Wow, information overload. I have just finished completing the Cybersafety professional development slides and learnt so much from reading and listening to professionals who know so much about what’s going on on the internet. Just like Mrs D, I have saved mine certificate to include in my e-Portfolio as this would stand out to whoever is interviewing you. After reading a few blog posts on the subject and completing the exercises, Tegan was so correct when she mentions that the internet links to Postman’s 5 things we need to know about technology that for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage. The internet has so many benefits (I personally can’t live without it), but with those comes disadvantages and the big one that was discussed in connect.ed is Cyberbullying.
I am going to quickly recap and compress important information that stood out to me in these four modules.
Module 1: Connected world of students
– Children read more on the internet than actual printed texts
– Students we teach now never knew a world without internet
– Web2.0 is a powerful tool a a time when young people are working out who they are and what they want to be, that’s why teacher’s and parents need to assist them wisely.
– Nothing beats face to face communication
– Technology may at time impact on losing essential skills to communicate face to face
Cybersafety:
– Young people are dealing with images not real people, this makes young people create profile on what they want to be not necessarily who they really are.
‘in a connected world, how are you connecting to your students?’
Module 2: Online safety issues & how a teacher can help
– Grooming: someone pretending to be someone else who will later perform sexual actions
– Sexting: someone who is sending provocative images
– Cyberbulling: someone is bullying with the intent to hurt that person
– Cyberagression: a one off (think its funny) remark that may hurt that persons feelings
– Hacking: someone who uses your account and posts inappropriate comments
– Teachers need to influence students’ poositive behaviour by determining how to best deal with unsafe behaviour, from the connect.ed website they listed these strategies to teach students how to:
- block senders in chat rooms and social networking sites
- change their social networking profiles
- keep passwords secret and mobile numbers private
- not reply to nasty messages and/or block the sender if they are in a contact list
- if the bullying persists, tell someone they trust
- help them to list trusted people
- keep any hostile messages sent by IM or SMS, print out any text, web content or emails and keep links to web pages or user names in IM
- use website reporting tools to report cyberbullying
- visit the Cybersmart Online Helpline for free and confidential online counselling or call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800
Module 3: How the school plays apart in Cyberbullying
– It is important to know the school policies on Cybersafety
– Students need to understand (at their level) how technology should be used
– Cyberbullying happens outside of school when students have the time to be on the internet, it is the schools responsibility and duty of care to attend to these happenings.
– Parents play a role so they need to understand what is happening online
– When the whole school community, school leaders, teachers, students and parents are all integrated this can help create safe online behaviours.
– Some more Strategies can be found here.
Module 4: Useful resources
– The Cybersafety website has collated and created useful resources that can be used at any age level.
Click here to see the resources and lesson plans for your classroom.
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