Cyber Safety: Are Schools Becoming More Cyber-Safe?

This week, the EDTC300 class talked about cyber safety and digital citizenship. As you all probably know by now as I have been writing posts for you all to read, I am still young and definitely experienced more technology advancement in schools.

In order to write this blog, I had a trip down memory lane during my 10th grade to share to you all what I learned regarding cyber safety.

CRAAP is not crap!

Do you know the CRAAP test?

During my history 10 class, we got to learn how to wander the internet and making sure the websites we visit are legitimate websites. As we can see in modern society, fake news spread extremely fast. We should be mindful of what we read online!

Once you have learned about the CRAAP test, it becomes “second-nature” as we become more aware of what we read and view online! If this is your first time learning about the CRAAP test, it is not too late to be a mindful researcher!

If you want to learn more, the Benedictine University Library also have a very informative page about the CRAAP test. 

Now, jumping to 12th grade where we learned more fact-checking websites. There are a number of websites for fact-checking! On my twitter post, I mentioned websites like Snopes and FactCheck.org which are some of the most used websites in North America.

I am emphasizing the dangers of fake news because it is a very important lesson for everybody! This video from TED Ed teaches us how to choose our news.

For Educators

For educators (and future educators) like us, there are fun websites like Factitious for an entertaining lesson on how to detect fake vs. real news! This is a fun activity after learning the CRAAP test since the game gives you an article and you have to determine whether that article is fake or real news.

Factitious also updated their website with a new “Pandemic Edition” of the game. This is extremely relevant since there are many fake news about the pandemic that people should be aware of.

How beneficial is this approach?

In my opinion, learning in a fun and engaging way is always better than scaring the students about the dangers of the internet. Students already know the danger of the internet; however, this matter is not taken seriously until it happens to them. So, scaring these students will not work! Teaching students how to safely search the internet is a much better approach than any scare tactics such as a PSA or a somewhat misleading video.

I have been growing up along with the advancement of technologies such as our phones! I have seen, searched, and whatever we could do with our phones. Just like cats, we are such curious creatures, so scaring us leads to a more curiousness that will eventually lead to us wandering around the internet no matter what.