve Sharp).
3. Students surfing the Internet freely may come upon pornographic material (whether by accident or by design).  How will you handle this?  What if parents complain? 
4. Children frequenting public chatrooms may be approached by adults posing as children.  In rare cases, these adults may actually try to lure children to meet them.  Students need to be aware that people are not always what they appear to be online.  They should be taught not to put too much information on a website or in a profile--such as their full name, their address, their telephone number or email address. 
5. Computer viruses are often spread when an unsuspecting computer user opens an email attachment containing the virus.  Students need to be taught never to open attachments or click on links in emails that come from unknown persons or that seem suspicious for some reason.
6. "Cyber-bullying" or online harassment can be as destructive as the face-to-face variety.  On social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, rumors and taunts can proliferate unchecked. 
7. Students may be tempted by advertisements and pop-ups to shop online.  They should be made aware of the risks of providing a credit card number to an online site they do not know to be trustworthy.

Web Page Evaluation Sites

QUICK Quality Information Checklist: http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm

Kathy Schrock's Critical Evaluation Surveys http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html

Cornell University "Five Criteria for Evaluation" http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webcrit.html

2Learn CA - Evaluating Web Sites: http://www.2learn.ca/nkh/nkhSRevaluate.html

Lesley University - Evaluating Websites: http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/research/evaluating_web.html

References

Marcus, P. "Internet Bullying and Safety Tips/Resources for Parents," n.d., retrieved October 13, 2008 from http://snipurl.com/4c1ro  [www_montgomeryschoolsmd_org] .

Montgomery County Public Schools, "Position paper on Recommendations for Internet Safety," 2002, retrieved October 13, 2008 from http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/cybersafety/position.aspx#student.

Riley, Sheila, "Ten Tips for Internet Safety," SchoolCIO: Strategies for K-12 Technology Leaders.  October 13, 2008. http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604300

Ward, Cherie and Daria Taylor, "Guidelines for Parents for Internet Safety," February 7, 2008, retrieved October 13, 2008 from http://snipurl.com/4c26c  [www_montgomeryschoolsmd_org] .

Willard, Nancy, "CyberbullyNOT: Stopping Online Social Aggression," 2007. Retrieved October 13, 2008 from http://www.cyberbully.org/cyberbully/docs/cbnparent.pdf.