Raising our Students in the Digital World

Technology is changing the way we live our day-to-day lives. It is taking over society because everyone uses technology from toddlers to the elderly.  Technology is our backbone in today’s world that makes everything easier.  

Without technology, we would not have the World Wide Web.  The Internet is an ideal place for learning, networking, and entertainment.  Though the Internet serves as a valuable learning tool, students should be well informed by their parents or teachers about becoming “digital citizens. “ (Texas State, 2013).

Though the Internet is an ideal place to network with people, learning and entertainment but just like the world around us it can pose dangers if precautions are not taken. Cyberbullying, pharming, phishing, textual harassment, and sexting all have one thing in common which is that they harm people.  I believe that it is important to teach kids about Internet safety as an educator. According to eduTopia, with children spending time online at a younger and younger ages, it is vital to explicitly teach young children on how to protect themselves. (Hertz, 2015). As a future educator, we are going to see our students 7-8 hours a day what better way to  demonstrate and guide these student on become aware of what the digital world is all about. 

For me to demonstrate and guide my students on becoming digital safety, I would ask if they know the word "digital safety". Asking this question to the class can let me know where my students are in terms of knowing the word "digital citizen" and how to gear my lesson. If 50% percent of the class raises their hand, then I would show a short-video clip on Digital Safety. I choose this clip because it is short and the characters tie into the my student's age range. After viewing the clip, I would ask the class what they learned from the video and if they now know the term "digital safety".

 

When my group and I presented on our assigned topic which was "Cyberbullying" we used Jilster to publish or present our work. Using Jilster was different from the rest of the presentations that we did together because it was a magazine of information on cyberbullying.  This presentation tool was convenient for my group because everyone can go in and edit all the pages. There was no limit on how many pages we can use for our magazine. Overall, this magazine that we my group and I  made can be picked up by anyone and be informed about cyberbullying.

This digital safety project was very helpful to me because of the different forms that can harm a person whether its stealing their personal information or humiliating them on the web. Some of the forms that were presented on were new to me such as pharming and phishing. Though the Internet has made our lives easier in many ways whether through social networking, entertainment or for learning purposes we still need to take precaution as adults and for our students.

Reference:

• Texas State: Texas School Safety Center. (2013). Digital Safety. Texas State: Texas School Safety Center. https://txssc.txstate.edu/topics/digital-safety/

•  Hertz, M. (2015). How to Teach Internet Safety to Younger Elementary Students. eduTopia. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/internet-safety-younger-elementary-mary-beth-hertz