Topic outline

  • General

    •  KICTCFT Competency  

      Teacher to be aware of internet safety issues and protect students from harm while using the internet. Teachers should guide students to protect themselves when working online.

      Specific Objectives: On completion of this unit you should be able to:

      1. Identify Internet safety issues
      2. Manage Internet safety issues

  • What is Internet Safety?

    •  Recommended time: 20 minutes

    •  Sub-unit Competency

      In this sub-unit we will look at the concept of Internet safety and also identify inadvertent ways that we and our students put ourselves at risk when using internet services.

    •  Activity 1: Internet Safety

      1. Study the introductory reading entitled 'What is Internet Safety?'
      1. Watch the video on the subject produced by the CEOP (UK) to have an insight into how easy it is to expose yourself on the Internet.
      1. Spend another 10 minutes looking through some of the resources listed in the 'References' page below. The range of topics in this list illustrates how wide the subject really is.

  • Identification of Potential Risks While Using the Internet

  • Protecting Yourself While Using the Internet

    •  Recommended time: 80 minutes

    •  Sub-unit Competency

      Threats do not make one happy. What can we do to protect ourselves and our students? In this sub-unit we will look at measures to safeguard ourselves and also the concept of Digital Citizenship that should also play a role in moderating online behaviour. 

    •  Activity 3: Protect Yourself

      1. Study the introductory reading and view the three videos embedding in the articles. Make sure you are familiar with the concept of 'Digital Citizenship'.
      1. Access the Internet Safety tutorials prepared by GLC LearnFree. Complete unit 1 as an introduction and unit 7 on Social Networking and Privacy. Then feel free to try any of the other tutorials that pique your interest.

      1. Now you are abreast with online threats that you and your students can be exposed to use the chat below to discuss; 

        • What are the current measures being used to protect students from harm online?
        • What other measures should be put in place to protect students and their teachers from harm online?

  • Safe Internet Use Policy for your School

  • Conclusion and Summary

  • Attribution

    • Open Education Resources

      The following Open Education Resources (OER) have been adapted to create this unit on professional development:

      1. Commonwealth of Learning/Commonwealth Secretariat/Ministry of Education, Guyana. (2012). ICT in Education for Teachers - Safety Issues in Digital Environments. - Available here
      2. W. Australia Dept. of Educ. (2015). Student's Online Guidelines.  - Available here

      Images have been adapted from:

      1. Ipapun. (2014). Devine Icons. Free for non commercial use - Available online here

      The following references are also acknowledged:

      1. Goodwill Community Foundation. (2014). Internet Safety - (c) Free for Private Use. - Available online here
      2. CEOP. (2009). Jigsaw: for 8-10 Year Olds. Available on YouTube here; 
      3. Family Online Safety Institute. (2012). What is Digital Citizenship? Available online at YouTube here;
      4. FlocabularyYT. (2015). Oversharing - Digital Citizenship. Available online at YouTube.
      5. InternetSocietyVideo. (2015). Four Reasons to care About Your Digital Footprint. Available online at YouTube.
      6. Univ. Alabama. (2006). Online Threats Case Study 3: Whose Fault is it Anyway? Available here;
      7. MyGov (Kenya). (2015). Launch of the Digital Learning Programme and Child Online Protection. Available here

  • Credits and License

    • This unit was adapted from OER and developed further by Mr Charles Gichuhi and Mr Robert Okinda. The unit was revised by Robert Okinda.

      Creative Commons License

      All material in this Kenya ICT CFT Course unit is licensed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kenya under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License with the exception of the resources listed below:

      Goodwill Community Foundation. (2014). Internet Safety;
      Univ. Alabama. (2006). Whose Fault is it Anyway?
      MyGov (Kenya). (2015). Launch of the Digital Learning Programme and Child Online Protection.

      All content not licensed under a Creative Commons license is all rights reserved, and you must request permission from the copyright owner to use this material.

  • Pilot Feedback

    • The KICTCFT Course is in its pilot phase. Please provide feedback on your experiences with this unit so that we can improve it.