Hellooo! In class this week we had a lovely guest speaker, Jesse Miller, who discussed social media awareness and education. He brought forth some big concepts pertaining online safety, digital literacy, rights, and identity, and media trends. We know that basically everyone and their grandmas are using some form of technology today. We have created a society where we are reliant on our phones or laptops, but at the same time criticize them for separating us from the community. Now that is fair to believe, as there are positive and negative ways in which these technologies can be used.
Children today are exposed to an endless amount of technology at very young ages. Most children know how to work apps and video games on mobile devices before even entering pre-k. As our society becomes more and more experienced in the use of technology, we being to realize the many mediums of positive and negative content. In the presentation Jesse gave, he reinforced the fact that teaching internet safety is more than solely teaching about online predators. Students are also in need of guidance towards understanding digital literacy, digital identity, digital rights, and balance between that digital world and their real world.
In my professional career as an educator, it is important for me to understand the safety precautions around data usage within different applications in order to teach my students how their personal information could be used. It is important for me to project my own professional identity online in order to teach students about how online identities can me seen, used, and perceived. It is important for me to be open and willing to discuss technology in order to allow students to see that I understand their reality. It is important for me obtain my own digital literacy to teach students how to use technology to their advantage when it comes to their learning.
In todays society, it is inevitable that technology will be used in one form and/or many others. The important aspect that I took from the presentation is that its not about ‘if’ technology is being used, but about ‘how’ it is being used.
Thank you Jesse Miller!
