Learning Focus: The start of a new school year (or new school term) provides an optimal opportunity to set (or reset) expectations. Take this opportunity to empower your students or kids at home to co-construct a set of S.A.F.E.T.Y guidelines for the use of digital tools and technologies in the classroom or at home.
Curriculum Outcomes:
Plan, create and communicate ideas, information and online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (VCDTDI029)
Students are able to apply safe practices while participating in online environments, for example policies used at school and at home (VCDTDI029)
Students are able to develop a set of ‘rules’ about appropriate conduct, language and content when communicating online, and using these rules as a basis for resolving ethical dilemmas (VCDTDI029)
Activity Resources -
Download and print the Digital S.A.F.E.T.Y Agreement
Activity Outline: Learning Intention: I can contribute to our class digital safety protocols Part 1 - Learn about how your students enjoy using technology by brainstorming all the ways they use technology to live, learn and play. Ask them what they know about how to stay save when participating in each activity.
Part 2 - Highlight to your students the ways that you (and they) will be accessing technology for learning at school. Have student break into small groups to come up with 5 - 10 values they feel are important to live by as a safe and responsible digital citizen.
Part 3 - As a class, collect and classify each of the values shared by the students and display these categories on the board where all students can see them.
Part 4 - As a class create your S.A.F.E.T.Y Class Agreement and have each student initial to commit to always doing their best to demonstrate each rule throughout the year. Display this in the classroom and use a reference point before commencing class based activities that require the use of digital technologies and online learning platforms.
Learning Focus - The way today's young people communicate, learn, create and play has them engaging with digital technology daily. How students engage with technology needs to be conducted in a way that ensures safe practices and promotes consistent positive digital behaviours. As students transition to Secondary School, it is timely to provide opportunities that promote strategies that develop skills for self-regulation and taking ownership for their digital actions. Through this activity, students will identify and outline safe and responsible practices and make a commitment to maintaining a positive and responsible use of digital technology. Curriculum Outcomes:
Students can manage the use of social media to maintain privacy needs, for example activating privacy setting to avoid divulging personal data such as photographs, address and names. (VCDTDI029)
Students can apply safe practices while participating in online environments, for example checking the default privacy settings to ensure maximum protection of personal details. (VCDTDI029)
Students understand ways of protecting files and sharing information digitally. (VCDTDI029)
Activity Resources -
Download and print the Cyber Safety Commitment template (1 per student)
Activity Outline: Learning Intention: I can be (and promise to be) safe, thoughtful and ethical when using technology. Part 1 - Discuss how digital technology, the internet and how we communicate and work continues to change and develop. 21st century learning requires students to adapt, collaborate and navigate the digital world safely, responsibly and ethically. As an adult, discuss with students how you have seen technology change over time.
Part 2 - Given this is the final lesson within the project, recap the achievement and learnings the students have had throughout these learning experiences. Students have had the opportunity to; understand the difference between private and public information, identify the stories that our online profile tell others and how that information can be perceived, strategies for staying safe when using social networking, making responsible choices to digital ethical dilemmas and password security.
Part 3 - To mark the completion of the Cyber Safety Project, students will be making a written commitment to themselves, their families and their school to maintain and engage in responsible, safe and respectable online behaviours when using any digital space or platform. Students record actions and strategies they will implement when using digital technologies at home and at school from this point on. Students will sign their own written commitment to then share with their teacher and family.
Part 4 - Teachers will collect all 'Cyber Safety Commitments' to then be scanned, and/or photocopied, to create multiple copies. One copy will be for the student to keep for their own personal reference and another is to be to taken (or emailed) home for the purpose of sharing with an adult at home.
Learning Focus: Often we are faced with situations where we feel uncomfortable. This can happen in both online and offline situations. By Grade 5 and 6, children have probably already faced these situations in the playground or in other offline circumstances, and would have experience firsthand with bystanders and upstanders. This lesson reviews the concept of bystanders and upstanders and provides an opportunity for students to discuss appropriate actions in these role play situations.
Curriculum Outcomes:
Plan, create and communicate ideas, information and online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (VCDTDI029)
Students are able to apply safe practices while participating in online environments, for example checking the default privacy settings to ensure maximum protection of personal details, being aware of online filtering techniques and policies used at school and at home (VCDTDI029)
Students are able to develop a set of ‘rules’ about appropriate conduct, language and content when communicating online, and using these rules as a basis for resolving ethical dilemmas (VCDTDI029)
Activity Resources -
Download and print the Bystander to Upstander Dilemma Cards
Activity Outline: Learning Intention: I can make supportive choices online. Part 1 – Circle Time – pose the following questions:
What is a bystander?
What is an upstander?
Ask students to think about a time when they have seen a bystander or an upstander in action. Encourage students not to share names or specific details, but rather to think about or share the characteristics and actions of these people, particularly of the upstanders. Suggested traits of an upstander: courageous, judicious, firm voice, not participating or encouraging of bullying behaviour, inclusive of others, supportive of the victim(s) both in public and in private, report the situation to an appropriate adult
Part 2 –Present the ‘Bystander to Upstander’ dilemma cards to the students. Have students form small groups of 3-4 people and select a card at random. Students will work in their small groups to role play the situations provided on the card.
Part 3 – Allow students time to develop their role plays. Remind students of the characteristics and importance of an upstander.
Part 4 - Share role plays with the class and/or wider community.
Additional Task - Using the An Online Upstander Collaborative Poster Templates above, have students work in groups of 3 to create 6 strategies or actions that an Online Upstander could take to combat cyber bullying and keyboard cowards.
