We need a rethink

There's a very useful and refreshing article by Tom Barrett in this week's TES Magazine entitled 'Education needs to plug into Web 2.0'. Never before have I read an article that I agree with so completely. Those of us who are immersed in a world where the use of social media is so sustained, embedded and familiar, forget that many schools still ban the use of Web 2.0 type tools in their classrooms. Tom has some advice for schools who are in this category, and I quote:

"Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to engaging with the social web in schools is the perceived issue of safety: many teachers say they are left feeling helpless when pupils' work is available on the World Wide Web. I have been blogging with classes for eight years and these common-sense guidelines always work:

1) Be open to parents and allow them to share any concerns.
2) Moderate all comments before they are posted online.
3) Have a clear and robust e-safety policy.
4) Work within the school policy on images of children on blogs.
5) Publish a set of blogging guidelines on your site and share them with parents.
6) Make sure the whole school community is aware of your work."

Common sense indeed, but I would also add that schools should encourage and permit children to help teachers co-create the e-safety and school policies on social media use. They use these tools outside of the school on a daily basis and often have a sophisticated grasp on how social media work. Who better to inform schools than the users themselves?

I once spoke at an event where a school leader remarked that his school had banned access to blogging, YouTube and all other social media because 'they are dangerous'. I countered by asking him whether we should also stop teaching children how to cross the road, because traffic is dangerous too? I think he got the message. Where better to teach children about the dangers and risks of using the Internet, than in school? I think a rethink is very much overdue.

Whether this blog post, or Tom's article, or any number of other good pieces of advice will have an impact on the impasse many schools find themselves in with relation to social media use in schools, remains to be seen. But just a few moments thinking about the risks (and balancing those up against the clear benefits social media have in schools who do allow them) should convince most school leaders that adopting social media in the classroom really is the best way forward.

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We need a rethink by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The enemy within

For many years, e-safety education in schools has focused on raising children's awareness of the 'stranger danger'. Campaigns dwelt on the dangers of talking to strangers, and since the age of the internet and mobile phones, the focus has been on warning children against sharing their photos or personal information with people they don't know. There has also been an emphasis on stamping out cyberbullying - the use of technology to invade a child's privacy, threaten, cajole or otherwise exert power over them. The use of videos in the so-called 'happy slapping' incidents in the UK was one of the first high profile incidences of cyberbullying, but as I have written in previous posts such as Textual Harassment, it can be much more insidious than that.

Now a new report written by a team of academics from the Institute of Education, London School of Ecoconomics, and King's College London, has thrown new light onto problems of cyberbullying. Entitled A qualitative study of children, young people and sexting, the report suggests that the biggest threat to e-safety comes from within. Professor Rosalind Gill, one of the authors of the report, said that whilst we have been concentrating on protecting children from contact with strangers online, we are losing sight of a new trend - peer pressure. "Our report suggests that the focus needs to shift to include the much more complicated issue of peer-to-peer communication and the difficulties and isolation young people experience in negotiating this," she said (source: BBC News).  The report shows that the worrying trend of 'sexting' - the sending and receiving of sexually explicit messages and images via mobile devices - seems to be something that children in school accept as a part of their daily life. Even more disturbingly the report features interviews with children as young as 8 years old who have been pressured by their classmates and others they know to take and send 'special images' of themselves. The executive summary offers seven key results from the study. 1) Threat comes mainly from peers 2) Sexting is often coercive 3) Girls are most adversely affected 4) Technology amplifies the problem 5) Sexting reveals wider sexual problems 6) Ever younger children affected 7) Sexting practices are culturally specific. 

The report summary also points out that the study, conducted in partnership with the NSPCC, was a small scale study with only 35 participants, and that caution is needed before any generalisations are made to larger populations of school children.

Image by Freefoto

The enemy within by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Robot invasion!

The 6th Plymouth e-Learning Conference will kick off with a free first day on Wednesday 6th April, where we will see an invasion of humanoid robots and artifical beings. The Faculty of Science and Technology in Plymouth is well known for its Robot football team and its work into intelligent systems, and delegates will get the chance next week to see them roaming the exhibition floor, and will even get the chance to interact with them! One of the cutest robots ever - iCub - is pictured here.

There will also be an evening Teachmeet, a student voice technology showcase, a panel discussion on e-safety and a keynote speech from Professor Jane Seale (on technology and inclusion). You can reserve your place for the Day 1 free events here, but hurry, because tickets are going fast. In previous years we have seen the popularity of PeLC growing, with interest from international delegates. This year delegates are attending from as far afield as Argentina, USA, Turkey and Australia, with plenty from across Europe and from all over the UK.

This year, for the first time, PeLC will be a 3 day international event. There will also be keynote speeches from John Davitt, Professor Stephen Heppell and Shelly Terrell, as well as invited workshops from Simon Finch, Andy Black, James Clay, Mark Power, Zak Mensah and Doug Belshaw. The conference will be officially opened by University of Plymouth Deputy Vice-Chancellor and former UK Minister of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Bill Rammell. Together, over 50 individual events await delegates from Wednesday 6th through to Friday 8th April, all within the prestigious and futuristic Levinsky building. For those hardy souls who are immune to inertia sickness, there will be free showings of the university's stunning 3D Vision Immersion Theatre on Day 3.

And of course, there will be prizes and free gifts after the plenary on Day 3 for those keen enough to stay to the very end, including a 3G Kindle, Nintendo 3DS and numerous other gadgets and gizmos designed to please our tech savvy audience. As usual, our conference dinner will be held in the historic and picturesque area of Plymouth's Barbican quayside (pictured), and there will be a Devon cream tea. Don't say we don't spoil you. See you there, or follow on the #pelc11 hashtag and via live streaming (of selected events) on the conference website.

Image sources: University of Plymouth and Jose Luis Garcia

Robot invasion! by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Dark face of the Internet

Day one of the fabulous Ulearn conference kicked off today in sunny Christchurch, New Zealand. Ulearn is a prestigious event which this year has close to 2000 international delegates attending, and there is quite a buzz surrounding the event. There are far too many breakout sessions to shake a stick at, but with this many delegates to satisfy, it's essential there is a lot of choice. Lee Crockett's keynote from this morning is already well documented on the Ulearn conference website, and mine which followed at 4.20 in the afternoon will no doubt be summarised in the next 12 hours or so. But the session I would really like to report is the one presented by Brett Lee (pictured - no, not the Aussie fast bowler) on e-safety.

Brett, who represents the internet education safety company INESS was a policeman in Queensland for 15 years and during that time he was involved in detecting, identifying and prosecuting almost 100 internet predators. In a disturbing yet powerful presentation, he highlighted some of the dangers teens encounter when they venture into social network sites such as Facebook and MSN messenger. Brett asked the audience whether it would be acceptable for an adult to approach a child in the street and ask for their name, address, date of birth and photographs of them. Of course not, came the response, but many young people do just that by posting up information about themselves on Facebook, he said. He demonstrated how dangerous MSN could be, by showing a video of a conversation he had while posing as a 15 year old girl. In a very disturbing dialogue, he was contacted in a few seconds by a male, and within minutes was being asked questions of a sexual nature. Brett's advice is not to discourage young people from using the Internet to connect with their friends - instead he argues, they should be told of the dangers and educated in the ways to avoid the danger of the stranger online. A powerful presentation indeed, and one which certainly deserves a wider audience.

I enjoyed presenting my own keynote earlier today. It isn't often you get to engage an audience of over 1500 people for an hour, but I hope I was able to provide some interesting, entertaining and challenging content. I certainly received some very positive feedback verbally and via Twitter after the speech, and I am very pleased to have been able to contribute something in such a marvellous venue as the Christchurch Town Hall (see picture below).

On another note - this is an earthquake zone. Stephen Heppell is staying in the room next to me at the Crowne Plaza hotel, and during the night, I actually thought for one moment that he was trying to break through the wall! Sorry to take your name in vain, Stephen - you're a great neighbour!

It turned out to be yet another of those sudden, room lurching earth tremors Christchurch seems prone to these days. We suffered a magnitude 5.0 tremor on Monday evening at around 10.20 which made us all sit up and take notice for a minute or so. There is a lot of quake damage from the 7.1 quake on September 4th, and things are gradually being patched up. But it is slightly disconcerting when every so often throughout the day, you feel the vibrations and slight movement of the building around you. Ulearn is creating a stir in more ways than one, and it's certainly a moving experience.


Dark face of the Internet by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Zip it, Block it, Flag it

80% of children in the UK have encountered unsuitable or harmful content on the Internet (Byron, 2009 - see report link below) and it has usually been down to parents to educate their children about keeping safe on the web - that is until now.

'Zip it, Block it, Flag it' is the tag line for a new campaign introduced by the UK government, which will show primary school children (ages 5-11) how to avoid nasty content and risky conversations on social networking sites. Zip it - keep your personal stuff private and think about what you say and do online. Block it - Block people who send nasty messages and don't open unknown links and attachments. Flag it - Flag up with someone you trust if anything upsets you or if someone asks to meet you offline. The campaign is being supported by all the major players, including Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Myspace. CEOP - the UK Government's child protection agency who are also involved, recently criticised the social networking services for what it perceived as their lack of action over cyberbullying and other forms of internet risk. They may be slightly uncomfortable partners.

Although e-safety will not be delivered in formal online safety classes, the key messages will be integrated into all other subjects across the curriculum. This means that primary school teachers will now have to become more expert in their knowledge of social networking, instant messaging and other new technologies and will need to be a little more savvy about how kids use them. Whether teachers will have the time or the space to squeeze more content into an already overburdened National Curriculum remains to be seen. We shall see whether this campaign is a success over the long term, or whether it goes to the wall like so many other UK Government schemes, but on the surface, this approach should be welcomed by parents and teachers alike. It's just a pity it wasn't introduced sooner.

Related Articles

Online safety push for 5 year-olds (BBC News)

Code for online safety (The Guardian)

Schools to give lessons in internet safety (PC Advisor)

Green Cross Code for the Internet (The Telegraph)

Safer Children in a Digital World (Report by Dr Tanya Byron)

Brown launches Net Code for children (The Register)

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Bully 4 U

In a post earlier this month called 'Dangerous Liaisons' I posed the question: What is the greatest danger for children using social networking services? 160 people responded to this question, and a pie chart of the results can be seen on the original post. It clearly shows that over a third of all those responding (36%) thought that cyberbullying was the biggest threat. Only 22% thought that paedophiles were a threat, with invasion of privacy (16%) the third highest concern.

Yes, I know that this was a simplistic survey, and I acknowledge that the question could have been better presented. But I did it because I am genuinely interested in e-safety and I wanted to provoke some kind of response to gauge whether others were as equally concerned. Judging by your responses, people are very concerned, some with the dangers children face when using social networks unthinkingly or without full awareness of the persistence of the medium. Others were more concerned about getting the semantics correct. Some thought that the problem was too complex to be addressed as a single problem. We need to acknowledge that there are problems when we use social networking tools. There are many questions. Do we behave differently when we use Facebook or Myspace? Do we reveal too much personal information? What do we do about the dangers children (our childen) face when they use social networks? (and they will - there is no stopping them despite school bans).

Yet the most interesting outcome of the survey was that cyberbullying emerged as the biggest concern. Bullying of any kind is destructive and can ruin lives, but cyberbullying may be the most insidious form. The pseudo-anonymity of the perpetrator is disturbing in itself, but cyberbullying is often very intrusive too. Children can escape from the school playground bully, but they find it harder to escape from the Facebook bully who invades their home, their desktop, their mind. Similar problems have emerged with mobile phones. Cyberbullying it seems, can affect almost anyone. What are your experiences with cyberbullying? Have your children or students been bullied through text? How did you handle it? Who can offer advice on how to address the problem of the cyberbully?

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One bad apple

When the Israelites went into battle against the men of Ai, they were soundly defeated. It was a shock for them. They weren't in the habit of losing. The whole nation became discouraged, and their 'hearts melted and became like water'. They remind me of a first rate Barcelona soccer team, so confident and fired up for victory, who are then defeated 0-3 in their own splendid Camp Nou stadium, by a supposedly second rate team of no-hopers (insert your least favourite team here). The Israelites couldn't believe they had been given such a kicking, after enjoying so many other famous victories against all the odds. Then they discovered that one of their soldiers, a fella called Achan, had disobeyed orders and had stolen a whole shedload of silver and gold which should have belonged to the people. Because Achan had disobeyed God, the entire Israelite army had been collectively punished. After this little local problem had been 'dealt with', the Israelites went back for the return match, and beat seven shades out of the Ai first team. The whole story is found in the Bible, in Joshua, Chapter 7.

This story reminds me of the problems surrounding mobile phones and social networking services, and how so many schools have banned their use during school hours. These are inherently neutral tools which can be used for good or bad. Because there have been some isolated incidences of abuse, such as cyberbullying, most schools have banned these tools outright. There are good arguments for this approach of course, including duty of care and the need to protect vulnerable individuals. Yet many are now questioning such a blanket ban on these tools in schools. Children still use their mobile phones anyway, regardless of the ban. They just do it secretly, like smoking a crafty cigarette behind the bike sheds. They also use the websites that have been banned on school premises when they go home. The threat still exists, but outside of the remit of the school. So should schools continue their bans, or should they begin to reintroduce access to social networks on school premises, where the environment is a lot more controlled than at home, and educate children into safer use? Should schools now begin to tap into the tremendous liberating potential of mobile phones to promote better pedagogy, whilst showing children that they can be a positive thing, not something that should be disallowed?

I remember when I was in school that if one student misbehaved but remained unidentified, the teacher would punish the entire class. We all suffered because of the bad behaviour of one individual, just like the Israelites paid a stiff price because of the sins of Achan.

I wondering if the same thing is happening in schools today. I'm just asking. Are we in danger of placing negative connotations onto mobile phones and social networking services, so that children only think of them as illicit, or something that is divorced from learning? Are we storing up trouble for the future, whilst we deprive children the opportunity to explore learning using new tools? Here's my key question: Is the blanket ban the real bad apple in the bunch? The Osmonds and The Jacksons both sang 'One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch'. Well it will if it's left there long enough.

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Dangerous liaisons?

Keeping children safe on the Internet is an increasing concern for parents and teachers alike. Sites such as CEOP's Think You Know have become useful resources to raise children's awareness of the dangers of using social networking tools such as Bebo and Myspace. Yet media reports continue to highlight a number of concerns about how children use social networking services and whilst schools continue to block access to a number of sites, the question is: How can teachers train/educate children to understand Internet safety in authentic contexts?

I created a poll below, because I was interested in finding out what people thought was the biggest threat to children who use social networks. The poll was open for a week, and 160 people voted. I will post an analysis of the results on this blog later, and hopefully engage us all in a discussion about what schools can do to improve children's understanding of how to keep safe while enjoying use of the web. One of the questions already posed by @simfin (Simon Finch) is what should be our priorities for children's safe use of social networks in the future? Many thanks to all those who voted and made comments!

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