The last few weeks have seen the release of new eSafety resources. Safer Internet Day 2012 (SID 2012)  takes place on Tuesday 7th February with the theme of Connecting Generations and Educating Each Other. The main event website can be found at http://www.saferinternet.org, keep checking the resources section, resources for this year’s event should be available in the next week or so.

CEOP ThinkUKnow will be supporting SID 2012 by broadcasting The Parents’ and Carers’ Guide to the Internet, which will be available to stream or download and use during parent information sessions. The video and other resouces will be available from the ThinkUKnow website on the 9th January.

YHGfL have also set up a support page for SID 2012 http://www.yhgfl.net/eSafeguarding/eSafety/Safer-Internet-Day-2012. At present it has videos to support schools in planning an event. Further materials for use on the day will be available shortly.

YHGfL have teamed up with ROAR Educate to offer schools the opportunity to buy an eSafety software product called ‘Grapple’ which can be used by parents and children to help bridge the knowledge gap between different generations. ‘Grapple’ will be offered to YHGfL schools for a discounted rate and ROAR Educate will allow schools to sell the software to parents/carers enabling them to raise funds for the school. More details of this unique opportunity for YHGfL schools will be available in early January. For a sample of Grapple and useful eSafety challenge for parents and pupils, see the ROAR educate website homepage.

The UK Safer Internet Centre have released a new resource to support parents, which fits in nicely with this year’s theme. A Parents’ Guide to Technology is an online guide which includes information on the  safe use of gaming devices, tablets and smartphones.

CEOP have a launched a competition to coincide with Safer Internet Day 2011 called ‘My Life Online’. It is aimed at 8-16 year olds and is split into two categories (8-10 and 11-16). The winning entry will receive an Xbox 360 with Kinect. Hurry if you want to enter, the closing date is January 24th.

Full details and links can be found on the CEOP ThinkUKnow website:

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/Teachers/My-life-Online-Competiton/

The National Education Network would like as many teachers as possible to complete their eSafety survey:

‘Can you help in research to understand what you think about the Internet?

The National Education Network (NEN) Safeguarding Group is a national group concerned with your Internet safety. We (the NEN and Lancaster University) want to understand more about your experiences with the Internet, with social networking sites, and with mobile devices.

This new research, being conducted across the UK by the NEN and Lancaster University, ask you to complete a simple survey.

Answers to survey questions will be used to support the needs of the NEN and those of your school. Taking part is entirely voluntary, all survey responses remain anonymous, and no electronic links are set up if you respond.’

(Posted by Dughall)

Today I had a wonderful time. I was invited to participate in a local transition event for all the Year 6 children from feeder primary schools for Holmfirth High School.

The day was called ‘Feel Good Friday’ and was intended to meet a number of objectives:

Developing an awareness of emotional wellbeing and how this can be nurtured
Fostering relationships with other Year 6 children
Getting to know the layout of Holmfirth High School

Children were organised into groups of 30-35 with representatives from each school included. They then rotated around a carousel of 35 minute activities/sessions including:

Dance
Drama
Music
Feel-good food
E-Safety
Rugby
Tennis
Keeping healthy

Mine was the e-safety session. I wanted the session to be pacey and interactive and I based it on some ideas gathered a few weeks ago after I put out an appeal on Twitter. Dawn Hallybone and Pete Richardson made some suggestions that I used as the basis for the session.

I produced a simple sheet headed ‘Getting to Know You’ that had 11 fields for the children to complete: First name, Middle name, Last name, Age, Birthday, Pet’s name, Favourite colour, Postcode, House number, Phone number and Email address.

Each child was given the sheet, something to write with and a little sheet of those little, circular, coloured stickers. I introduced myself and asked them if they knew everyone in the group (of course they didn’t, having just been thrown together for the day). I said that I had planned an exercise to help them get to know each other better.

Here’s what they had to do:

• Fill in your own details on your own sheet.

• You can only fill in a detail on your own sheet if you ask a question of someone else first and they give you an answer.

• When you speak to someone else you can ‘Friend’ them by asking if they’ll be your friend. If they accept, you can stick one of the little stickers on them and they stick one on you in return.

• You should try to talk to as many as possible, preferably people you haven’t met before.

I modelled this first with a willing volunteer to make sure they all understood the (slightly complicated) process.

I gave them about 10 minutes for this and they busily set about the activity, clearly enjoying it. I joined in, too. After 10 minutes, I stopped them. They (and I) had collected plenty of little ‘friend’ stickers. I then sellotaped my sheet to my chest and they did the same. It helped that I already had 30 or so strips of tape dangling off the window sills.

Now for the discussion phase. I said that I had a special plan for the best group of the day and that the plan was that I would be taking them down into Holmfirth where I was going to treat them to a meal in one of the more up-market restaurants. They were thrilled. I said that the trip into town was on the condition that they keep their sheets attached to their chests and ensure that they go out of their way to point their sheets out to strangers and share as much of the information as possible. I then asked if anyone had a problem with that and why.

The answers were as you would expect:

“No way!”
“That would be well embarrasing.”
“It wouldn’t be safe.”
“I wouldn’t share all my information with just anyone – especially strangers.”
etc

I then asked what bad things might happen as a result:

“Someone could just phone you up and bully you.”
“Someone you don’t know could just email you and say bad stuff to you.”
“If someone knew where you lived, they could come to your house and burgle you.”
etc

All good so far. I then asked how many of them had social network profiles (such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc). Were it not that I already knew roughly what the response would be, I would have been surprised at the large numbers of 10 and 11 year olds that had Facebook accounts. I pointed out that Facebook Terms and Conditions prohibit its use by persons under 13 years of age and went on to discuss with the children the ways in which they used these tools.

They said things like:

“To chat with friends.”
“To play games.”
“To share pictures.”
“To find out what other people are doing.”
etc

I asked about how many friends these children had in these sites and was quoted numbers ranging from 20 or so to 500-600. I also asked if they ‘knew’ or had met all those friends and I got some cagey replies.

Now I was running short on time with only 10 minutes or so left. I drew all the points together (hopefully) emphasising the points that these sites are great and can be useful in so many ways, but that they also have dangers associated. I also pointed out that just as you wouldn’t share your personal information in the real world by posting it to your chest, so you wouldn’t and shouldn’t on the internet. Also, I made the point that ‘friend’ competitions were potentially dangerous as they might make you want to befriend others you didn’t necessarily know.

There was just time to show the excellent CEOP film ‘Jigsaw’, round things off with a final ‘So what have we learned?’ plenary before allowing them to rip their sheets up and deposit them in the bin as they left.

Photo Source

I have just read an email announcement from CEOP asking all Think U Know trainers and ambassadors to raise awareness of an online message which will appear on the CEOP website tomorrow. The content remains a mystery, here is an extract from the email:

‘CEOP needs your help to spread a very important message.

On Tuesday 3 November, CEOP is going to be releasing a special online message and we want to ensure that as many people as possible see it. In fact, we want this message to be seen around the world!

The message will be a short piece of text and a link to a short film on ceop.police.uk.’

I’ll post the link and further details tomorrow.

A couple of nights ago I was following a discussion on Twitter with the theme ‘How do schools educate parents as to the risks and benefits of Web 2.0 tools in Schools?‘ Although the discussion title was about Web 2.0 tools, the flow of conversation was themed more around Social Networking. This discussion has also been blogged by Stephen Anderson.

This is particularly interesting to me as I am seeing evidence of a greater awareness of social networking amongst our youngsters and evidence or a greater involvement in these networks by the children themselves. Last week, I was working with groups of 6 and 7 year old children. One of the questions I asked them was ‘How do your older brothers/sisters, Mum or Dad use the internet?’ Without exception, the first answer I was given was ‘Facebook’. I also had responses that included ‘Email’, ‘Ebay’, ‘Shopping’, ‘Games’ etc.

I have also worked with Y5 (9-10 yr olds) and asked the question ‘How do you use the internet?’ Guess what some of them say? Yes. ‘Facebook’ When I point out that Facebook’s Terms and Conditions point out that ‘ You will not use Facebook if you are under 13′, these same children often say ‘Well my Mum/Dad set up the account for me’. Is this worrying? Should we be concerned?

So social networking is clearly something that young people are ‘into’; it is out there in the world and they are engaging with it and it is here to stay. But do schools have a responsibility to do anything about it? Can they ignore it as something that happens outside school? These questions set me thinking about my own education in the 1970s. My teachers (as with today’s teachers) were charged with giving me the best possible preparation for the world I was to enter when leaving school. This included a thorough grounding in the full range of communication skills I would need: how to talk appropriately in various situations, how to write various genres of letter, how to write and speak persuasively etc. I got a great education in this respect. The world is different now. There are new and different forms of communication out there afforded by Web 2.0 tools and social media such as Facebook that didn’t exist when I was 10. I believe it is the responsibility of today’s schools to prepare young people for a world that includes these new forms of communication and this means educating them on the benefits and dangers therein. I have already mentioned how I believe the Learning Platform can be used as a vehicle for important e-safety learning, and I’d reiterate the importance of using it to help children learn how to use Web 2.0 tools appropriately and (more importantly) safely.

What about parents?  I think that it is vitally important to have parental involvement when discussing the benefits/dangers of social media.

With anything new, I believe it is best to introduce it with the youngest children (in age-appropriate ways). Also, with these youngsters, it is often much easier to ‘capture’ the parents at the same time – the younger the child, the greater the degree of parental involvement. We have a Learning Platform that includes many Web 2.0 features – blogs, fora, quizzes, surveys, ratings etc. I would advise, when first introducing the platform, that a letter be sent home to all parents with important information about this environment and about its positive aspects and also inviting them in to a launch event. At the launch, I would urge parents to see engagement with the LP as a ‘side-by-side’ activity that they do with the children. This, I believe, sets the tone for a healthy relationship between child/parent/social media for the coming years. I would also urge teachers to constantly deliver a message around e-safety and appropriate usage of the tools as the LP is used broadly through the children’s schooling.

This bottom-up model is all very well for kids just entering school and (as I say) can set the tone at the start. What to do, though, with older kids where Social Media engagement is already under way and embedded in their lives? Here I’m inclined to agree with those that advocate a side-by-side approach involving openness, dialogue and all parties in a sharing of the benefits/drawbacks. I agree with Drew Buddie’ Twitter comments when he says “Parents learning to use WITH their children can help banish MANY of the fears & worries” and “TRUST between parent & child is VERY important”.

Let’s involve parents at the start and keep that level of involvement going throughout a child’s schooling. That way we stand a chance of producing safe, well rounded and well prepared young adults who are able to use technological tools for collaboration and life-long learning.

Image courtesy of Jacob Botter’s Flickrstream

Account hijack is something I am increasingly seeing as more and more young people are using the communication tools in the DBPrimary Learning Platform in Kirklees schools. Basically, what happens is that a child (that might be a child in the school, or a sibling) decides that it might be interesting or fun to use another child’s login and then masquerade online under that other user’s identity. In some cases, this is relatively harmless – for example, an elder sister posting on a younger sister’s blog saying what a fantastic, beautiful, helpful and kind older sister she has. In more serious cases, the hijacked account may be used for unpleasant and malicious purposes such as sending unpleasant or abusive emails, posting unpleasant blog posts/comments etc. Such cases are notoriously difficult to investigate and can be particularly distressing as the initial finger of blame can sometimes be aimed at an innocent party.

I believe that whether or not a pupil has that ‘lightbulb’ moment (when they realise the possibility of hijack) depends very much on their developmental stage. Hijack tends to happen in Keystage 2 and generally Y4 upwards. I think that the average Foundation Stage or Keystage 1 pupil is sufficiently egotistical to be unable to imagine hijacking another child’s account.

So what can be done about it?
Remember that any Learning Platform has a couple of broad facets. One is about the extension of the curriculum beyond conventional classroom walls. The other (equally important) facet is the learning that takes place around e-communication and e-safety. I would expect youngsters to make mistakes as they begin to explore the tools and the virtual environment and I’d be actively seeking out those mistakes in order to milk as much learning out of them as possible for all the pupils. Whether it is the girl in Y1 (6 year old) who declares her love to a little boy in a forum – rather than an email, or the Y2 (7 year old) boy who sends an inappropriate email to his teacher in his excitement at using these new tools; there are vital lessons to be learned. Lessons that I’d rather they learned now in the safety of the Learning Platform than later as teenagers or adults when the consequences may be more serious.

Password security is a very important bit of learning. When I am introducing the Learning Platform to any age of child, I always have a discussion about the ways that they know that people (adults/ older siblings) use the internet. This usually engenders some interesting responses! I then go on to ask them if they’ve noticed that sometimes people use usernames and passwords – they usually mention shopping, email, banking, social networking etc. We then talk about why safe logins and passwords are important.

Managing Passwords
My advice would be as follows:

Foundation Stage (Age 3-5) – All children given the same password (and share their login with parents /carers – as far as possible, it should be a joint venture between children, parents and school at this age). Restrictions on passwords mean that it needs to be different to their name/username, needs to be a minimum of 6 characters and can’t be a sequence of keyboard keys. Because of this, I find that giving them all a password of qwaszx works well. My views on this have changed, particularly in light of some conversations and comments made by parents of this age of children. I would now encourage a unique login for each child with a memorable (simple) password. Some children can cope with 123dog, cat123 or similar. Yes, they do forget but with enough (I know!) practice they can eventually get there. One thing we mustn’t do (in my opinion) is keep doing it for them – this (like tying laces) can potentially lead to them never getting it…

Keystage 1 (Age 5-7) – Have a number of different passwords that are ascribed to groups of pupils. These might be colours, animals or familiar characters. This way, children begin to understand the importance of having different passwords.

Keystage 2 (Age 7-11)- Pupils begin to learn about choosing (and remembering!) their own passwords. As they progress through this Keystage, they can learn more about secure passwords – such as the use of upper/lowercase, non-alphabetic characters etc and why this security is important.

These are not hard and fast rules and teachers will gauge children’s readiness for the next stage of learning. It has worked for me. What works for you?

Flickr Creative Commons image by Xurble

Here are a couple of important dates for your diaries.

Safer Internet Day will be 9th February 2010, the theme this year is ‘Think before you post’.  Updates and announcements of new events will be published on the website . Insafe will be launching a pan-European quiz on 1st February, targeting two age-groups: 5-11 and 12-15 year-olds. The quiz will be open to individuals or school classes who will compete with the objective of becoming increasingly aware of their role in protecting themselves and others online. There will be an online showcase of participating organisations across the world, and schools are invited to register the events they will be running to mark the day. If you would like to be involved,  register your interest by emailing education@ceop.gsi.gov.uk.

The theme for National Anti-Bullying Week 2009 is Cyberbullying. The event takes place 16th-20th November 2009. Details, posters, activities and videos are available on the website at: http://www.antibullyingweek.co.uk/

A new scheme of work for eSafety and online research skills has been produced by the London Boroughs of Islington, Barnet and Kensington & Chelsea in conjunction with Northampton and Hackney. The scheme of work covers online research skills from EYFS to Year 6, and references useful resources and websites. It is a very useful document to support planning. The scheme of work is currently in first draft, due to be updated in Summer. I think it’s very useful as it is!

Download the scheme of work from:

http://cms.lgfl.net/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=217174&name=DLFE-6904.doc

 Free Trial of Learning Curve eSafety Resources

YHGfL have agreed a free trial of eSafety materials by Learning Curve. The resource is made up of short animated films designed for use on an interactive whiteboard to stimulate discussion with pupils. Primary and Secondary videos are available. To register for the free trial see the YHGfL website at:

http://www.yhgfl.net/Focus-on

Listen to the ‘True Colours Choir’ in Walsall as they give you advice on how to stay safe on the internet in the form of a Christmas carol sung to the traditional tune of “The Holly and the Ivy”.

http://www.schooltube.com/video/17063/Internet-Safety-Carol

I think this is a great way for children to remember the eSafety rules. Now we just need to match the lyrics to a song we can use year round! I’ll get my thinking cap on, and if anyone else manages it let me know!