It’s Good To Talk


Imagine the scenario: a child has been taught regular online safety lessons by their teachers. So often the lessons go something like: ‘you mustn’t have a social media account until you’re 13’ ‘You should never send pictures on social media or as text messages that you wouldn’t want your gran to see’ ‘you can’t do this...never do this’ we focus a lot on the ‘legal’ side of things and the ‘don’ts’ but perhaps we need to think about the potential impact of this. This is something that came out of a conference I went on today. I’m not saying don’t teach them the don’ts but let’s think some more...
So, why could this be a problem? Imagine the next scenario: the same child who has been taught the ‘do nots’ for years and years has been caught up in the moment and through peer pressure or just through exploration has sent a picture online they shouldn’t have done. Is that child going to come forward and talk to their teacher about it to try and get help? The answer is no. Remember, they’ve been told that it’s wrong and is in fact breaking the law. You now have a child who wants help, who needs help, who is crying out for help, but is afraid to ask for it. The fear of being told off, the fear of being embarrassed, the fear of being asked ‘why didn’t you listen?’
This is why we need to think carefully about how we teach online safety and more importantly this is why we need to make it ok to talk about our mistakes online because at the end of the day, at least one child in your class is going to make one.  By having an environment where the children feel they can talk and by having people they know they can trust in to listen to them is so important.
We may not all be tech savvy teachers and know loads about the World Wide Web and social media but we do know how to deal with children who are asking for help. There’s a time and a place to teach the legal stuff of course but there’s also a time and a place to be human about the whole thing.

Comments

  1. MrGJanuary 4, 2021 at 1:36 PM

    Very interesting post as always. I agree that we have to as always get the right balance. I teach children that the apps/website is not age appropriate and why, but assume they will continue to use it. I try to give them understanding and strategies/rules that work across all social media, and will work on any new apps.
    Especially in primary, we have the opportunity to build relationships and I would hope that children would be able to see my human side and talk to me about any issues.
    I use the resources at www.computingowls.com as a vehicle to start conversations.
    Of course a difficulty is that many children in upper primary know more about apps than their teachers. Another reason why teaching them common sense rules and being approachable is important.

    ReplyDelete

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