Teacher’s Name Candace Perkins Bowen
School/City/State Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Title of Lesson Plan: CIPA and Your School – Part I
Overview and Rationale
The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), according to the Federal Communications Commission Web site, “is a federal law enacted by Congress in December 2000 to address concerns about access in schools and libraries to the Internet and other information. For any school or library that receives discounts for Internet access or for internal connections, CIPA imposes certain requirements” Thus students should understand how CIPA affects them in their school and what difference that makes in their ability to access information.
Goals for Understanding
• Essential Questions
o What kind of filter(s) does your school use?
o If students try to access a site they need for legitimate research and can’t reach it, what are they supposed to do?
o How does this limit our freedom of expression?
• Resources/Materials
The FCC site that explains about CIPA
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html
• Any school district handouts that answer the second question.
Activity
• Read the information about CIPA and about your school’s filters.
• Discuss what sites students in the class have had blocked and why they wanted to visit these sites.
• Plan to collect examples from other classes and fellow students to discuss next week in Part II
Assessment
• Students participate in the discussion and offer sites they cannot access.
• Students question the reasons sites are blocked, preparing them for Part II
References Recommended
Federal Communication Commission (short explanation) http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html
Internet Free Expression Alliance (one site with the entire Act) http://www.ifea.net/cipa.html