IED
Digital Safety
and the Classroom
Introduction
Paul Kimm
Director Porto and Digital Lead, British Council Portugal
In my role as Digital Lead for Portugal, I am pleased to have been asked to introduce InEnglish Digital 9.
This edition, on''Digital Safety", opens with an article by Gavin Dudeney, who I met last Mayat the 28th Annual APPI Conference in Porto, when he delivered an inspiring Opening Plenary on “Digital Literacies, Digital Teachers & Learners”.Gavin talked about how new digital literacies have great potential to engage and empower our learners to achieve greater language proficiency and experience deeper cultural meaning, but also to learn valuable life skills. These includeskills which help learnersachieve positive experiences when using the Internet and the different digital technologies offer to them.
Therefore, the challenge for teachers in this digital world is to keep up to date on how children utilise new technologies, so that we can prepare lessons which give learnersthe opportunityto develop digital skills in a safe environment. After all, most of us are ‘digital immigrants’ providing lessons for ‘digital natives’.
I would like to thank all the contributors in this, the ninth, edition of InEnglish Digital,for exploring the issues related to developing digital literacy in the younger generation in a safe way.
Please feel free to contact us at any time on . Use this address to send us your comments on any of the articles in this issue and other ideas you would like to share.
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Editorial
Fitch O’Connell, Editor, In English Digital
Over the coffee tables during anumber of seminars and conferences for teachers recently, the talk has been of cybersafety or, to be more precise, how issues relating to the dangers faced by young learners through the internet can be addressed within the classroom. Teachers, it seems, are fully aware of the dangers faced by young learners but don’t feel well equipped to deal with guiding them through the minefields and pitfalls. We asked a number of those with expertise in the field to advise us and the result is the following collection of insights, tips and lesson ideas mostly concerned with cybersafety and the student.
Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly are two of the leading voices in the world of digital resources for teaching, and both work for The Consultants-E. Gavin offers us a 60 minute lesson in digital safety taken from the book by Gavin Dudeney, Nicky Hockly & Mark Pegrum, DigitalLiteracies (Routledge 2013). Nicky writes about Teens Social Networks, based on her personal experiences, together with a list of pros and cons aimed at guidance. Michelle McGee, from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), writes about the top five tips offered by CEOP to educators and she includes a host of useful websites to explore. Luísa Lima attended an e-safety course in Brussels and describes how she implanted what she learned into her classroom. Joe Pereira gives us a detailed look at the particular problems associated with cyberbullying and how these might be different from ordinary bullying.
We also have time to look at some other issues: Sílvia Roda Couvaneiroexplores some exciting work she has done with iPad projects in the classroom; Jon Felperin writes about Disruptive Innovation in English Language Teaching, and in particular looks at the growing role of MOOCS in the teaching of English, while David Heathfield – without a digital device to be seen! - examines some techniques for getting your students to speak English with confidence.
Once again, we are pleased to offer you an issue crammed with ideas and thoughts from experts in the field. We hope you enjoy reading this issue, and we hope that you will feel ready to contribute to future editions!
Digital Safety – An Activity
Gavin Dudeney
Gavin is Director of Technology at The Consultants-E. He has worked in education since 1988 as a teacher, materials developer, IT manager and web/user interface designer. He is based in the UK
With more and more teachers incorporating social networks into their teaching, it’s essential that we stop and consider the potential dangers these may present to younger learners. In this practical activity we work with the students to uncover these dangers and learn how to deal with them, should they arise.
ACTIVITY: Setting the Scene
Students consider their digital safety in a number of challenging online scenarios, and come up with ways of dealing with these scenarios.
Many students, especially teenagers, are members of social networking sites. They will potentially come across difficult situations online. Rather than trying to prohibit access, many educators agree that it is far more helpful to teach students the skills to deal with challenging situations. This activity examines a number of online scenarios and helps students consider how to deal with them.
Acknowledgement: Thank you to Carol Rainbow for the original concept.
Topic:Digital safety
Aim:To help students to deal with challenging or inappropriate online behaviour
Level:Lowerintermediate +
Time:60 minutes
LanguageAreas / Grammar: Should; second conditional
Functions / Giving advice & making suggestions
Skills / Reading, speaking
Digital Risks
Digital safety is a key area to address, especially with younger learners. This topic will also be of interest to adult students, especially those who have children. Not everyone belongs to a social networking site, and some of your students may be reluctant or negative about them. It’s important to listen to these voices, and acknowledge that some students may not want to use social networking sites or have their children using them.
Procedure
1.Ask students whether they belong to any social networking sites (such as Facebook, Bebo, Cyworld[싸이월드], Mixi [ミクシィ], Orkut, Renren [人人网] and so on), and collect a list of these networks on the board. Ask students who are not members of a social networking site what their opinion is about these sites. Do they plan to join one? Why/why not?
2. Put students into pairs, and give them a few minutes to brainstorm the pros and cons of belonging to a social networking site. Elicit responses and put them into a grid on the board. Below are some suggestions:
Pros / Cons- keep in touch with friends and family
- meet new people
- re-establish contact with people from your past (e.g., primary school)
- share web links, photos and videos
- share your latest news
- contact people with similar interests
- practice English or another language
- take part in group activities (e.g., chats)
- .....
- .....
- contacts may not really be friends
- people post too often
- people post photos/videos of you without permission
- people post information about you which is not appropriate
- misunderstandings can happen easily
- cyberbullying
- lack of privacy and potential for advertisers to use your information
- spam and viruses
- ...
- ....
3. Ask students if they have ever experienced, or know about, uncomfortable situations that can arise on social networking sites. What should you do to protect yourself, and how do you deal with a difficult situation once it has happened? Tell students they will discuss a number of scenarios related to this.
4. Put students into pairs or small groups, and hand out packs of the Online Scenarios cards from the Worksheet – Setting the scene (below), one pack per pair/group. Students should keep these cards face down. They then turn the first card over, discuss it, and note down the card number and a possible way to deal with the situation. You might like to start by discussing one card together with the whole class as an example, and put helpful language on the board if needed (I would..., She should..., If I were her..., etc.). Give students around 20-30 minutes to discuss all the cards in their pairs or groups. While they are talking, monitor and note down common language errors.
5. Conduct feedback with the whole class. Briefly look again at each online scenario and elicit the solutions/suggestions that students came up with. See the Key at the bottom of the Worksheet for issues to discuss and to make the class aware of. Once you have dealt with the issues, briefly review some of the language errors you heard.
Extension: Working in new pairs or groups, students can create a Digital Safety poster, with Ten Top Tips for using social networking sites based on the discussion and feedback in Steps 4 and 5 above. The posters can be produced using Glogster ( or Glogster EDU (edu.glogster.com) (high-tech version) or on paper (no-tech version). Online posters can be shared via the school website (high-tech version). Paper posters can be put up around the classroom or school (no-tech versions).
WORKSHEET: Setting the Scene
Copy and cut out the cards below, and give one pack of cards to each pair/group of students. If your students are teenagers, ask them to imagine themselves in each situation and discuss what they would do. If your students are adults, ask them to imagine their own children, or a teenager they know, in each situation. Students should note down the card numbers along with at least one suggestion for how to deal with each scenario.
Card 1
1
One of your social networking ‘friends’, whom you haven’t actually met, asks for your address and telephone number so you can meet up in real life.
What do you do?
Card 2
You have been exchanging private messages on a social networking site with a friend you haven’t met. He is the same age as you and has similar interests. He sends you a new photo of himself, and asks you to send him a new photo of yourself.
What do you do?
Card 3
A real-life friend of yours has hundreds of contacts on her social networking page. She offers to share these friends with you, so that you can have more friends yourself.
What do you do?
Card 4
A friend posts a message on your page on a social networking site, saying (in your language): “Hey, look at this bad stuff people are saying about you!”, with a link.
What do you do?
Card 5
You have created a social networking profile called ‘sexygirl1985’ (or ‘sexyboy1985’). Strangers are now sending you messages which make you feel uncomfortable.
What do you do?
Card 6
You have been chatting online for several weeks via webcam with somebody you met in a virtual world months ago. One day he asks you to take your shirt off, and says that if you do he will buy you the new jeans you have been talking about.
What do you do?
Card 7
At a recent party, your friend took some photos of you that you don’t like, and he has now put them on his social networking page, tagged with your name.
What do you do?
Card 8
Your friends are talking about a new website where you can post photos and chat to others. When you go to sign up yourself, you see that the website wants a picture of you, your email address, your home address and your mobile phone number.
What do you do?
Card 9
Some of your friends have been posting cruel comments about a teacher in your school on their pages on a social networking site. You don’t particularly like the teacher, but you don’t think he is that bad.
What do you do?
Card 10
A girl in your class has started sending you nasty mobile phone text messages. She says if you tell anybody, she will make your life hell at school.
What do you do?
Card 11
Your friend plans to set up an online group called ‘Let’s burn down the school!’ and invite school friends to join it. He thinks it will be a funny joke.
What do you do?
Card 12
Someone has been posting unpleasant messages to a social networking page with your username. You don’t know who it is.
What do you do?
Key
Card 1
It’s a bad idea to give out personal information to people you don’t know. You don’t know what the person’s intentions are. This may even be the first step in identity theft, where a person finds out enough information about you to be able to use your identity in other contexts. If you do decide to meet somebody you don’t know in real life, you must tell friends and family first, so they know where you are. Consider taking a friend with you on the first meeting.
Card 2
If you send photos of yourself to a stranger, they may use them in contexts you are not happy with. It’s also important to realise that any photos you post on a social networking site belong to the site, not to you. This means the photo could be used by the social networking site for advertising or any other purpose without your explicit permission.
Card 3
Although you may like the idea of having more friends, some of them may not be the kind of people you would want as friends in real life. First, check out the profile of each new ‘friend’ individually to see whether you have common interests. If you do accept a new ‘friend’ and, later on, you are unhappy in any way with the interaction that occurs, you can always delete or block the person.
Card 4
Never click on a link which doesn’t clearly show what website it is linking to. Be aware that a message like this is irresistible to most people, and the link is almost certainly to a webpage containing a virus. If you are ever in doubt about a link, or an email attachment from a friend, contact that person online or offline to check that they really meant to send it to you. If it seems that it may be a malicious link, tell your friend to change their username and password so that these messages won’t continue to be sent out.
Card 5
When you set up a profile on a social networking site, or any online account, think carefully about the username you choose, and what sort of impression it will give. In this case, you need to change your username to something less suggestive – although it’s not a good idea to use your full name as your username either.
Card 6
Remember that any photos or videos taken of you can quickly and easily be shared on the internet, without your permission. In some real cases teenagers have been put in this sort of situation, and have been blackmailed. Never allow anyone to take photos or videos of you that you are not comfortable with sharing with the rest of the world.
Card 7
Most social networking sites allow you to untag (remove your own name from) a photo. This is the first step. Then contact your friend and ask them to remove the photo. If they refuse, you may be within your legal rights to demand this, depending on the law in your country. If you are under 18, tell your parents or teachers at school. They will contact the friend’s parents, or the social networking site itself, to ask for this to be done. In extreme cases it may be possible to take legal action, although usually an agreement is reached before this stage.
Card 8
Never enter your personal details into a website without being aware of the privacy policy, and what the site can do with your information. There have been several internet scams in which users enter their mobile phone number, then agree to the terms and conditions on the site, only to receive expensive daily mobile phone text messages – which they have agreed to pay for by agreeing to the terms and conditions. Although it can be time-consuming, you should always read through any terms and conditions before agreeing to them.
Card 9
The first step is to speak to the person concerned if you feel comfortable doing so. If not, or if nothing changes, then this sort of activity should be reported to the school, and this can be done anonymously. Making unpleasant or untrue comments about somebody else on a social networking site is similar to making comments in public. In other words, it’s similar to publishing comments in a newspaper, and in many countries this can be considered libel. Think about whether the comment would be shouted out in a crowded room. If not, it’s not acceptable, and should not appear online.
Card 10
Take screen captures of the messages. Then report this situation to your parents and teachers. The messages are evidence of bullying, and the girl will have to deal with the consequences. Your teachers will fully support you in this.
Card 11
Tell your friend not to do it and warn him about the possible consequences. Although this is meant as a joke, any threat made publicly (e.g., via a social networking site, or via a microblogging site like Twitter) will be taken seriously by the police. There have been several examples of individuals posting joke threats, only to be arrested and sentenced. Although things may not come to this point for your friend, the school may take the threat seriously and he could face disciplinary action.