Safer Internet Day was a huge success at DPS this year with every class in school completing activities or tasks in relation to the ‘Online’ world and its dangers.
In P5/6 we focused on the theme for this year’s Safer Internet Day ‘Free to be Me.’
Using special materials provided by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the aim of the lesson was to help the children understand the concepts of ‘identity’ and ‘freedom of expression’ when they are online. To also identify aspects of their own online identities, explore the boundaries of freedom of expression online and understand the importance of respect and reputation when navigating the digital world.
To begin, the class completed an ‘Online identity Wheel’, which involved things they like to do online, how they choose to represent themselves when they are online, profile pictures they choose, usernames they use, characters or avatars they use in games and how they choose what these look like. At this point we revised the importance of not giving away to much important information through our usernames and how we need to be careful of our picture in case our school uniform is in it or objects in the picture are easily identifiable. Activity 2 involved the children looking at different scenarios and deciding if the scenario shows a positive example of being ‘Free to be Me’ online or does it show unacceptable use of online freedom.
One of our last activities entitled ‘The Boss Decides’ asked us to look at potential candidates for a job based on their online behaviour. It was a terrific exercise to show the class how their online behaviour now or when in secondary school can affect their employment opportunities in the future.
I can’t praise P5/6 enough for their amazing enthusiasm and for listening and participating brilliantly.
Well done!
