Esafety – ‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.’

Tomorrow I am talking for 45 minutes to 150 Bed/PGCE students about E-safety, all my brief was or is to cover E-safety so this is the basis of my presentation – I will basically be adding it to slide share later.

The title of the presentation is based on the T.S Eliot quote:

‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.’

I want to strike the balance of showing them the potential dangers, pitfalls but to balance that with the amazing set of possibilities that technology can and is bringing to education.

We are the future

Here is the link to the full video featuring Sir Ken Robinson and Saltash.net

Check it out!

Don’t know where to start with E-safety

A good website is CEOP’s Think you know site, lots of games, resources and top tips for most age ranges:

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

Twitter

Here is the article from the BBC about teachers being warned about Twitter from Jim Docherty from the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association. In the article he is quoted as saying First thing is don’t bother telling anybody else about your social life. Nobody is interested about your social life and it doesn’t help. Secondly, never make any comment about your work, about your employer, about teaching issues in general. There is always a possibility it will be misinterpreted’

http://t.co/Nyn3jSAi

You may also like this article featuring me in the Times Education Supplement titled ‘I can’t live without twitter’

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6067115

Facebook

Here is the article in the guardian newspaper just before Christmas about the Head and a teacher from a primary school resigning their posts after pressure from parents regarding their conduct on Facebook.

http://t.co/ppMFf5sZ

As a school we have openly been using social networking as a way of making a marked contribution to the quality of the learning that takes place inside and outside the classroom. To do this though schools must invest time and support in educating children, teachers and parents how to use these tools responsibly and safely then trust them to do so. This article featuring Professor Stephen Heppell and myself highlights this argument:

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6068079

If you are looking for more classroom based research in to how to help implement social networking within your school then check out this free publication titled ‘Facebook as a Tool for Improving Student Outcomes’. It has been produced by Cornwall College and Cornwall Learning on behalf of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) for the Improving Teaching and Learning through Technology Project, my school features as the fourth case study; it can be viewed and downloaded here:

http://www.slideshare.net/rscsw/facing-up-to-facebook-issues-for-the-uses-of-facebook-with-1619-year-old-learnersa-research-based-exploration

Tips for Trainees

Don’t be afraid to take risks just use your common sense!

Safeguard yourselves and the young people you work with!

Work within the guidelines of your school context!

Don’t be afraid to challenge these guidelines (but in the right way)

Model appropriate online behaviour if you don’t do it who will?

Only use technology if it makes a marked contribution to the quality of learning that will take place!

Take a pledge to educate young people and the adults within your school communities to use technology responsibly!

Nourish and nurture your own professional development – sign up to twitter and start blogging!

10 Comments

on “Esafety – ‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.’
10 Comments on “Esafety – ‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.’
  1. You strike a good balance. It can be difficult getting the correct message across, that there is risk and danger, but there is even more good. All too often I have seen people raise awareness with children and adults that only talks about the bad parts, and I have witnessed many people be so scared that they won’t let their children use the computer/phone/playstation anymore. If there were only dangers none of us would be using technology.

  2. Thanks for your comments Alan, yes that is often the case that there is too much scare mongering that is why I spend more time on my presentation showing the great positive things then look at the dangers, pitfalls etc and then point them in the right direction. Thanks for your comments!

  3. Dan,
    Thanks for an excellent session this morning. I’m doing the GTP in RE at a school in Exeter and would love to use more ICT – simply beyond flashy presentation and media clips. I’m particularly interested in using social media and some of the great Web 2.0 tools out there to facilitate learning.

    One area of interest for me is how to manage the link between my blog (not educational focused, personal thoughts/reflections etc.) and my professional work. In other words, how I can reflect on my experiences without compromising my professionalism. Does that make sense?

    I’ve linked to you in a blog post…hope that’s ok!

    Thanks again for a great session,
    Martin

  4. Pingback: Day 3… | Missiome

  5. Thank you for your session this morning. It was refreshing and inspiring to see technology embraced so thoroughly and utilised so effectively.
    Whether “Digital Natives” or “Digital Immigrants” it is not possible to ignore the impact of technology without becoming obsolete ourselves.
    The challenge lies in utilising these new ways of working, whilst remaining focussed on the learning at hand, assuming society will give us that chance!

  6. I agree Simon, how are you finding the challenge in the schools that you have worked in so far? Thanks for the kind words about the presentation and dropping by!

  7. Hi Martin thank you for the feedback and I am glad you enhoyed the presentation. If you want some tips on web 2.0 tools you can check out my 1 minute weekly web wonders normally on fridays if you click on the tag you will find all the ones for this year so far: http://chickensaltash.edublogs.org/category/weekly-web-wonders/

    You can just add a tab or different part of the blog for your personal stuff or set up two blogs – I see you use wordpress if you use windows live writter (free to download) you can just write it on your laptop etc and then select which blog it posts to so allows you easily to manage multiple blogs. I think that you could possibly compromise your professionalism anyway if you do not consider what you put out there whether it is your personal blog or not, if it is on the internet it is for the world to see so could be potentially used against you. The recent news on the primary teachers was the comments were on their own personal FB accounts but someone got hold of them and made a complaint. I think as long as you use common sense you will be fine, people generally like to see a mix of professional and personal depends on you though what you want.

  8. Nothing is more important than keeping children safe. I have to admit getting annoyed, though, at the inconvenience of making students anonymous.

    My school website has so many firewalls, it takes no fewer than two passwords to get to any one school or email account. I look at student ePortfolio Google sites where students insert Google docs – and find that I (the teacher) don’t have permission to view some of my own students’ work. All permissions are pre-set to allow no outside viewing. The purpose of the ePortfolio is…???

    A few of my students have started their own blogs under the supervision of their parents because I couldn’t get approval to lead student work outside of the firewalls. These students have made some puppet shows they want to post. To do so, students need a YouTube account – permission for which requires all sorts of red tape.

    Am I naive to think that students would be equally safe if they only used first names online, included no personal pictures, and entered only family- or class-wide email addresses for login purposes?

  9. Hi Janet,
    Thanks or the comment sorry only just spotted this so apologies for taking so long to reply. First names are fine really but you must work within the parameters of the school and parents, ultimately safeguarding the students and you the teacher is the most important thing but with a bit of planning you can have amazing results and it won’t be too onerous. If you need any help or support let me know.

    Thanks for popping by 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *