A girl enjoyed playing outdoors at school and looked forward to activities with neighbors after. When new devices were introduced at school, she learned to use them and games, gaining computer confidence. In high school, she joined social media to communicate with friends, but once misconstrued a friend's comment and publicly responded, feeling ashamed later. She realized no one had taught her responsible internet use and the benefits and risks involved.

2. Once upon a time there was a girl who
enjoyed playing at recess and lunch in the
school playground. She would swing on the
swings and slide down the slippery dip to her
hearts content.

3. Every day, she would wake up excited to go
to school and play with her friend’s
outdoors. She also looked forward to going
home and riding bikes with the neighbours.

4. One day she got to school and they had these
brand new devices that were put up at the back
of the classroom. She didn’t know what to do
with them. Weeks went by and she began to get
better at playing the games.

5. Because of that she began to get more confident in
using computers. In High School the Internet was
introduced and she got a Hotmail and MySpace account
to communicate with her friends.

6. Not long after she joined Facebook. One day she
was really angry about a friend who put up a
comment. She put up a post tagging her friend
and belittling her. Within minutes she found out
that she had misconstrued her friend’s comment.

7. Because of that she felt so ashamed due to it being
publicly shared. If only she had been more careful. No
one had ever taught her about how to use the Internet
safely. At school her teachers just told her which
websites they were not allowed to go on. They did not
cover how to use the Internet responsibly.

8. Until finally she realised that she had not been taught
about the benefits and pitfalls of using the Internet.
Thank goodness for the ‘Now literacies’ that will
prepare students and teachers for managing their way
through the Internet and onwards into the 22nd
century.

9. THE END