Ethical, Responsible and Safe ICT Usage

       

       This blog post highlights 6 strategies that parents and teachers can employ to guarantee children's safe, ethical use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). I warmly encourage you to use these strategies to foster such safe, ethical, and responsible use of ICT both in the classroom and at home.

This term, our year 10 History class will be exploring the events and ideas surrounding World War II through the use of ICT. Due to the sensitive nature of the events and ideologies pertinent to WWII, it is necessary to ensure that students are using ICT safely as well as utilising it for maximum efficiency. Students will be required to research WWII by locating and using appropriate primary and secondary sources found with the assistance of ICT.

ICT has numerous, well-touted benefits for 21^st century learners. The Australian Curriculum stipulates that ICT is one of the general capabilities that all students must develop. However, ICT also has its pitfalls if not used responsibly. The school takes its own measures to filter content to keep students safe from such pitfalls. However, at home, measures taken to monitor and filter content may vary. Therefore, our class will be spending time specifically addressing how to self-monitor content. The skills learned during this unit will enable students to build a tool-set that will increase their awareness and readiness to safely engage with ICT. These skills, as defined by the Australian Curriculum are as follows:

·      Applying Social and Ethical Protocols and Practices when using ICT (ASEPP)

·      Investigating with ICT

·      Creating with ICT

·      Communicating with ICT

·      Managing and operating ICT

I have ordered the following 6 strategies based on their relevance to the study of history in the classroom.

1)    Discerning relevance and credibility of sources.

On one occasion, I had a student try to argue that Adolf Hitler’s vegetarianism was the reason why his Final Solution did not achieve ultimate success. When prompted what made him think this, he cited a website that possessed a lot of “I think” statements with almost no academic referencing. Students have also brought to me work that is very well-written and well-researched, but that lacks any relevance to the assessment question. In History especially, it is vital that students are able to determine whether a source is relevant and credible. In the forthcoming unit, we will look at relevance and credibility using this fun chart featuring relevant and polarising American rapstar, Cardi B.

2)    Giving credit where credit is due

Students often bring me work that I simply cannot believe was created by an 8^th grade Historian. Sometimes it seems as though the work were written by a slightly more accomplished Historian with over 40 years of experience. Usually I’m right. It is more than okay to use other Historians’ ideas, as long as one gives sufficient credit. During this unit of work, we will learn how to use the Footnote system[1] while writing to give appropriate credit and avoid plagiarism, and also how to use creative commons for pictures.

  “Respect” by Julian Freeman licensed under CC BY 4.0

3)    Avoid dangerous websites

As mentioned above, the school filters out risky websites from students’ access to the internet while at school. However, at home, students need to be aware of the websites that they visit. Many websites exist that are not only inappropriate for young people, but also aim to scam vulnerable young people. It is necessary for students to understand which websites to avoid, and how to mitigate that risk.

Some strategies include: ensuring spelling is correct on URLs and search terms, exiting pop-up windows, installing adblocker apps to their browsers, and asking an adult if they are concerned about a particular website’s safety.

The government's website on Online safety is particularly helpful for more information.

 

4)    Do not give out your personal information to the internet bad guys

As they say, once something is shared on the internet, even if deleted, it will always remain somewhere on the internet for the rest of human civilisation. While studying human civilisation past in my class, students are urged not to give out their personal information.

This means: not sharing full name, date of birth, phone number, email address or school details online.

Reach Out has some valuable resources on disclosing personal information online.

5)    Cyber-bullying

Being able to identify bullying online is a crucial tool for young people if they feel they, or someone they know, is being targeted through social media. As social media, and ICT's use  grow in popularity, opportunities for anonymous bullying to occur grow. It’s important students know what constitutes cyber-bullying, and how to report it to teacher and parents.

These resources are helpful for doing just that:

Cyberbullying: A guide for Parents and Caregivers – This information has been compiled and written by the Department of Education Queensland, and gives advice on how to identify cyber-bullying, steps to take to prevent it from occurring, and how to curtail it if it becomes an unfortunate reality.

Kids Helpline Cyber-bullying Fact Sheet – Kids Helpline do great work for vulnerable young people. Their infographics, and sheets of information for parents are incredibly useful.

6)    Monitoring time spent using ICT and websites accessed

Students act more responsibly and carefully with a supervising adult. But, this isn’t always possible, so you as parents should aim to understand how to use a monitoring system in order to devise how much time you allow your budding Historians to have to complete work online. Furthermore, monitoring systems are useful for blocking unsavoury websites, and restricting too much use of social media. Somewhere like Connect Safely does this using Facebook as an example. Common Sense Media is another good website for parents to understand popular websites young people are using in droves.

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[1] Flinders University web site, viewed 22 October 2018, <http://www.flinders.edu.au/slc_files/Documents/Blue%20Guides/Note%20System.pdf>.