Discovering the Digital World Safely

            Computers continue to evolve rapidly and in the end its how we use it. As Bill Gates once said, “I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.” We must always take heed to the dangers that using computer may come with. Digital safety is a common practice that most of us should be informed and aware of when using the world wide web. It is often common for most of us to forget about the dangers of the internet. The fact that someone could be behind a computer simply does not mean that they are safe.

            The digital safety topics that were presented did appeal to me. One topic that was especially important was, Pharming and Phishing.  I thought it was interesting to know that people can get into your computer and just pull information based on what you provide on certain sites. I think that this would be a good presentation to give to high school students. It would inform them to be careful about the information that they put on certain sites.

            The presentation on digital safety and privacy was more tailored for students in the elementary grade levels. The group gave a lot of information on what students in that grade level should be aware of and what parents should watch out for. The group could have also included some common sense rules for parents and how they should model digital safety for their children (Perle, 2009). In any case, I believe that parents should always be monitoring their child when they are online.

            The topic that my group presented on was, textual harassment and sexting. I thought that the laws for doing any of these weren’t that strict. I learned that it is a common thing among students and some of them do it without realizing the dangers of it.  

            The fair use practices and copyright issues was also a great topic to hear from. There were many things that I learned that  I will definitely use in my classroom. I think that many people today don’t realize that there are copyright laws. I learned that just about anything can have a copyright on it. I did know, and most people should as well, that we must recognize the original creator of whatever we might be using that could be mistaken for our own.

            I believe the topic on cyber - bullying is appropriate for all grade levels. I think that all students should know about it and the dangers that it could bring about. They should also know that it happens or could happen to peers around them. There is a possibility that they could be a part of it and not realize it.

            If I decided that I wanted to teach my students a way of being safe on the internet, I would probably start out with having them do a survey on some of the sites that they often use.  I would also ask if their parents monitor them when they are online, do they have a specific time when they are allowed online, do their parents limit the amount of time that they are allowed to be online, are there only certain sites that they are allowed to visit, do they have an online profile on a social network such as, facebook or myspace, and what information is on that. Based on what is answered and placed in the survey this would give me an idea what they know about digital safety and it would also give me an idea on the top things that I should do a lesson on. I would also teach them more about the dangers of putting personal information online. I believe that many people don’t believe that when they put certain things online that anyone can access it. Some people may not get physically hurt  but, there might be some information that you share and someone you don’t know can automatically know so much about you.  It is quite terrifying and at the same time people need to be more aware this.  I would have them go through introductions on certain topics maybe show them a video or act out a skit that explains what are some of the things that could happen should they not follow some of these digital safety tips.

            On doing this project my group and I at the beginning started researching about this topic. We found lots of information that we could share. When it came down to videos we wanted to create something different from the ones that we had seen on YouTube. The making of the video was fairly easy and the ideas came about quickly. It was quite interesting because all we used to record was the camera on a Iphone. We then used the program Imovie on the MAC to create the video and add audio. We didn’t need to spend much time meeting online. Our schedules were somewhat flexible. We used Wiggio at the start of this project but, there was so much confusion while using it. We couldn’t tell when one of our group members would be online and the messages would fill up our inboxes. Also, at times the site would lag and we would receive messages late. I’m think that maybe we didn’t give it much a chance but, it was worth a try. We stuck to using google docs only because it worked for us the first time. It so much easier to upload the information that we needed and edit any ideas on one document. We are also able to post URLs and leave messages for our group members when we couldn’t all be on at the same time. I believe that we spent most of our time meeting and discussing as a group.  I believe that this assignment was helpful in learning about digital safety. It is very important for a teacher to know the information that was shared. In the classroom students will most likely be using computers and the sharing of digital safety information would useful to them.

References:

Perle, Liz. (November 4, 2009). Rules of the Road for Parents in a Digital Age. In Common

                Sense Media. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from       

                 http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice- for-parents/rules-road-parents-digital-age.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bill_gates.html