Cautiously and Chronically Online

Being Online, While Being a Student

I have heard, watched, and read about schools and/or communities who use scare-tactics when it comes to technology and trying to utilize it. I grew up around technology, so I have seen numerous commercials, advertisements, videos, and images that tell people to lessen their use of technology since there are many ways to get in trouble online. However, I had different experiences. 

My experiences associated with how cyber safety or digital citizenship was tackled in my education are very similar from my elementary to my high school education. Instead of using scare-tactics, my teachers would discuss the benefits of being online or having an online presence. Even though this was the case, my teachers were still aware of the numerous negativity that could occur from being online. That is why they constantly remind students to be cautious, instead of using scare-tactics to attempt convincing us to lessen our time online. 

 

Introduced to the Online World Through Education

In one of my classes in grade 7 and 8, we were introduced to blogging. We were tasked to decide on a main topic and every week, we would post a blog about it. I remember picking Pokémon, since I was, and still am, very interested in the topic. In the class, our teacher discussed the benefits of blogging, such as hearing other people’s opinions and interests and building a sense of community since we were free to comment in each other’s blogs if we liked what the other person had to say. In addition, our teacher also told us about the negative aspects that might come from having an online presence, such as having no privacy and having people (anonymous or not) comment on something about what we said in our blog. For that reason, we were told not to share any personal details about us, such as our family, where we live, and more. 

To be honest, I really like this approach. As time progresses, new pieces of technology are created every day. By now, it is almost inescapable. So, why not utilize it as much as we can to make our lives and our education easier to navigate through. In terms of being online and having an online presence, people should always be reminded to be cautious. Just because we have the free will to choose to be online, does not mean we are immune to people who are there to cause harm. In addition, being reminded will not make people feel like they are doing something illegal, as opposed to just blatantly telling people that something bad will happen to them if or when they are online. Also, being cautious will help develop the skills of being able to critically think and analyze information. It will help people determine whether the information that they are being given is factual. Developing critical thinking skills will help people prevent themselves from being harmed or scammed on the internet.