Keeping up with kids in a wireless world
By Samantha McAleese, research associate at MediaSmarts and
David Fowler, vice-president, marketing and communications at CIRA.
By Samantha McAleese, research associate at MediaSmarts and
David Fowler, vice-president, marketing and communications at CIRA.
A Day in the Life of the Jos is a comprehensive digital citizenship tutorial that prepares students in grades six to eight to deal with all of the issues they face when using digital technology – from online privacy, to cyberbullying, to recognizing what’s real and what’s fake online.
In the last year or two many writers and researchers have been trying to correct the common perception that young people do not care about privacy. While the public may finally be getting the message that teenagers do value their privacy -- as they define it -- the idea that younger children have any personal information worth protecting is still a new one. Certainly, most people would probably be surprised to learn how early children are starting to surf the Net: the average age at which children began to use the Internet dropped from age 10 in 2002 to age four in 2009 (Findahl, Olle, Preschoolers and the Internet, Presented at the EU-kids online conference, London, June 11, 2009); and, thanks to the iPhone and iPad, that number has probably dropped even lower.
In this lesson, students learn that their online presence is like a resume that can help them – or hurt them – in their future personal and professional lives. The lesson begins by having students do a self-appraisal of their online resume. Students will review steps for limiting the negative impact of things they’ve posted online. Students then think about people whom they consider to be heroes or role models, identify the characteristics that make them admire these people, and discuss what those people did in order to be seen so positively. Finally, students learn tools and strategies for consciously building a positive online brand and develop a communications plan for doing so.
Whether it’s a video doorbell, a speaker with a built-in voice assistant, or even “smart socks” for your baby, these things all have one thing in common: they collect information about you and your family.
How much information they collect, though, is at least partially up to you. Here are some steps you can take to manage your privacy when using smart devices.
These quick quizzes will help you start to learn how to spot suspicious posts.
Try to tell which stories are true or false in the News Quiz.
In this lesson, students will write a news article by developing ‘lede paragraphs’ and by using the ‘inverted pyramid’ model. Once this is done, they will be given time during class to select topics, conduct research, write their articles and proof read and peer edit their own and other’s works.
Everywhere we turn, we’re hearing about artificial intelligence (AI). We already know AI is all around us – algorithms are suggesting what to watch and tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to generate the content we’re seeing. But how many of us actually understand what algorithms even are? And if you’re a parent, guardian or teacher, are you prepared to teach youth how to use AI responsibly?