I remember watching a public service announcement on the Disney Channel it was titled "Phineas and Ferb's Cyberspace Rules of the Road." It was about online safety. The course of this project allowed me to explore the topic of cyber bullying. In using, for the first time, Wix.com, I was able to put together a website that allowed me expand and create my own research tool, that I can now share with the children in my family, and in the future, my students.
Digital Safety is crucial and of major importance for everyone, but more specifically designed for middle school students and high school students, perhaps, even elementary students who are exposed to the dangers of the Internet. But perhaps more than utilizing the Internet in general for research and what else might be of interest, "A growing concern for parents, educators and others involved with the welfare and well-being of children and adolescents is related to young people’s ability to use these tools safety and effectively" (Maclay). Since this can become a concern for many people involved, it is important as educators to point out these safety rules, in order to prevent, and deal with these cyber space problems.
Specifically, Cyber Bullying is one of these offenses that students and children will face when utilizing the internet, but our project displays the following: Defining and indicating the types of cyber bullying, effects of it, prevention and awareness, Laws and stats, and even a true and emotional video that enhances the presentation so that the message can become more crucial and more student will to appreciate that their something they can do to prevent cyber bullying. Our website provides a porthole for students to be able to get help when they are afraid of speaking in public. It allows them to take necessary steps to beat cyber bullying.
In that case, Peer mentoring can play a crucial role in the safety of another student or a teacher to his or her students. "The project is offered through Beatbullying, a nonprofit organization that, since 1999, has placed anti-bullying programs directly into schools and communities. Founded as an offline resource for young people, Beatbullying adapted its peer-mentoring program for online use to give young people a relevant, easy way to receive help" (Wash, 2011)
Aside from the general idea of the project, the presentation I was not able to attend, however, in utilizing technological tools, I was able to present without actually being there. This is a major advantage for me and for my group. We were able to communicate effectively through wiggio, which is an online tool for group communication, we also communicated effectively through the actual website, they were able to go in and make changes as necessary. The perks of this assignment and project were very educational, I learned how to make a website and incorporate other tools. I will definitely utilize my creation in my classroom and make this readily available to all my students.
Bibliography
Wash, Redmond. (2011). Helping Keep Children Safe Online. Retrieved from Microsoft News Center.
December 1, 2011. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/Features/2011/aug11/0825cyberbullying
.mspx
Maclay, Colin, Gerrit Beger, Urs Gasser, and John Palfray. Digital Safety for Young People: Gathering
Creating New Models, and Understanding Existing Efforts. Retrieved from Technology at Unicef.
December 1, 2011. http://www.unicef.org/sowc2011/pdfs/Digital-safety-for-young-people.pdf.
