The Protection of Students Online
In the Week 3 lecture we spoke about our responsibility as teachers to protect our students while they are online. We must be aware of what our students are exposed to while on the internet because unfortunately, there are many risks associated with working online. Schools and teachers need to minimize these risks with positive strategies that teach our students to behave responsibly and act safely when using ICT.
Some of the major risks to students when working online include:
- Exposure to unsuitable or harmful material
- Commercialism (online add pop ups) of the Internet and financial risks
- Cyber Bullying and harassment
- Privacy of Student Identity
- Spam and Viruses
To minimize risks to students and teachers schools need to actively develop an Internet Acceptable Use Agreements (AUAs). These are agreed Codes of Practice for students, teachers and parents to follow. The following link is shows an example of an existing AUAs at Bayswater PS: http://www.bayswaterps.vic.edu.au/students/internet.htm
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development realise that these risks are very real but also realise that ICT and web based technologies should not be side stepped in a school curriculum because of them. They have developed a site that that aims to educate teachers and school communities about cyber safety. Cybersafety refers to the ways students keep both themselves and their friend’s safe on the internet. Cybersafety and ethics need to be explicitly taught as part of the school curriculum.
For further information visit their website at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/elearningsupportservices/www/educate/cybersafety.htm
As part of this initiative the DEECD have developed the Cybersmart program. This program is a national Cybersafety education program managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, as part of the Australian Government’s commitment to promoting online safety for children and young people. The Cybersmart program includes information, activities, resources and advice for children, young people and parents to help them safely work online, as well as offering training and resources for schools and materials for library staff.
For more information visit: http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/
Greg also provided us with a variety of links to useful websites that can be used in schools to promote safety online:
- Netty’s World: http://www.nettysworld.com.au/ (Primary)
- CyberNetrix: http://www.cybernetrix.com.au/ (Secondary)
- Wise Up To It: http://www.wiseuptoit.com.au/
- CyberQuoll: http://www.cyberquoll.com.au/hub.htm (Primary)
- BBC Web Wise: http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/
- CyberKidz: http://www.cyberkidz.co.nz/CYBERKIDZ/safetypoints/safetyp1.html
- Cyber Smart Curriculum (K-Yr 8): http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/home/
- Grid Club: http://www.gridclub.com.au/
- Wired Kids: http://www.wiredkids.org/
- Keep Safe: http://www.ikeepsafe.org/
- Web Wise Kids: http://www.webwisekids.org/
- Get Net Wise: http://www.getnetwise.org/
- Dealing with eCrime: http://www.afp.gov.au/national/e-crime.html
Workshop Activities and Classroom Applications
We began today's workshop by discussing the technology design process. This process is relevant to the Design and Technology curriculum. To illustrate a practical design process we were given a design brief that involved us investigating the problem:
How do we make our frog jump?
Using a rubber band, a piece of cardboard, a paper frog and a glue stick only we were required to design a product that would help our frog to 'jump'. To assist in the design process we needed to fill out a design brief:
Our finished product was not the most effective 'jumper, but experimenting with the materials and inventing a product was incredibly engaging. It was also great to hear what other groups had done and how they had justified their designs. Allowing students time to share their learning is an important part of the lesson. It can provide insight into their understanding (formative assessment) and also allows students to learn from each other.
Below you will see a video of our product "jumping" and a close up photograph of our final design:
Greg told us during the workshop that is valuable for students to be trained in the process of design. Working through a design brief, step by step is a great way to encourage problem solving and higher order thinking in students. This process gives the students the freedom to form their own ideas, to collaborate with each other and to share their learning.
During today's tutorial we also investigated a website that enables people to create their own games, quizzes and activities.
http://www.quia.com/web is a fantastic resource that can be used by Teachers to create learning activities for their students or by the students themselves ans a way off applying their learning in an interactive and fun way. Once each game/quiz has been developed the site provides the instructor with a URL that can be used by anyone all over the world to access their and complete their activity. There is also a shared activity page that enables you to access the activities developed by other people around the world! Some of these activities are pictured below:
During this weeks workshop I created two activities (one quiz and one hangman game) using the Quia website.It was incredibly easy to use and I signed up for a 30 day trial so that I could continue using the website. Students and teachers could also sign up for the trial but after the four weeks you would have to purchase the product to continue accessing the activities.
