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Web Ethics Education to Start in 2nd Grade Next Year

Posted August. 02, 2008 09:31,   

한국어

Proper Internet etiquette from next year will take up a bigger part of ethics textbooks in elementary schools.

Students in Korea begin to learn Internet ethics from the fourth grade, but second and third graders will get instruction on the topic next year.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry and researchers who developed the educational curriculum last year said yesterday that the ethics textbook for second graders will contain a chapter on Internet etiquette.

Twenty-two pages on Web etiquette will be included in ethics textbooks and supplementary teaching material. The chapter “My Friend, the Computer” will cover prevention of overuse and addiction to the Internet, and teach students to use polite words on the Web.

The ethics textbook for fourth graders to come out in 2010 will have 20 pages on Internet etiquette. That for fifth graders to be introduced in 2011 will also contain 20 pages on preventing Web addiction.

Textbooks published under last year’s curriculum will be phased in next year for first and second graders, 2010 for third and fourth graders, and 2011 for fifth and sixth graders.

Ethics textbooks used in elementary school have a combined seven pages on the Internet, but this will jump to 62 pages or three chapters by 2011.

Researchers and members of a council that oversees ethics textbooks for fourth and fifth graders said the textbooks should include in-depth education on Internet ethics. Citing the violent demonstrations over U.S. beef imports, they said the protests shed light on the Web’s side effects.

Kim Jeong-hyo, an elementary education professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and a council member, said, “As seen in the candlelight vigils, the Internet has a surprisingly powerful influence. Therefore, students should learn not only Internet etiquette but also how to judge the value of data on the Web. This suggestion has been supported by council members and researchers.”



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