How confident do you feel when your students are working online?

[Cross-posted from the e-Learning Research Network]

If we are to make useful decisions about supporting our students as they use technology, it is important to have a baseline from which to make our decisions. A recent survey from Netsafe might be a useful starting point in this regard.

How confident are teachers in managing cybersafety?

This question was posed by Netsafe, an organization that understands well the challenges that schools need to overcome in order to allow students to use technology safely. The survey [http://www.netsafe.org.nz/Doc_Library/teacher-confidence-summary.pdf] was grounded on the Netsafe model of cybersafety, and key findings included:

• Teachers do not feel confident supporting students with cybersafety, with secondary and intermediate teachers less confident than those teaching at primary level. A knowledge of cybersafety issues was needed by teachers.
• In terms of managing issues, generally students were not involved in discussions about appropriate use of ICT, filtering was seen as only one element of managing cybersafety, and
• That issues extend beyond the school gate, but that educators were seen as vital in guiding students.

The survey concluded that

“significant proportions of New Zealand educators are not confident about their cybersafety ability and knowledge. This demonstrates the need to increase the confidence and ability of NZ educators. For a variety of reasons, the secondary sector may potentially require the most assistance in these domains. However, it is important to note that the primary and intermediate sectors still demonstrate significant cybersafety needs in some areas.”

What are the implications for schools?

The ways in which schools mediate learning through ICTs, and manage the challenges that occur as part of that, is a discussion that needs to occur throughout the school, from BoT, to leadership, community whānau, teaching staff and students. Listening to individuals’ concerns about working online, gathering information on students’ experiences, and comparing these with the aspirations reflected in the New Zealand Curriculum’s vision for our students is a complex strategic planning process.

It’s an issue that won’t be going away anytime soon. How does this survey resonate with your own experiences?

 

If you think it’s too difficult, you’re right.

This is cross-posted from a guest piece I recently wrote for CORE Education:

Feel the fear – and do it anyway

If Hilary had concentrated only on glacial ravines, would he have ‘knocked the bastard off’? Would Armstrong have taken his great leap if he had worried his oxygen failing?

And can schools embrace the learning opportunities presented by the web, by ultra-fast broadband, if they focus only on cybersafety?

We’re only a few weeks into the new school year, but there has been a slew of stories in the media about cybersafety – sexting, Facebook bullying and the like  – and we see the inevitable banning of technological access as a result.  A recent talk I gave at a local college to launch their e-learning professional learning for the year, saw excitement among staff but also concern about student safety and online bullying. A 2010 report, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, reminded us that “Preventing access in schools to mobile technologies or firewalling some sites does not teach effective and critical uses of these technologies that students have ready access to outside of school” (Wright, 2010)

Despite all the potential and promise that technology might offer to educators, to what extent do we still have a deficit model of technology?

The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) advocates for e-learning as a way to “open up new and different ways of learning” (e-learning and pedagogy, NZC). And yet, for many schools, it is the very ‘opening up’ that is so challenging. School leaders understandably have to balance the opportunities for learners presented by, for example, ‘web 2.0 technology, with managing parental expectation and the duty to keep students safe.

Perhaps a marriage of the Key Competencies and digital citizenship might offer a potential pathway through the minefield. The NZC is littered with phrases that clearly align to the potential of e-learning; for example, the “active seekers, users, and creators of knowledge” (Vision statement, NZC) should arguably be “confident and capable user[s] of ICT” (myLGP: Learn, Guide, Protect – Netsafe) in order to create and seek knowledge for themselves.

Most importantly, the Key Competencies of managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing clearly align to the importance of students becoming confident in the way they manage challenges online, in the way to they relate to, and communicate with, others in cyberspace.

Embracing the teachable moment, managing risk rather than banning access, and looking to the opportunities rather than the dangers are approaches far more likely to foster students’ integrity and responsibility. Especially when they will inevitably have to face cyber challenges without adult supervision.

Like Hilary and Armstrong, perhaps those schools that interpret the NZC through the lens of digital citizenship have found a way to navigate the possible risks and dangers while maintaining their focus on a greater goal – that of students being able to fully participate in the digital world.

[Image source]

 

When your 13-year-old joins Facebook

Finally.

I have found a great post that articulates really sensibly the role that a parent could – should? – take to support their child’s developing understanding and awareness of digital citizenship.

I was struck by the way the author, Molly Baker, embraces the benefits, and takes a pragmatic approach to the potential challenges. She acknowledges the bigger picture, the world of technology in which our children are growing up and the way. Her analogy of teaching children to ride a bike, that we need to give them ‘training wheels’, is spot on. Sensible woman.

On the other hand, the comments underneath that post reveal a whole other side to her argument, one that often sees technology as a harbinger of danger, predation and a dumbed-down view of life.

Here is the original post:   Why I finally gave in and let my 13-year-old join Facebook

(Thanks for the tip, via the blog Might be of interest; image via Freefoto.com)

43 decisions: Setting your privacy settings on Facebook

43. That’s the number of decisions you potentially have to make when you review your Facebook privacy settings.

And even if you’re a ‘digital citizen’, who fully understands the implications of your choices, it’s still hard.

Many young people find it much harder – and that’s why they need the support of parents and teachers.

This privacy chart for teens is part of a Parents’ Guide to Facebook. It steps you through each decision that you make as you set up or review your settings. And A Parents’ Guide to Facebook can be downloaded here.

And once you’ve done that, run the Scan for Privacy from reclaimPrivacy.org.

Because any platform that asks you to make at least 43 decisions about what you want to share, and what you don’t, needs to be handled with care.

3 reasons why online privacy is the best gift you can give your children

I was recently asked to complete a survey about children (say, under 13) and blogs: are they are good idea (blogs, not the children)? Is there a benefit in children blogging, what are the issues and so on. I have also had a conversation this week about people posting photos of their children online behind limited or no privacy settings.

Is this post a hysterical reaction – or common sense? Here are three good reasons why you should think twice before sharing your children with the world:

1. Our children have not chosen to be online

This one is pretty obvious. Little humans they may be (and gosh, they can be annoying at times), but they still have rights. Even schools have to cover themselves, with various permission forms, before they post images of students online. Should parents consider similar issues?  Even if our children enjoy seeing themselves online, they have no idea of the ramifications of the internet and cannot know what it means to see themselves on the web.

2. We cannot control the information we post up

Yes, we can choose our settings and our controls. We can tick the boxes and run checks. But once the photo is in the cloud, it’s there, somewhere in the ether, forever. How large a digital footprint do we want to create for our children without their say so?

3. It is scarily easy to track people down via information on the web

Is it too much to suggest that an identified child on the net is the same as a child wearing a t-shirt bearing their name, address etc, wandering around in a big city? We do not know who sees our images or our children’s images, who stores our information, or how easily we can be found. So, yes, you wouldn’t want your child to have their name, address, location or school linked to their image even if you have decided to post their photos up there.

Yet, here’s the rub.

We live in an online world, and we share our lives with our loved ones via the web as naturally as we used to send them copies of the school photos in the mail. We are a highly mobile lot, who rarely live close to our folks anymore. What about Grandma in the UK who never sees her grandchildren? Or the ante-natal group of mums who bond online, sharing news, views and shots of their bubs doing mad stuff, to keep themselves sane?

I  would be recommending the obvious: if images of your children must be posted online, ensure you have the tightest security settings you can, don’t refer to them by name and give all that personal information a second thought.

Let your children define their own digital shadow when they are old enough. Then at least, when we are lecturing – sorry, supporting –  them about cybersafety, we can say we tried to set an example back in the day…;-)

[Image source: WoodcraftPlans.com]

Why banning cellphones won’t ban bullies

I read the two articles on mobile phones in Sunday Star Times this week with some amazement, and a wee bit of irritation.  The emotive story, about the student bullied on his cellphone on the front page, aimed to paint modern technology as something to be feared or banned unless it could be actively managed by schools. A second article inside the paper explored the more positive side of the argument with a description of the trial use of cellphones for learning at Howick College.

The issue of bullying existed long before cellphones, and it has always extended beyond school time, making it harder to manage. Schools have a duty to create a zero-tolerance culture towards bullying, regardless of how it is done.  Banning technology because of the way it might be used serves only to drive poor behaviour underground, and even further from the school gates. Even the Howick College trial referred to their cyber-safety policy as being about banning phones for improper use rather than fostering positive peer group behaviour.

The use of technology in schools should be hand-in-hand with the way we plan learning, and cyber-safety is part of that. I would advocate schools taking advantage of the ubiquity of mobiles to explore relevant aspects of the curriculum, such as how we relate to others, how we manage ourselves, how the use of technology enables us to participate with the understanding that this brings responsibilities as well as rights. The only way to help young people learn how to manage and navigate the challenging issues that can arise in these situations is to work with students as they use these technologies.

Mobiles are particularly pertinent because of their ubiquity – which means that, should they be used for bullying, the reach of the bully can be much greater – all the more reason to help students manage the situation and keep the issue in the open. Cellphones, with web access, mean that students don’t only need to know how to avoid bullies, but also how to manage other issues that arise with unfettered access to the internet.

While banning student access to a technology that they enjoy/need might be an appropriate step at some point down the line, I don’t think it should be a first (reactionary?) step. The opportunities for maximising collaborative learning beyond the classroom, together with the need to prepare students to make the most of technologies in today’s world, should be a key driver for promoting the use of technologies such as these. A positive, rather than negative, default position, I think.

Whether my child is going to be swimming with sharks or taking the bus into town on his own for the first time, I’d much rather he was prepared, knowledgeable, and supported than going into the situation blind.

Netsafe has some great advice on cyberbullying and also a useful guide for helping students take responsibility.

Image source: Electric Images (under the Creative Commons-Attribution licence)