Tuesday 12th February
This week’s session in digital technologies involved movie making. Our task was to raise awareness of internet safety. We used the iPads provide by the university to make our own video warning children about the dangers of the internet and social media. It is important that children in primary schools are educated on e-safety. Beauchamp stated, “the key idea [is] that e-safety is not about restricting children, but about educating them” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.58). This clearly shows that children should not be stopped from using the internet they just have to be taught the rights and wrongs of it. I was familiar with the iMovie app so felt confident going into this task. I completed my movie in a group of 5. I really enjoy working in groups as I have previously discovered making this task more enjoyable.
The iMovie app could be made useful in classrooms. The Scottish Government stated that there is conclusive evidence that digital equipment, tools and resources can, where effectively used, raise the speed and depth of learning in science and mathematics for primary and secondary age learners (Scottish Government, 2015). This shows that pupils can gain a large amount of skills and information from using digital devices and apps. The iMovie app is a fun way for children to explore movie making and will also give some pupils a sense of leadership and independence when working on their own or alongside others. The benefits of this task also included children being able to learn all about e-safety. “The most successful schools… in terms of e-safety ensured that pupils knew what to do when things went wrong.” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.60). By using these types of videos in classrooms, children will be aware of the steps to take if they are ever in danger on the internet.
This task also linked into experience and outcome TCH 2-03a which is “I can explore online communities demonstrating an understanding of responsible digital behaviour and I’m aware of how to keep myself safe and secure.” This covers the aspects of internet safety and children’s cyber awareness.
For our iMovie my group choose to focus on catfishing and not sharing personal information online. To begin we had to create a plan and give out roles. Attached below is a picture of our plan.
We first decided on the key points that we wanted to get across in the short movie. We decided on:
• Keep your account private.
• Do not become friends with people you do not know.
• Do not share your personal information such as your address or phone number.
• Tell an adult if you are in doubt.
Chloe, who was a member of my group, played the lead role. It started with her scrolling through Instagram and posting a photo with her location attached. Ross (another member of the group) was then filmed as he screenshotted Chloe’s photos and created a fake account of her. He then reached out to one of her friends asking to meet up. The friend agrees but when they meet up it turns out it was not Chloe, it was Ross. I feel like this was a really good way of showing the dangers of social media especially when those share their location. At the end of the video we added our safety tips to emphasise how important they are. I was very happy with the outcome of our iMovie and felt we were able to effectively use the app while getting our point across.
Overall, I really enjoyed this week’s task. I think e-safety is very important to teach in schools and it was interesting getting to look more into the problems surrounded with the internet and social media. I also feel like the iMovie app was a really fun way to create this video and that children would love getting to create their own videos using this app even if it is on a serious topic.
References
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson.
Scottish Government (2015) Literature review on the impact of digital technology on learning and teaching. [Online] Available: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/24843/2/00489303.pdf [Accessed 19 February 2019]
