Winter 2006

The ICT agenda

Play it safe

Many areas of the curriculum require students to use the Internet for research and communication. Lara MacDonell recommends that teaching children safe Internet practices needs to be a priority for teachers.

Students today use the Internet from their early years. As their skills develop, they become more comfortable and independent with their learning. They can interact well with the technology and communicate effectively with other people online.

Typically, students will develop the following skills:

Lower primary

• understand and use basic terms related to the Internet
• recognise that the Internet is a rich source of information and entertainment.

Middle primary

• understand codes of conduct when accessing the Internet
• communicate with others and use software to edit, format, adapt and generate content for a specific purpose
• identify and use terms in searches to discover and retrieve content from a range of offline and online sources.

Upper primary

• apply basic principles of safe and responsible use of the Internet
• produce text, images and other elements for publication and communication in a range of contexts
• use search engines to effectively locate information—navigate, browse and retrieve information from websites
• compare and contrast content from similar sources.

Lower secondary

• understand the necessity for laws, codes of conduct and procedures
• recognise the potential for misuse of the Internet and the procedures to address this
• synthesise content from a range of sources
• communicate with others for varied purposes in a variety of contexts
• develop questions or keyword combinations and select appropriate sourcing tools to locate content
• appraise located information.

Middle secondary

• understand the social, legal economic and ethical consequences of accessing the Internet
• use a diverse range of communication technologies across a range of environments and contexts
• select appropriate search engines to discover content
• make judgements about search results in order to locate relevant and appropriate content.

Upper Secondary

• understand the benefits, constraints and influence of social, legal, economic and ethical issues on use of the Internet
• analyse and structure content to produce complex representations
• communicate these across a range of environments and contexts
• employ a range of sophisticated research procedures for online learning
• validate content using credible, external sources.

These skills appear across the curriculum and are not isolated to information and communication technology (ICT) based subjects.

It is important for all teachers using the Internet with their classes to understand the basic principles of Internet safety and reinforce these with students. Just as we reinforce appropriate behaviour in daily situations, appropriate behaviour online also needs to be addressed repeatedly. As student skills in using the Internet develop, so should awareness of the dangers, and understanding of ways to stay safe.

The Australian Government set up NetAlert, Australia’s Internet safety advisory body, to provide help and advice to schools and the community regarding online safety. NetAlert offers a number of programs designed to raise awareness of potential risks on the Internet and provide young people with appropriate strategies to stay safe.

For early learners: Netty’s world

www.nettysworld.com.au Netty is the star of a website designed to help young children learn about Internet safety. Netty lives on the Internet in Netty’s World and guides children through a range of Internet safety issues through Netty’s Net Adventure. There are five themes for children to discover—Exploring the Net, Getting things off the Net, Using smart phones, Putting work on the Net, and Making friends on the Net.

During the Net adventure, children make choices about Internet safety issues as they progress. Five important forget-me-nots—Get help, Be nice, Think again, Stay safe and secure, and Protect what’s private— are reinforced throughout the journey. Each theme has different levels of difficulty and there is even an ‘All Star Quiz’ included for experts!

The site also offers interactive games, screensavers and wallpapers to reinforce the Internet safety messages. Children can even become members of Netty’s Club and have offline Internet safety materials and activities provided free (via ‘snail mail’) on a regular basis.

For primary schools : CyberQuoll

www.cyberquoll.com.au CyberQuoll is an Internet safety program for primary schools and contains six computer-based activities. Each activity focuses on an Internet safety issue that children are likely to encounter—communication, privacy, Internet content, online publishing and security. Topics covered in the activities include cyber bullying, negative communication, scams and hoaxes, netiquette, and untrustworthy and unreliable Internet content.

For youth : Wise up to IT

www.wiseuptoit.com.au Wise up to IT aims to confront existing attitudes to and behaviours in Internet use by young people. It provides four dramatised case studies concentrating on online scams and identity theft, cyber bullying, grooming and luring, and cyber stalking. These are presented on DVD and outline the dangers each of the four victims experienced and the strategies and solutions they undertook to keep themselves safe.

Resources developed specifically for secondary schools will be available in June 2006. These will be delivered free of charge to all schools in Australia with secondary students.

For teachers

A range of teaching support materials can be downloaded from the NetAlert CyberSafe Schools website www.netalert.net.au/schools

Teachers can also order professional development materials including, A Teacher’s Guide to Internet Safety, an Internet Safety Wall Chart and a Quick Reference Guide.

For everyone

A free Internet safety helpline provides advice about the benefits and dangers of the Internet and supplies free resources to schools and the community. It has a particular focus on providing children with safe access to the Internet.

Knowing about the issues, having answers for young people, and helping them learn how to stay safe is the right approach for all adults to take.

Lara MacDonell is the general manager of NetAlert Limited.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au