How to Find Out About Your Child's School Computers and Their Use

Most schools have computers available for student use whether the computers are in the classrooms, in the library, or in a computer lab. Parents and caregivers should learn how computers are used, who has access to the computers, and what rules and policies are in place for computer use.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. 

   Ask the teacher or other school staff where computers for student use are located and the specifics related to how and when they can be accessed.

2. Find out at what time, and on what days your child gets to use the computer and make sure all students are given equal time on the computer.

3. 

   Ask if there are safeguards or filters to prevent children from using computers inappropriately and make sure pop-up blockers and anti-virus programs are turned on.

4. 

   Make sure your child's school gives equal computer time to both male and female students.

5. 

   Ask if the school offers special computer programs, support, and tools for using the computer successfully if your child has special physical or educational needs or who need a different type of learning style.

6. 

   Find out what the school rules are regarding computer use for children and if they are being monitored by teachers or other school staff while accessing school computers.

Tips & Warnings

• You might want to find out if community centers, the local library, school computer labs, etc. have computers your child can access for completing class assignment or do research for papers or projects if you do not have a computer at home. Follow the same steps for finding out what safeguards are in place on community computers.
• Encourage your children to make use of school computers since almost every job and profession uses computers.
• Many full service restaurants and fast food restaurants use computers for order taking, printing receipts, and figuring costs and income taxes as do hotels and other service related jobs.
• Make sure your child's computer use at school is being monitored by teachers or other school staff, that the appropriate safeguards are in place if students must access the internet to do research for an assignment or gather information for a school project.
• Predators, adult sites, and chat rooms will use phony names, attach their web addresses to other web sites and through internet explorer to find children.

Resources

• Suite 101 (Computer safety for kids - Online rules to protect students)

[cookiesmagic]

on 11/16/2009 Great article

[paulusgrandis]

on 11/12/2009 Very helpful!! Great tips! 5* and rec'd!

[emilymurray]

on 11/10/2009 Great article, very informative!I know my daughters school uses computers all the time I never thought to ask about filters or security! Thanks!

[williamfjordan]

on 11/9/2009 great tips on monitoring a childs computer use at school.

[mboone84]

on 11/9/2009 Great article on How to Find Out About Your Child's School Computers and Their Use