Computers in Classrooms Back to School Briefing April 2009

ISSN 1470-5524

30 April 2009

Practical advice for colleagues who use, teach, lead or manage information and communication technology (ICT) in schools.

This newsletter is © 2009 Terry Freedman. Contributors own the copyright of their own articles.

Home Page: http://www.ictineducation.org Updated virtually daily.

Email: terry@ictineducation.org

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Hi Subscriber

I hope you enjoy this bumper issue. In fact, it became so large that I decided it would be better to split it into two issues, so the book reviews I was going to include will appear in a special reviews issue in the near future.

This issue is about various aspects of social networking, and is written by people who have recent and practical experience of what they’re talking about. So why haven’t you submitted a contribution yet? smile_wink

Upcoming issues I’d welcome more contributions for is one on reading, and one on games. Do you have a pet theory about the effects of technology on boys’ reading? Have you been trying out using a game in your history lessons? We’d like to hear from you if you have anything to contribute to our knowledge and understanding in such areas. Don’t be shy!

Best wishes

Terry Freedman

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In this issue…

  1. About embedded pictures
  2. Changes to the ICT in Education website
  3. Computing at school, by Roger Davies
  4. Behind the masks of social networks, by Miller Singleton
  5. Is social networking all bad?, by Terry Freedman
  6. Facebook's flawed photo privacy, by Dai Barnes, with additional reporting by Lois Whitehead
  7. The Facebook party-pooper: tips for protecting your privacy on Facebook, by Scott N Wright
  8. Meet Henri: a novel approach to raising personal safety awareness in the primary school, by Dughall McCormick
  9. New technology to protect pupils against email abuse from sexual predators, by John McLear
  10. What is Twitter, and why is it so important?, by Tom Barrett
  11. Information about this newsletter and its editor

 

About embedded pictures

If you cannot see a picture in this newsletter because it has been blocked, click on the placeholder image and that should take you to the picture on Flickr.

Changes to the ICT in Education Website: Your Opinion Needed

We’re preparing to have the ICT in Education website  redesigned, and would very much appreciate your views. Please take a few minutes to answer a very brief questionnaire. Please click on the link to the survey. Thanks to everyone who has responded so far.

Computing At School

rdaviesthumbnail1There is a looming crisis in the world of computing, says Roger Davies.

As the speed of technological developments increases and with it the need for ever greater numbers of computer scientists, researchers and technologists the numbers opting to study computing in higher education have halved in the last ten years. There are many reasons; the image of the discipline, the lack of a coherent study pathway in secondary education, limited exposure to any computing before 16 to name just a few. Post 16 the numbers studying Computing are small. As a result, Computing teachers often feel isolated and face difficulties keeping up-to-date.

It is ironic that as ICT becomes increasingly ubiquitous, fewer children are being taught the fundamentals of computing, in particular programming. Bright students, of the kind who might make a career in computing, often progress in spite of, not because of, their school education.

Yet many children are curious about the technology we take for granted. They want to know how Google finds so many hits so quickly, and how it ranks them. How does an email get to its correct destination? How does file compression work? It is computing that gets i-tunes onto their mobiles, allows them to stream videos from across the world and buy things safely online.

In recent years, diverse groups of enthusiasts have sought to bring these concepts to life in a way that is understandable for children. For example Queen Mary College produce CS4Fn – a magazine aimed at secondary age pupils with a wonderful supporting website. Based at Glasgow University, Computer Science Inside have worked with teachers to develop a growing number of resources and in New Zealand the Computer Science Unplugged team have produced a marvellous collection of classroom activities to demonstrate computing concepts without the need for a computer.

If the thought of programming conjures up visions of blank faces staring at incomprehensible lines code it is time to rethink. There are many exciting resources that aim to introduce children to programming in enjoyable and engaging ways. GameMaker (developed at Utrecht University), Greenfoot, (Kent University), Scratch (MIT) and Alice from Carnegie Mellon are just some of the excellent free tools finding their way into schools.

The recent revision of the National Curriculum, with a new, welcome focus on sequencing provides an opportunity to replant the computing flag within our Key Stage 3 (11-14 years old) ICT provision. Computing has a rich and deep tradition and it is time for teachers to rediscover it. Programming teaches children the skills to dissect problems, understand the logic and sequences that lie behind solutions and be able to construct those solutions so a computer can execute them. These foundations provide generic and extendable skills that have value in many spheres beyond IT. As Nicolas Negroponte (architect of the OLC project) commented:

"Computer programming is a powerful tool for children to 'learn learning,' that is, to learn the skills of thinking and problem-solving... Children who engage in programming transfer that kind of learning to other things."

There is something special in pupils being able to get a computer to dance to their own tune. In my experience computing projects are highly motivational because of their capacity to make pupils think and stretch them. But above all else, they can be fun. One of my Year 9 (14-15 year old) pupils observed, on completing a unit using GameMaker “That was great. You normally teach the boring bits of my Mum’s job”.

‘Computing At School’ is an open, informal working group of enthusiasts that aims to promote Computing at school. Its membership is broad including teachers, examiners, parents, LEA advisors, university faculty, and employers. CAS was born out of our excitement with the discipline; a key goal being to put the fun back into teaching computing.

We would like to invite fellow teachers to an inaugural conference at Birmingham University on June 19th. Speakers will include Tim Bell (http://csunplugged.org/), Paul Curzon (http://www.cs4fn.org/), Michael Kölling (http://www.greenfoot.org) and Quintin Cutts (http://csi.dcs.gla.ac.uk/) amongst others. We hope this free event will provide an excellent opportunity to explore new ways to bring computing into our classrooms.

We hope the conference will provide a basis for creating an organization similar to the American Computer Science Teachers Association which has done much work to support teachers and promote a passion for computing. Please come and join us.

Further details about the conference and booking details can be found at http://computingatschool.org.uk/files/CAS_Conference_2009.pdf or by mailing conf2009@computingatschool.org.uk

Roger is Director of ICT, Queen Elizabeth School, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria. He started the social network http://aqacomputing.ning.com/ which aims to provide a self help group for teachers involved in A Level Computing. He is a member of the CAS Working Group.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

Behind the Masks of Social Networks

High school student Miller Singleton explains how social networking can be used for educational purposes.

miller-digiteens
Miller working in the Digiteen online community

What exactly is the internet?

When you think of the internet, you think of search engines like Google or Yahoo, and being able to find the chosen information at the drop of a hat. When you think of the internet, you think of watching hilarious videos on YouTube. When you think of the internet, you think about posting pictures on MySpace and Facebook, and being able to leave messages for people like "Did you see what she was wearing at school today?" When you think of the internet, I bet you do not think of it as a new world. A world that truly is a smaller place. It is a place where you can chat with friends about real issues, blog about your beliefs, and talk to friends that do not go to your school or live in your town, state, or even your country. All of these things are enabled by the internet, and also by a  little piece of technology that I like to call social networks.

The Truth 

Social networks. What are they? How can I use them? If so, can they be useful to me? All of these questions have plagued our minds for about a year. This might not seem like a long time compared to everything else the human race has had to think about, but it is really important. The truth is, social networks have been around for a long time. The ones that are most familiar are MySpace and Facebook. Millions of people have an account with these networks, and are online almost everyday. It has not been until just recently that everyone has begun to see past the fog to discover how useful that social networks can really be.

Diving into a Sea of Uncertainty

When someone tells you there is something really good on MySpace or Facebook, what would you think? Is there some juicy gossip about someone? Has somebody embarrassed themselves over the internet again? What about those revealing pictures that she posted of herself? Things like that happen everyday on those websites. The worst part is, some people do not even know the consequences of what they do.

In my opinion, MySpace and Facebook are not all bad. In fact, they are great tools for people to be able to interact with other people online. MySpace and Facebook become bad when people that do not know that much about Netiquette, which is your behaviour online. They also do not know the consequences of their actions. When people are uneducated in these areas, they tend to abuse what they use! This obviously gives social networks a bad reputation, and makes the internet more susceptible to predators who prey on the uneducated like a shark that preys on unaware fish. I pose this question: What would happen if we used social networks for educational purposes?

Digiteen is Born

digiteen01

Part of the Digiteen wiki

With their easy availability because of being easily accessible over the internet, social networks make a perfect place to meet and interact with different people. They make an even better place to teach. In November of 2008, a ninth grade class of fourteen and fifteen year olds, launched a collaborative project. This project was not just any collaborative project; it was a global collaborative project. This ninth grade class communicated with other teenagers from all across the world. Some of the countries included Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Qatar, Spain, and the United States.

The teenagers were divided up into groups with one person from each country in each group. They were then assigned one of the nine aspects of digital citizenship which are:

The students were then asked to research their assigned topics and post their findings on a little thing called our private wiki page that their teachers created for them. They were each given a page on the wiki page on which they can post their information on their topic.

For those who do not know what a wiki page is, here is a little wiki 101. A wiki page is a web page that you can post your information,ideas, and beliefs on. An example of a wiki page is the well-known Wikipedia. You can post pictures and videos, add links, and much much more. A wiki page is like a blank canvas just waiting for someone to paint a beautiful picture. The writer of the wiki page is the artist that paints that beautiful picture of his beliefs and ideas onto that blank canvas. That group of ninth graders along with the other teenagers from across the globe, became artists and illustrated that perfect picture of digital citizenship.

Communication + Organization = Success

In order to communicate with our fellow students in different countries, the ninth graders had to devise a way of being able to talk to them even with the time differences. In order to accomplish that task, the wiki page was equipped with a discussion tab on which the students could leave a comment or two about what they did on the wiki and what needed to be done.

Another way that the ninth grade students communicated among themselves was through their personal learning network or a cool little tool called an Igoogle page. An Igoogle page is offered by Google to anyone that has a Google account. It is free to get an Igoogle page and download new applications called ‘gadgets’. You can get a gadget for Espn sports to motivational quotes and even games!

You can also use something called an RSS reader. RSS stands for really simple subscription. The gadgets that you put on your Igoogle page are applied to your page by an RSS reader. RSS readers also allow you to put a link to your blogs, wikis, or anything with an RSS reader on your page. By doing this, you have a shortcut to your favourite blog or wiki, and it allows you to stay organized. In a project like the Digiteen project, those ninth graders have communication plus organization to equal success.

The World Really is a Smaller Place

digiteen02

Part of the Digiteen Ning
Along with the wiki and Igoogle page, the ninth graders also had another way of communication. What is this new way? I will tell you what it is. It is called the Digiteen Ning. Not many people know what a Ning is because not many people have a Ning. In fact, the ninth grader's teacher along with other teachers from around the globe created this Ning. Every student that participated in the Digiteen project was allowed to create their own profile. They could design it according to their own likes and dislikes. They could upload pictures to use as their profile photo. They could accept friends and put music and videos on their page.

I know what you are thinking. How is this Ning so different from MySpace or Facebook? It's simple, the Ning that those ninth graders had was used specifically for educational purposes. They communicated to everyone of their partners through this Ning. They left each other comments, shared in their beliefs and cultures, and educated by posting blogs about things in this world that need addressing.  Hand in hand, the Digiteen Wiki and Digiteen Ning, which were two equally important web pages in sharing information helped those ninth graders broke ground on a new way of teaching. They all contributed to the spreading of knowledge of digital citizenship throughout the every country that was intertwined with the students who represented them. These kids really did make the world a smaller place through their action, perseverance, and will to succeed.

Looking through the Eyes of a Digiteen

Everybody probably has one big question. How does this writer know so much about the Digiteen project and the Digiteen Ning and the Digiteen Wiki. The truth is, I am a member of the Digiteen family. I took part in everything that I wrote in this article, and I must say that the project was absolutely amazing. It was such a great opportunity to get to know people from different countries and learn about their beliefs and cultures. I continue to keep in touch with my friends over the private Ning. We leave each other comments and let each other know how we are doing. I consider each member of Digiteen a Digital pioneer, spreading our knowledge about digital citizenship so that others may have the opportunity to learn just like us. Our goal is to make the world more digitally educated in how to use the internet and how to act when you are on it. Digiteen will lead the way. 

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

Biography

Miller lives in the USA. She is 15 years old and maintains a position on the Headmaster's List (having a 93 or higher academic average) at her school. She is very active in extra-curricular activities. She loves to play softball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and run track in the spring. She is the oldest of  three, a sister who is 11 and a brother who is 8. Miller aspires to graduate her high school with honours and attend a university. While at the university, she would like to play basketball, and major in paediatrics.

If you enjoyed reading Miller’s article …

Then you will probably enjoy the following:

Look out for an interview with Edith, an English teenager. If you would like to involve some students in being interviewed, eg via Skype, let me know.

Is Social Networking All Bad?

Terry Freedman writes….

We’ve seen from Miller’s article (above) that there is a place for social networking in the classroom. But what about sites like Facebook? We are always hearing horror stories connected with them, but can they actually be of any practical use?

Two articles in the UK’s Daily Telegraph would seem to suggest that this is so. In one, a teenaged boy in England was chatting to a teenaged girl in America, and told her that he intended to commit suicide. The girl told her mother and three hours later the boy was being rushed to hospital.

You can read the full story online: Facebook saves boy’s life.

This makes for an interesting ‘teachable moment’ because, going beyond the obvious implication of the story, that Facebook is not inherently bad, there is another implied fact which should serve to make anyone who thinks about it wake up and smell the coffee. The only information known about the boy was his name and the fact that he attended a school in Oxfordshire; yet it took only three hours to have the British police knocking on his door. Food for thought, methinks.

In the other story, a businessman used Facebook to help turn his failing business around. You could use the article about how Facebook saved someone from bankruptcy as a means of addressing issues such as ‘Economic well-being’.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

Facebook’s Flawed Photo Privacy

daibarnes1Dai Barnes explains how the concept of validation can be used to show that someone’s privacy settings in Facebook can be compromised by their friends. Additional reporting by Lois Whitehead.

Validation concepts are well illustrated in social networking connections whereby you can accept and reject 'friend' requests, and, then you can restrict a 'friend' to only see your limited profile. However, if, in a photograph of you and a friend, your friend is tagged, the picture will be displayed to all their friends with you in it. Here is where the validation is limited. But also, here is where understanding validation concepts may improve your use of seemingly unrelated applications.

It's a well-known fact that many teenagers today have an account on Facebook. However, in my experience, very few are aware of privacy settings in any detail. Most of them do know to turn on the general settings so that their account is not viewable by anybody except those they have added as friends. I had a conversation with a year 9 (15 year old) boy recently who told me he accepts everyone that requests to be his friend and then removes them afterwards because there is no notification sent about this. However, there is a facility by which they can add someone as a friend but only allow them to see your limited profile. In fact, all uploaded information (text and images) can have customised privacy settings so that only you or a selected few of your friends can see.

The three screenshots below show these settings:

facebook01 
Screenshot 1 shows the list of the available Facebook privacy settings


facebook02
Screenshot 2 depicts who can see the relevant media
clip_image005

facebook03

Screenshot 3 shows what happens if you limit the list
If used carefully these settings could develop a strict code of reference for a Facebook account, whereby all the closest friends can view all content and those less acquainted contacts (people they went to school with or worked with maybe) could not see their tagged photos.

This seems a fairly comprehensive policy. The user has the power to restrict who can see the content they upload or is labelled with their username.

However, and this is where learning the concepts of validation might apply to Facebook users, this privacy system is not as robust as it might seem. Imagine three friends (X, Y & Z) connected on Facebook. X can see Y and vice versa. X can see Z and vice versa. But Y has limited Z. X posts a photo of X and Y and tags both of them in it. Z will see the photo of X which will include the photo of Y. Therefore, even though Y stopped Z from seeing photos of them, Z is still able to view the photo. This is illustrated in the following diagram:

facebook04

The illustration shows that if X posts a photo of X and Y, Z can see the photo of Y even though Y has blocked him from doing so

There is a logical expression here which is similar to database validation techniques, checking the content to see if it is reasonable (within limits) rather than correct. The validation will not stop every error! And as the teenagers of today come of age they will be looking to sanitise their online identities. Facebook seems to have a loophole; there might not be a way you can share and protect content with confidence. You are exposed to your friends 'validation' settings as well.

Editor’s note

Just to double-check that I had understood Dai’s point correctly, I asked another expert: a teenager. We had the following conversation in Skype (don’t worry: her mother and my wife know all about it!):

23:33 Terry

this is for my newsletter, u see. It has to be absolutely accurate, or people will stop trusting it.

OK, stand by for head-hurting sentence....

This privacy system is not as robust as it might seem. Imagine three friends (X, Y & Z) connected on Facebook. X can see Y and vice versa. X can see Z and vice versa. But Y has limited Z. X posts a photo of X and Y and tags both of them in it. Z will see the photo of X which will include the photo of Y. Therefore, even though Y stopped Z from seeing photos of them, Z is still able to view the photo.

so the Q is: is that statement accurate?


23:35 Lois

that's true. i can see someone photo even tho their profiles set on private and they have blocked me if one of my friends is tagged in it but you can look through their other albums.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

The Facebook Party-Pooper - Tips For Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

By Scott N. Wright

I hate being a Party-Pooper. But here is a question I've been struggling with for the past few weeks. Is Facebook a fun and useful tool, or is it a public microscope into your private information? Today, I believe it can be both. But there are a few things you need to know.

I hate being a Party-Pooper. But here is a question I've been struggling with for the past few weeks. Is Facebook a fun and useful tool, or is it a public microscope into your private information? Today, I believe it can be both. But there are a few things you need to know.

The more I use it, the more value I see in how Facebook connects people and enriches our lives. I see a growing number of people using Facebook for personal networking. But as with any new technology that brings rapid change to the world, our desire and ability to manage the risks lags way behind. In the past, we had time to debate these risks; but no more.

In today's world, information is indeed power. But more importantly, information travels so fast that your banking password could be half way around the world before you can hit the Back Button on your browser. We really don't have time for debate any more. So, you need to take some precautions to avoid becoming a victim when you use Facebook.

I have spent many hours recently researching the risks of tools like Facebook to our privacy. But I've condensed my findings down to the Top 3 points I think you really need to know.

1 - Don't accept friend requests from people you can't verify

Anybody can create a profile in somebody else's name and put a fake picture. Although Facebook says this violates their usage policy, they don't prevent it. It's easy to understand why immature people might impersonate George W. Bush or a celebrity like Brittany Spears. But it's actually very common for criminals to try to steal identity information by posing as a regular Joe, and inviting people he might know to be his friend. Once you are included as somebody's friend, you can learn more about them, including birth dates, high school names, etc. This information starts to form the basis for identity theft. In case you weren't aware, birth dates are often used for loan applications or other types of accounts.

Stealing challenge questions used to reset passwords is a popular way of breaking into people's email and online banking accounts. Sometimes the information available to your Facebook friends might prove useful to an identity thief trying to gather private information. So, try to verify who is actually asking you to be their friend, and don't accept friend invitations if you aren't sure it's really them.

2 - Set all your privacy options to "My Friends Only"

What's scary is that people don't realize almost all of the profile information you enter when you create a Facebook account is automatically public. Everything from your favourite books and movies to your education and work history is virtually open to the world as soon as you enter it. But Facebook doesn't advertise this because it would diminish the value of the service. The more you have made public, the more the site is worth as a business entity.

Do you remember when somebody hacked into Sarah Palin's email in the fall of 2008? The hacker found virtually all the information he needed to answer Yahoo's challenge questions by searching in Wikipedia. But there is a way to control this information more tightly in Facebook if you want to. You can adjust your profile's privacy settings. So,it's a good idea to set virtually every option to be accessible to "Only My Friends."

3 - Don't use wacky Facebook applications like "Throw a snowball" or "Secret crush" if you can't check who published them

These little applications - and there are hundreds of them - seem harmless enough. But did you know that a Facebook application can unintentionally access the profile information of all your friends if it's not written and used in a responsible way? These applications can also take you to dangerous websites that try to download harmful programs to your computer.

What happens is that criminals use real applications, or write their own cute new applications that appear to do one thing, but when you activate them, they can grab all your friends' information and send it back to an identity thief.

So, you can see why I - as an information security professional - have real concerns about privacy when using Facebook. But I realize it isn't going away any time soon; mainly because of the incredible value it brings to most people. Heck, I find it a lot of fun to connect with some high school classmates I haven't seen in years. But what bothers me is that there will continue to be random innocent victims who will get hurt if they aren't made aware of these simple risks and how to avoid them. Someday that random victim could be you or one of your friends.

While Facebook is a fun and useful tool, it CAN be a public microscope into your private information. Please use these tips to put in place the basic protection you need that can reduce your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.

I don't mean to be the Facebook Party-Pooper. But now that the initial groundswell of support for Facebook is well under way, let's start our own wave of awareness about how to manage its risks to and how to protect our private information.

I now have a free podcast episode and a link on my website to Tom Eston's short, but very detailed and helpful guide to Facebook privacy and security.

You can find these at http://www.streetwise-security-zone.com/podcast.html .

If you join The Streetwise Security Zone community, you can invite me to be your friend on Facebook, and you'll hear about other tips for protecting your private information.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

Scott Wright - The Streetwise Security Coach

NOTE: Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

Article Source

Further reading

Meet Henri: A Novel Approach to Raising Personal Safety Awareness in the Primary School

Dughall2008Dughall McCormick describes an interesting way of making very young pupils aware of ‘stranger danger’ on the internet.

Meet Henri. He is a regular 10 year old boy who lives in St Jean de Luz on the west coast of France. He has a little sister called Claudette and he loves rugby, hoping to play for France one day.

His school Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) provides a customisable homepage to all users so you can visit his personal homepage to find out more about him. Have a look here:

http://www.kgfl.org.uk/kgfl/accounts/pupils/henri/homepage/home/

Imagine you are a pupil in Key stage 2 (aged 7-11). You can look at Henri’s homepage and then do something similar with your own page. You can visit other children’s pages such as those in your class. You can email other children and staff, engage in forum discussions and have live chat. You can do all this with Henri, too. He’ll email back, he’ll tell you what the weather’s like and the things he’s been up to. He’ll join in with discussions you’re having on the forum with his own perspective and, if he’s got time, he’ll have a live chat with you. All of this takes place in the secure environment of the VLE.

However, Henri is not exactly all that he appears. The idea for Henri came from an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) in one of our schools who had wanted to get her year 3s (8-9 year olds) and 4s (9-10 year olds) engaged in email and introduce an element of e-safety. She ‘invented’ Henri and got the peripatetic Modern Foreign Languages teacher from the High School to ‘act’ as Henri via email. The children loved the idea of communicating with this child in France, they learnt lots of French (almost osmotically) as well as learning about the communication tools in the VLE. There was a tangible feeling of excitement around all the communication with Henri.

Finally there was the ‘denouement’ and perhaps the most important piece of learning for the children. The point at which they learn that not everyone they meet online is who they say they are. The teacher told the children that by a real stroke of good fortune, they were actually going to meet Henri ‘in person’! It was at this point that the MFL teacher came in and was introduced as Henri to the shocked class. There then took place some PSHCE(Citizenship)/Circle-Time sessions where issues of e-safety were discussed with the children and important lessons learned.

Henri has now developed into something altogether larger. He has his own homepage that can be visited with sub pages about his school day, his family and the town in which he lives. His account can be inserted into the schools’ portals and as long as they have a willing ‘impersonator’ they can explore a rich unit of work that encompasses:

My only misgivings about Henri are what I would call ‘The Santa Claus’ factor. How children cope with the fact that they have been deliberately ‘deceived’ is something that needs to be thought about carefully and handled delicately by teachers.

There is no doubt in my mind that Henri, used alongside other strategies relating to e-safety, can deliver a powerful message for our young learners.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

Dughall McCormick is an E-Learning Consultant for Kirklees Local Authority in West Yorkshire, England. His background is in primary education and he has specialised in ICT and classroom technologies throughout his career as a teacher and consultant. He has also worked as a part time lecturer at the University of Leeds, teaching on the Primary Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course. His current focus is on implementing the LA learning platform and maximising its use for communication and collaboration with pupils and adults across the Local Authority.

Sponsored Article

New Technology to Protect Pupils Against Email Abuse from Sexual Predators

PRE RELEASE FOR COMPUTERS IN CLASSROOM PUBLICATION

johnmclearJohn McLear looks at the challenge of providing safe email access to primary (elementary) school children, and a possible solution.

 

 

 

The problem:

Pupils not gaining access to email at primary school due to safety concerns.

The current solution employed by many safety-conscious schools is to deny pupils the ability to send or receive emails to the outside world. However, a survey of national schools by Primary Email revealed that “only 3% of UK schools have individual email accounts for all teaching staff and pupils in year 3 upwards.”  This is a surprisingly small percentage, considering email is first introduced to the curriculum in year 3 (8-9 year olds).

There are many cross-curricular benefits of allowing children to communicate effectively with other children, whether locally or globally. The Global Gateway is building a community of links between schools around the world and email provides a cost-effective means of carrying the messages between pupils.

But it’s hard to build communities over the internet when the children have no way to contribute. What if we let our children speak and listen freely? There is a risk that children may be groomed by sexual predators or threatened by other children.

Can we not filter email in the same way we filter websites?

The solution:

A pioneering new hosted email service called Primary Email. This service scans all emails to determine if the recipient is a pupil or teacher and applies the following filters accordingly:

· Detect phrases and key words for bullying or sexual predators

· Detects curse words

· Check email origin (location/ISP) for known high risk areas

· Anti-spam and anti-virus

· All emails are tagged with a reminder to pupils never to give out any private or personal information over email.

johnmcleargraph

Graph showing the degree of threat detection in Primary Email

Email is scanned through the filters and if a potential threat is detected the system instantly sends a copy of the email to the school office notifying a member of staff of the risk.

To confirm a specific threat requires access to the pupil’s inbox. This can be completed by a school administration or Senior Leadership Team member without the requirement of knowing any additional passwords or any training.

Now you have identified and confirmed a threat, what do you do now? At this point you can work with various child protection agencies or use your current school child protection/e-safety policy to deal with the matter.

Do we have a safe, accessible, stable email system that teachers and pupils actually want to use inside and outside of schools? It certainly looks that way! Testing since 2007 in the majority of Bradford, England, schools and various nationwide schools in the UK shows an increased level of communication between all users, with email being used as a cross curricular tool accessible on a number of devices including iPhones, PDAs and UMPCs. Next generation learning is also achieved through anytime/anywhere learning over the internet.

“Primary Email has allowed our school to confidently give all pupils 24/7 email access for the first time. Our pupils use their PDAs at home to email back and forth between their friends and teacher. It is an eye opener to see what the pupils sometimes email each other. Previously when we taught email we never gave the pupils access to the internet however this did not increase learning, we now have an email system that is used frequently by all staff and pupils to communicate and learn.”

Sharon Dominic – Wilsden Primary School
2008 Hand Held Learning- Innovation in Primary winners

Primary Email is not just about safety; children are given interactive games to learn how to use email and staff are given access to a shared school diary which publishes via RSS to the Internet. This allows schools to easily populate a Learning Environment or Website. Teachers are provided with distribution lists to email all the pupils in their class/school and distribution groups for governors/parents are available. The email system automatically updates from the school MIS making management extremely easy.

How and when can your school start using this new technology? Now! You can find out more information at http://primaryemail.co.uk, by emailing hello@primaryemail.co.uk or calling on 084566 80 90 95 (this is a UK number).

The system is currently limited to the English/British language. However worldwide packs are currently in beta testing in various countries. The French and Spanish packs are due in the last quarter of 2009.

The technical bits

The exciting part of this new technology is the sexual predator filtering. There have been recent successes using similar techniques – See the URL below  . http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/10/71948

Primary email uses two key systems to detect a threat.

johnmcleartable

This table shows how the Primary Email filter works

The first is a database of key words/phrases used by predators/bullies, each of these words contains a certain weight of risk.

The second is similar to using sender profiling. Primary Email checks for patterns that predators or bullies would use and likely sending domains that a predator would use to try to cover his/her tracks eg free email services.

To build the database of key words and phrases, several key strategic partners provided logs/conversations of sexual predators and their victims. By identifying key phrases and words and assigning them a score per hit, Primary Email was able to build an algorithm to accomplish the detection process.

An example of this system working properly is that if the word “Pussy” is detected then it looks for “Cat”, in this scenario the risk level is reduced. If the prior word is “Shaved” then the risk level is increased. Initial testing showed that phrases could be disguised with foreign characters and abbreviation marks. Tweaks were made to the system and this has led to approximately 98% accuracy in detecting potential risks.

The pupil protection system keeps a record of past conversations and senders. This allows more stringent checks when one external account contacts more than one pupil, when one pupil is contacted by multiple external accounts or when a series of short emails are sent back and forth between pupils and external accounts.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

John McLear has 8 years experience dealing with Technical ICT issues specifically in Primary Schools in the UK and abroad. John’s career began as a technical support provider at a Primary School and now manages a team of 30 professionals at Primary Technology where he is the Managing Director. John’s personal blog is available at www.mclear.co.uk and can be contacted on john@primaryt.co.uk.

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What is Twitter and Why is it So Important?

tbarrettDrawing on his work with primary school children, Tom Barrett looks at the potential learning benefits of Twitter, and how you can realise them.

 
 
 

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social micro-blogging service that poses the simple question to it's users: "What are you doing?" Users update their Twitter feed by answering that question within a 140 character limit, keeping the flow of information succinct. The character limit is one of the unique features of Twitter which defines it as a micro-blogging service. Users can "follow" or subscribe to other people's feed and others may or may not decide to reciprocate the gesture.

You have a set of people that you have decided to "follow" these are the users who will appear in your information stream (Following). There is also the set of users who have decided to "follow" you - these will hear of your updates when you make them (Followers). I like to think of the two groups as a Listening network and a Talking network.

twitter01

Talking and listening networks

Affectionately known as “lurking” you may follow many people and listen to their updates, their conversations, their thoughts. There is much to offer in this passive part of the Twitter network - follow the people you are interested in and you may pick up on little gems you may be able to use in the classroom. But it has it’s disadvantages. The “Listening” network is based upon a passive interaction. You as a teacher are tuning in but cannot steer the conversation so long as you remain lurking.

The active part of your Twitter network is clearly this “Talking” element and, for me anyway, this is where I gain the most professionally. I may stumble upon a conversation thread and follow along, lurk if you will, to the point where I gain something for myself. But my most useful Twitter experiences occur when I actively engage my network either with a request or question.

Throughout the process of writing this article I engaged my Twitter network with what I was doing and asked them two simple questions:

1. Why is Twitter so important for continued professional development?

2. What single piece of advice would you give to a new user?

The response was fantastic and I received approximately 50 responses from across the globe, my network in action.

Potential benefits in terms of learning gains

Twitter has had a direct influence on all of my current roles at school due to the timely nature of connections that you can make with fellow professionals from around the world. I hope that these real examples of the benefits of using Twitter will encourage you to persevere in developing your own personal learning network.

I had hit a block. It was during some non-contact time that I receive as the ICT subject leader, that I hit a complete block whilst I was writing a survey. We had been using a class based laptop resource for a full term and I was trying to create a progress survey for all of the children in the upper juniors. However after a while the questions dried up. I turned to my Twitter network for some inspiration by simply stating that I was drafting a laptop survey and needed some ideas for questions.

Within seconds I had colleagues from Scotland, New Zealand and Australia contributing their thoughts and offering suggestions for what I could include. In fact some of these individuals were using laptops in their own schools. I went on to draft the survey in a Google Document, shared it with the Twitter users who then in turn helped edit and mould further drafts.

I did not have to wait for email replies or message board responses. Twitter had made a real time difference to the work I was doing as an ICT co-ordinator.

As a classroom teacher Twitter has a regular and important impact on what I do. As you begin to monitor the updates of your network it becomes clear the number of web links that people share. These range from blog posts they have just written, sources of information and online resources that you can use with your class.

But an important facet of being involved with a Twitter network is how easy it is to connect to teachers in other classes, schools and countries. Two teachers had asked me to help with connecting with some other classes via email. I immediately turned to my Twitter network and sent the request. By the time the school day had ended I had 4 or 5 teachers from across America who were willing to be involved with the small project.

With Twitter, a class teacher can easily reach out and connect to other classes and teachers in a very simple fashion - the process is so simple it leaves you with more time to focus on the collaboration that is taking place.

Twitter has the potential to support learning in the classroom. In one such example of this I invited my Twitter network to challenge the children in my class to find them using Google Earth. It was going to be a session on a simple introduction to the features of Google Earth for my class but I decided to give it a human edge. Here are some of the challenges that rolled in from teachers in my network:

twitter02

Some of the responses received from my Twitter network (names shown with permission)

We then set the children the task of finding where these teachers were and of course we needed to provide them with feedback proving we had done it. So when we found one school with a large American football field we responded with the name of team emblazoned on the pitch that was visible in Google Earth.

twitter03

With careful planning Twitter can have an impact on learning taking place in the classroom and I hope this example illustrates the timely nature of Twitter, but more importantly the simplicity with which you can make human connections that can bring units of work to life.

What you need to get started

Go to http://twitter.com and sign up for an account – ensure that you spend some time completing your profile with information about how you are involved with education, a blog link if you have one and uploading a picture or avatar. Many users will decide to "follow" you based on that information, especially if you have only just begun and you have not updated much. 

In the beginning it can be a little tricky to fully understand and appreciate the value of Twitter – with a fledgling network the room may seem very sparse when you begin. Sure enough most people go through a period of doubt as to the value of what they are doing and many people turn away from it or let it go by the wayside. My advice would be to not expect too much too soon from it, but persevere in building connections and following people. There is always a tipping point when the people who are following you will respond and contribute ideas to your question or request - in that moment you will see the value of Twitter. Momentum soon accumulates as your network broadens and you make more connections with professionals in education.

As soon as you sign up anyone can follow your updates so it is important to have clear ideas as to who you will decide to follow or who you want in your network. Although anyone can follow your feed you have the function to block anyone who does. My network is made up of people involved in education - so if people do not meet that criteria then I block them. When you block someone you will not appear in that person's friend list nor will you receive their Twitter updates. When you begin have a clear idea as to the nature of your network and what type of people you want to populate it, do they have to be teachers or anyone involved with education? Having this clearly defined as you begin will allow you to easily make decisions about adding or blocking people as you network grows.

A willingness to share is a good attitude to have towards the use of Twitter for teachers – share that great spelling website you used today, say what went well in a lesson, recommend a book you have been working on with your students. You will quickly find people who will benefit from your experiences or resource recommendations and in turn you may benefit from their shared experiences.

Try to balance what you take with what you contribute.

If you have any views on this or a related issue, please leave a comment in the Comments section on the ICT in Education website.

Tom is currently a Year 5 (10-11 year olds) classroom teacher in a large primary school in Nottinghamshire. He is an assistant headteacher and coordinates both ICT and Assessment. Since 2006 Tom has blogged about his experiences of using technology in his classroom at http://tbarrett.edublogs.org

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