IT classes are not enough
Let’s not think about cyber-safety in the context of computer science – computers have long been present in every area of our lives. Let’s think of it as a comprehensive idea for education in the modern world, says Dr Tomasz Gajderowicz* from the University of Warsaw
In this age of widespread internet use among children and young people, is IT at school enough? Maybe we should focus more on educating children about cyber-safety?
Definitely. We should focus on two dimensions of education in this area. One is the very safety of children online - this is something that is still taking shape. Please note that when social media emerged, there was little talk of privacy policies at first. Today, we are more aware of the dangers we face if we reveal too much online. Let us remember that the criminal world uses social media for criminal activities. So the first priority is to teach children to keep themselves and their loved ones safe online.
And the other dimension?
The second and no less important issue is to be aware of children’s susceptibility to content manipulation, which is something we have to deal with on a massive scale on the internet. When we see the content we are flooded with when we type any phrase into a search engine, it becomes clear that mindful citizens need to know how to verify information quality. Polish schools need to be bolstered with a robust programme for teaching children scepticism, assessing sources of information, choosing what is true and spotting untruths. If we do not begin to educate children and young people in these skills, the various patterns of manipulation we have heard so much about already - for example, in connection with elections and referendums in other countries - will continue.
The only way to avoid this - because the phenomenon itself cannot be prevented or realistically curbed - is to teach young people, starting from primary school through secondary school all the way to university, to verify very precisely every piece of information they find on the internet.
What would these cyber-safety lessons look like?
They should be practical classes. Skills related to maintaining safety and verifying content can be taught in practically any class. Take geography, for example. You can ask young people to research the current production structure of various industrial products. They can type this into a search engine and hundreds of different articles will appear on the screen. The trick is to teach children to ask themselves specific questions. Firstly, is this an opinion or a fact? Secondly, if it is a fact, what is the source? It’s all about being able to get to the research and data that underpins any given claim. Assessing the quality of this data and research is the next step in the process of verifying information and this can be taught.
Let’s not think of cyber-safety in terms of computer science - computers have long been present in every area of our lives. Let’s think of it as a comprehensive idea for education in the modern world. Perspectives on information sources are fundamentally different today than before the days of the digital revolution. Note that 20 years ago, when students had a paper to prepare, they had to go to the library and look for information in an encyclopaedia or other physical resources. There was a high cost to finding the information, but it was usually of good quality and all that was needed was some processing. Today, it is the other way round. The cost of finding information is zero, but verifying it is much more labour-intensive. This is one of the challenges of today’s world. Especially since all the evil on the web is very attractively packaged.
Digital skills are the skills of the future?
Definitely. We live in a world that is going to move towards even more digitalisation. I think that an absolute revolution has taken place in this respect, if only in the last two years of the pandemic, which forced us to learn and work remotely. It seems that we need to go much further with this process than is currently the case. Besides the ability to navigate the digital world, we need to learn how to embrace new developments in this world and keep up with this world. The good news is that technology is becoming increasingly accessible. Many digital skills no longer require us to focus on very technical aspects. It is more important to think and understand what an algorithm is responsible for, to navigate intuitively in the digital world. Just a few years ago, automatic algorithms and neural networks were something only advanced programmers dealt with. Today, access to advanced tools is increasingly widespread. Making use of this trend wisely is a great challenge within the context of computer science lessons in schools. ©℗
Interview by Wiktoria Szymańczyk
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