Digital Safety Reflection

Digital Safety Reflection

Aaron Orot

University of Guam

Abstract

This paper reflects the ideas of digital safety towards both students and teachers in an educational classroom setting. It shows that with the advancement of technology being a positive in human life, it can also harm others due to issues created such as sexting, cyber-bullying, phishing, pharming, and copyright content that puts the user in harm’s way. With the help of created websites, future teachers can understand these harms in today’s classroom and use their knowledge to prevent and stop these cases of abuse of the digital world. With a variety of information portrayed in these websites it was able to help visitors of the site to seek countless information about digital safety and being able to understand it effectively.

ED271 gave us the opportunity to search and receive information of different topics affecting the students and the teachers upon daily use of technology and the Internet. The many topics included ideas such as phishing and pharming, cyber bullying, copyright, and textual harassment to name a few. The assignment was meant to educate all of us on these topics and be aware of how it is being used in everyday lifestyle. It was taught in order to teach us effective ways to avoid such activity and influence students to use it effectively and not harming themselves and those around them.

            Upon the topic of math, I believe the ideas of copyright, cyber bullying, and textual harassment and sexting can be shown in an education unit. They can be seen by the teacher due to phones being easy access towards the students as well as the countless social media that is influenced by the Internet. The easy access of the Internet and the teaching from the groups, as teachers we should be aware of the effects on it because it is harmful towards the students. Playing an active role will help decrease the effect of these types of bullying. Also with cyber bullying and sexting it has become part of our island and implemented as a crime for these type of actions leading to severe punishment (GCA Crimes and Correction). Copyright can be also be used, but on the other end of the classroom by the teacher using videos to display the content of the lesson. Students can also be aware of the copyright skills when they present videos or images that support their work and/or presentation.

            These lessons I believe are of utmost importance due to it being a big harm through the countless statistics gathered. In Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin research of Sexting: A brief guide for educators and parents believed that rules are not enough to implement lessons such as sexting and cyber bullying, but with “creative educational strategies to raise awareness among students on the shortsightedness and foolishness of sending or receiving sexually-explicit images of themselves or someone else.” (Hinduja and Patchin, 4)

            A great way for these students to learn about these topics is actually all of the websites my fellow classmates used. I loved how each website put a lot of information in simpler terms. It makes it easier access as a teacher to find a lot of information in one doable site. It helped that each group had a lot of information as well as great presentation skills of their topic to make us understand the topic at hand.  Not only will it help students, but reflects the ISTE standards of design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments and promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.

            I think a great way to enhance the assignment would actually be combining both our educational game and digital safety knowledge into one. What I mean by is using the information from the digital safety websites and to test ourselves by actually going through the Internet or educational games that help us see if we understand the different safeties. I believe this will enhance the learning of the digital safety because 15 minutes was not enough for all that knowledge to be taught and with the help of the website as reference it can guide us when finding the digital safeties.

            Digital safety plays a significant role in teachers’ lives and with that we, as future teachers, need to be aware of the harms and effects it has in a classroom setting. The information of cyber bullying and copyright of work have been frequently present and to avoid these digital harms we have to understand and teach it towards the students. These websites seeks another agenda of rules not being enough for students to understand, but with the implementation of these websites it allows the students as well as other people the education of digital safety. These websites are great websites for people who want to know a lot of information in one website alone. These websites to me should be taught in today’s education due to lack of understanding of the digital safety within the schools.

Works Cited

GCA Crimes and Correction. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014, from http://www.guamcourts.org/Gca/09gca/9gc028.PDF

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2010). Sexting: A brief guide for educators and parents. Cyberbullying Research Center (www.cyberbullying.us).

Kecia, R. (2014, January 1). ISTE STANDARDS TEACHERS. Retrieved October 6, 2014, from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf

Educational Game Blog Reflection

Educational Game Blog Reflection

Aaron Orot

University of Guam

Abstract

This paper reflects the ideas of an online educational game being beneficial towards the classroom setting. It highlights the challenges faced either choosing a good online educational game or grading the game based on an assigned rubric given by the professor. It also includes the experiences of how the online educational game benefits towards our group as well as future usage in a classroom setting. This paper gives a variety of points how this online educational game can benefit for all subjects and teachers. With the online educational game presentation, flaws can be seen within the game itself as well as improvements for a better experience. With the field of math, this game highlights improvements for the game by making learning a better experience. With a vast study of online educational games, it can be said that these programs can make students perform well in crucial areas in life such as problem solving and critical thinking.

Within the class of ED271, the task was given to the class to find an online educational game for future teachers to use within a classroom setting depending on the grade level they wanted to focus on. With the task at hand, my group had a little bump on the road to incorporate both English and mathematics for our game. We came to a final decision to use Jeopardy as a way to portray both subjects in one single game with the focus on secondary education at a high school level. It proved to be a team effort by the group members needing to incorporate their own questions for the online game. As a group, this activity included challenging decisions, future benefits, and the effects of an online educational game it can have on future educators.

            I would say finding an online educational game would be most challenging as compared to grading the online educational game. It is a hard task because when finding a game the group members are constantly evaluating it if it hits the rubric criteria; killing two birds in one stone by finding and grading the game. The idea of constantly grading it and the focus of high school level, my opinion is that no game can ever get all threes because the subtopics contradicted one another. This made the task more difficult than it can be, for example a subtopic of visuals can be appealing for a younger age group gaining the points of three, but not towards high school students gaining at least a one or a two. Also with the idea of finding a game that either combines both subjects mentioned or abandoning both subjects for one general subject came down to the choice we made as a group; my fellow classmates made decisions similar towards this activity. These are the ideas we had in choosing a game and the outcome was Jeopardy being the best choice for it combined both subjects as well as gave us a game that hits the criteria at a high level. Lastly the game we wanted was something we can use not only for a single student to learn, but for a group of students to learn together.

            Secondly with the achievement we wanted of group studying it was the base of our game. With that said, our game is a great way for teachers to use as a review before a quiz or an exam. It gives teachers the ability to see their students’ study and test if they studied beyond the classroom setting. It not only gives students the key points of a lesson, but it can reveal the students competitive side showing the ability to critically think. Jeopardy is a game to strategically gain more points than the other opponent in doing so by answering questions correctly, which gave students the ability to focus where their strengths and weakness are at the lesson. Not only does it have helpful tools for teachers with lessons, it reflects the International Society for Technology in Education(ISTE)  standards of design and develops digital age learning experiences and assessments as well as model digital age work and learning. Jeopardy reflects these standards by using a program that can obtain key points of the book and displaying it on a computer. This also allows students to communicate and evaluate the lessons being taught towards them.

 Mathematics can be expanded to countless smaller topics and with Jeopardy having up to five different category slots I can be able to reflect on five different lessons in one chapter review. The timer is also a great way for students to solve these math problems quickly and effectively throughout the run of the game. David Kaufman in his research describes online educational game as 21^st century learning saying, “learning essential skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration.” (p. 411) My game reflects those essential skills that of students working together as a team and solving real world problems in mathematics by critically thinking.

Lastly upon choosing games like mine of Jeopardy there are flaws within the topic of math. Jeopardy being a simple question and answer lacks the idea of how to come to your answer. To improve the game of Jeopardy with math, not only do the students have to give the answer, but show their process on how they will get their answer. This will help all students in a classroom to solve different types of math problems. Even the idea of having bonus points to students who have different ways to solve problems can be rewarded because with math there is not one technique to get the answer, but many different techniques to get towards the answer.

With the idea of 21^st century learning online educational games have been incorporated in classrooms throughout America in order to enhance learning capabilities. Choosing an online educational game becomes difficult for teachers because the focus of the game varies from the students you teach and their interests such as visuals, design elements, and critical thinking to name a few. The choice of Jeopardy as a game for mathematics works best because it generates different questions for different subtopics. It also allows group studying in a classroom setting. Lastly Marina Papastergiou (2008) believes with online educational games it can achieve many student goals related to real-life situation.

Works Cited

Kaufman, D., Sauve, L., & Renaud, L. (2011). Enhancing Learning through an Online Secondary School Educational Game. Journal Of Educational Computing Research, 44(4), 409-428.

Kecia, R. (2014, January 1). ISTE STANDARDS TEACHERS. Retrieved October 6, 2014, from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf

Papastergiou, M. (2009). Online Computer Games as Collaborative Learning Environments: Prospects and Challenges for Tertiary Education. Journal Of Educational Technology Systems, 37(1), 19-38.