Cyber safety – professional certificate

Morning everyone,

I just completed the connect.ed online course on cyber safety. I found the online stimulators a really good tool, it allowed to relate and consider my responses however I realised that for me to properly consider the outcomes of my reactions and choose an answer the time was running out. It allowed me to see how quickly situations can get out of hand.

I thought I was fairly well equipped with strategies and suggestions for students struggling with cyber bulling however I found the resources on the Cyber Smart website fantastic.

If you would like to read other students opinion’s on the Connect.ed course please see here, here and here.

Have a great day 🙂

Join the dots

I hope everyone is having a lovely break!

I was sitting down eating my dinner and watching the six o’clock news like I always do and a really disturbing article came on about a man that has been charged with 145 online predator offenses.

I started thinking about this course and how I have been so wrapped up in how amazing all this technology is that I completely forgot to think about the negatives….. and boy oh boy online predators would have to be the worst.

So I know most schools would have systems in place to deal with that sort of thing – pretty much no school computer would have anything that would support predators getting anywhere near our kids – well I would hope but then I started to think … we promote the use of ICT, kids are on iphones and ipads and love facebook just like the rest of us… but how much training do we actually give our kids in regards to online safety… is it enough?

During the news article they mentioned how the police and Brave hearts Australia have come together to create an online website where anyone can anonymously send in tips about someone they have been in contact with online. You have the option to add screen shots or simply answer a few questions on what it was that made you feel uneasy. It allows police to follow online names and get IP addresses of people that may be suspicious. I think it is fantastic! I wonder how many students in the current school system know about this? Does anyone work in a school and has seen this information displayed on school grounds?

This is something I will definitely be bringing up in my classroom in the future aswell as having a poster with the address so students can access without the need to answer questions.

This is the website.. please have a look…. keep it on hand its fantastic.