What do I know?
I have never really had much experience with ICT in my life so therefore my knowledge is limited as well. Most of what I know I have learnt in this subject. Before this semester I used my phone to make emergency calls, I used the internet to research and I watched the odd you tube clip and played a few games. Now I am blogging, I know what Diigo is (though I am still learning how to use it), I am navigating my way through a long list of ICT terms and uses and surprisingly I am also enjoying it.
I have not had much experience with cyber-bullying, spamming, phishing or identity theft besides what I have read or heard. And quite a few of these terms are new to me, but I do know that it is my responsibility to ensure that my use of anything digital is safe, responsible and ethical. People are allowed opinions and ideas, but they should be delivered in a way that is open and truthful, but respectful and never hurtful.
I just attempted the first quiz and I got 50%. I was surprised by some of the answers. When I thought about it I could see that I answered incorrectly for the third question, but the first question about low self esteem I was a little more unsure of. The answer said that most children who bully have an inflated self esteem and this started me thinking, so I read the information provided and did some additional research. I found this article which was also very interesting. This has made me re-think the way I handle bullying and the children involved.
Quiz number 2 is done. I did better in this quiz. I answered 3 questions incorrectly the first time and then went back and re-read the question and answered again. I found most of the questions were common sense to an adult but could see how a child may be convinced to either open an email, share a password or log on to a site they were not sure about. It also showed that peer pressure has a lot to do with it. Friends want your password, friends are on the site, friends tell you how ‘çool’ it is. All children want to be included and it is a fine line between allowing that and ensuring they are safe.
There were very interesting questions in the quiz and they made me stop and think. Most of the questions I answered incorrectly were because I was looking at them as an adult, not a child. it is easy as an adult to reason things out – and even then sometimes we make the wrong decision. So how much harder is it for a child to make a decision about what is safe and expected of them if we don’t first teach it.