Stay Safe Online

   For students, the Internet can be an opportunity to learn, explore the world, and socialize with friends. But online access has many risks such as inappropriate content, scams, online predators, and even cyberbullying. Using an online website or apps where students interact could be harmful because we do not know if the person we are talking to is who they say they are (Hertz, 2017)

    When I become a teacher, I want to teach my students about the safety of online and the reason we need to practice the guideline while using technology. I want to make my students understand the lesson, so I would involve a lot of group work in the lesson because students do well when they work in groups. The assignments will include researching depending on the grade level I teach and I want to have parents involved with the lesson because the students should still practice online safety at home. Parents will be able to participate in their Online Safety assignment by getting their opinion of the safety guidelines that the teacher handed out and setting giving their  tips on Online safety.  According to Morris, adults play a major role in helping students become safe, responsible, and productive digital citizens. Parents do not need to be experts in technology or Internet safety (2019). However,  they should be in communication with their child's teacher. Teachers are in the position to listen and deliver advice to the parent to ensure they are on the same page.

  

    I want to encourage my student to take precautionary measure while going online such as never giving out information, be aware of the people you meet online, and do not post or send someone any explicit materials. Digital safety is an important topic and should not be taken lightly because online is dangerous in many ways and without learning about safety students might not know what to do and parents might not be well informed to guide their child. 

    For our group project, my group and I used Wix to create our presentation because Wix was simple to use. I was able to add my group member as a contributor to the site so that we could work on the site together instead of one person doing it on their own. First, I created google docs and shared it with them. Google docs is a helpful tool in group work because we can add information anytime, and the others can see on their end. When we were done with creating our website and putting the finishing touches on it, I created a zoom meeting so we will be able to practice presenting. Among all the web conferencing tools, Zoom was the best because I did not have major problem screen sharing as I did with other tools. One minor problem that I did have when I was screen sharing was my presentation was lagging a bit. I did not mind the lagging because we manage to deliver our presentation. Zoom and Google Hangout would be a good tool to use for this project because it was not complicated to use and the features are similar to one another.

    There is no suggestion I could make regarding this project. If we were doing this project on-site, then the only suggestions I would make is a longer time limit. The reason why allocating more time would be helpful is so we can further explain more information and still have time to do audience interaction. Considering the circumstances that we are under, we had no other choice but to present virtually.  With this being said, an online audience interaction was not necessary and we used the entire 20 minutes strictly for presenting.  However, if we had to do the interaction then there would have been not enough time for web games or discussion question.  Overall, the project went well and this topic is important for students and for a future educator.

    

    

    

                                                      Sources

    Hertz, M. B. (2017, September 28). How to Teach Internet Safety to Younger
               Elementary Students Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/

               internet-safety-younger-elementary-mary-beth-hertz

   Morris, K. (2019, January 17). 10 Internet Safety Tips for Parents (How to 
             Help Your Child to be Safe Online). Retrieved from
             http://www.kathleenamorris.com/2019/05/16/internet-safety-parents/