How cyber-safe and savvy are you?

     Cyber-bullying is an issue that has received much attention from the media, from concerned parents and schools alike, and for good reason. The level of access that today’s young people have to technology is unparalleled, and unfortunately lends itself towards greater instances of negative interactions online.

     Is cyber-bullying worse than traditional bullying? Many would argue that it is, but I feel that this is only because it is a relatively new phenomenon that society has not adjusted to yet. Many policies exist for traditional bullying, and so children are able to play in the playground, walk to and from school and play in the park on weekends – although all of these provide the potential opportunity for them to be bullied. Adults feel confident knowing that students and authorities are aware of bullying, and that there are policies in place.

     The same cannot always be said for cyber-bullying, which remains an unknown grey area for many students, teachers and parents. As many adults have not grown up with this as a personal threat, they feel unequipped to manage it. This is beginning to change, as more is done to understand and prevent this damaging form of bullying.

     Dr Hinduja and Dr Patchin have released an easy to access and understand guide, Preventing Cyberbullying; Top Ten Tips for Educators. If followed, these simple tips will allow students to access the Internet, and thus learn from it, whilst remaining safe and respectful. Another great website which a guest lecturer showed us in class is icybersafe.com that teachers can use to remain up-to-date with the latest information, as well as providing them with video clips useful to show to students.

     It is important to equip students to be able to safely and confidently use the Internet, as it will be an increasingly important aspect of their everyday lives.

Thanks for Flickr for Image: 'MobilePhone' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8935385@N02/567270484

Crossing the Digital Divide

     The use of technology in the classroom presents teachers with a minefield of ethical issues, which we are required to navigate our way through. One of those issues to be conquered is the digital divide. The Internet and other technologies can be divisive in many ways, with differences arising between different groups of people. There are barriers between the young and the old, between the 'haves' (with access to technology) and the 'have-nots', between the web-confident and the web-restricted. 

     As primary school teachers, our students will be much younger than us and will grow up taking for granted technology that is new to us. For this, we will need to be actively involved in keeping up to date with the latest technology, in order to stay on par (if not a step ahead of) our students.

     Addressing the issue of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is more perhaps more difficult, but there are strategies that can be put in place. The classroom could be left open at lunchtime to allow particular students to have access to the computer, or schools may set up an optional afterschool computer club. Carefully chosen students could be matched with students who have less access to technology so that peer learning can occur.

     Which of these ideas would you use in your classroom? What other ideas are there?

Thanks to Flickr for Image: 'I've reached the end of the world' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00/3410783929

Is danger a deal breaker?

     Sitting is class today has made me reflect on the potential dangers of the Internet, and unfortunately there are many of them. So it begs the question, is danger a deal breaker?

     As with anything, use of the Internet must be considered by weighing the potential benefits of technology with the harm that may arise from its use. Can we prevent those problems by using foresight to predict what may go wrong? How do we manage situations when cyberspace does become dangerous or harmful to our students?

     To keep this in perspective, we need to consider another example. Are there risks of driving around in the car? Yes, and plenty of them, but this doesn’t mean we stop using cars, but we try to minimize risk. We wear our seatbelts, we stick to the speed limits, laws are in place to ensure people act appropriately, and car manufacturers are constantly coming up with new features to keep road users safe.

     Use of the Internet, especially for children, needs the same diligence, and a few essentials that have stuck with me are as follows:

1. Preventative programs are vital! This means teaching the students what is appropriate, safe and respectful behaviour online, and what to do when faced with an unsafe situation.

2. A policy must be in place that explicitly says what is acceptable, what is unacceptable, and what the consequences of breaking the policy will be.

3. Parents need to be involved in this process, as many children have access to the Internet from home. It would be great for schools to run programs for parents to teach them how to monitor children's Internet access and how to keep them safe. (I was really impressed that at my prac school, they ran an afternoon IT session for parents every week to give them skills, which would in turn allow them to keep up with their children better. Let's not forget that these poor digital immigrants need all the help they can get!)
     We watched this great clip in class... wouldn't it be effective to show to a stage 3 class to prompt thought and discussion around digital identities?

Thanks for Flickr for Image: 'I most certainly DID...!' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66606673@N00/4016377260

Never Underestimate The Students!

     What an inspirational blog post by Murray about teen blogger, Tavi Gevinson. Children are constantly underestimated and seen as powerless in society today. We forget about what they can achieve when they are engaged and provided with the tools to create something of their own. It’s great to be reminded of the impact that they can make.

     Tavi Gevinson is a fashion blogger, who has an audience of 50, 000 views every day. Her blog has led her to be featured in multiple huge publications and achieve worldwide fame. All by the age of just 14.

    This is the world of opportunities that Web2.0 is creating for young people! They don’t need computer science degrees to get their voices out onto a public forum, and they can write about what they feel passionate about, when they feel inspired to do it. I whole-heartedly agree with Murray – if Tavi can reach such a huge audience and have this impact on people, what’s to say one of your students can’t do the same? Stories like this remind me that we have an obligation to teach our children well in all areas of the curriculum, including IT, so they can have as many options as possible open and available to them.

Thanks to Flickr for Image: 'A Superhero' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22841923@N02/3899847370

Success! Students burst into Stardom!

    What a lesson! Today gave me such a boost, as I taught a small group of students in my prac class how to create their own podcast. This lesson was an extension on the work they had previously done as part of a unit on Antarctica. They'd learnt about why it is so cold, the effects of the cold and how to combat these. The students had written their own script for a radio program to demonstrate everything they had learnt. I had successfully integrated English, HSIE and science, but decided to go one step further and throw some technology into the mix. After taking a deep breath, and quickly reminding myself how to record the podcast, I arrived in class, armed and ready with my MacBook. 

     Let me tell you - I could not have underestimated the excitement that this lesson would cause any more! Phenomenal! The class haven't had many chances to do this kind of work, and they were thrilled. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, and it being my final day of prac, I could only work with a small group and not the whole class.

     The three girls I worked with thoroughly enjoyed the project, picked up the technicalities of what needed to happen for the recording to take place quickly, and helped each other learn about Garage Band. I got permission from my teacher to upload it onto YouTube (of course with no names or faces shown!) so that the students could have a copy of it, and show it to their friends and family. And it means that you can enjoy it too - check it out below!

     Overall, I was really please with the activity, which I felt was cooperative and constructive, built on their existing IT skills and challenged them. The fact that they had a real audience (the whole wide world is potentially at their fingertips!) who may view it, made the students take it seriously, and they spent some time considering exactly what they wanted in the script before recording. I will definitely used this method of teaching in the future!

Thanks to flickr for images.

 Image: 'Nature Antarctica 14' http://www.flickr.com/photos/28261360@N06/2724062483

Image: 'Our precious Earth.' http://www.flickr.com/photos/22607885@N08/4769855544

Computers monotonous for some, magic for others.

     This weeks computer lesson that I observed was carried out in the same format as the previous one, and I have noticed that for many students this seems monotonous. I was disappointed to see such a potentially engaging anf motivating lesson have such little impact. The students were this time learning about formatting tables in a word document. Many of my university peers struggle with some of these functions, so even though I thought it was potentially dull, it is important for students to be familiar with.

     They were shown a demonstration and then had a chance to practise inserting pre-existing tables (like calendars) into a document and also creating their own. They looked at changing cell alignment, the appearance of lines, thickness and line style, the shading of cells, changing text orientation, changing the width of columns, etc. There was no particular goal or finished product at the end of the lesson but students were given the time to explore freely on their own. There were mixed results because of this - some students didn't achieve much at all during the lesson, and mucked around, whilst others really did a lot!

     After each lesson, the students save their work in a folder, so the teacher can visit all their work and assess the progress being made and skills being developed. The layout of the room and the style of the teacher resulted in many instances of peer-to-peer teaching, which I thought was wonderful.

     Whilst some students in the class seemed obviously computer-savvy, all the students in the class were able to participate and complete the activities. No one struggled at all with the lessons, which may be an indication that more challenging activities were needed for some, if not all, students. To find out what the students thought about the lessons, I spoke to them afterwards during the walk to the next class and also over the next few days. Whilst all agreed that they enjoyed the lesson, it was clear the some had skills that extended much further beyond this level. A group of three boys in the class explained to me a game that they were creating on their own at home. They were using a website to create a MMORPG! Don't you know what that is? Nor did I, but I discovered it is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game that involved various characters, multiple players and a little bit of magic thrown in. Not only were they making a game that contained magic elements, but it was clear from the discussion that the process of creating the game was actually a little bit of pure magic for them. The mostly reserved, shy boy in the group spoke animatedly about the project with obvious passion. So the question remains... how do we use computers in the classroom to spread this magic, and create authentic learning experiences..? Next week I will have the chance to work with a small group of students on a constructionist learning activity... Stay tuned to hear if the result is magic or monotony!

Thanks to flickr for image: 'untitled' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65414509@N00/2819175465

Thanks for flickr for image: 'Super Wizard Boy ~ Day 3/365'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18234353@N08/3188774118

Which font fits? Creative expression via fabulous fonts.

     Today I witnessed a computer lesson that my prac students participated in. They have this class once a week for 40 minutes. The lessons are taught by a specialist teacher, while the regular classroom teacher has RFF time.

     My first impressions of the classroom are vivid! The students walk into the darkened room, and walk underneath a magical awning – a web of fairy lights just inside the doorway above their heads, with shiny CDs hanging down. I loved this bright and appealing display, and was impressed by the way it jazzes up a type of room that (to be perfectly honest) is often very boring.

     The room was filled with about 30 computers – enough for one each child to have their own. The teacher also has a designated computer linked to a projector, so anything performed on it can be projected immediately onto a huge space on the wall. There was also a large space on the floor so all the children can sit down.
    The structure of the room enabled lessons to be taught smoothly. They began with an introduction and demonstration from the teacher, while students were sitting on the floor. If I was ever teaching a similar lesson, I would try to do the same thing, because children cannot help but want to play on the computers as soon as they are within arms reach! This strategy reduces that urge by removing the distraction so they can watch the demonstration and hear instructions.

     The activity that the student were learning about was using different websites (such as Cool Text and also The Graffiti Creator) on the internet to create word art. They were shown each of the different sites, and some of the options available to play around with. They end product was a poster, which had used their creativity to display their own name written as least 8 times and in different ways.

     The lesson was well managed, by providing students with a list of links to the various websites they would need to visit, which saved a lot of time that would be wasted on typing in long URLs so it was instead used on practising the real skills.

     The skill set being practised is quite basic, but builds important skills that students will need to complete other assignments, especially being able to navigate around websites, and recognise the way they are set up. It also linked to other skills like copying and pasting, using word documents to format the orientation, wrapping, order and cropping of images. Importantly, students learnt and practised the ‘undo’ function on word, which is essential so that they are able to try new features without fear of losing all their existing work! 

Thanks to flickr for Image: 'fairy lights' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49441411@N03/5022676032

Not so cool... where's the IT in this school?

     Back on prac, in the classroom, and I am a little shocked! My lovely year six class are in a brand-spanking new room nicely decked out, but missing one key feature; there is very little technology available to the teacher or the students.

     The class has no interactive whiteboard, although apparently this is on the way, to be delivered some time in the near future. The teacher has access to one laptop at her desk, but there are not many opportunities within normal class time for students to be engaged with technologies and computers. There are 3 computers in a small room which is shared with the classroom next door that they can use if directed by the teacher. So thats, 3 computers per 60 students. My impression from talking to my teacher is that these are not frequently used, as it is difficult for everyone to have a turn (either they rotate and all miss out on other important lessons, or is it for fast finishers, which is generally always the same small bunch of students).

     This is a little disappointing after discovering the array of fantastic resources I had been informed about rorm my peers a few weeks ago, which I had envisaged myself using on an interactive whiteboard, but never mind – I shall do the best I can!

     However, all is not bleak. I am not quite left with just a pre-historic stone tablet and chisel. The good news is, the students do have a specific computer class, which they do for 40mins each week, that I will be given a chance to observe later in the week. I will report on that when I know more!

Thanks to flickr for image '20070721-01-0080' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86533211@N00/868535909