The Thinking Classroom (III) An Activity - CONCEPT LENS

1. Think of 2 specific topics from a curriculum you teach
2. Choose potential lenses from the list for each topic
3. Which lens is do you find most engaging (challenging) for your topic?
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Subject: Cyberwellness

8 areas covered in the Cyberwellness Framework are:

1. Handle Inappropriate Content
2. Prevent Cyber Abuse
3. Display Internet Etiquette
4. Respect Intellect Property
5. Protect Private Information
6. Avoid Computer Addiction
7. Manage Security Risk
8. Verify Information Sources

Where 1-4 are under the broad category "Ethical & Legal Use" while 5-8 are under "Safe & Responsible Use"

My Response

Area (which could also be considered as "Topic" here) #6: Avoid Computer Addiction.

What are the lenses I chose and why them?

• Influence: In fact, computer addiction is a triggered through some external factor, i.e. some form of cyber practices (e.g. online gaming, virtual networking) that influence one's behaviour. When over indulged, it influences one's behaviour and thoughts which leads to prolonged engagement which affects one's attitude/behaviour towards other things in the surrounding environment. This is not just limited to in cyber activities.
• Other Parallels - "Glue" sniffing; Pornography; Shopping spree; etc.
• Just a point to note: Influence could be positive or negative (while what we're trying to bring across for Computer Addiction is the negative aspect of influence).
• Balance: It's about the balance between play and work (or more appropriately, effort that brings about constructive outputs). Of course, here, "play" refers to unwind or take a break from a continual piece of work (e.g. doing homework; working on a project).
• When off balanced, i.e. when one over-indulges on a particular activity, what's the impact to the existing activities in the system? The rest will have to adjust - e.g. more play > less time for (constructive) work outputs. Then what's the consequence?
• Responsibility: It's about responsibility to Self and Others. When one indulges in play, the influences one's behaviour and whose responsibility to notice the off-balance and be able self-manage one's desire to play and re-direct his/her attention on something that's more purposeful? What's the impact on others? e.g. the close ones like parents? Their attitude/responses towards the 'demands' from parents. One is caught between the 'cyber role responsibility' and the 'real world role responsibility'; and whatever choice one makes, it has the impact on both (positive on one and negative on the other)!

My choice? Responsibility - which draws from self (to oneself and to others). It's also about respect (which ties in closely with the school values!)