INTERNET ADDICITON
The starting point was a brainstorming exercise starting from the question: which is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear the word internet? These are some of the most frequent answers.
There has been a questionnaire about the level of addiction amongst students:
- Do you have the feeling that you are too much taken into the internet?
- Do you think you spend a lot of time on the internet in order to feel good?
- Do you lose track of the amount of time you spend on the internet?
- Do you feel different when you stop using the internet?
- Do you lie to your family about the amount of time you spend on the internet?
- Do you stay online more than your parents allow you to?
Out of the 90 students from secondary school who answered these questions with YES, we determined that there is a medium to advanced level of addiction.
The students later discussed about the problems which may appear when a person is addicted to the internet. They worked in groups and presented their ideas in front of the others. The common answers were:
- Lack of communication with friends and family
- Tiredness
- Not accomplish tasks for school
- Addiction to games/shopping
- Incapacity to socialise
- Lack of focus
- Health problems
- Moodiness
- Diminishing of the abilities to think and solve problems
What can we do? – this was the next questions addressed to the participants aimed at identifying ways through which addiction can be diminished among children and teenagers. The students worked in teams and made different suggestions. These suggestions were used in a Padlet which can be consulted by people interested in the topic. For them, it was interesting because they had also learnt to use a new web tool which can be handy in other topics. Here are some of the suggestions the children made:
- Do sports
- Go to a gym with a friend
- Take a pet
- Read books/magazines/comics
- Take trips with family or/and friends
- Don’t take you phone when you go out
- Parents should have a schedule for using the internet
- Have picnics
- Ride bicycles
- Take photos
The participants to this activity were then asked to make different drawings on the topic of internet addiction which would later be integrated in leaflets about the topic that could be used by other teachers to organise similar activities/workshops.
FAKE NEWS
The activity began with the question : what is fake news? Answers were given and the trainer knew the students knew what they were talking about- it is a form of journalism which gives fake news both in the written and in the online editions. They learnt form their peers that this is also called ”yellow journalism” and that people doing it should not be considered journalists.
TEAM WORK: 10 minutes- use the internet and fiind charcateristics of the yellow journalism.
- Use images that attract attention and are not directly connected with the article
- Misleading titles
- Quoting people who are considered to be experts in the domain
- Use large and attractive fonts
The students used the Internet again to fiind real examples of yellow journalism and they presented them in front of the others. The discussions continued with them watching YouTube videos about fake news. They were asked about the long time consequences and all agredd that:
- The reputation of people is ruined
- Financial gains
TEAM WORK:
Studnets workes in teams to make lists of ways in which people can identify fake news. They used them in order to create a poster promoting the topic.
- Read the entire article, not only the title
- Check if the article was written with the purpose of making fun
- Check the authors
- Check the sources
- Checke the date
- Discuss with somebody who knows more about the subject
The ideas were also included in a PREZI, https://prezi.com/p/l4j_3hb8efbz/, which can also be used in other activities.
