4 Strangers online
- Be careful when meeting up, http://www.childnet.com/kia/primary/smartadventure/chapter5.aspx [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
- Faux Paw the techno cat, http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=D0pue0KoCPk
- Internet safety, http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xZHq4CQekTY
- Clare thought she knew…http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Z5WEnqnq1Hk&feature=channel
Who is a stranger? A key question for children is who is a friend and who is a stranger. Choose one or more of these resources and describe in the forum how you would use them to improve children’s understanding of who is a stranger.
Ideas for activities with children
Before a ‘stranger’ activity, plan and distribute a survey form asking children for personal information and see how they respond. (This could include user names, passwords, age, date of birth, address, and the school they go to.) Keep these very safe until they have finished the unit of work and give the same survey form out. Return old and new copies to the children and compare – they know the ‘no personal information’ rule; did they adhere to it? Did understanding improve between the two surveys? Remember to shred all of the forms after the lesson.
Children could create an avatar to use in social networking situations rather than a photo of themselves:
- http://www.moeruavatar.com/ index_en.shtml, no sign-up needed.
- http://marvel.com/ create_your_own_superhero, allows users to sign up but it is not compulsory. Pupils can make their avatar and download it without having to give any information
- http://www.doppelme.com/, they will need to log in with an e-mail address so this may not be ideal in some classroom situations unless pupils have an address from a school e-mail system.
Present a school friendly (enhanced CRB checked) stranger to the children in a forum situation; if it is an older woman or man ask them to answer all of the pupils’ questions but to act the opposite gender and the same age as the children. After a few exchanges during which the children try to find out as much as they can about their surprise visitor ask the children to write a description of that person including hobbies, likes, dislikes, what they look like, etc. Invite that person to come into school to meet the children.
Ask the children to make posters to show how they can tell that someone online is a friend.
Reflection
Would you use these films with your children?
How could you incorporate them into your curriculum?
How do you decide that people you meet online are friends?
Have you ever been wrong?
Add your thoughts to the wiki.
3 Cyberbullying