W:
edtechnology.co.uk | T: @Educ_Technology
“Distraction was seen to be a potential drawback when our research schools first rolled out tablets”
teaching their students about online safety. 90% of primary and secondary school pupils say their school talks to them about being safe online. However, half of secondary pupils and over a quarter of primary students have communicated with strangers when using social media and 30% of secondary pupils and over a quarter of primary pupils have experienced something online that concerned or upset them. It’s true that security and e-safety has been a
concern, and it is still a primary concern with parents. However, recent research shows that kids are much more savvy in this regard than we think. Also, through publishing our research and making it widely available, we aim to enable students and teachers to learn from each other and reduce the risk to young people. Peer-to-peer advice is extremely powerful, as can be seen by the popularity of our internet safety poster based on advice from over 5,000 students.
JR: Within school, we have built e-safety into our curriculum and discuss it with children in lessons and in assemblies. Our older children have had specific lessons on e-safety and we ensure that we have some posters emphasising the need for caution in our IT room. The local community police officer comes in and does a talk each year with year 6 and this is always well received by the children. Nonetheless, the biggest factor for us is the overall expectation on behaviour that we instil in our children and the ethos of the school that we create. Outside of school is more difficult. We do try and
work with parents and have regular workshops about supporting children at home that includes discussion on internet use and supervision. However, one has to be careful not to make assumptions about families from different socio-economic backgrounds and one also has to be wary of trying to impose a set of ‘middle class values’ that in themselves may be flawed.
students and technology investments.
NM: We adopt a proactive approach to e-safety and try to take every opportunity to reinforce learning and good practice in this area. As well as using acceptable use policies with students and families we encourage students and parents to consider the issues. We have writen and shared e-safety courses for students and parents through our iTunes U site. The courses bring together practical advice and guidance from a range of experts and are the focus of work in our tutorial programme. We monitor internet use across our site through a mobile device management system which gives us clear information about what students are accessing and how they are using the technology. We encourage responsibility in the use of the technology at school and outside school but we also take a proactive approach to monitoring it.
MP: Our recent research with 7,443 students showed that schools using tablets are doing a great job of
MY: The risks are the same whether a child is using his own mobile or a school-supplied device. They haven’t changed. 1:1 devices can be managed using software which
prevents pupils from accessing content and networks, but staff training and understanding is a big part of combating e-safety too. Can every school realistically implement 1:1 tablet
schemes, and do you think they will become a permanent fixture in our schools?
NH: Mobile technology will be a part of the learning experience in schools regardless of whether it originates from the district side or by virtue of students bringing their own devices to school. The challenge becomes one of equality – how do we ensure all students have access to these empowering technologies? It’s up to educators and the technology industry as a whole to rally around innovative programs focused on ensuring equal access for all students. NM: We strongly believe that the use of iPads in our
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