Portuguese students online

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Abstract: - This paper aims at describe the perceptions and apprehensions of adults about students and youth, in general, in what their online behavior is ...
Portuguese students online: Towards a(n) (un)conscious navigation? MARIA JOSÉ LOUREIRO, LÚCIA POMBO Research Centre “Didactics and Technology in Education of Trainers”, ICT Competence Centre Department of Education University of Aveiro Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro PORTUGAL [email protected], [email protected]; http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3265-5311; http://orcid.org/0000-00015085-3974 Abstract: - This paper aims at describe the perceptions and apprehensions of adults about students and youth, in general, in what their online behavior is concerned. Under the scope of the SeguraNet project the ICT Competence Centre of University of Aveiro has a tradition of making plenary sessions and workshops in schools, parents’ associations, teachers’ associations and City Halls mainly with all kind of audience. The present paper presents two case studies developed with a group of parents in the first context and a group of intraining unemployed adults. The study indicates that young people are technological experts and, somehow, digital literate but they are not always aware about the risks they might take when they navigate and make virtual friendship. Other concerns are related to the inappropriate contents of sites they can find in their virtual trips. Adults are also worried about the danger of online dependences. Other serious concern is connected with the lack of critical thinking and consequently gap on media literacy.

Key-Words: - online navigation, risks awareness, media literacy, online critical thinking, SeguraNet project

1 Introduction The fact that today’s younger generations accede to the virtual word in a ubiquitous mobile way is a big advantage in what learning and autonomy is concerned. “Portable devices to access the internet have become more prevalent, and it is perhaps no surprise that children’s most popular device used to go online is the smartphone”[1], p.62. Moreover technological expertise characterizes them in a way that, frequently, parents feel helpless because they don’t know always where their sons are online. At the same time some parents have not enough proficiency to properly supervise their children when they are online. In the national context this reality is more accurate than in north of Europe [2]. U.K. is an example of the parents’ expertise. According to the EU Kids Online reports “Despite the claims that children in general are digital natives […], a third still do not think they know more than their parents, and the percentage is larger for younger children” [1], p.63. In this sense, the main aim of SeguraNet project is not only to make young people reflect about certain risks they may face online, but also, simultaneously, alert teachers and mostly parents in the sense that they can become more expert internet surfers, so they can

help young digital natives to be more aware and make appropriate choices. In fact, the situation expressed by one young Portuguese girl saying that in her family nobody uses the internet, not even her, because her parents are afraid and they argue that it is dangerous, has to be overcome and avoid. The student proves that she knows how to use it, because she only contact with friends from school and she only add people she knows but she finds that she only uses the web in school and libraries because “my parents do not like the internet anyway” [2]. About digital literacy, frequently, in what their daily life is concerned, young students are accused of not handling very well with online information and of using and abusing in plagiarism, so critical thinking is not always the main skill they practice while learning online. Moreover, the majority of students make an unconscious use of the internet. One of the most important points about online world is the behavior of young boys and girls which become a concern for educational responsible, teachers, parents associations, police safe forces and society in general. The risks that they take in online social networks might be manageable if there is a

combined intervention of their surrounding environment. This study aims to discuss the main questions and concerns experienced by adults about young people from whom they are responsible, in particular children and young relatives, in relation to their routines on online behavior while surfing in social networks.

1.1 SeguraNet program and the team of Educational Technological Resources To promote safe use of the Internet, the European Commission launched the Safer Internet Plus program in 2005, aiming to streamline projects of Member States. Under this program the General Directorate of Education through the Team of Resources and Educational Technology (ERTE/DGE) from the Ministry of Education, developed in 2004, the Seguranet project for the promotion of an informed critical and secure use of the Internet, mostly for students in primary and secondary education.

1.2 The role of the ICT Centre of the University of Aveiro Affiliated to ERTE/DGE, the ICT Competence Centres have an important role in what the bridge between Ministry and schools is concerned. The ICT Centre of the University of Aveiro acts directly with all kind of audiences and public. As a matter of fact its mission involves students from compulsory school to professional courses, but also students with special needs, and adults. The partnerships established with partners include professors from the department of Education, researchers in the field of informatics crime and public safety police, namely the responsible for the informatics sector and also the police officers of the national program “Escola Segura” (Safety School). The geographic area of intervention is north center of the country and the evaluation made by the participants attending the sessions indicates a performance marked between ‘satisfactory’ and ‘excellent’ according to the records of the project platform.

2 Methodology This study is based on the methodology of two interpretative case studies where it is expected to analyze the complexity of the cases. It is predictable that the data collected are characterized by

descriptive details related to contexts and people. It is also intended to particularize and not generalize the findings [3], although in these two particular cases we can confirm that the obtained results can be documented in a national context and even in a broader scope [1]. In both cases the samples are defined by convenience, once they correspond to the public that attended the workshops occurred in May and September 2013. The two workshops were held in the north of Aveiro district and involved, respectively, about 40 participants, mostly parents, and 90 in-training unemployed adults (mostly also parents), 80 trainees in the areas of Information Technology, Geriatrics, Mechatronics, Agricultural Engineering and at last, Social Education, and 10 trainers. In both cases the average age was around 40 years, in the first case the majority of attendees were female and in the second case, the majority of participants were men. The methodology, mainly qualitative, as mentioned, was the categorization and classification of participants' answers and respective triangulation with the ideas that emerged and were discussed during the debate that occurred in the end of the sessions.

3 Case studies In this section we present the two case studies specifying the context, and the challenges we proposed to the public from which we obtained the answers that are the focus of our results.

3.1 First Case Study: Parents Association “The parents’ voice” Two primary schools of a municipality in the north of Aveiro district run two projects called ‘The parents’ voice’ and ‘Deep conversations’. Both aim to promote regular meetings and discussions among parents and educators. The ICT team of the main secondary school in the region, and the two primary schools above, worked collaboratively to organize a session on internet safety in May 2013. The ICT Competence Centre and the Department of Education of the University of Aveiro were invited to join the initiative and share knowledge with the audience about this specific topic: a concern of parents, carers and practitioners living in an era where virtual interaction is as important as real-life interaction. The session started with a brief presentation of a study undertaken by the ICT team of the secondary school on the behavior of eight to ten-year-old

pupils when surfing the internet. Young pupils are aware of the advantages of the internet and also conscious of some of its risks. Most of them said that they use the internet for fun. The next part of the session started with a challenge to the audience of approximately 40 people, as a way of shaping discussion and debate. Parents and carers were asked to note down, as shown in figure 1, the three or four more important worries, concerns and anxieties they felt in their daily life as far as internet safety and security of their children is concerned.

virtual interaction. At the very beginning all the groups were instructed to pay rigorous attention to the specific video they had to make questions about.

Figure 2 – Second case study session. They also have been told and supported (see figure 2) to make questions of a high cognitive level, so those questions could promote a rich discussion on the topic of the video, being the group the responsible to regulate the interaction.

4 Results Figure 1 – First case study session. The questions were organised in theme clusters, while representative and provocative videos were shown to also encourage discussion. The objectives were achieved and the subject was debated around: i) suggestions concerning issues raised, ii) the content of the videos, iii) the results of the study and iv) the tips, cartoons and other information provided by the Portuguese safer internet project, SeguraNet.

3.2 Second Case Training Centre

Study:

Professional

One Professional Training Centre in the north of Aveiro district organized the digital literacy journeys because they were worried with the lack of digital skills of in-training unemployed adults. The ICT Centre was invited to collaborate in the session and to organize a workshop with a methodology of its choice. One expert in this area, a professor of the Department of Education, was requested to participate in order to enrich and turn the discussion deeper. As this case comprised a larger session, a workshop was designed and participants had the principal role at the session. The work methodology consisted in a group work and the challenge proposed was that each group formulates four questions about a video concerning one risk in

From the transcription and content analysis of the statements of the participants we can point out that the main concerns of those 130 adults were, in a decreasing order: i) the safety of young children when surfing the internet, namely their awareness of the intentions of virtual friends, ii) cyberbullying, iii) the proper age to become a member of an online social community, iv) the danger of accessing sites displaying explicit violent or sexual content, and how to select age-appropriate information, v) lack of skills to select appropriate content specific to each age, vi) with fewer occurrences, but also important, parents mentioned the time children spend playing online games, and, vii) situations of plagiarism. This methodology allowed a debate that was really fruitful as the main focus was to address issues that exactly matched the adults’ attitudes and worries that are illustrated in the figure 3. After systematizing the main ideas recorded by the participants, and after listening to the discussion promoted by the group questions (in the second case

study) the final debates of each session showed that parents and adults, in general, are aware of the risks that children are exposed to.

is and has to be a part of daily life. Even being conscious that supervision is more and more difficult: “Parental or teacher supervision of children’s internet use is becoming ever harder [1], p.65, due to the mobility and ubiquity of devices [4], parents are concerned and want to learn how to participate actively in their children’s virtual life [5]. In conclusion, there are no ‘recipes’ or ‘rules’ to solve these problems. The important thing, however, is to work together in order to involve children so that they become more aware of the benefits and the risks of the internet, and ways to keep themselves safe online.

Acknowledgement Figure 3 – Adults worried about internet risks. Although this is a very small sample (only about 120 adults) these workshops helped to confirm that the parents are aware of the risks that children face when they are online, although they admit that life is a virtual reality. Giving voice to adults allows for joint reflection and a clearer future intervention among educators and parents in order to provide young people with skills that enable them to make informed decisions being enlightened and aware digital citizens. On the other hand they want to find ways to help avoiding those problems. They insisted, for instance, on the importance of the negotiation between parents and children, to solve problems of generation gaps. They also address the idea that the support of younger people can be decisive to help students that were in uncomfortable situations online. In their opinion, a good idea offering some improvement could be the interaction between generations in the sense that they can learn from each other’s experience in every context, including online situations.

5 Final thoughts We could conclude that all adults have not the same opinions in what the online safety is concerned. There is a minority, like the statement of the young girl mentioned above, that defend the forbidden of accessing to the internet as an ideal attitude. Fortunately the most part of the respondents consider that internet is a source of knowledge that

This work was financially supported by FCT/MEC through national funding (PIDDAC) and cofinanced by FEDER through the COMPETE program (Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade) under the project PEstC/CED/UI0194/2013. References: [1] Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., Vincent, J., Mascheroni, G. and Ólafsson, K. (2014). Children Go Mobile: The UK Report. London: London School of Economics and Political Science - Safer Internet Programme, European Commission. (SI2012-KEP-411201) [2] Ponte, C., 2011, Acessos e literacias digitais: resultados portugueses do inquérito europeu EU Kids Online in Pereira, S., (Org.) (2011) Congresso Nacional "Literacia, Media e Cidadania" 25-26 Março 2011, Braga, Universidade do Minho: Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade ISBN 978989-97244-1-9 [3] Stake, R. (2009). A arte de investigação em estudos de caso. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. [4] Bertel, T. and Stald, G. (2013). ‘From SMS to SNS: The Use of the Internet on the Mobile Phone Among Young Danes.’ In K. Cumiskey and L. Hjorth (eds) Mobile Media Practices, Presence and Politics. The Challenge of Being Seamlessly Mobile. (pp.198-213) New York: Routledge. [5] Dürager, A. and Livingstone, S. (2012). How Can Parents Support Children’s Internet Safety? London: EU Kids Online. Available at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/42872/