The lecturer kicked off spouting out a number of scenarios where the use of technology has inadvertently placed technology users in a whole lot of trouble. I remember sitting there thinking 'This could easily happen to me!!!!'. Little alarm bells started going off in my head and I started sitting a little taller in my seat and leaning a little closer to the front.
Q:How can we protect ourself from being on the wrong end of the the wonder of technology?
A:Be an effective cybercitizen.
We need to constantly educate ourselves and students on how to be an effective and safe user of the cybercommunity. This includes educating students on appropriate online behaviour to ensure positive online experiences. Cyberbullying has become an issue and adults need to be aware of it and be on the lookout of possible signs that cyberbullying may be occurring. Students should from an early age be taught how to develop positive and appropriate relationships and also how to avoid or deal with cyberbullying..
Students and adults alike need to be critical when analysing and media text or images that are viewing online. In addition to that, we need to be cautious about what we choose to upload to the web and how we choose to do so. Posting items on unsecure profiles or websites can lead to unwanted attention, undesirable self-images and identity theft. An innocent photo of a person having a drink at a party today may easily come back to bite us 10 years down the track as a photo of a 'teacher enjoying one too many drinks at a party'.
This leads us to
THINK BEFORE YOU POSTTaking that extra few minutes to think about the item that we are intending to share on the web and the repercussions that may come along with it is an important aspect of being a safe user on the web. Take into consideration who we have on our social networking sites and the relationship we have with each person. Do we want that person to know about this item we're posting? If not, why? Is it because, quite possibly the item is inappropriate or perhaps the person isn't a friend anymore and you may be better off deleting them from your social networking page?
As a future teacher, I've learnt that my duty of care can arguably extend to the use of technology outside the school grounds in situations where I may become aware that a child may be harmed. Failure to take reasonable care may amount to negligence. Now, this scares me, A LOT. The use of technology leads me to a land where there are no physical boundaries to limit it and I will need to one day police this land and ensure that all my students are safe. That feels like a responsibility of monumental proportions. This lecture however has awoken me to that responsibility and made me realise while it is physically impossible to limit this responsibility, I can learn to identify the risks associated with the Internet, educate my students about this risk, embed cybersafety practices in my teaching and above all be aware of the school policies in place. Knowledge is POWER.
Until my next post...
It sounds like the ACMA cybersafety seminar was an eye-opener for a lot of people! On the positive side, as Greg mentioned, you won't be solely responsible for this area, especially as a new teacher in a school - you'll be supported by senior staff and school policies.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think every teacher needs to take on board is that we have a responsibility to teacher 'cybercitizenship' to students from an early age.