“In the age of the smartphone, children have unrestricted access to the internet 24/7, it doesn’t just boil down to filtering out the harmful material. Although this helps, students need to be made aware that whilst the internet is an excellent tool for education, there’s also a very real risk it can pose when not used properly.” (Markland, L. 2017) Markland suggests how we should not deny access to children from the internet as it is a very useful tool for researching/ socializing etc. but it is our key concern as teachers to counteract the dangers online. (Beauchamp, 2012) further supports this as he states: “e-safety is not about restricting children, but about educating them”. I don’t think enough is being put in place to prevent cyberbullying etc. As a student teacher I would love to start up a campaign.  However, personally I think the internet is a wonderful tool. Every child should have the chance to utilise this safely. We do not have a say what goes on outwith school but we can only try promote internet safety. Alert children of the dangers and do everything in our power to try keep them safe online. From watching BBC news round- educating them on current affairs- to watching tutorials on how to do paper- mache. It is strange to think; I notice a difference from when I was at primary school to the generation of today. Todays children are “digitally native” as they have grown up in a world bombarded with technology and embraced this since birth. (Prensky, M.) Whereas, I didn’t receive my first phone until I was at secondary school and it was a flip up phone. Smartphones were still unheard of while a child. Now, our generation could not sacrifice one day without their smartphone.

“Imovie” was our area of focus today. This app is an excellent way to promote internet safety as children are able to see the consequences of not being sensible when online. It also made sense to make a movie based upon this as internet safety month is celebrated worldwide in February. Furthermore, it can be used to film projects or solo talks. When used correctly it can deepen a childs understanding of the topic they are doing in class with the wide range of multimodal features. Internet safety is becoming such a prevalent topic in today’s society as more and more children are taking full advantage of technology in their daily lives. My main role as a student teacher is to promote internet safety and encourage pupils to be aware of the dangers they can encounter online.

Mainly, we wanted to put across the message who you speak to online might not always be who they claim they are. We decided to embark on this idea and create an internet safety video ensuring children are confident they know the person they are speaking to is who they say they are. Planning is key for an organised teacher as it identifies the structure of your lesson. From this you will be aware how much time you have to spare in your lesson to provide children who are struggling with additional support. The more prepared a teacher feels is conveyed through their strong/ confident body language which will reflect on their learners and motivate them to participate in the lesson. (Jones, S.)  Our team spent the first hour brainstorming ideas onto a notepad as internet safety is such a vast topic so it was hard to fixate ourselves on the one idea. ThinkUknow is a fantastic website for producing short plays pitched for all ages but specifically children in the upper school as this group in todays society are most vulnerable. Throughout, my upper primary school years one of the things that remained with me was a video I watched from “thinkUknow” It was about a young girl who chats to someone who she believes to be the same age as her. She gives all her details out and soon realises he is not the person he claims to be and is actually an old man. I wanted to produce a corresponding Imovie but one that was more up to date with current technology.

We decided it was only fair for everyone to be a part of the short film. I volunteered to being the victim in the Imovie as I knew my peers were not fond of acting. It made sense for me to do it as I have done drama all throughout school. Our story was about a young girl who is debating making a snapchat account as she knows she is not of age. Snapchat has a feature that allows you to be seen on the map by other people. This can be extremely dangerous as someone can track your whereabouts at all times unless you put your account on “ghost-mode” which makes it private. Sophie accepts a friend request of a stranger. She starts talking to him and decides to meet up as the person tells her he can see her on the map and they are very close by to one another. Sophie is naïve and goes to meet this person without telling her best friend or family. A car approaches her as she is going to meet this boy and asks her if she wants a lift because he knows who she is looking for. Sophie without hesitation gets into the car. We wanted to portray the message to not make the same mistake as Sophie. In a world full of social media, it is so crucial we ensure we know who we are chatting too. Sophie was a character in our story. However, there are lots of Sophies that will never be seen again for making the same thoughtless mistake. We asked the viewers questions throughout to keep them engaged and focused on our message such as “would you of got in the car if you were in Sophies position?”

Our Imovie had multiple locations as we wanted to make ours as realistic as possible. We had a lot of fun creating this and got really involved in it. Imovie has lots of different features free of cost which helped enhance our movie such as sound effects when we wanted to create suspense. We linked our imovie to the experience and outcome:

• I can explore online communities demonstrating an understanding of responsible behaviour and I’m aware of how to keep myself safe and secure” – TCH 2-03a.

As a group, we were extremely pleased with how our imovie planned out and gained positive feedback from peers and the module coordinator. However, there is always going to be space for improvement and in the future, I would adapt a few features. For instance, I would manage my time more effectively and plan out every scene before filming as this meant filming the same scene multiple times before we finally got it. Beforehand we did create a plan- however this was not detailed enough for a short movie. The editing process can be quite stressful as you need to get it to flow perfectly and edit clips in at appropriate times. I feel very strongly towards bullying and feel it is an area that is often dismissed in schools. However, I would love to put something in place to prevent this or let children to know I am always there if they ever need a chat!

 Completed Imovie:

Jones, S. (2018)    Three reasons why it is important to plan lessons    [online] available: http://resources.eln.io/3-reasons-lesson-planning/

Markland, L. (2017) How to keep students safe online [online] available: https://www.stonegroup.co.uk/insights/safeguarding-keep-students-safe-online/