The Naperville, Illinois, Police Department's Internet Crimes Unit, together with Microsoft and the Illinois Attorney General's Internet Task Force, created the "SafeKids" Web site to "help parents and educators teach children the fundamental 'rules of the road' for safe exploration on the information highway."
You can find the SafeKids Web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/safekids/
The Web site features a free PowerPoint presentation, complete with in-depth lecture notes and a teacher's guide, developed by detectives who specialize in Internet crimes. The presentation teaches children how to recognize and understand the "stranger danger" they face every time they venture online. In fact, the SafeKids site offers two versions of the same PowerPoint presentation: a regular version and one that is narrated. Best of all, both the regular and narrated presentations are simple, effective, and easy to use. You don't even have to know much about computers. All you have to do is:
Do this and you will be ready to use the SafeKids PowerPoint presentation to teach any child what he or she needs to know about the risks posed by online strangers.
Now for the bad news. While the SafeKids PowerPoint presentations are spectacular, the PowerPoint files themselves are HUGE and take a while to download, especially if you choose to download the narrated version. And, unfortunately, Microsoft's SafeKids Web site leaves a LOT to be desired. For example, the Web site incorrectly states the file size for each of the SafeKids PowerPoint files. Here is the correct information:
To view any of these presentations, you need either PowerPoint or Microsoft's free PowerPoint viewer. Microsoft's SafeKids Web site provides a link to where you can download a free copy of the PowerPoint viewer for Windows but shamefully omits a similar link for Mac users. Not to fear, though -- that's where today's TOURBUS comesin. :)
If are a Windows user who does not already have a copy of Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your PC, you can download a free copy of Microsoft's PowerPoint viewer at
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/ppview97.htm .
Mac users can find a similar Mac version of the PowerPoint viewer at
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/productinfo/98dl/pptvdl.htm .
Now for the REALLY bad news. Each of the 37 slides in the SafeKids presentation comes with in-depth lecture notes that provide you with additional information and discussion topics for you and your children. Unfortunately, you can only view these lecture notes if you are using the full version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you use Microsoft's free PowerPoint viewer, you will not be able to see ANY of these notes. [Hopefully someone in Redmond will read today's TOURBUS post and quickly rectify that situation.]
To view the lecture notes in Microsoft PowerPoint, open the SafeKids presentation in PowerPoint and go to View --> Notes Page. To print out the lecture notes (which I strongly recommend you do), go to File --> Print and down at the bottom of the new screen choose "Notes Pages" from the 'Print what:' pull-down menu.
In fact, if you are going to use the SafeKids PowerPoint presentation with your students or children, here's what I recommend you do:
Microsoft's gaffes aside, the SafeKids PowerPoint presentation is spectacular and is going to teach your children or students how to recognize and understand the "stranger danger" they face every time they venture online.