Teaching Online Safety

   Since technology and the Internet make such a big impact on education, it is important to teach students the guidelines for safe online use. Learning about digital safety that deals with cyberbullying, sexting, hacking, etc. are very fundamental for everyone to learn because it will protect us, especially students, from online predators. Ensuring that students are having fun, while practicing online safety is something that teachers should be mindful of. My group and I presented on the topic of Digital Safety and Privacy. To complete this presentation, we used Google Docs to input all of our information while using the chat room and comment feature that is provided in the Google application. We have been utilizing this web conferencing tool because of how it gives the opportunity for the work to be shared amongst my whole group, it is efficient for all group members to work on our own time, and the chat or comment section is available in between the time we are working.

          In this document, we researched and inputted excellent points about kid online safety and how to keep personal information (passwords, locations, or personal photos and videos) protected from being exposed anywhere online. All subjects on Internet safety should be talked about because they are all important. One important thing to teach the children would be the guidelines for safe online use. According to medical doctor, Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph (2018), author of "Internet Safety", states basic guidelines for online safety:

• Follow the family rules, and those set by the Internet service provider.
• Never post or trade personal pictures.
• Never reveal personal information, such as [an] address, [a] phone number, or school name or location.
• Use only a screen name and don't share passwords (other than with parents).
• Never agree to get together in person with anyone met online without parent approval and/or supervision.
• Never respond to a threatening email, message, post, or text.
• Always tell a parent or other trusted adult about any communication or conversation that was scary or hurtful. (para. 7)

The guidelines will help protect children from online predators while parents and guardians enforce them. They should also be aware of the risks while being online. One risk that everyone should know is that nothing online can be deleted. Whatever is posted and shared online will be nearly impossible to delete later. For example, the individual posted an explicit image online and deletes it later. The individual is applying for a job and it so happens that someone who viewed that post could possibly screen capture that image for future reference; the post can have that person's job in jeopardy.
                           
                                  

            To incorporate digital safety into the classroom, the method I would use to teach topics like this would be the same method we did for this presentation project. The topic of the lesson that is being taught would be digital safety. Firstly, I will give the lesson about online safety before any activity or project and let students do creative projects on each topic I would assign to them. Examples of creative projects would be making a skit, PowerPoint presentation, poster-board, video project, drawing, etc. Another option would be to let them read stories, play online games, or watch videos that incorporate safety online. There is an educational website called, NetSmartz, that allows students to be educated about online safety. The overview of the website, NetSmartz (2019), states, "It provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children [to] be safer online with the goal of helping children to become more aware of potential online risks and empowering them to help prevent victimization by making safer choices on- and offline" (para. 2). The website's features and information are programmed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Therefore, in my opinion, this makes the website appropriate for student users. This method of teaching is what I suggest we do for these class projects- a creative assignment. We can present the information in any way and considering it is a technology class, the project should require some form of technology use.

            People of all ages use technology and the Internet for many reasons such as communication and research-to explore what is happening with peoples' lives and the rest of the world. We use the Internet for all positive attributes, however, we should be aware that there are many risks that may occur while exploring the online world. With technology evolving daily, teaching digital safety is more important than ever. Knowing the importance of online safety will help protect ourselves and children, most especially, who have access online every single day from any dangerous actions performed online.

Reference

Ben-Joseph, E.P. (2018, April). Internet safety. Kids health from Nemours. Retrieved from
       
          https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/net-safety.html

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (2019). About NetSmartz. NetSmartz.

          Retrieved from https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/home

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (Producer). (2014, October 28). NSTeens - Post

          to be Private [Video clip]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBsoODqfQgA