In this session we looked at Online Safety and debated what we should and maybe shouldn’t show children – Is it suitable to teach children about “incognito” or “private” internet browsing windows? Probably not. This could lead to the children forgetting about their digital footprint and assuming that because their internet movements are not in their history then no one is watching/recording them, which isn’t true!
It was suggested that the key aspect of this that children should carry over into later life is their online pressence, since once it is on the internet it is there permenantly, even after you delete it. The curriculum says that us as teachers should prepare pupils for opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life. This includes a good digital literacy of all pupils; they should be able to use and express themselves as well as develop their ideas through information and communication technology, at a level suitable for future work, since we are living in a digital world. Therefore, it is critical that in primary school, as pupils are taught to use the internet and computers, they should be taught about the dangers that can come from using the internet:
Social networking
Cyberbullying
Digital footprint
Data infringement (data protection)
Scams and hoaxes
Cyber security
Copyright
Viruses and other malware
The necessity of safe searching
A debate raised within the session argued for and against setting blocks up on certain words for the school computers to limit the pupils’ contact with commercial, aggressive, sexual, and specific values. This includes the child being the recipient, participant, and actor (the child’s conduct online).
It is necessary to remind teachers of the risks and get them to assess whether they have protected themselves, in order to get them to successfully assess how to teach their pupil’s about the dangers of the internet. In the session my group made a IWB presentation for teachers using notebook about the dangers of social networking sites. When I get to a computer with the appropriate software I will attempt to attach it to this blog post.
In the future we must also assess why, even after children have been taught about the risks of being online, there are still a number of children meeting people they have met online.