It’s that time of the year again! Safer Internet Day 2017.
As every year, many classes and schools will be putting on activities for this day and forget all about Internet Safety tomorrow. A missed chance.
I am convinced that it is not the one day activities that are going to make a change. It is all of us, all the time. Educators like us, often pride themselves on the fact that we ‘know’ about curriculum and how we enable a ‘transfer’ of knowledge.
Given that fact a lot of us will think; E safety? I know what I’m doing and run activities such as; sharing a post with the world, seeing how far and fast a message can be shared across Social media.
Some teachers will look at how email is a ‘new’ form of communication and how chatting with strangers can be dangerous.
However, we are talking about digital natives here! These children, tweens and teens grew up with Technology. A Year One student was born in the same year that the iPhone 4 came out! (Feeling old yet?) Activities such as the ones mentioned above can be fun, but will have very little impact on our students lives.
That’s the reality in which we are living. Social media is not something some of us choose to use, it is something all of us use. Schools and students are online, files and data are stored in the cloud, students are using smartphones and smartwatches. Connectivity is everywhere and I’ve spotted a lot of smart watches aimed at children in our local Shopping Center for about 90 Pounds or 110 Dollars.
Another 120 great resources can be found here: http://backgroundchecks.org/the-concerned-parents-toolbox-120-tools-and-tricks-to-protect-your-kids.html