The students

at Cleveland Elementary School are in class when the Internet Coach makes

his daily appearance on The Discovery Channel's popular program "Operation

Discovery," but he was still a familiar face to a number of the students

at an assembly at the school last week.

The Internet

Coach, played by RJ Coleman, has been touring elementary schools in the

Southeastern states recently. The tour, sponsored by BellSouth, reinforces

internet safety rules.

The coach began

his program by asking the students what a coach does. The answers ranged

from "teaching and explaining what to do" to "encouraging

players." One student answered that a coach sometimes benches players,

but the Internet Coach got all of the students involved, starting with

warm-up exercises that included working out typing fingers and mouse hands.

The Internet

Coach then gave a brief overview of the World Wide Web. "I like to

think of the web as one giant stadium," said the coach. "Over

800 million people use the Internet and not everything you see online

is true. Some things are just one person's opinion, which is why it is

important to ask questions about what you see. Is this a good site? Are

my parents O.K. with it? Is this the truth?"

The Internet

Coach went on to tell the students that they should always ask their parent's

or an adult's permission before they go online, be very specific when

searching for something using a search engine, and protect their identities.

To illustrate

the importance of protecting one's identity, the coach played catch with

a student volunteer. The student was to bounce the ball back as he answered

questions and the game sped up very quickly. After asking a series of

general questions, the questions quickly changed to more personal questions,

getting answers that identified the student's name, address, school and

more.

"Teams

often have secret playbooks," said the Internet Coach. "You

should always use your screen name and never give out your real name,

phone number, address or personal information. You should also never send

someone you don't know your picture."

The final part

of the program featured the Internet Coach telling the students about

a powerful tool they all have: the ability to log off. This could be used

if they encounter a site or person that they are unsure of.

Catherine Douthard,

technology specialist at Cleveland Elementary, felt the program was very

important. There are over 130 computers available for use by students

at the school, all with Internet access, as well as Windows 2000 or XP

and run Office 2000 or XP professional in addition to educational software.

"The technology

is integrated into the curriculum so the students learn to use these applications,

like Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint while studying the subject area

content," said Douthard.

The Internet

Coach performs this program in front of 10,000 kids a year. Since March,

he has brought his program to every state in the BellSouth service area.

In addition to the program at Cleveland Elementary, the coach also visited

North Fayette Elementary School as well as a school in DeKalb County.

They were the only three schools in Georgia to get this program.

The Internet

Coach started as a stage actor and took his interest in technology and

created this program. He has received a lot of positive feedback since

starting the program three years ago and feels that education about these

issues is the best thing for internet safety.

For more information

on the Internet Coach, visit www.internetcoach.com.