This week the students have enjoyed being introduced to the eSafety.gov.au website where we have been learning about online safety and how to protect ourselves from unknown people through games and quizzes. The 'How CyberSmart are you?' quiz was an excellent way to identify the areas that the students were lacking understanding in and the question 'how to correctly protect ourselves from others' started a great class discussion. It is important that everyone, no matter there age, understands that anyone you meet via online applications and social networking sites are strangers and therefore could be anyone and not who they say they are. This includes pages where photos and videos are present, once information is uploaded onto the internet it is here to stay and therefore anyone has access to this (Australian Government eSafety, 2015). I know this can sound daunting but when used responsibly the internet is truly an amazing tool for educating, sharing and communicating. This requiring us to have an awareness of both the benefit and the risks.
The eSafety website provides a lot of useful resources in regards to the safety and privacy of your children and how to recognise inappropriate behaviour such as cyberbullying. This can assist you in creating rules for your children to try and avoid the mis use of online activity. A great tool to use is the parental controls that allows you to monitor and limit what your children does online including time spent on particular websites and games. Having family discussions about cyber safety is extremely important and needs to be taken seriously.
You may be thinking - well how do I start a conversation with my child? Thats an excellent question! Childnet international is one of many websites here to support parents through this. The conversation starter ideas include basic questions of asking your child what sites they enjoy visiting and why, if they know where they can go to for help and tips on how you as a family can be safe online. If you are struggling to engage in conversation with your child regarding cyber safety this website is also fantastic as it provides online resources for a range of ages. As a family a great way to open up communication to discuss any questions or concerns is defining a set of rules to protect ourselves online and creating non-predictable usernames and passwords. Bravehearts is a fantastic link that includes examples of rules and tips for parents and children. It is incredibly important that everyone is aware of when to release personal information and caring for our identities. Hector's World videos have been used in class to raise awareness on cyber safety including protecting your personal information, identify who is trustworthy and who you can turn to for help. These videos are all accessible from home.
Age restrictions is also a hot topic, this includes social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. For the safety of children it is extremely important that the age restrictions for social networking sites are followed. Diana Graber's newspaper article '3 Reasons Why Social Media Age Restrictions Matter' is an eye opening read and investigates deeper into understanding how your child's information can be at risk, the development of the brain and promotes alternative sites such as Webkniz and Whyville (Graber, 2014).
Graber also touched upon cyberbullying and the effects this can have on young children. Cyberbullying is bullying via electronic devices such as mobile phones and online applications and can have devastating effects on the target, the bully, families and bystanders (Education and Training, 2015). This is a topic we will regularly address and our previous discussion included when and how to report cyberbullying to a parent, teacher, counsellor or friend. To raise awareness of cyberbullying the class will create posters to place around the school and classroom to prevent people from being hurt. Be sure to keep an eye out for these!
We have started our unit on mapping and we are excited to link this back to ICT where we will be creating and publishing a scavenger hunt using QR codes and Microsoft Word. Within these lessons students will be learning how to correctly acknowledge work produced by others based upon creative commons and develop a greater understanding for what copyright means. Students are expected to responsibly and safely use ICT and therefore by adding a CC licence to our own work we have correctly acknowledged how we would like it shared and acknowledging the work of others.
We really enjoy adding technology into our everyday lessons however it is cruical that families understand the importance of online safety and the correct use of online applications. Online safety should be regularly addressed with your children - if you still feel unsure about any of this information or where to begin, please follow the links below or come discuss this with me in person.
References:
Australian Copyright Council,. (2015). Find An Answer. Retrieved 5 September 2015, from http://www.copyright.org.au/acc_prod/ACC/Find_an_Answer/ACC/Public_Content/Find_an_Answer.aspx?hkey=b0de2cd4-daa3-47da-95a5-1e7ecdc8dddc Australian Curriculum,. (2015). General capabilities - General capabilities in the Australian Curriculum - The Australian Curriculum v7.5. Retrieved 7 September 2015, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/overview/general-capabilities-in-the-australian-curriculum Australian Government eSafety,. (2015). eSafety Homepage | Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner. Retrieved 6 September 2015, from https://esafety.gov.au Bravehearts,. (2015). Help & Advice - Tips for Keeping Safe Online. Retrieved 14 September 2015, from http://www.bravehearts.org.au/pages/keeping-safe-online.php CC Creative Commons,. (2015). CC Search. Retrieved 6 September 2015, from https://search.creativecommons.org/?q= Childnet International,. (2013). What do I need to know?. Retrieved 11 September 2015, from http://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/what-do-i-need-to-know Education and Training,. (2015). Cyberbullying. Retrieved 6 September 2015, from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/cyberbullying.aspx GCF Learn Free,. (2015). Internet Safety for Kids: Using Social Networks Safely. Retrieved 6 September 2015, from http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafetyforkids/4 Getsafeonline.org,. (2015). Get Safe Online. Retrieved 7 September 2015, from https://www.getsafeonline.org/safeguarding-children/ Graber, D. (2014). 3 Reasons Why Social Media Age Restrictions Matter. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-graber/3-reasons-why-social-media-age-restrictions-matter_b_5935924.html?ir=Australia Think U Know,. (2008). Thinkuknow - home. Retrieved 15 September 2015, from https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld/
This post has been created for my university course EDUC3625 Assignment 1. The information provided in this post regarding my 'class' is fictional however the resources are available to you and are what I would chose to use in my classroom.
Thank-you Miss. Tegan Fleming
1 Comment
|
Miss Tegan Fleming
Categories
All
This work by Tegan Fleming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. |