​Anjali Phadke's P​ortfolio

In the days of technology, kids do not realize how dangerous and anonymous people can be. Giving out info or sending pictures to people can really do harm. Some parents do not even know that their kids are doing it. The driving question of this assignment was “How can we promote the appropriate use of technology by teenagers in Kettering?” The purpose of this assignment was to teach specific age groups (like grandparents, adults, and teens) the dangers of specific topics (like sexting, online gaming and cyberbullying). The other purpose of this assignment was to prevent teens from misusing technology in the first place. For those who don’t know, sexting is the sending of nude or seminude pictures to another person with the use of technology. Cyberbullying is the repeated action of harassment online. Online gaming is self-explanatory. Prevention, Prevention, Prevention. The purpose was to stop/ prevent teenagers from misusing technology in the first place. The only way we could do this, was talking to the audience, through our products. We did this project, to help our specific audiences (grandparents, adults, teens, parents) learn and try to prevent about topics like ( Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Online Gaming) from happening before it hurt anyone.

There were 2 parts to this project. A group part and an individual part. For the group part, all projects had to be completed. All of the group products had to be cohesive in terms of the same color scheme, same overall theme, and slogan. The content had to be consistent as well. I can’t talk about Cyberbullying when my partners are talking about Sexting. Craftsmanship was also to be included. Sloppy work would not be tolerated. For projects like these, you really had to take your time and think about what you are doing. For content, the slogan had to encourage the proper use of technology. 1 example of improper use of technology and 1 image connected to the slogan were to be included. Also, 2 prevention steps relatable to the audience were to be included. For the individual product, color (not too boring or overwhelming), neatness (take your time), readability (make sure your audience can read it), and appealing (would your age group read it?) were to be included and executed well. First things first, the most important requirement was NO spelling errors. Since this is a professional product, everything had to be spelled correctly. Some other requirements included, Target audience should be obvious and relate to the rest of the content, the product should include 1 example and 1 effect of improper use of technology, should include 2 action/prevention steps to prevent improper use of technology, and the product should include the slogan and image. There were several steps to this project that lead to the final product. The first step of the project, was reading an article. Each person in the group had an article about a different topic so that everyone was knowledgeable about 1 topic. If we all had the same article about cyberbullying, then how would we know about the dangers of online gaming and sexting? After we all read our articles, we discussed about what happened in them. For example, my article was about Cyberbullying. 2 girls admitted that they bullied this girl and she killed herself. The worst part was that the parents didn't even know that the bullying was happening. The other bad part was that this bullying happened over a boyfriend. We all talked about what went wrong and what the meaning of our topic was. For example, I said, “Cyberbullying is when someone is harassed repeatedly online." After we all talked about our topics, we had to decide 1 topic that we wanted to focus on. Actually, our original topic was going to be Sexting. We chose the topic because the other topics have been advertised a lot and we felt like sexting wasn’t well advertised. After everyone chose the topic they were focusing on, no one did cyberbullying. So we changed our topic from sexting to cyberbullying. We explained that even though cyberbullying is advertised, it still happens all the time. We decided that we wanted to continue to advertise how bad cyberbullying really is. After we decided our topic, we had to decide what age group all of us were doing. I chose parents, Bri chose teens, and Evan chose Teachers. Then, we had to decide what product we actually wanted to make. I chose a brochure because it fit appropriately with my age group. Bri chose a poster for teens and Evan chose a booklet. After the choosing, we had to do a lot of research before we started our drafts. We all had to research about cyberbullying on a research sheet that our teacher provided. After our research, we started our 1st HANDMADE draft. We were to fold it according to our specific design. We could use color pencils or markers to draw on it. After our 1st draft, we all had a peer review; basically, our classmates gave us feedback on our drafts about what was working and what wasn’t working. After the peer review, we made a draft on the computer keeping in mind the feedback that our peers gave us. Then, we got feedback from our teacher. As an adult/teacher point of view, we really had to follow the feedback that she gave us. After that feedback, we actually got feedback on our products from the actual age group we made it for! I actually got to get feedback from a parent! After that review, we had to make our final drafts. It really did take a lot of work, but we all accomplished the goal!

My group (consisting of Evan Caudill, Bri Perkins, and myself) was focusing on Cyberbullying/ Harassment through Social Media. Our 3 audiences were Teachers (Evan), Teens (Bri), and Parents (Me). We each had to choose a product that related to the audience that we had. Since Bri’s audience was Teens, the most appropriate product was a poster. Evan’s audience was Teachers, so he chose a booklet. I had Parents, so I chose a brochure. The 1st requirement our group had to accomplish was the slogan and image. Our (original) slogan is the people you “trust” may be the most cruel online. Since this slogan doesn’t make sense towards parents, I changed “you” to “they”. As did Evan. The next step was the image. Our image consists of a girl crying with different social media networks drawn to her and 2 girls on the bottom, laughing at her. Since our focus was cyberbullying through social media, the drawn networks and the girls laughing seemed appropriate. My brochure (towards parents) was split into different pages. When you first opened the brochure, you will see info about “what is cyberbullying” and “signs of cyberbullying”. Cyberbullying is the electronic posting of mean spirited messages about a person (student) REPEATEDLY, often done anonymously. It is not cyberbullying if it is not done repeatedly. There are a few signs as well. Some include, Increased Protection of mobile devices, loss of appetite, sudden loss in school, and a non interest in spending time with family. The next page talked about stats. 1 example is “Only 7% of U.S parents are worried about cyberbullying even though 33% of teens have been victims of cyberbullying. The next page talked about Legal and Health consequences. 1 example of a health consequence is anxiety. 1 example of a legal consequence is “your child could be charged with Inducing Panic”. This is causing either public harm or the evacuation. The last page (the most important in my opinion) was Prevention steps. My 2 prevention steps are “ Friend or follow your children on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram, so that you know what your children or their friends are doing are your children’s account” and “Put your computer in a public place so that you can monitor what your child is doing online”. This concluded my brochure. Now for more explanation on the actual audiences. Parents, Teachers, and Teens, are all crucial in solving the problem of cyberbullying. Parents can monitor their children, Teachers can teach students about cyberbullying, and teens themselves can stop it by talking to cyberbullies.

Everyone has seen the commercials and ads. Everyone knows a little about cyberbullying. I knew some... But by the end of this project... I knew a lot more. I learned that cyberbullying is way harder to catch then it was before. When cyberbullying happens, parents don't even know its happening. I learned that everyone can try to prevent cyberbullying. I learned that everyone has to be watching for it. Teens, Parents, Grandparents, Teachers. Lastly I learned that I should never give out personal info like birthdays or phone numbers on the internet. I remember when I didn't really know anything at the beginning of the project, everyone read a story. I happened to read about Cyberbullying. My story titled “Felony counts for 2 in suicide of bullied 12 years old". These girls blatantly admitted that they bullied this girl and she killed herself. I was so surprised with this behavior. I learned that cyberbullying could happen over anything. Even something as stupid as a boyfriend. I learned that I need to be careful about how I use my technology and the internet as a whole. This project really taught me how dangerous cyberbullying can be. It can really affect the Mental, Social, and Physical parts of youth body. For example, loss of appetite can really affect your body by stomach problems and malnourishment. Mental problems like depression can really increase chances of suicidal thoughts or making really bad decisions. Socially, loss of friends or sudden loss in friends can again lead to depression. I learned about how bad cyberbullying is.

This project was all about impacting health. My project will help a lot of parents learn about the dangers of cyberbullying and the consequences that the offender can face. As I was researching about cyberbullying, a few things caught my eye. 1st, the signs of cyberbullying. Some of the signs were loss of appetite and a sudden loss in school. During this project, I had noticed that my friend had some of these symptoms. I immediately talked to my friend. We talked for an hour on the topic. Thank God her symptoms weren’t that bad. She told me about how this person called her mean things. She felt really self-conscious. I told her all about what I knew and told her to block that person and deactivate her accounts temporarily. A few weeks later, her personality and emotions changed. I like to think doing this project at the same time, really helped her. Now, most of the parents that read my brochure will be clueless about cyberbullying. Now at the beginning of this reflection, I talked about how parents didn’t even know that these things were going on. Now, when parents read my brochure, they will know what cyberbullying is, the signs of cyberbullying, legal and health consequences, and prevention steps (which will probably help parents out the most). My product will help parents/ readers understand how dangerous cyberbullying is and learn how to prevent it from happening. As I said before, most parents are clueless about what is happening to kids, especially on social media sites. My brochure will help parents familiarize themselves with some common ones like Instagram and Facebook and help them even make an account so they can even follow or friend their children! My brochure will help a lot of people.

Our group was not picture perfect. I can admit it. Our group did have problems. At first, we were always fighting. We all felt like we were separate. I guess we didn’t really understand the meaning of collaboration even though we have all been to DRSS the previous year. We all tried to collaborate but then we just got angry and frustrated instead. We all tried different techniques (for real!) like deep breathing and counting to 10. It just seemed like nothing was working. Then towards the end of the project, we all decided that enough was enough. We finally just let out our anger and talked things through. We all talked about how this project was worth too much to mess up. So we just stopped fighting and started working. There was no more stress. No more tension. Everyone seemed a lot happier. See collaboration isn’t just working perfectly all the time. It is overcoming problems that stop people from working together. Our collaboration took a long time to recover, but it paid off with an A! Collaboration is a skill that I will need to use my entire life. Throughout high school, college, and even at a job, I will always have to work with people I wouldn’t normally choose. I have grown in collaboration because I have learned to appreciate the strengths instead of always remembering the weaknesses. A good collaborator like one I have grown to be knows to always look at the strengths and assign them a job that will be perfect for that specific person. At the beginning of this project, I was always judging people on how bad they did at a skill that I could do without ease. I then learned that each person and their skill set are different. For example, someone could be terrible at research but do amazing on the creativity aspect of the project. I learned that collaboration is also learning to work with the people and the skills sets that you have.