Cyber Safety

Just in from Australia is this Cybersamart site that has lots of good information and useful ideas.  The section on ‘what you do online could ‘tag’ you for life‘ is especially pertinent – not necessarily for primary age children -  but for those who have teenage children of their own.

More on E-Safety from ChildNet

On Monday last week ChildNet produced a new set of guidance on all aspects of e-safety on their site ‘KnowI all’ … this set of materials is directed specifically towards Trainees and NQTs

I feel it would be very useful if all colleagues, teaching and mentoring,  were made aware of the information as it brings the whole aspect of e-safety and the use of social networking up-to-date and in a relevant training and school context.

The specific information is to be found here which is part of the wider information to be found here.

E-Safety

Ian Addison led an online Vital chat on 24/11/10 on e-safety … here are the links he used:

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/resources/

http://www.safeshare.tv/v/MTpa3AS39uA

http://bit.ly/facebookstjohns

http://bit.ly/bgPPNt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8490000/newsid_8495700/8495786.stm

http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/

http://www.getnetwise.org/

http://www.childnet-int.org/kia/primary/

http://www.lgfl.info/esafety/Pages/ESafetyHome.aspx

http://www.ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/

http://www.learningcurve.info

http://philbagge.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-should-iconfident-child-look-like.html

http://www.lgfl.info/esafety/policy/Pages/ESafetyPolicyStrategyResources.aspx

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/cybercafe/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/help/web/besmart.shtml

E-Safety

 The current Ofsted framework for inspection has many clear pointers to the perceived importance of ‘safeguarding’ (children in a digital world). Details can be found here.

Many schools well aware of their responsibilities have long had robust AUPs in place as well as extensive education programmes supporting the sensible and safe use and exploration of digital worlds by their children and staff. Today the BBc reports on the government initiative ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’.

The – so sensible – Tanya Byron has it clear: “No one is saying it is scary stuff … It’s about the management of risk in the same way that we want children to understand and manage risk in the real world, in the offline world.”

Sensible schools are already well on the way to creating safe environments and confident children who will use the immense power that is available to them for their learning and enjoyment … there will always be a few abusers and a few who are not careful – we just need to do our best to educate them.

Might be worth having a look at one of the commercial ways forward with Roar Educate’s ‘US Online’.

e-Safety

With the renewed framework from Ofsted (safeguarding), e-safety has taken a much more prominent place in our institutions.

The Kent ICT Blog is now showing an E-Safety Checklist which should be useful to all.

As well as this, Mandy Barrow points out  a new web site designed to help parents understand things they need to know to protect their children in a digital world. The site, in association with Vodophone, is called ‘Get to grips and get involved’.

Teachers TV: ICT Week

Tricia Neal points out to me that this week on Teacher TV is ICT Week. The programmes are on using games, data handling, presentations, on-line communities, video, copyright and e-safety.

Safer Practice with Technology

Kent Trust again provides valuable information for adults working in schools. This document provides responses to the questions being asked by adults working with young people.

This is what the writers say about the booklet:

Adults in this area of work need to ensure they are competent, confident and safe when working with new technology. All adults working with children and young people must understand that the nature and responsibilities of their work place them in a position of trust. This document discusses appropriate and safer behaviours for adults working in paid or unpaid capacities, in a school context. A rules approach cannot resolve such complex issues. This booklet suggests a set of real situations to enable adults to develop greater awareness of the dangers and to consider consequences of behaviour earlier in a developing situation.

Know IT All for Primary Schools

Know IT All for Primary Schools is a new resource for primary schools and is supported by Becta, the TDA and the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. It sets out to demonstrate the latest of the technologies, to give updated e-safety advice and to help children (and perhaps their parents/carers) to make safe, secure, personal decisions online.

There is a children’s bit and a teacher’s bit.

The teacher’s bit:

Presented by serving primary school teaching staff, the video tutorials cover a range of e-safety issues including:E-safety as a whole school issue
Protecting myself as a professional
Helping Parents protect their children online
E-safety and Children with Special Education Needs (SEN)
Handling disclosures
The short 3-4 minute chapters are available to access and download free of charge ( see link above) and primary schools will be able to order a copy of the CD rom from April 2009

The children’s bit:

Captain Kara and Winston’s SMART Adventure

Know IT All for Primary schools also contains a specially designed 5 part 3D animation called ‘The Adventures of Kara, Winston and the SMART Crew’

This film covers Childnet’s 5 SMART rules which have been proven to be effective in helping younger children understand the importance of keeping safe online. Through their travels Kara and Winston use the internet, mobile phones, social networking pages and chat to negotiate and find their way through the adventure. Through their travels they are able to interact with a real life SMART crew of 10 and 11 year old children who give instructions and help Kara and Winston stay safe.

The cartoon will appeal to both younger children (6 and 7) as well as right up to 11 year olds and can be shown in its entirety (15 minutes) or as individual chapters. There are a range of follow up activities and a full lesson plan which you can download.

This resource is available to order from The DCSF for FREE, (Tel 0845 60 222 60 Reference number: 00321 – 2009CDO – EN)

(Information from the  Know it All site and the Kent e-safety site)

Government responds to Tanya Byron Review

Last week the Government announced its response to the Tanya Byron Review on e-Safety. You can read the press release here or go to the full Action Plan here. Again, it is good to note that there is a version for ‘young people’ .