Cyber Safety

What’s the power of ‘Online Games’ over our students? Why do they like playing these games? Who are the students who prefer learning through ICT than through other teaching tools? When do students spend time online? Where do students access the internet or web? Which sites are more interesting to students? How do students access the information available to them on the Net?

As teachers have we asked ourselves these questions? What are we doing to protect our students from ‘Cyber Bullying’, ‘Paedophiles’ and other dangerous elements out in the Cyber world? Are we doing our utmost in terms of ‘Duty of Care’ or are we turning a blind eye to our students’ safety once we leave school?



At MacLeod College, I had the opportunity to sit through a presentation by a DEECD trainer on ‘Web Safety for Students’. That was an ‘eye-opener’ or should I say ‘eye-popper’ for me. I never knew words like ‘sex-ting’, ‘flashing’, etc. Neither did I know that most students as young as 13 have a Facebook account. The first question that popped into my mind was, “Why would these kids need a Facebook account?” I can understand adults wanting to keep in touch with each other since they live in busy worlds or worlds apart. But why would students who see each other every day want a ‘Social Network’ address?

The answer lies in the question. Students now want to ‘socialise’ at all times since they feel isolated and lonely. The following reasons were given by students for being on the Net at unearthly hours:
- Need to socialise
- Need for a new identity
- Need to escape from family- or school- related problems
- Feeling of power over one’s destiny
- Feeling of power over another person

I don’t know whether the students realised the importance of protecting themselves, but I sure understood the importance of protecting them. My father says, “Children will be children because they believe that the adults will protect them at all times.” I believe in what he says. It is our duty to protect the students who come to us for education or learning of ‘life skills’.

I believe in what Greg said in his presentation on ‘Protection of students online’. I will be following the same process to ensure that my future students are aware of the dangers out there on the Net. I know that it is not possible to prevent them from using the Net. But it is possible to create an awareness of how to protect themselves from ‘Cyber Crimes’.

The process is as follows:
Lead: Through cyber policies and procedures, help students to understand the importance of protecting themselves. These policies and procedures need to be in place before students and staff can access information using the school’s network system.

Educate: This is done through presentations, discussions, constant reminders, brochures, posters etc that will help them to question themselves and their actions. As teachers we need to remember that we are responsible for the safety of our students.

Manage: It is imperative that we manage our network systems. For this to happen, we would need an excellent ICT support system in place. Also, we would need to educate our students on appropriate and inappropriate websites, pictures, advertisements, etc so that they can keep us informed if any inappropriate material gets through the ‘Firewalls’ and other ‘Spam S/W’.
Also, we would require a support system in terms of counselling if students access information that is inappropriate using the school’s network systems.

Support: Provide adequate support in terms of S/W and H/W knowledge and use to students, staff, parents and other members of the education community so that every one’s aware of technology that students may or may not access while learning. As teachers it is imperative that we are aware of not only ‘learning based S/W and H/W’ but also other S/W and H/W dealing with games, social websites, etc so as to have a heads-up on what our students access.

Empower: ‘Knowledge is empowerment’. As stated above, “it is imperative that we are aware of what our students’ access”. Constant updates on information, PD’s on Cyber information, discussions, etc can empower teachers, parents and students to become aware of how to use the Net safely.

Participate: It is important the not only students and staff but also other members of the community such as parents are aware of the internet, intranet and ultranet. Awareness is the key to knowing how to use the cyber resources available to them in a responsible manner.

At the end of the day, as teachers, we can only hope that students and parents realise the dangers out there in the Cyber world. This realisation will create awareness on how to use the Net in a safe manner. The policies and procedures set in place for Cyber use are not there to deter people from the Net but are there to ensure that they have the upper-hand at all times when it comes to being tech-savvy.

Wanna Publish – Then Paint

“A picture conveys more than what a thousand words can say”.

But imagine if there were no pictures. How would one convey the information that one wants to? This is how I felt when I realised that I could not upload the pictures that I have onto my blog directly. Neither did I know how to upload pictures. You see, when it comes to technology, I am not very bright. I am one of those people who thinks that she will have to go to the same cyber café where she first opened a ‘hotmail’ account since it is not accessible anywhere else.

By now you must have realised how tech-savvy I am. And to add further to my bruised self-confidence, I am training to be a teacher in a country where every thing is based on computers. The first thing that Greg spoke about during our workshop was creating a blog. Then he spoke about adding pictures. By then I think I had passed out from sheer terror. However, I have noticed that Greg always follows what he preaches (thanks for small mercies). So, not only did he speak to us about following the integrated inquiry planning stages, but also ensured that he followed them during the workshops.

So, the first thing that I got to learn was that I had to create a blog and add pictures. The second step was getting us to find out more about this. So, I spent some time looking at the blog website and feeling sorry for myself. By then I had decided that my classmates were talking in a language that I did not fully comprehend what with all the ‘blog postings’, ‘cyber safety’, ‘privacy settings’ and other jargon floating around the workshop.

But then I had nothing to fear since help was at hand. When we had done all that we could to ‘find out’ more about blogs, Greg got us to discuss our findings. The more I listened to my classmates, the less scared I was about the entire workshop. Indeed, I think it was during this stage that I had decided I would work on the blog rather than create another ‘WebQuest’ for this paper.

Once I had got over the fear, I got down to writing about ‘Inspiration’ tools and had even created a ‘Concept Map’ on ‘Inspiration Tools’. But I had still not figured out how to add this on to my blog post. Greg then got us to follow the below steps to publish our pictures. The steps are as follows:
1)Choose the picture that you would like to post and align it carefully on the screen so that it is visible
2)Use the ‘PrtScrn’ tab on the keyboard to take a snapshot of the screen
3)Open a new MS Paint document and paste the snapshot of the screen on to the document using the command ‘CTRL + V’
4)Delete those sections that are not required
5)Save your picture and automatically the document will be converted into a .JPG file
6)Upload your picture using the ‘upload’ tab on your blog
7)Align the pictures so as to increase aesthetic appeal
8)Post your information onto your blog

Once we had completed the ‘Going Further’ stage, Greg got us to discuss further about the use of MS Paint and Blogs in schools in the ‘Making Conclusions’ stage. We then spent time discussing how we could take it further for teaching purposes in the ‘Taking Action’ stage.

Now, I sound like a pro when it comes to using MS Paint for publishing pictures on my blog. I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn so much about blogs and MS Paint because it helped me to help my students when I was on my practicum at MacLeod College. Indeed, I follow the same planning stages as stated by Greg in my classes as it helps students to gain knowledge and understanding at a pace that is comfortable to each one of them.

Mathematics in Excel

Microsoft Excel is a Windows spreadsheet application that is used mainly for mathematical purposes. MS Excel is used by accountants, financial analysts, data entry operators and quality management analysts for statistical analyses and interpretation. This is how I perceived MS Excel as. That was before I got to see its use in our work shop and at MacLeod College.

The first time I became aware of how I could use MS Excel in teaching was during the ‘M&M Data analyses’ exercise that was done by Greg in our work shop. I had fun not only speculating on how many colours there might be in the box but also in predicting how many would there be in each colour. All the speculation and prediction did not help me in coming anywhere close to the original colours or numbers.

During this exercise I was wondering what the connection was between the M&M’s and the use of computers. It was then that Greg asked us to create a bar diagram using MS Excel based on our findings. I realised that I could create two diagrams, i.e. one that would show my prediction and another one that would show the findings.

It is important that as a teacher, we should scaffold learning so that every student is comfortable with using technology responsibly and to its maximum potential. This can be done in the following way:
Step 1: Explain the features of the software
Step 2: Provide examples
Step 3: Allow students to experiment with the software and its features
Step 4: Give students an activity that will allow them to use the software
Step 5: Bring students back for a time of sharing and peer correction
Step 6: Give students a platform to show-case their work
Once this is done, students will find it easier to work on any software.

MS Excel is easy to use as it has been created to be user-friendly. However, when I went to MacLeod College, I was in for a surprise. MacLeod College uses MacBooks and Apple computers. They even have NetBooks. Indeed, they use a PDA to mark attendance every day. I was amazed at the technology that was available to the students and staff in this school. I had to re-learn the software available on MacBooks before I could get the students to work on the systems, especially since I had no notion of what software was available on Apple computers.

However, I shall come back to talking about the use of MS Excel in schools or rather in MacLeod College. The students here were very tech-savvy. They used computers to not only create brochures, posters (using MS Publisher) but also were comfortable creating Podcasts, mini-movies, etc.

I have seen them using MS Excel to explain tessellations that were based on placing biscuits and wafers on graph sheets. Also, they have used MS Excel in their integrated class on ‘Natural Disasters’. I had asked them to create a bar diagram on the number of ‘Natural Disasters’ that had hit Australia between 1980 and 2010.

The great thing about allowing students to use technology is that they can become independent learners. However, I have to issue a word of warning since I learnt this the hard way. Not all students will work on the computer responsibly. I had allowed a student access to a Netbook so that he could create a poster. Later I found him playing ‘Solitaire’ rather than working on the poster. So, be it using MS Excel or creating a poster using MS Publisher, we as teachers have to ensure that our students use the technology available to them in a responsible manner. But that is a one-off incident and so should not deter teachers from using the technology available to them to improve learning amongst their students.