Part of the requirement of my University’s computing course is to stay up to date when it comes to trends pertinent to the subject (as is the case with any subject, actually). There are two examples of lessons we as teachers must be aware of from the recent news.
The first is the Katie Hopkins libel case. I will not go into too much detail here, but essentially, she said some untruths in quite a hurtful way about a food blogger. This food blogger took her to court, arguing that defamation of character had taken place, and Ms Hopkins was ordered to pay a substantial sum of money in damages. This case illustrates that we must be responsible about what we say on Social Media, as we would be with the spoken word. A computer screen is not something you can hide behind. The second example of e-safety issues in the news is this story about “Blue Whale”, a suicide game behind the deaths of hundreds of teenagers, mostly in Eastern Europe. The game, according to this article, “encourages at-risk participants to take part in a series of tasks like cutting themselves every day for 50 days”. Obviously, this is a massive concern, particularly at the top end of Primary School, where children may be more impressionable to material on the internet (combined with less rigorous checking from parents). We must be able to spot these signs.
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First it is worth noting that not all schools have a favourable opinion to children/classes blogging or tweeting, citing safeguarding issues and noting some of my findings from my post on internet safety. As most social networks have a minimum age limit of 13 (including Twitter), these views could be warranted. That said, with parental permission, and under the guidance of a professional teacher who understands how to deliver a rigorous computing curriculum (computing, of course, being a national curriculum subject), it might be acceptable to the school… or even, dare I say it, celebrated.
There are arguments that blogging is beneficial to children in various ways. Firstly, there is the computing skills learned – how to manage a website or microblog. Then, there is writing for an authentic audience which can be very motivational – more than just the class teacher will see it, therefore it is a real, important piece of writing that is ‘out there’ in the big wide world. Also related to literacy, it can help children to engage with English in a way they wouldn’t normally, spotting and using features of ‘good’ writing. The website, “Teacher Challenges”, has an excellent guide for setting up a class blog. It tells you how to create one, edit it, and polish it to look professional. If you are looking to set up a blog, I would recommend the site I am using to host Primary Newbie – Weebly. Finally, some tips for Tweeting.
The Primary Newbie Twitter account is here. Give me a follow if you are so inclined! I have now completed the mandatory Internet safety module on the University’s Blackboard page.
One thing that drew my eye was the key stage 1 friendly (and I suppose early ks2) Think U Know videos which help to enhance the digital literacy of 5-7 year olds. One of them, “Lee and Kim’s Adventure”, explored the dangers of giving too much information to people that you do not know personally offline. By showing how they can be tricked when playing a game by somebody pretending to be a child, it was exploring a heavy message that was delivered sensitively. The featuring of a wise superhero character who sang a song at the end was a good move as it prevented the piece from causing upset and anguish to its young audience. In order to take this e-safety module further in the classroom, Blackboard suggested turning the videos into short mini-dramas. Having recently explored drama in the classroom, I’d also suggest that this is an area that conscience-alley or freeze framing could work well in. GPP (That's 'Guided Professional Placement' to the uninitiated) has begun and with it there are new technologies to get my head around.
The first thing I'd like to mention is that the school I am at in Salford takes its safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. The school is aware of the importance of joined up thinking when it comes to the protection of the children in its care, and as such has signed up to a website called "My Concern". This website is a superb way of ensuring that when it comes to child protection, everybody has access to relevant information. Let me give you a for instance (and, just for the record, this is a completely fictional example). Imagine a nine year old called Aaron has arrived for school on Monday morning with a pronounced limp. On further examination you notice a bit of bruising on his leg. Now, it may be nothing to worry about; you know that Aaron likes sport and he may have simply strained it at the weekend during a match (to be fair, this is the likeliest explanation). But, on the other hand, this may be a significant puzzle piece in a wider jigsaw that points towards child abuse at home. By reporting it on My Concern you ensure that the headteacher, his GP, his social worker, and any other party relevant to that child's wellbeing is aware of the puzzle piece. If it is of no consequence then fine, but if it is then you may have just helped to prevent further violence towards an abused party. I think My Concern is brilliant, and I'd encourage all schools (and any area of society that work with children) to sign up for it. A second technology I have seen used by my mentor is a piece of PE assessment software* for the iPad. In short, this software allows the user to photograph children during specific activities (selectable from a drop down menu), tag them by name, and mark down whether they have achieved, partially achieved or not achieved the lesson objective. This data is then all collated and is accessible by the headteacher. I feel this is a great part of the drive to boost the status of PE in English schools, and I'm all for it. Next up, I will blog about the pick and mix computing modules from my university's computing programme. * I will blog further about this software in the future when I can take some screenshots of the user interface. |
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