Cyber Safety Course for Middle School Children of the Asia n International School

Abstract

In today’s world more avenues are open for adolescents to engage in social communication and experiment with the risky behaviours of the Internet. Most schools are receiving Internet Safety education (ISE) in most part of the world. Unfortunately, still the Sri Lankan schools are lagging behind with the problems such as Cyber bullying, Digital Addiction, etc.Three hundred students, with a mean age of 12 years, were recruited from the school. Findings from this study indicate that of a total sample of 300 middle-school students, a small grouping 75% are using the Internet and digital devices limitlessly and 12% beginning risky online communication behaviours with strangers. Students who communicated online with strangers were older and had higher rates of posting personal information and risky online behaviours. Majority of them (60%) seems to be using social network such as Whats App, which result in incidents such as Cyber bullying. The Cyber Safety e learning course in aid of creating awareness for the Middle School students of the Asian International School was developed. The online course was developed including different types of software to provide a variation of the content to the learner. Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, Adobe premier, Moodle were used as technologies in developing the course. As the course is designed for the Middle school children, a pedagogical approach was implemented. The course was designed with conditional navigation, where the children are not allowed to move to the next activity unless completed. Activity completion will also be indicated in the lesson modules for the learners to know what they have successfully completed. Further, marks allocation has not been focused strictly as the prime Goal of this project is to increase the awareness of Cyber Safety. Further, learners can always repeat the lessons as the course flows in a spiral method. The menus are not included in the lessons as the audience is young learners and they may be distracted easily. Motivational reward badges are entitled for quizzes to promote interest in following the course. The Cyber Safety course is implemented in the school for Middle School children for two hours weekly afterschool. Each batch consist about ten students. The course is allocated for three months in the Second Term. Keywords: Internet Safety Education Digital Addiction Cyber bullying Middle School Children.