Internet Safety Education in Schools Ruth Hammond

Key messages for today Issues and risks Role of the school/organisation Advice and guidance What do you need to do?

Two Key Beliefs The internet has the potential to transform teaching and learning. All of us involved in education have a duty of care to children. So protect and educate. effective solutions combine safe practices and safe systems.

Why use ICT? Professor Stephen Heppell, Director Ultralab “..the internet isn’t just a new form of digital television…”Stephen Heppell Learners who use ICT, and use it well, outperform their counterparts who do not. ImpaCT2 found that at KS2 this can be the equivalent of a whole term’s extra progress and at GCSE it can account for half an extra grade. Host of positive benefitsbenefits Children live in a world of ICT!

For young people ICT is not a novelty but the way they engage with their world 21 st century culture Communication via , chat rooms and message boards, IM, SMS, weblogs Entertainment – watching films on DVD, downloading music, playing games, taking, storage and retrieval of digital images. Education – research, word processing, data manipulation, modelling, design, creativity, recording thoughts Personal management – diary, appointment calendars and address books, alarm clock and personal reminders, finding the best party locations! For shopping

Why should I be concerned about e-safety? Every Child Matters: Change for children –Be healthy –Stay safe –Enjoy and achieve –Make a positive contribution –Achieve economic well-being Safeguarding Children in Education – Sept 2004 Practitioners need to know that ICT is safe if they are to take advantage of its benefits Schools have a duty of care - both inside and outside

What are the risks? Content Commerce Contact The ‘C’ of ICT is the most dangerous ie Communication which can lead to Contact Approx cases in the last 4 -5 years compared to 500 serious road casualties per year! Don’t concentrate on the dangers and forget the benefits ‘C’ is also for culture The biggest Internet danger is that we concentrate on the dangers and forget the benefits! Balance and perspective

What should schools be aware of? keeping personal information secret across all technologies – , chat, IM, mobile bullying across all technologies websites - spotting copycats - evaluating reliability/validity of information - identifiable/contactable/pupil addresses/images on web sites - accessing inappropriate web sites at school copyright and plagiarism viruses and spam via damage to network through downloading of files/viruses P2P networks - allow anyone to publish videos and large files to anyone who needs them eg Napster and Gnutella, music and porn! camera phones – pictures can give away info or be used for bullying 3G technology – access to internet anywhere, anytime data security However - ICT is the media not the cause

Issues for schools to consider Who is responsible for teaching e-safety? –In primary phase? –In secondary phase? –Whole school issue –Technological issues At what age should internet safety lessons start? How can parents be involved? What support is there in schools for teachers in the event of a ‘disclosure’? Advent of 3G and ‘mobile internet’ Protection for staff – AUP

What should schools be doing? Be alert to the possibilities! Provide: - Policies and procedures - Infrastructure - Education for staff, parents, students

What help is available? Main recommendations: E-safety co-ordinator Policy and management team Checklist to help develop a series of AUPs Incident log Advice and guidance Superhighway Safety web site shortly migrating to Becta’s Schools website

What help is available? Technological solutions ISP Safety site The Becta Accreditation of Internet Service to education scheme enables schools to purchase services from accredited suppliers that meet and maintain specific standards in content filtering and service performance. Now in its second round of accreditation

What help is available? Education and training The Internet Proficiency scheme for KS2 Signposts to Safety for KS3/4 NGfL ‘badged’ sites and Gridwatch Advice for parents and the wider community

Conclusions Key principles: the paramount importance of children’s safety the need to the need for schools to adopt solutions that combine a mix of technical approaches and safe practices set out in school policies and codes of practice that the issue can only be addressed by educators, the industry, parents and government working together the issue is one of good teaching, as much as it is about effective supervision.

What do you need to do? Remember the mantra –Policies –Infrastructure –User education Know what advice is available Plan how you will incorporate today’s messages back at school

Ruth Hammond British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) Millburn Hill Road Science Park Coventry CV4 7JJ Tel: Fax:

ICT – positive benefits contributes to raising standards across the curriculum – ImpaCT2 enhances the learning experience of pupils and improves the effectiveness of teaching allows pupils to engage with content visually, audibly and kinaesthetically – ie personalisation of learning experience revisit and repeat learning as required allows interactivity and communication opportunities reaches children that find traditional teaching methods ineffective or difficult removes tiresome tasks eg drafting and re-drafting, calculating results allows more time for higher order thinking skills eg analysis and interpretation of cause and effect, what if? takes learning beyond school day and school boundaries allows parental/carer involvement allows access to information, images, communication with a range of audiences, animation, video and collaborative endeavours difficult concepts or potentially dangerous scenarios can be experienced eg virtual reality tours and movies aids teacher assessment – automated marking and voting pads, recording and analysis of assessment data provides access to learning for those with special needs