How to Block Students from Playing Fortnite in School

In fifth grade, I used to creep to the basement after my parents were sleeping to play The Sims on our computer until well after midnight, often on school nights with no concern for having to be up early for school the next day. In high school, I would go to the library and sit at the computer farthest away from the library information desk, turning my screen so that no one could see me logging onto gaming sites during my “research” periods, or trying to use proxy servers to get onto MySpace and AIM. These are the experiences that sit fresh in my mind as I find myself in this ironic-but-necessary position on the other side of the digital battle against accessing restricted content at school.

It’s a whole new reality of learning for students, with so much of their communication and education now happening online. Our responsibility as educators now extends beyond the classroom to a world within keyboards and html codes, and teaching students to navigate these digital spaces responsibly is a major part of helping them develop a healthy relationship with the world around them. Integrating digital citizenship into your classrooms is a vital part of this process.

Education has been a hugely important part of my life for as long as I can remember. Even from the time I was a little girl—up through middle school and high school—education was all around me. I saw my mom working hard as she attended college, laboring tirelessly to get her Associate's Degree. I also have a great aunt and a great uncle who were teachers. And when I used to play as a child, I would play "school.” I honestly don't remember a time when education wasn’t a significant part of my life.

Helping students discern fact from fiction has never been more challenging. Here are four tactics to help.

The rise of digital journalism has made information more accessible, but also presented unique challenges. Research is no longer limited to the library; today, kids go online to scour the entirety of the internet. While students now have instant access to learning sources like Encyclopedia Britannica or The New York Times, they also have access to every online hoax, doctored image or conspiracy theory at their fingertips.

Meanwhile, “fake news” stories are being shared at an alarming rate, especially on social media: over half of Americans claim to regularly see fake news on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Suffice to say, it’s never been more important to model media literacy to students and impart fact-checking skills. By helping children distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake news, parents and teachers can teach kids how to think for themselves, as well as gain a clearer understanding of the world.

Here are some helpful ways to teach kids about real or fake news sources, and give them the tools they need to decipher between the two.