Alex Isaachsen - Director of ICT

Supporting Children's Learning with ICT

ANYTHING INVENTED BEFORE YOU WERE BORNIS PART OF THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE.

ANYTHING INVENTED BEFORE YOU TURN 35 IS AN EXCITING NEW TECHNOLOGY...

AND POSSIBLE CAREER OPPORTUNITY.

Android / Tiny Chat - random videos / Omegle / Ask.fm / Vimeo / Google Drive /Kik messaging

Twitter / Gmail / Bittorent / BBM / Mathletics / Pintrest / Facebook

Copyright / GTA 5 / Think U Know / Wikipedia / Snapchat / Parental Controls / Pegi Rating

Apple / Minecraft / Habbo / Instagram

A quote from Douglas Adams

ANYTHING INVENTED AFTER THAT IS EVIL AND CONTRARY TO NATURE.

One of the attractions of ICT for young people is the pace of change.

They love the new, the different and even the strange.

The problem is that as we get older we don’t have time for things that might be great - so we don’t give as many new things a chance to steal our precious time form us.

Our children don’t suffer from this :)

ICT One of my children’s favourite stories.Contains a great analogy for how young people learn about the world in specifically ICT.

This is the sand castle Olivia’s mum started with.

WHERE TO START?

IMPARTING WISDOM

She got pretty good.

How Olivia responds to castles is a useful analogy for how our children can respond to using computers and the internet.

We certainly want our children to grow up to be confident users of ICT.

But how is Olivia’s Mum doing?

• Wisdom - children pick up knowledge fast, but the wisdom to make the right choices takes a lifetime.

• Participation - keep your knowledge current - build your castle with them• Reach an agreement - avoid computers becoming a battleground

WisdomMost modern websites are made to be so intuitive even a child could use them.Given access to these sites there are few children that couldn’t.

• Habbo - child friendly social network - but what should your child do if someone asks for their phone number?

• Minecraft - A brilliant building game with added zombies - some structures take hours to complete - but how much of a good thing is too much?

• Kik Messaging - free messages between all smart phones and computers - like all messaging and blogging tools - communicating with friends is great - but how do you make sure your message isn’t misinterpreted?

PARTICIPATION

Let them teach you...

REACH AN AGREEMENT

Once the rules are set - Stick to them.

SUPPORTING LEARNING

What issues would you like school support with?

Participation:• www.ThinkUKnow.co.uk (from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection

Agency) information on internet safety for all ages (including parents) - the videos are excellent and age specific.

• Wikipedia - particularly reliable for information on new technologies find about about the risks associated with sites your children are using.

• Facebook - or whatever - if your child is on social networking you should be on it too.

Reach an agreement:Don’t let computers and ICT become a battleground in your home:Take the time to agree rules together,Keep the rules simple and positive e.g:

• Must Do (Come to you if they are ever concerned about what the see online)

• Must Do (Complete prep before starting computer games)• Can Do (Play games rated 12 or below)• Can’t Do (Lie about their age when signing up for websites)

Know the facts before you pull rank. / If you do have to pull rank be open about the reasons.

A good place to start. The Prep Acceptable Use Policy - Available on the website.Shows what precautions we take at school.

Parental Controls (on a Mac) - use this to schedule use of the computer, limit functions, block specific sites and to monitor usage.

Locate all computing (but particularly Prep) in family rooms to:• enable informal supervision • encourage more focused usage

SUPPORTING LEARNING

What issues would you like school support with?

SUPPORTING LEARNING

What issues would you like school support with?

WATCH OUT

Limit Leisure time on computers and other devices. There is an established correlation between increased leisure use of ICT and decreases in attainment.

Research - Take an interest in their research and in particular how they put it in their own words. Make sure the use quotation marks when the copy and paste.

Presentation - one of the great benefits of ICT is improving presentation with minimal effort, encourage them to take advantage of this by pointing out to them if they can use formatting tools to:

• Clarify their their most important points• Focus the audiences attention better

Encourage New Tools: As the pupils go through the prep they will be using new web tools more frequently ones to encourage include:

• School Email at home: http://mail.cheltenhamcollege.org• Google Drive: http://drive.google.com• Our VLE (with links to revision sites: http://moodle.cheltcoll.gloucs.sch

• Mathletics / My Maths• Reading Eggs• Education City • BBC Bitesize

Knowing what to avoid is difficult, if not impossible. At the Prep we use an advanced worldwide filtering partner who identifies inappropriate sites and traffic and blocks them.

New threats are blocked everyday.

Here are some current threats:

Vimeo / YouTube - shows lots of videos about cats, but their is no telling what a mouse click will bring up - not for young childrenBit Torrent - Peer to Peer File sharing (illegally downloading music and videos) -

OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOUR

ONLINE LIVES

When does it become bullying?

Snap Chat - Encouraging young people to send photos that they wouldn’t want others to see.Ask.fm - Encouraging young people to say whatever they like about others in the community (anonymously)BBM - and other messaging services - always on - contact with friends, in lessons, at the dinner table, during prep after lights out.Grand Theft Auto 5 - Video game - the highest grossing media product ever - made 1 Billion USD$ in it’s opening weekend.GTAV is made for 18 Year olds

Increasingly our children’s lives are going to be lived online.Many of the things they enjoy in the playground now will play-out on facebook or via text messages.

Here are a few questions you should discuss with your children as they start using these tools?

1. Is anything you post on line every really private?2. When does online banter become online bullying?3. Can you ever really trust someone you have only met online?4. What would they do if they were worried about something they did or saw

online, but couldn’t come to you for help?

How should we protect our children from the dangers of the internet?• Distract them with with trinkets?• Build taller walls?• Dig a deeper moat?

There are precautions that we can take, but there are no guarantees.

The most important thing we can do is guide them - to walk the path with them

and together, as a community and as families build a set of boundaries that keep them interested, challenged and involved, while also keeping them happy, safe