Week 14

I completed the internet safety assignment, the course evaluation, and the course feedback survey as well as checked my grades on Moodle.

Internet Safety Reflection

1. For the article of choice I found an article under "Media" by Elder H. Burke Peterson from the New Era entitled "Leave it Alone"

2. One of the videos I watched in particular really struck me. It was a video called "The Child Predator Fear." It talked a lot about the fear of parents that their children will be targeted by a child predator and something will happen to their child. The video showed the parents perspectives on internet use, but what I liked was that it also showed the perspective of the teenagers. The things the parents seemed to miss was that their children are very informed about the internet and that in general they aren't being contacted or targeted by child predators. Many of the teenagers expressed how they would never give out their information to a random person they met online. A few researchers also brought up the idea that parents may need to realize that their children aren't necessarily victims, but participants. Majority of cases with online child predators is where the children were seeking out a meeting; rarely were the instances where the children were being deceived. I found that all to be really interesting and that understanding should hopefully help how we approach internet safety with our kids. I think the best thing to do, since majority of these cases involve the child seeking it out, is to be involved in our children's lives and aware of what they are doing, but not being overbearing or intrusive to their privacy.
3. I think what I took away the most from the readings and the video was just that there is a great power in technology, which we can use for our benefit or our downfall and ultimately it is our choice. I really love Elder Bednar's talk he gave concerning the use of technology. He so clearly states how we can greatly benefit from technology, but it can also be Satan's tool when used incorrectly. I think as teachers it is so important that we are aware of that and are able to protect our students from the dangers that there can be out there when using technology. Technology can be a great and wonderful tool when used appropriately, but I think it is also equally as important if not more that we are aware of how to properly use technology and that we don't solely depend on it. In today's world we are so "plugged in" to everything that I think sometimes it is good to step back and maybe do things the "old school" way. I know that our classrooms will benefit from the use of technology, but I also believe that that is no reason to let go of other ways and maybe older ways of doing things either.

4. I talked with my sister about internet safety. I thought it was a really great conversation, my sister is 16 years old and as typical of our generation is actively involved in the online world not only for social reasons, but as a large part of her schoolwork. We had a really great conversation about what she thought the benefits were of the internet and technology as well as we got to really discuss some of the dangers. We talked a lot about different instances of people that she knows and that we know collectively that have maybe put themself in more dangerous situations online. I was able to share with her some of the things that I learned and read and some of the church related articles she herself had read, so we were able to talk about that and discuss them. I think it was really interesting to see what her opinions were on the topic, especially since she is still in high school and social networking sites and such are so popular, as is chatting online through yahoo, or aim, or even facebook. For me the point was just to have a good conversation with her and see where she was at as far as her knowledge about being safe on the internet. As I suspected she was very well informed and I was glad to know that she was able to benefit from the internet and technology and not be turned off to it due to bad experiences or the possible dangers. I think we both concluded that if you are using the internet in the appropriate way and are careful in what you do and say then the internet can be a great resource to you for multiple facets of our lives.

TPACK Report

*note* Speaker notes should be on when watching this presentation :)