From Digital Citizenship to Cyber Bullying

Online collaboration gets together members in one chat room. It is a skill that prepares people to become learners of the current century of Tech. This time we were rooted in a group comprising of the following members with different abilities and different schedules which made the group even more interesting to collaborate with on the topic of cyber bullying allocated to the group.

1	Mundu	Mustafa
2	Patricia	Mutesi
3	Martin	Lubega
4	Yusufu	Kaweesa
5	Fatumah	Nassali

Cyber bullying involves the intended (or not) behavior that may cause harm to another often known as cruelty, also referred to as cyberbullying and/or Cyberthreats, it occurs when users of digital media tools such as the internet and cell phones use their gadgets intentionally to continuously harass, defame, flame, poll images to make fun , impersonate and cyber sexting others.

Some of the key challenges of online group forum for instance in this case, most of the group members are National Examiners carrying end of year supervision and invigilation of examinations at the national level at different locations. This made it a little bit hazy to move on the same pace. However, the work was well done. Other challenges of online collaboration include:

(i)           Not everyone had the available data at the same time of collaboration.

(ii)          Decision making takes long to arrive at since members collaborate at different times.

(iii)         In such practices, efforts of others may be frustrated.

In cyber bullying you commonly come across some of the following terms oftenly used to describe different characters, events e.g a bystander is an individual who does nothing when they watch something happening; (ii) upstander gives support and stand in for someone else and internet meme is an idea; a phrase, expression, image, or video that goes viral online.

Specific recommendations on how students could be educated about some of the associated issues of cyber bullying are found on the wiki space. However, more recourses could be accessed on the following sites:

1.    https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/turn-down-dial-on-cyberbullying/id473109614?mt=10

2.    http://community-matters.org/programs-and-services/cyberbullying-solutions

3.    http://www.onlinemswprograms.com/features/cyberbullying-a-resource-for-school-social-workers.html

4.    http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/arts-sciences/articles/cyberbullying-schools.aspx

5.    http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/cyberbullying.htm

 Ciao!

Class Room Integration of Search Literacy (SL) and Information Literacy (IL) Skills

The solution for the beauty of effective and faster communication in today’s system of education should be in SL. Knowledge of SL helps the learners to be able to find information at much faster speed than the traditional opening of pages after another which is time consuming and tedious.  UNESCO conceptualizes IL as being concerned with teaching and learning about the whole range of information sources and formats.

IL forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is commonalities in all disciplines, to all learning environments and to all levels of education.

IL enables learners to master content and become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning, IL should be introduced wherever possible within school curricula as well as in tertiary and lifelong education so that learners are able to identify, search, locate, retrieve and above all critically evaluate information from a range of appropriate sources.

The skills implied by this conception of IL require an understanding of amongst others:

»» The resources available;

»» How to find information;

»» The need to evaluate results;

»» How to work with or exploit results;

»» Ethical and responsible use;

»» How to communicate or share your findings;

»» How to manage your findings

The following are some of the benefits of IL integration to school curriculum:

»» Students acquire a clearer understanding of the research process

»» Students produce better assignments and research papers

»» Students use a wide variety of information resources

»» Students evaluate information critically and systematically

»» Plagiarism can be discussed and addressed more effectively

»» It contributes to improved student success and student retention.

However, am still figuring out to drop my dropbox to ccti@group2 which is still failing. Anyone out there?

Ciao!

Why Media Literacy?

 

Media literacy is, shall and will always be involving the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. The media mentioned here shall include among others:

(i)   television, (ii)  radio, (iii) Internet, (iv) newspapers, (v)  magazines, (vi) books, (vii)                billboards, (viii)               video games, (ix) music, (x)  and all other forms not mentioned here.

I have tried here to answer ‘The Why Media Literacy’ question in the following lines:

(i)           The importance of information in society and the need for lifelong learning has increasingly become significant in that we cannot be able to lead to the next step without media literacy.

(ii)          What about the increasing importance of visual communication and information in day to day experience in and outside class room.

(iii)         Media helps in shaping individual perceptions, beliefs and attitudes about the seen and the unseen.

(iv)         Media has a great influence in any democratic process in or outside classes.

(v)          There is simply a high rate of media consumption and therefore there is need to integrate it in learning/teaching process.

In my ASSURE lesson plan I focused on reflection of bending of light. Below are some of the images you would want to explore.

Ciao!

Guidance to Becoming Responsible Digital Citizens

Digital literacy involves finding, evaluating, utilizing, sharing, creating content using IT and the Internet. The activities may include writing, creating multimedia presentations, and posting information about yourself or others online. All of these activities require varying degrees of digital literacy.  However, It’s amazing to be SMARTER while using the internet in promoting digital literacy; that

(i)            Its not quite good to give all your personal details in terms of age, names or address. Keep some important features of yours confidential, you will be safe.

(ii)          There might be no need for you to meet someone you talk to online. Let online conversation be online with exception of the people you know.

(iii)         Restrict opening emails from untrusted sources. Do not accept.

(iv)         Beware that not all information got online are reliable.

(v)          Tell by communicating to others what you could have found on line, good or bad.

 

Long ago, the term “literacy” was synonymous with the printed word. Today, that definition has evolved and being literate necessitates more than simply interacting with text. We must be digitally literate, too. Teachers have an even harder task; we must cultivate this ability to adapt to constantly changing media scapes while simultaneously preserving students’ writing skills in their purest form. This may sound intimidating, but there are simple things you can do to help prepare students.

(i)           Teach How to Mindfully “Read” New Media.

(ii)          Help Students Become Makers and Tinkerers of Text

(iii)         Offer Guidance to Becoming Responsible Digital Citizens

Ciao!