What curriculum areas does this resource cover? The main focus of this resource is aiming to educate students between a foundation and year 2 level in (ACARA, 2015): Digital Technologies - Digital Technologies Process and Production Skills Explore how people safely use common information systems to meet information, communication and recreation needs (ACTDIP005).

Cross Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities The following pages also outline the cross curriculum priorities and general capabilities that are catered for during the use of this resources (ACARA, 2015).

Why is safety in use of ICTs so important for students? It is the responsibility of schools to provide safe, respectful and caring learning environments, which are often online. Students use ICTs at school, personally and beyond their school lives. Students need to understand certain social protocols and appropriate actions in use of ICTs. Safety of sharing personal information and power of the internet (Department of Education and Training, 2012).

Introducing Internet Safety (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2011)

Introducing Ergonomic Practices (Watkins, 2011)

Interactive Activities for Your Classroom On the following pages there are outlines for a couple of activities/projects that can be undertaken in your classroom and adapted to suit your students abilities and needs, as well as the socio-economic capability of the school. Both of these activities are designed to be interesting to students and provide real life experiences with different ICTs, their purposes and benefits, whilst also engaging students with the concept of online safety.

An Interesting ‘Google’ Activity Do some prior research yourself before engaging in this activity with students. Ask for some prior knowledge from students about Google. What does it do? What can it help you with? As a whole class using interactive whiteboard or projector screen, or individually choose someone in the famous or in the spotlight to ‘Google’. Students take notes about what information they find out about the person by doing this. Discuss as a whole class the benefits and consequences of sharing certain information online and what is appropriate. As a whole class create a set of rules about what information should and should not be shared in online environments.

Ideas for adapting this to your classroom… Your students are very capable with ICTs- allow them to under go this activity individually and take notes to come back and share with the entire class. Your school does not have access to large amounts of computers at once- do the activity as a whole class, if you do not have a projector screen invite students to the front of the classroom to read and share something. You have students in your class who are not highly capable with ICTs- do the activity as a whole class, then allow the more capable students to have a go on their own computers, while the less capable students join as a group to do the activity a second time with the teacher’s assistance

Classroom Skype Account Go to the following website to set up a classroom Skype account: do-i-join-skypehttps://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10184/how- do-i-join-skype Network with a school in a different country, preferably in Asia (Cross Curriculum Priority), and set up opportunities for students to engage in Skype conversations etc. with students from that school be mindful that students from the other school do speak English.

Learning from Skype Students have already learnt in the previous activity what personal information is appropriate to share online. This allows students with the opportunity to explore how ICTs can be used in a variety of ways for recreational and communication purposes. Students are given the opportunity to explore the features of Skype and their different purposes such as instant messaging, video calls, voice calls, sending of images and files etc. This activity can easily be included in an English unit and allows for the inclusion of General Capabilities including Literacy, Information and Communication Technologies Capability and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Ideas for adapting this to your classroom You have a computer in your classroom- Student can be allocated set times to use the Skype account and communicate with a student from the other school during normal class time (Teacher to negotiate these times with other classroom teacher). You do not have a computer in your classroom, only in computer labs- Students all engage with a student from the other school at the same time. Students do not have permission to talk to a student from another school- set up a buddy classroom with another class in your school and perform the activity/project in the same manner. Students are not confident using the computer on their own- pair students who aren’t confident using the computer on their own with one of their peers who is, to work as a peer mentor.

Have fun exploring ICTs together with your class!

References ACARA. (2015). Technologies. Retrieved from Department of Education and Training. (2012). Ethical and Safe Online Communication. Retrieved from communication.aspx communication.aspx Indiana University of Pennsylvania. (2011). Internet Safety for Kids P-3. Retrieved from Skype. (2015). How do I join Skype?. Retrieved from Watkins, S. (2011). Laptop Ergonomics- Basic Tips. Retrieved from