Final Thoughts

Photo by MS Images

In my first blog post, I quickly explained my perspective on E-sponsibility: privacy and cyber safety.  To quick recap, I stated, "it's important to educate oneself and develop the ability to use technology, not just for recreational purposes, but to function and succeed in our developing society."  Having researched this topic for the past 10 weeks, I still agree with my previous statement.  I think after having researched, it would be very unlikely I would disagree.  Privacy and safety are always important concepts to recognize.  However, I do think I would elaborate on my previous statement.  I think it's important to not only educate one's self, but educate others as well.  I believe E-sponsibility is such a broad topic, the measures individuals can take to combat problems such as exploitation and exposure are both numerous and general.  I think responsibility falls on everyone in a community to promote E-sponsibility.

This newly-acquired knowledge provides me with a new insight.  I now know the importance of providing safe online platforms for young students.  Drawing back on my example, if I tell my students to research "legos" I wouldn't want them to end up exposed to pictures of "legs."  However, I think this newly-acquired knowledge also provides insight on how I, as a teacher, am supposed to behave.  Because teachers are viewed as role-models in society, "personal life" doesn't always remain personal.  Having read and researched various teacher's misfortunes with social media sites such as Facebook, I think I can take the lessons they learned and apply it in my own life.  From now on, I know that everything I post online affects my image.  Whether this is negative or positive, I have to protect my future by making educated and smart decisions in the present.