Growing digital smarts? Check our biases…

‘Tis the night before the #edchatnz conference and I am mulling over the session I am hoping to facilitate… It’s been just over a month since I joined NetSafe as their new Director of Education, and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting my head around a ‘same but different’ view window on education. The ‘same’ being broad, effective […]

What is digital fluency?

[This was originally posted on the CORE Education blog.] A recent announcement from Hon. Hekia Parata signalled that digital fluency will be a key focus for Ministry centrally-funded professional learning support in 2016 (PLD Changes will lift student achievement, 23 Sept. 2015). The value of growing digitally fluent learners was signalled in the Ministry report, […]

Got tech? Hear me roar!

It’s been a week or two of interesting stories related to school students harnessing social networks in order to make a point. We’ve had school speeches on the state of education and a plea for puffer jackets to name the most recent two. There has been reciprocal handwringing on the part of the press in response that has […]

Bolting on cybersafety? | Day 8 #28daysofwriting

In the last couple of days, Google and the Alannah and Madeline Foundation announced a further development in their relationship: a $1.2 million grant from Google so that the e-Smart Digital Licence “will be made available to every grade 6 student in Australia in 2015” – Medianet. You can read all about this licence here: https://www.digitallicence.com.au/home – […]

Creative Commons in schools

“Universal access to research, education and participation in culture” – Creative Commons Aotearoa goal. I recently attended one of the sessions being held around the country by Creative Commons Aotearoa, featuring guest presenters included Matt McGregor, Keitha Booth, Andrew Matangi, Ian Munro and Stephen Lethbridge. Together, they offered a quick-fire overview of the issues, challenges and […]

Only some of us can be digital citizens

“I have children in my class whose parents do not want them to appear online. So how can I do collaborative work with those children? They have to do something else and that’s not fair at all…” It is quite normal, even ideal, to surface crunchy questions during sessions with schools. One of the workshops […]

Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report | Ofcom

Just out this week is this report from OFCOM in the UK: Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report [October 2013]. It’s worth a read through, even at the Exec Summary level, as it offers an interesting snapshot of where usage of the web and devices to access it are rising and falling amongst young […]

Learning online | The kids are all right…

I recently presented a series of keynotes, developed with Dr John Fenaughty, on the topic of digital citizenship and how fear-based messages, curriculum add-ons and reliance of filters are not as likely to foster digital citizens as much as embedding it in authentic curriculum-based learning. I went phishing fishing on YouTube for positive messages and […]

How confident do you feel when your students are working online?

[Cross-posted from the e-Learning Research Network] If we are to make useful decisions about supporting our students as they use technology, it is important to have a baseline from which to make our decisions. A recent survey from Netsafe might be a useful starting point in this regard. How confident are teachers in managing cybersafety? This […]

Would you change the way you use language to keep your friends?

Love this video from the National Union of Teachers (UK) – please tell me things have changed a bit since then! – and while it might seem archaic, it might be an interesting jumping off point for students to think about how they adapt what they say, and write, when online and off. Discussion points […]