Being Safe in the Digital World

           Along with the rapid development of technology, the use of technology by people has become more prevalent these days. Many of us have become very dependent on technology as it plays a very important role in our daily lives. According to Ramey (2012), “Technology is being implemented in almost every section of our lives.” Even children are being exposed to the use of gadgets such as laptops, tablets, mobile devices, and etc.

They are able to learn how to easily navigate through these devices and use it for educational purposes. Although they are able to operate such devices, most children are unaware of the dangers of the digital world. Therefore, it is essential to educate children about digital safety.

            There are many issues concerning digital safety. For this reason, each group in our class was given a topic pertaining to digital safety that we must conduct research on. My group and I were assigned the topic of “Copyright Issues and Fair Use Practices.” The other topics included digital safety and privacy, cyberbullying, textual harassment, and pharming and phishing. After learning about all these issues, I can say that I was exposed to a great deal of information that are beneficial to me as a student and as a future educator. There were several laws and proper ways of safety practices that I was not aware of regarding these issues. It is important for both students and educators to be aware of these digital safety issues so that they know how to handle these situations, whether they encounter them at home or at school.

            Learning about these issues has helped me become a more technologically proficient professional. As a future educator, it is important that I share this awareness with my students.

Since I am an Elementary Education major, I would want to present these topics in a very appealing manner in order to capture the attention of my students. I will provide several examples through stories and media such as pictures and videos. Also, similar to how my group and I presented our topic to our class, I would also want to integrate some audience interaction using multimedia tools. This will allow me to also assess the students’ learning and understanding of the topics. By teaching children about the dangers of the digital world, we are preparing them for success. They will be knowledgeable on how to retrieve and use information taken from the Web appropriately. Students will understand the importance of taking precautions when entering the digital world.

            In addition to designing lessons that will educate my students, I would also extend the lessons further to include their parents. According to Gawron (2012), “We must teach families simple tools to insist on, and have them extend the culture of cyber safety to the homes.” Parents must work hand in hand with schools if our students are to function in this digital world. I think the school would be a way to help educate parents with little computer knowledge on how to enforce technology standards at home. To reach out to parents, I would host informational workshops or Parent-Teacher Meetings where we would discuss the dangers of the digital world and safety practices. One topic I would like to emphasize on would be cyberbullying as it is common among the youth these days. I would encourage parents to perhaps, monitor their child when it comes to their usage of technology and be aware of the factors cyberbullying can cause to their child. In these workshops and meetings, I would even invite other educators to attend, whether they would like to be presenters as well or learn more about the issues regarding digital safety. Again, it is vital to spread the awareness of these issues to our communities, whether at home, school, or work.

            Although we did not use Wiggio for this assignment, my group and I did utilize other different technological tools to communicate with each other in order to complete the tasks. We used communication apps on our cellphones, such as Whatsapp, as well as emailed each other. There are a plethora of communication tools that students can use to allow everyone to participate in this group project, and should be encouraged to use any they desire. I think this assignment is highly essential to the course and students should be encouraged to take these issues seriously because despite the fact that technology can be of great use to our daily lives, there are also possible negative consequences that can occur in the cyber world. For this reason, we need to learn and be taught how to handle these issues properly when encountered. By raising awareness about these issues, students become knowledgeable and safe when they access the power of the digital world.

References

Gawron, H. (2012, June 13). The Importance of Internet Safety. Retrieved November 22, 

            2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/internet-safety-importance-heather- 

            wolpert-gawron.

Ramey, K. (2012, November 25). 10 Uses of Technology in Our Daily Life - Use of 

            Technology. Retrieved November 22, 2016, from 

            http://www.useoftechnology.com/technology-today-tomorrow/.

Integrating Technology into the Classroom

       For this particular assignment, we were required to create a lesson plan that involved utilizing multimedia to portray the salt, sugar, and fat content of three different cereals. Although there are different types of lesson plan templates, we were required to use the ASSURE lesson plan model in which there are six steps, each step representing a letter in the acronym “ASSURE.” 

Overall, this lesson plan model serves as a guide for teachers and focuses on the level of technological support applied.

        For my lesson plan, I incorporated mathematical standards and objectives for the most part. If I were to create a similar lesson plan to the same group of students, I would focus the standards and objectives on a different core subject, such as English or even Health Science. Also, instead of nutrition fact labels from cereals, it would also be interesting and relatable to discover the sugar content of different sodas that the students consume. 

        Although the students already had basic experience using Google Spreadsheets prior to the lesson, I still believe my lesson plan serves as a great introduction to students in regards to the usage of Google Spreadsheets. This lesson required students to extract and utilize their prior knowledge while obtaining an introductory hands-on experience creating graphs and charts on Google Spreadsheets. For the next lesson, I plan on furthering the students’ knowledge and experiences using a digital spreadsheet through teaching them various keyboard shortcuts and formulas for easier calculation methods. Additionally, they would be able to create more detailed charts and graphs. According to Riley (2012), “the benefits of spreadsheets are that they help students manage working with complex sets of numbers and save time by allowing for quick calculations. This frees students to ask more “what if” questions and may increase motivation because students can manipulate spreadsheet graphics;” therefore, it is important for students to acquire ample knowledge and skills in using digital spreadsheets.

        Furthermore, based on the evaluation results, I would use that information to make improvements in my future lesson planning. For example, if the students were not paying close attention to the videos shown during my lesson presentation, then perhaps, it would be more ideal to present a video that is more appealing to the students.

Reflecting on the information gathered from my evaluation would help me to see the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson and how to make further improvements on it to ensure all objectives were met and the students have gained a meaningful learning experience. Also, to further enhance the lesson, I would introduce more online resources, such as Powtoons and other search engines for kids.

       Although this lesson may already seem challenging as it requires prior knowledge and skills of computations and digital spreadsheets, and requires students to create graphs and charts on a digital spreadsheet, there are other ways to make this lesson plan even more challenging for the students so that they can further expand their knowledge and skills. One way to make this lesson plan more difficult is to modify the student objectives to meet higher expectations. Also, to ensure that each student has gained the anticipated skills in this lesson, the activity could be done individually, instead of in groups of four. This would also promote more individualized critical thinking skills during the lesson.

       In conclusion, educators are continuously seeking new and innovative methods to refine and improve classroom instruction. In recent years, integrating technology has enhanced classroom instruction and it is the responsibility of teachers to effectively incorporate technology into meaningful instruction. Hence, the ASSURE lesson plan model provides assistance in achieving this goal. The ASSURE lesson plan model has helped me to create a lesson that not only provides meaningful content, but is also integrated with various technological tools and resources to further enhance the students’ learning experience and provides them with skills they can later use in the future. After all, according to Edutopia (2008), “Learning through projects while equipped with technology tools allows students to be intellectually challenged while providing them with a realistic snapshot of what the modern office looks like. Through projects, students acquire and refine their analysis and problem-solving skills as they work individually and in teams to find, process, and synthesize information they've found online,” which are all essential skills needed in our ever-growing technologically-based society.

References

Edutopia. (2008, March 16). Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?:

        The Reasons Are Many. Retrieved November 05, 2016, from

        https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction.

Riley, G. (2012, June 25). Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom. Retrieved

        November 05, 2016, from

        https://evolvingeducator.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/using-spreadsheets-

        in-the-classroom/.