EDUC-3628 Responsible, Safe and Ethical use of ICT at school and home

To all parents/carers with students in class 8B,

(Alison, 2016)

As I am sure you are well aware, as most of your kids probably have electronic devices and already surf the internet, but we now live in a society that is practically run by technology and therefore the internet. Although the internet is a wonderful tool to source information about anything and also now with social networking to reach out to friends anyway at any time, us as a school community (teachers, parents and students) need to be aware of the downfalls that are associated with it, children are accessing the internet younger and younger and able to access and share information that might be misleading or inappropriate. When they are laying on the couch or in their room a week after they have just received an IPad for their birthday the search opportunities or what they can say or send to a friend are endless. It is our job as teachers and parents/carers to educate and train the students on the crucial fundamentals on using ICT, so they use it safely, responsibly and ethically.

When the students return from their mid semester break in pairs they will be asked to research their favorite sportsperson, which will be put into a blog and then be later presented to the class. To complete this task the internet is going to be the main source to gather information, but it will also be used to present the task as they have to display it on a blog. I value this research task highly as it incorporates PE (sportsperson), English (speaking/communicating) and ICT (research/blog) all into one task. But the main focus upon this task is the ICT capability, as this is 1 of the 7 general capabilities under the newly reformed Australian Curriculum, which is then divided into 5 strands investigating with ICT, creating with ICT, communicating with ICT and managing and operating ICT (ACARA, 2016), which can be seen in the image below, and as stated above ICT is vastly becoming a perquisite in today’s job industry and society. To get you involved as parents with the process and to make sure the students are still using ICT safely, responsibly and ethically at home, you will be able to access your child’s/children’s research project.

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/information-and-communication-technology-capability/introduction/introduction

Being on the internet these days often means using some form of social networking, there are many different forms such as Facebook, Instagram, snapchat and twitter (these are the main ones). These sites allow for communication between any individuals or groups of people, you may not even know the person you are speaking to on the other end. Before commencing the research project I will make the students look through this website http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/ and encourage you to become familiar with it as well. This is a great website with many modules for different age groups based around cyber bullying which is common on social media. Before you can become experts with the websites here are some quick tips to ensure your child/children is safe online: 

-Tell your child/children to think before they post something online, making sure it isn’t anything offensive, as taking something down can be a difficult task in some cases, once something is online it can be permanent

-Make sure their account is private, only certain people are then able to see their information

-Only let your child accept friend requests/followers under your supervision as people may not be who they say they are, this will eliminate strangers (Anon, 2016).

There are many computer hijackers/hackers out there that try and access the personal information you have stored on your computer, so not only do you have to make sure that your child is safe online you also have to make sure your computer is safe too. For this to occur you need to have a decent idea of how the internet and these hijackers work. Another website that we will look through in class is https://esafety.gov.au this website doesn’t necessarily have pages of written information like the first, but it has great hands on learning games that will give you and your children that understanding once you have played. Quick links to the resources can be found here. https://esafety.gov.au/education-resources/classroom-resources/games-and-quizzes https://esafety.gov.au/education-resources/classroom-resources/budde

Creative commons CC is an organization we need you and your children to gain a basic understanding of, as the students will be using other people’s work from online because it is legally theirs we need to get permission from them to use their work. This can be a long process at times to get into contact with them. By incorporating and understanding CC the students are able to access and use other people’s work from online legally, there is a link below which explains the different processes and rules associated with CC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YkbeycRa2A

For further videos which cover different areas about being online if you are a visual learner, please click the link below

http://ikeepsafe.org/videos/

EDUC3628-Responsible, Safe and Ethical use of ICT at school and home by Joab Mead is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Reference List

Alison, M. (2016). [image] Available at: http://www.allsaints.qld.edu.au/Events/Pages/CYBER-SAFETY.aspx [Accessed 14 Sep. 2016].

Anon, (2016). Parents’ guide to online safety. [online] Available at: http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/~/media/Cybersmart/Documents/Documents/Parents_guide_to_online_safety.pdf [Accessed 14 Sep. 2016].

Australiancurriculum.edu.au. (2016). Home - The Australian Curriculum v8.2. [online] Available at: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016].