JISC RSC SE launches ‘e-Safety and e-Learning’ Moodle Course
The JISC RSC South East has created a complete e-Safety and e-Learning Moodle course which can now be accessed online for free or copied into a provider’s own Moodle learning platform. This course aims to introduce tutors and managers to the issues involved in making information technology safe for learners - whether they are children, young people or adults. The course will:
- Provide a guide to the many resources available on the internet
- Help tutors to give advice or prepare lessons which cover the major issues of e-safety
- Enable managers to consider what their organisation's response to the issues should be
Course Content
Each section of this course (listed below) has some introductory comments or definitions which will put the material into context (click a title bars for more information):
- What is e-Safety and why is it needed?
- The resources in this section include: a link to Becta's site on e-safety; a short explanation and links to the Byron review; and a short task to assess your organisation's approach to e-safety.
- Children and Young People Issues – Cyber Bullying
- The resources in this section include an explanation of cyber bullying and suggested responses followed by a web quiz (for young people - but interesting for tutors to look at). It also contains web links to cyber bullying help sites - again mostly for young people, but some resources for staff.
- Children and Young People Issues - Social Networking
- Social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Digg have experienced huge growth over the last two years. Many people use them as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family, and some tutors are using them as an alternative learning platform. However, as with all technologies, they can be used inappropriately. The resources here look at how they can be misused and include a guide to using social networking sites by Bebo.
- Children and Young People Issues - Child Protection
- This is the area most frightening to parents and children. The exploitation and abuse of children always provokes a strong reaction. CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) is the body set up to combat child exploitation and abuse both in this country and abroad. Their video is a strong statement about their work.
- The Organisational Response
- Different organisations will need to frame different responses to e-safety issues. The educational response will vary depending on whether children, young people or adults are being taught.
- The Teaching Response
- Teaching about internet safety is more complex than road safety. There are more issues to cover and there are technical elements to being safe. It's not sensible to attempt to cover every issue. Also too much information in too much detail will only lead to fear and confusion. The teaching approach has to be proportionate to the risk involved and should bear in mind the digital literacy of the students and their existing knowledge of the issues. Fortunately there is a huge range of resources available for teaching about e-safety, some of which are linked within this course, so there should be no shortage of appropriate material.
Accessing the Course
Click here to access the e-Safety and e-Learning Moodle course online. If you would like a copy of this course (in Moodle backup format), please contact support@rsc-southeast.ac.uk.