Introduction

In theory, the Internet can be a valuable tool for the classroom teacher, but in practice, few teachers are comfortable with putting an entire class online at one time. Invariably, young students get drawn into confusing situations, through pop-up windows or by clicking on distracting links. The teacher usually spends the most time helping kids find what they actually want to see, and not enough time enhancing their actual learning experience.

Not only can pop-up windows and other annoyances ruin the experience for children, but there is also a chance that little Johnny could some disturbing image too. This could have serious repercussions for the teacher and the school.

Thankfully, there is a simple, and free, solution to this problem. Just follow the steps listed below, and your students will soon be surfing in total safety. They will only be able to visit sites you choose, and they will probably see no advertising at all.

(1) Install this browser on all computers

This excellent browser from Flashpeak Software has a feature that lets you totally control Internet access. Simply insist that your students only use this browser when using the Internet in your computer lab.

NOTE: This method will be effective only for children who stay out of the configuration settings. Unfortunately there is no password for the settings page. Nonetheless, this method should be quite effective for most EFL teachers in an educational setting. It is not suitable for home users, as children may be able to adjust the configuaration settings.

Click the logo below to visit Flashpeak's download page. You may install the full version or the lite version.

Flashpeak.com Publisher's quote: "Slim Browser is a multiple-site browser based on tab-page interface. It incorporates a large collection of wonderful features like recoverable popup killer, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, blacklist/whitelist filtering." Screenshot

(2) Create your Blacklist and Whitelist

Once the Slimbrowser is installed, run it. Try it out for a few minutes. It uses Microsoft's Internet Explorer engine, but gives you a new interface and lots of extra features. If you have always used Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you will need to understand that Slimbrowser is a tabbed browser. When you Shift-Click or Ctrl-Shift-Click on a link, it will open a new tab in the program, rather than a whole new window. Be sure you understand how this feature works because you will probably need to explain it to some kids.

Now, choose Options, under the Tools menu. (screenshot) You will see a settings panel with the Popup Killer settings visible. Make sure the Enable Site Filter setting is checked. You will also see Black List and White List buttons, but these are NOT the ones you want. These are for the popup killer only. (screenshot)

To get to settings important to you, choose URL Filter near the bottom of the large white rectangle. (screenshot) You will see two settings checkboxes. Be sure both of them are checked. You will also see two more Black List and White List buttons. Open the black list, and you will see a list of URLs and fragments of URLs. (screenshot) Any Web addresses containing these words cannot be visited while the URL filter is active, UNLESS that address is approved by the white list.

You only need to add one entry to the Black List. To do this, click your mouse pointer once inside the lower white rectangle. The URL fragment that is inside that rectangle now should become selected in blue. (screenshot) Simply type *.* to replace the URL fragment you saw. (That is: asterisk, period, asterisk; just those three characters) Now you must hit the Add button to put it on the list. (screenshot)

Now take a look at the white list. This is where you will add any domain names or fragments that you want to use. You will see that there are only two entries on the white list - Yahoo.com and Hotmail.com. Just to experiment, close the browser (shut the program off) and then run it again to load the settings you entered. Try visiting Google.com. If you did everything right, you should see nothing at all. Now try www.yahoo.com. You should be able to use it, but not open any links from the search results.

Now go back to your White List (Be careful to use the URL Filter Black and White Lists, not the Popup Killer lists.) and add any domains you want to let your students surf. For example, you might want to add "BBC.com" or "BritishCouncil.com" to the list.

This is a great way to keep all your students on a single Web site or even Web page.

(3) Edit the lists easily in Notepad

I know what you're thinking. This is going to be a huge bother to change the browser settings every time you want to use the Net. Well it doesn't have to be such a bother if you learn a bit more. There are two approaches to simplifying things and saving your time as a teacher.

We'll cover the simplest solution first. Set up Slimbrowser on all your classroom computers, making each white list as you like it. That's it. Now, if you want to visit a new site, simply use a different browser, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

But for the better solution... you will need to find the files in which Slimbrowser stores its settings. The universal URL filters are stored in two text files called ufblack.ini and ufwhite.ini. If you are running Windows XP or Windows 2000, go to your Documents and Settings folder and search for them. You may need to make Windows show hidden files and folders and/or make Windows show file extensions before you can locate them.

In Windows 2000, these two files are usually found here:

C:\Documents and Settings\your-login-name\Application Data\SlimBrowser

Now, open ufwhite.ini in Notepad. To do this, Right-Click and choose Open With or use Shift-Right-Click if you don't see the Open With option. (screenshot) The file should open in Notepad. Now you can just type in whatever domains or URL fragments you want. Put only one on each line. You may use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard to represent any number of characters. For example, *.gov will allow any US government Web sites to be seen. (screenshot)

(4) Make it all easier with automation!

You can make different white lists to use at different times. I use one white/black list combination that contains no URL fragments at all (no restrictions on the browser) and one that contains just the sites I use teaching.

It is easy to use a batch file to switch between them. You may download copies of my white and black lists and the batch files I use to switch between them. Just run the batch file by double-clicking it. To view the batch files (they look like this), Right-Click and Edit the lists in Notepad.

Click these files to download. Your computer or anti-virus program will probably warn you against downloading batch files, but go ahead anyway. (You can always scan them for viruses after you downlod them.) If you can't get past your anti-virus, then try downloading the zip file containing all the files.

	ufblack.ini This is the same file that comes with Slimbrowser. You shouldn't need to download this unless you accidentally delete the original file and want to get it back.
	ufwhite.ini This is the same file that comes with Slimbrowser.
	ufblack.ini.cuf This is the black list that blocks out the entire Internet using *.* as a URL filter. The .cuf extension is used by the batch file when renaming files.
	ufwhite.ini.cuf This is the list of "good sites" that you want to let your students surf.
	restrict.bat Double-clicking this batch file will switch the names of the files, causing the restrictions to be in effect.
	restrict_undo.bat Double-clicking this batch file will switch the names of the files back again, causing the restrictions to be removed.
	all_six.zip This Zip file contains all six files.

(5) Make shortcuts to the batch files

To make life really simple, you can create shortcuts in your Start menu or on your desktop. Double-clicking the shortcut is the same as double-clicking the batch files itself. To make the shortcuts, find the batch file you want, right-click on it, and choose Send To - Desktop.

Now you can put the restrictions in effect, or remove them, just by clicking a shortcut on your desktop or in your Start menu. It can't get any easier than that, trust me.