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Managing Online Identities – The Challenge04 October 2011
Yesterday I delivered an after school esafety session for the staff at Southridge First School in North Tyneside. Their thoughtful and perceptive contributions showed that they understand the importance of this area of safeguarding and are ready to work together to develop policies to support all elements of teaching and learning in a safe and supportive environment. Much of what I talk about during these sessions centres on how sharing of personal information and opinions is ‘normal’, and we shouldn’t be surprised if our learners and colleagues, on occasions, behave in ways that we would consider inappropriate. I have long maintained that the only way we will see a decline in inappropriate and bullying behaviour in the (social) media is by modelling positive behaviour for our very young children to learn and adopt. If we can instil in our young children an understanding and ownership of privacy, personal information and appropriate communication of opinions, then we stand a much better chance of them growing up to be more responsible and empathetic participants in online (and offline) interactions. It is perhaps only then that we will see some secondary schools demonstrate the confidence to adopt more open polices relating to filtering and the use of personal and handheld devices for learning and recreation during the school day. There is much work still to be done, and we need patience and commitment if we are to help our young people become responsible and considerate members of our increasingly sophisticated social networking opportunities. If you would like further information about Northern Grid's support for schools email The session included: This Childnet report was published in 2008 and provides information about social networking and how to use social networking sites creatively and safely. It includes sections on: "Thanks very much for the two sessions you delivered today. They were really good and the feedback suggests enjoyable and informative. I hope to be in contact in the future for a follow up session for staff in due course" -Tim Dufill, Assistant Head Early in Summer 2011 Assistant Head, Tim Duffill, contacted Simon to explore ways in which Northern Grid could provide support to the school, particularly in the area of sharing messages about esafety and online behaviour. Making It Easier to Share With Who You Want on Facebook Blog Social media and online communication opportunities are important and can have a positive impact on all elements of the teaching and learning process, the school and learning community. We see teachers and other professionals creating networks to share ideas and resources, children and young people crowd source ideas and information. They seek and receive feedback on their work while parents engage more fully with teachers, their children and the school. Furthermore, even if we feel too old or too busy to engage with social media ourselves then we, as teachers, must still be able to model appropriate, safe and positive use of social technology for our learners and the wider learning community. An important element in the policy development process is seeking the feedback and engagement of teachers, parents, carers and students. It is also important to understand that policies are more likely to be adhered to if everyone has the opportunity to share in the policy development process. Policies should be organic and responsive. With technology and the associated opportunities for communication developing at an almost startling rate, it is important that policies, practices and procedures are reviewed at regular intervals. Let’s start with some simple truths: Schools need responsive, effective and consistent pastoral and discipline systems in place to ensure tha... This clear and calm article at The Edublogger goes into detail about how you can safely use Facebook in class in order to increase collaboration and support with your students. One of our eSafety experts, Simon Finch, was interviewed whilst at Plymouth e-Learning Conference 2011 about several subjects within the areas of eSafety and eSecurity. View the 4 videos below or go to our YouTube Channel. If you need guidance and resources in dealing with these areas visit the eSafety area of our website. Leave some comments below or on the YouTube Channel with your feedback! Thanks! It is easy to find examples of pupils who have got into trouble when using the internet but the fact that the same applies to teachers is often overlooked. This article in the Times Education Supplement Scotland on April 8th highlights some of the risks for pupils and staff when using online technologies. The article quotes Simon Finch, an eLearning officer at Northern Grid and mentions one of the ways we can support schools: a workshop entitled “How to lose your job”. There is more information about this workshop on the Northern Grid site and on Simon’s blog. Details of other support we can provide is available in the safeguarding area and in the services guide Please carry out the following checks. If any of the tests fail then your Cachepilot configuration is not providing adequate protection. Contact Easynet Support on 08453334568 for further advice and assistance. Open your browser and type the URL www.google.com a search windows will open click on the search settings link top right. If you can view and change the SafeSearch Filtering options SafeSearch in not enforced. If you have decided to allow access to YouTube for a CachePilot user group, login as a member of this group and access the URL www.youtube.com a green banner titled "Enabled Safety mode" should appear directly below the YouTube search bar. After any video is selected check to ensure that viewer’s comments are disabled. They would normally appear directly below the video. From your workstation’s browser access the following URLs. All of the following URLs should be blocked if they are not your browser will be automatically redirected to the Smoothwall home page. If any sites are not blocked check you’re filtering for configuration errors! This Case Study by St John's Primary School, Darlington, details how the school have developed ICT. The Case Study includes samples of work and some example policies for schools to use. We’re extremely proud and pleased to announce that Digitalme has won a substantial grant from The Nominet Trust, the internet safety and education charity. With this new stream of funding we can support 10 Local Authorities or Federations of schools with the dissemination of Safe – to put forward your LA or Federation for the roll out email hello@digitalme.co.uk. Choices is an e-safety film for young people, which forms part of a comprehensive e-safety pack. Following the on-line exploits of Chloe and her mum, the film centres around the activities and choices that many of our teenagers make and deal with on an everyday basis. Written, acted and directed by industry professionals, the whole process has involved the young people from Darlington secondary schools throughout. The film won our Creative Digital Media category at the 2010 Northern Grid ICT in Education Awards this year! After months of planning, doing and polishing, Choices is now a "wrap!" The film package, including a framework of teaching and learning materials with over 60 lessons for students from EYFS to KS4/5 sourced from best practice providers, is priced at £45, inc VAT Discounts are available as follows: CEOP and Facebook have developed a new free application that will make young people safer within Facebook. ClickCEOP is a new app which links the young user and parent directly from their Facebook home page to help, advice and reporting facilities of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre The 'CLickCEOP' app is a three stage application that asks young people to: By adding the app, young people and parents can get support from CEOP on a range of issues - viruses, hacking, dealing with bullying online and they can report someone who is acting inappropriately towards them online. The app is the outcome of collaboration between CEOP and Facebook who have combined Facebook's expertise in connecting and communicating online with CEOP's expertise in helping young people stay safe. Once added to their profiles, young users will receive regular messages from CEOP and its partner organisations who operate 'behind the button' to make children safer. CEOP's new Facebook page ClickCEOP will also contain... |
3 October 2011
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Staff from Archibald First School attended the Northern Grid Conference in June and were impressed by the work other schools were doing with Blogs. They filled in a support voucher on the day which entitled them to a 2 hour support session from a member of the Northern Grid eLearning team. 
Facebook has made further changes to the privacy settings and here is a clear and easy to understand summary of the new privacy options and features.
