Tag: media literate

I am grateful to have been introduced to Jesse Miller’s: Revaluate, Rethink, Release Ted talk produced by TEDxWestVancouverED as it provided excellent insight on how our modern day use of technology is affecting our children and how we need to do better.

Miller does an excellent job on focusing on the POSITIVE CHANGES we can introduce to society to use media to stimulate and entice our children’s education. He also discusses the importance of children being media literate in order to protect themselves online.

Miller states that as society we have started to focus on teaching our children about the dangers of predictors and privacy online but we fail to prepare our kids for the consequences of their actions online. As parents and/or educators it is our responsibility to ensure kids understand that what they post online will follow them forever. We are at a point where most grownups know that once something is posted online it may never be fully deleted, but when are we teaching this to our kids?

Professionalism online is something I was introduced to after I was already grown and applying for jobs. If I had been taught about what is appropriate to be posting online and what should remain private at a younger age I would be better prepared to enter the world as a young professional. This online history is our digital footprint and what we put into the world is a large part of how we will be judged by people we have never even met. How we express ourselves online will have lasting affects on the jobs we get, the people we interact with and our reputation forever. As children continue to use technology at a young age the time to develop their digital footprint increases and so as Miller claims it is imperative that we teach our children what is acceptable to post and when it is time to put their phone down. Please check out the Ted talk for yourself below, it is only fifteen minutes and well worth your time!

After watching this Ted talk and hearing Jesse Miller discuss the importance of ensuring our children are media literate I started to think about how I can do my part to protect children online.

• I feel one of the most important things I can be doing is using technology in appropriate ways within the classroom to help children engage with their lessons in new and exciting ways. By demonstrating and sharing different learning tools online I can help children access technology in meaningful ways.
• By using these programs in a classroom environment I can lead by example and explain appropriate boundaries online and explain to the kids why we are using media for this lesson plan and then explaining why we may not chose to use our technology for a different activity.
• Technology gives us access to information we could only dream off before and it is an amazing tool for the classroom. By constantly teaching our children when to engage with technology and demonstrating how to professionally use social media we are opening up many doors for our children’s future.

As an educator I vow to find new and exciting ways to use blogs, websites, social media to connect my students to the world. I believe that by demonstrating appropriate behaviors with technology I can do my part to help children understand the consequences of technology while still understanding the privilege’s it allows us.