As part of the Digiteen project, we had to select a group of students at our school to teach about Digital Citizenship. We found a website called Woogi World. We felt like Woogi World was the best website to choose because it stressed the important aspects of digital citizenship by playing games and having fun.Using Woogi world we taught fourth grade children the importance of safety, balance, and respect on the internet. You can see some of the things we did on our Woogi World Blog. One of the things my group members and I liked most about Woogi World is it's simple to navigate and how the games were really fun and tought digital citizenship.
We chose to teach the elementary because we felt that children this age were getting on the computer a lot, but didn't know how to act or react on the internet. I think our Woogi World Project was a complete success! We accomplished more than we ever would have imagined. The kids loved Woogi World and had a blast learning about the internet. I think all of the schools need programs like this so the kids can learn early on what it means to be a Digital Citizen. If we teach them now later it will be second nature to them.
My favorite game on Woogi world was the Stranger Danger game. The instructions were for you to decide whether what the woogi was asking appropriate questions you could answer.
The woogi might have looked nice, but if he asked you an inapropriate question you would have to throw him in the trash pile! Some of the questions for the bad woogis would ask wer; "where do you live?", " what school do you go to?", "what is your phone number?", "what is your real name?", etc. If you happen to tell a stranger these things, it could be very dangerous. That is why Stranger Danger was my favorite game; not because it was fun but because it teaches a powerful message that ALL kids who get on the internet should know.
Here are some quotes from our team as we shared on our Digiteen post-project reflections:
"This website is completely safe and the kids enjoyed it." Kunjan
"My team and I choose this website because we thought that kids would like this website and we realized that kids are starting to use the internet at earlier ages than we did and most kids at this age do not know much about how to be safe online." Ethan
"The group was very effective." Tinsley
2 comments:
I would like to congratulate your group on the work you are doing with the Year4s.
You are absolutely correct about the need for young children to learn about safe and protective behaviour on the Internet.
Just as it does not make sense trying to keep children away from roads instead of teaching them how to cross safely, so it is not sensible to try and keep them off the Internet instead of teaching them about the benefits and dangers.
I am also pleased that you have been able to link the learning they are doing with fun - you have foyund it is a combination that works - well done!!
@ AnnK- Thank you so much for your appreciation. My classmates and I, especially my group members and me, are really glad that someone besides us think we are doing the right thing by teaching children about the internet instead of just letting them be unsafe online. Thank you. :]
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