Stay Safe, Stay Digitally Safe

The internet can be one of the most beneficial and useful sources to use for research purposes, entertainment, shopping, and games, but many people tend to forget that “Digital Safety” is always something to keep in mind while using the internet. One can become a victim of the “Phishing and Pharming” scams all over the internet if he/she is not careful while surfing through the internet. Also, many people are not educated enough in regards to “Fair Use and Copyright Issues”, which may lead to potential lawsuits when the copyright rules are infringed upon. “Cyberbullying” is another big issue in regards to digital safety as many people do not even know the limits of what they post on social media, hurting other people in the process, whether it be indirect or direct. Lastly, “Digital Safety and Privacy” is another big issue as many people are not even aware of what is a real website or not anymore. People start giving out passwords and personal information to hackers who say that he/she is a real and trusted person, which leads to dangerous situations with the victim involved. I would not add or delete any of these topics from the major subject of “Digital Safety” because all these topics are important for people of all ages to know and many of the subtopics that could be added relate to the main topics of this subject anyways.

As a future educator, I plan to teach my students a lesson about digital safety before even letting them use the internet for any class related research projects. By teaching students at a younger age, they will probably retain the information of digital safety when they get to college or when they are already working on the job. The way I will teach them about digital safety will be the same way Dr. Cyrus taught my ED 271 class about the topic because group work is one of the most important ways to get students engaged and involved. Cynthia J. Brame and Rachel Biel (2015) wrote an article that points out the goal of group work by stating, “Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students’ learning. Whether the goal is to increase student understanding of content, to build particular transferable skills, or some combination of the two, instructors often turn to small group work to capitalize on the benefits of peer-to-peer instruction” (para. 1). When I begin teaching, I will separate the class into groups of three to four and make the students research on the topics of Cyberbullying, Digital Safety and Privacy, Fair Use and Copyright Issues, and Phishing & Pharming. My students will then have to present on their digital safety topics and provide some sort of activity to the class relating to the topic they presented about. After each of their presentations I will add more information to their topic if they missed any and clarify some points to the class if there is any confusion.

During the creating of my group’s presentation on “Fair Use Practices and Copyright Issues”, my group and members and I tried to use “ooVoo” to try and web conference with each other when none of us could meet, but that did not work out because the web conferencing tool that ooVoo offers did not work for some of my group members. In the end, my group members and I resorted to the good old whatsapp for instant messaging and we met up a couple of times before the presentation day to practice. My group members and I explored many presentation tools before even starting the content of the presentation. We went through websites such as Wix, eMaze, JooMag, Canva, and Slidebean, but none of those websites allowed my group members and I to work on the presentation at the same time. Also, my group members and I were looking for a presentation tool that did not require money, so we ultimately decided on using Google Slides for its simplicity and not having to pay for anything. I would not mind using the other presentation tools for an individual presentation, but as a group, Google slides was the best option because we were all familiar with it.

If I were to change one thing about this assignment, I would change the time limit from 20 minutes to 25 minutes as I noticed that my group and some other groups needed a little more time to facilitate the group activities. Extending the time limit also allows for a longer activity time which can benefit the people learning from the presentation more as they will become more engaged with the presentation rather than listening the whole time. Since my group members and I had to cover a lot of  points about Fair Use and Copyright Issues for 75% of the 20 minutes, only four to five minutes was left to facilitate the activity. Sarah Young (2015) says, “Research shows that students whose teachers spend too much time talking are less likely to be engaged during direct instruction” (para. 1).  This means that teachers who talk throughout the whole class session tend to bore their students and activities can be a great way to get the students engaged with the lesson, so that they can learn more in a fun way.

To conclude, digital safety is an important topic that everybody should know about as it can affect them one way or another. Teaching digital safety to students at a young age and constantly teaching it to them as they get older can help them retain the important rules to follow when shopping online, communicating with other people, or when creating a password for an online website. Also by teaching students about digital safety, the problem of cyberbullying occurring will decrease in the future as students will become more educated. With technology becoming more prevalent in people’s everyday lives, learning about digital safety can help prevent the dangers that the internet creates.

References

Brame, C.J. and Biel, R. (2015). Setting up and facilitating group work: Using cooperative

learning groups effectively. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-

pages/setting-up-and-facilitating-group-work-using-cooperative-learning-groups-

effectively/

Young, S. (2015, February 24). 14 classroom activities that increase student engagement.

Retrieved from https://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/14-classroom-activities-that-

increase-student-engagement