Round FourA reflective description of the issues of safe use of technology to support learning:

The internet is a huge part of today’s society and children and adult’s lives, as teachers it is important for us to have an understanding of the potential dangers children may be exposed to. We should also be teaching children and parents about these dangers through talks, lessons, posters, leaflets and videos. There are many appropriate and interesting resources that schools and teachers can use to help teach children of the dangers of using the internet.

Some of the dangers of using the internet are Cyber-bullying, meeting strangers, inappropriate pictures and websites, addiction to games and social media and risks that personal information can be shared on social media, blogs and emails. It is important to stress the age limit on social media and that we should encourage children not to post personal information, pictures and to keep profiles private. People are not always who they say they are. Children need to understand that strangers on the internet may not be who they say they are. The BBC video ‘Internet safety: Caught in the Web - a Newsround Special’ we watched in our seminar would be a useful resource to use and show the children about cyber-bullying and meeting strangers online from social media and messaging sites.

The internet is a great resource that can be used within the classroom as long as it is used safely and effectively. Many schools have certain websites such as YouTube and social media sites blocked to enable children to freely explore and research. I have seen on placement when the children have

been doing research for a presentation or group assessment the teachers have given the children specific websites for the children to go on that were specific to their research. This prevented the children just trailing through websites where they could potentially stumble across inappropriate websites and pictures. Children can use technology in a number of ways to support their learning this includes research, taking pictures of work, videos, using educational websites and apps. Using technology is also a great way of showing children’s work or activities that they may not have written about in their books but shows a clear participation in their learning and

development. On previous school experience teachers have provided each group with one school tablet. With the tablets they have taken videos of role play and hot seating activities and have also taken pictures of freeze frames which they have then used in ICT to do captions and though bubbles for the pictures. This is a great example of how technology can be used safely.

Summary of Governmental source:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/251455/advice_on_child_internet_safety.pdf

This document draws together the most effective messages for keeping children safe online. It provides advice to parents, children and teachers on how to keep children safe across all online services. It discusses the potential risks such as cyber bullying, privacy, sexual images and more and provides advice on how to deal with any of the above scenarios. It contains some statistics of how many children have seen something upsetting, embarrassing or frightening whilst using the internet. There are further statistics in the risk section of this document about children the percentage of children who have experienced data misuse like identity theft etc…

Resources : For parents, teachers and children: http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/Makes the children share and net aware: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/Video on internet safety: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/13908828

Photos gathered from the internet from a variety of resources. (05/01/16)