I chose to go with the taught path to have a hands on experience. I started with the lesson on smartphones, it seemed interesting to find out more about the thing that spends more time with us than our friends and family. The lesson was very interesting. It first gave some info about how the phone itself works and how the screen is made and the technicalities of the phone itself. What was really interesting is when the lesson took me to a section on how to use my phone in education, this device is something we use on daily bases as a tool for entertainment and social media but there are many beneficial uses for it. Phones can be used by students and faculty in education and it can also be used in the workplace in many different ways. Filming and editing is one way for students and teachers, scanning apps that could give access to books and written documents, augmented reality and overlaying texts and images and videos on images of real scenes i like that the lesson gave an example of overlaying with a popular game that i’m sure most people played which is pokemon go. It can also be used for presenting using bluetooth airplay and cast applications, this makes it so much easier than carrying around a laptop everywhere. It can also be used for quizzes and polls. It made me think about slack and how communication was easier using an app, and apps of the auc banner and blackboard and how it’s easier to use an app on the phone than a website on a computer now adays. I have been trying so hard to monitor my screen time after attending a lecture called digital addiction in a camp and this lesson made me see the phone as a tool for education and work not just social media and communication and games so monitoring what i use on my phone through screen time app should give me an idea if i use it for a good use or just social media and gaming apps.
The second lesson i took was the online security station, when we talked in class and watched videos about how all of our info is online for anyone to see and the video about the coffee house and how much info they found out about people through their facebook was shocking to me, taking this lesson i thought they would focus on what information to add however it was more about how to secure this information, which was also something important to think about. I understood the importance of smart passwords and how it’s beneficial to have different passwords for your different platforms. This lesson taught me about Phishing, i knew a bit about the concept from a tv show that shows how people are cat fished through social media and dating apps, but i thought i can never be exposed to that since i don’t talk to people i don’t know. However this isn’t the case, people can be phished through their emails, emails are sent in an urgent format and seem very legit so we believe the email and click the link and get redirected to a website that is an exact copy of the original one so we believe it’s real and enter our credentials handing it to thieves who can now have access to all our info including credit card details, pictures and everything. This lesson thankfully included a part on how to tell if this email is not real and how to avoid this from happening, by grammar check because there is almost always a grammatical mistake in the email, and by checking the urls and the spelling of everything. The lesson also included a part about viruses and malware but this wasn’t very interesting to me. It was educational for sure but I didn’t enjoy learning about the different types of malware. Finally i liked the facts that this lesson started with about the cyber attack and information stolen numbers it was very scary learning that 1 to 2 billion people were attacked and had their info stolen in 2015 makes me think 1 to 2 billion times before clicking on an email and entering any of my info online.
Nardine Emad 