The Tree House

LTS are reporting that the BBC have done report on raising awareness of “internet savy” youngsters about online safety.

What I find particularly interesting about this is that it opened my eyes to the pressence and activities of the “Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre” or “CEOP” for short.

Its great to see the government taking online safety so seriously.  I contacted them at work today and asked them to send through details of their educational materials.  While I already knew about the thinkUknow website, I hadnt realised that this was part of the CEOP.  More info, especialy for teachers at http://thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/ 

As web 2.0 becomes more pervasive in society, and the members of that society become publishers, and contributors, there is perhaps an additional responsibility that should be placed on those with responsibility for delivering ICT education. 

 How many of our students know what “liable” means?  The following is an extract from the conditions of use for Bebo. 

you agree NOT to: 

- Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
- Publish, distribute and/ or disseminate any harmful, obscene, indecent, unlawful, libellous, profane, defamatory, infringing, inappropriate, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material or information. 

In how many ICT classes across the world have teachers taken students through these terms to help the students understand what they can, and what they cant (shouldn’t) do on Bebo or similar. 

I have used Bebo successfully in raising awareness of online safety with pupils…. perhaps its time to start using it to raise their awareness of how to keep themselves from getting in trouble with the law! 
 

One of the hardest things about having a blog is wanting to share things that you know will be of benefit to colleagues, but because of a number of factors not being able to!  Watch this space.  

I was interested and encouraged to see WEB2.0 mentioned on Channel 4 news tonight, and although they were a little off the mark with one or two things they said, it was good to see web 2.0 becoming more mainstream. 

Bebo, MySpace and (the new kid on the block) Univillage will continue to be a very real challenge to us as professional educators, and will further the opportunities for young people to compromise their online safety or increase their risk of identify theft. 

On one final note (for now), I was very sorry to miss all you bloggers and web2.0 types at SETT and related events.  Commitments at work and financial limitations meant that I couldn’t be released, despite very much wanting to be down and learn/share more with you all.  I was there in spirit.