On February 11th, as part of Safer Internet Day, all children in Killoughteen NS participated in very interesting workshops with Jason O’ Mahony of Children of the Digital Age. The children of all classes displayed a huge knowledge of apps, games and what being online meant for children of today.
Jason gave the children many good points of information and showed the children the way we behave in the real world should be similar to our online world. (A friend is someone who you have touched on the shoulder at some stage. If you haven’t, then they are not a friend, as in the real world.) You wouldn’t give personal information to a stranger in the real world, so please don’t do it online. Technology has good and bad sides. He strongly advised children to speak with their parents about their online experiences.
At 7:30pm, Jason spoke to our parent body. It was a very informative session that was very well received. All slides from the presentation will be circulated in the near future. Some of the main points that Jason put to the parents were;
Killoughteen NS is no different to any other school. Our children had lots of exposure to online content, many children had seen things online that affected them in one way or another.
Jason reinforced with the parents that they need to be conversing with their children daily re their online experiences. Children must be praised when they show their parents negative things that may pop up on their devices. It is not the children’s fault if this happens. If parents give out, threaten to taken away devices etc, children will not show or talk to their parents re negative aspects of their online experiences going forward.
We hope that all the people present at the parents night valued the experience. We thank you for your attendance. From this workshop some parents have made suggestions and these will be brought to your attention in the near future.
