Feb 12 2010
Give your students more freedom and they are less likely to be in danger
There was a really interesting article from the BBC this week about E-safety. It can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8505914.stm Basically what they are saying that to improve e-safety then give students more freedom on the internet, Ofsted have reported this from their recent findings.
How much freedom do you give your students? How do you prepare them to be safe? Do you train all your staff in E-safety?
Our school recently was recognised for our excellent E-safety policy and practice by receiving an award from South West Grid for Learning. You can read about it here: http://bit.ly/9bzr68
We simply involve our students heavily in the regularly reviewed e-safety policy, students take an active role in regulating and all our staff are well trained by official CEOPs trainers. We are completely open about our use and encourage students to make their own choices on what is acceptable use within the policy that they helped create. We hardly get any misuse of the trust that are students and staff are given as all stakeholders are fully aware of the consequences and what is appropriate and what is not. Why do we take this risk as some people say? Well it is because we hold learning firmly at the heart of everything we do; we want our students to have all the latest tools that can help enhance their learning. We don’t want to block a site that the students could use in a really positive way just because an educational filter system blocks it for some strange reason. We don’t want to ban things like mobile phones when they could be a huge aid in developing our students into independent lifelong learners. It would be very silly to that!
I love this statement:
“Why do we take this risk as some people say? Well it is because we hold learning firmly at the heart of everything we do; we want our students to have all the latest tools that can help enhance their learning.”
The ‘safeguarding’ issue makes some refrain from embracing the internet and new technologies. Quite refreshingly, OFSTED now recommend that schools should not have ‘locked down’ systems as everything is bloomin’ blocked!!!! Instead, your approach is recommended where stakeholders are part of the process of consultation re: e-safety and consequently new technologies are liberated. Students, parents and staff are accountable for their own use and the dangers of the internet are learned about within school so as to make them less vulnerable when they use it at home. My school recently burned down so we have an opportunity to rebuild everything – including our use of the internet. Your work is a great example of how it should be done – Thanks!!!
Link to the OFSTED report on new technologies: http://bit.ly/aHN0VF
Jamie Portman – Campsmount tech College (Doncaster)
Twitter: @jamieportman
I am really pleased to hear about a school taking this approach. I wrote a post (http://brains.parslow.net/node/1576) about this sort of issue a while back, and I can’t help but agree that learners need exposure to the tools in order to be able to learn to both use them, and be safe with them.
The typical ‘lock everything down, discipline kids if they even think about playing a game’ approach leaves our youngsters vulnerable when they get outside the school system (either temporarily on compassionate grounds at the end of a school day, or when they get parole…) or scared to engage. I see some people come to university who won’t use online tools because they don’t know else who might be, rather than having learned any real e-safety and e-use lessons at school. Personally, I find it chilling.
I really love the way you engage the pupils in the policy decisions. It is a great example to set (cynically, I may say it doesn’t prepare them for life where Government and bosses ignore their views, but hopefully it will help change that!) and I think it is probably the missing ingredient in what I wrote before (so I am adding a link to this, from there).
bravo…