Digital Classrooms

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Bart Vanhulle

What will be the impact of the future digital classrooms in the relationship between teachers and students?

João, our Portuguese Youth Ambassador, provided us his insight on digital classrooms:

“Teaching and learning are heavily dependent on the ability to talk, questioning and most of all sharing experiences and knowledge.”

” Young people usually get distracted with technology itself, giving less importance to the things they are performing. So, there should be some restrictions in the Internet connection, for example, to prevent teenagers from joining games or chat rooms which are not related to classroom work.”

Benefits of working with Young People- Youth Ambassadors’s view on SIF2012

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Ľuboš-SK

Last year in October, I was chosen by our national awareness centre in Slovakia, to take part at Safer Internet Forum 2011. I tried to do my very best during the sessions and participated very actively and in the end was elected as a Youth Ambassador, together with other 5 people. When I think about it now, it was one of biggest opportunities given to me in my life.

This year I participated at the Safer Internet Forum as well, with the difference that I participated as a Youth Ambassador. There were three of us, Ambassadors at the forum, Iva from Bulgaria, Tereza from Czech Republic and me. Our job was to help by the preparation sessions, to help panelists on the forum, to explain them the project more. I had the possibility to look at the forum from different perspective.

And I must say I loved that kind of perspective. I was so passionate about working with Panelists during the forum preparation. I enjoyed deep group discussions about myths, giving my presentation about online content, helping them by creating their own advertisement campaigns and finally by explaining to our new youth ambassadors with the cooperation of Vivendi how it works and what are we going to do.

Youth Panel T-shirt signing session

These things actually mean a strong new experience in my life. It’s unforgettable experience, which will follow me in every aspect of my life.

I hope that I helped our great session and workshop leaders, Pippa and Jeff, and the whole event, maybe just little bit, but I’d be happy with every small thing, which was helpful from my site.

Young people

I would like to write something about role of young people in all of projects like this, not just safer internet project, so

Safer Internet Forum is only one of few events inviting young people to participate. I will explain why I think Young people are not taken serious, although in some stuff they are really better. My personal opinion is that young people are taken as not enough experienced and professional to bring a value for the event. But this is wrong, completely.

This year’s SIF target group was KIDS. And Young people are closer to them. They know what works, what doesn’t make sense, they know how trust can suffer if parent uses filter and all the things about industry, parents, awareness centers are talking all the time. Young people know how an action will impact kids, how a campaign will influence kids and that’s only because they are the target group.

To be honest, I don’t think young people are really professional or super-experienced to work like adults. But this shouldn’t be even expected from them. Young people should talk about feelings, opinions, situation and own experience from their environment. We need to adapt the conditions, so they can only focus on things they know the best. Our panelists are these great people. If you ask them on bullying in their environment, they’ll tell you only truth, which can help the organization by education, to see the real situation, to know if they need to prepare involving presentation or rather to prepare one with language of young people. Young people can even tell you if they would click on advertisement promoting Safer Internet and tell you why yes or why not. Young people bring feedback and target group benefits, key aspects for every project, which has anything to do with kids, young people or something they know better.

Youth Panelists on stage

I think this is the real WHY, why should Young people be involved in every project, in which they have anything to say, which can help the project.

Developing internet

Technology and especially internet is a fast progress medium. Progress sounds like really positive word.

Five years ago it wasn’t recommended to put your name online. At least I had the feeling. The environment, where I moved was feeling so. Now? People are proud to put their names online. They want to speak loud, be visible.

This is called global trend. There is a good question about this. Why? Is it because, internet users suddenly changed their opinion about visible name online? I don’t think so. Internet is kind of copying the world market situation. People put their names visible; build LinkedIn profiles, because they want to be recognized. And this is the same think happening in real world. Today degree is nothing, you need skill and experience. You need to be recognized. Internet is copying this trend. And this will grow.

And it’s growing so fast that we can’t stay always informed about the newest issues online. It’s hard to care about online safety nowadays, because the trend is too fast. And I think Insafe is doing great think when extending the program to not just care about online safety, but generally to care about world online. It’s a strategy, where you can stay updated about whole internet issue, not just online safety.

I’m really interested in hearing your views and opinions on this.

Five websites which help you to generate strong passwords – Iva (BG)

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Bart Vanhulle

Nowadays we feel a greater need to have strong passwords in order to feel safe online. Every day we are attacked by viruses, spam and hackers, who try to access our emails, passwords for social networks, or online banking. The consequences of cracking a password can be negative for consumers, which is why we have to take safety measures against this type of internet abuse. The first step is to create a strong password, not just an accidental combination between numbers and letters – it has to have sense. In addition there are some websites that can help you by generating strong passwords:

1. Make Password

Make Password is a website which can help you to create strong passwords by registering important profiles. The passwords, which are created by Make Passwords, are neither stored nor made by accident. You can choose to use small or big letters, special symbols or everything together. You can also decide on the length of the password. When you have chosen all the options, you have to click on make password and your password can be seen on the screen.

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Is it possible to see who is viewing your Facebook profile? – Iva (BG)

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Bart Vanhulle

Is it possible to see who is viewing your Facebook profile? This is a dream of many teenagers, who are susceptible to persuasion that this option is possible. Unfortunately it isn’t. Unlike other social networks Facebook doesn’t allow its consumers to find out who looks at their profiles. The reason consists of the fact that Facebook is a free space, where everybody is able to see pictures, videos, etc. of his/her friends.

Recently there were a string of applications that took advantage of the lack of knowledge of Facebook’s consumers. They tried to persuade people that the option “who is viewing my profile” is feasible. In fact these applications were spams. By adding these applications you were allowing them to access your personal information.

People want to feel free in Facebook, yet why do they remain curious about who is looking at their profiles? When you know that it is possible to be checked, for people to see that you are stalking some of your friends, do you still feel free online? Of course, not and this is why Facebook wants to provide its consumers a space of free expression.