Information Technology Update – November 9, 2017

Cyber Safety Pastoral Care Program

Cyber Safety continues to be a core part of the Pastoral Care program being delivered to all students in Years 7 & 8 this term. The Cyber Safety Pastoral Care Program is designed to educate and support our children in the positive use of technology and the value it can add to our daily lives and at the same time try to make them aware of their responsibilities in being good people and users of that technology.

Topics that will be covered in Weeks 5 & 6 include:

• Digital Life: Strategic Searching

  • What steps can help you find what you’re looking for when you search online?

    • Students learn that to conduct effective and efficient online searches, they must use a variety of searching strategies rather than relying on a single source. Students learn a five-step method for planning and carrying out an online search. Students then apply what they have learned to a scenario in which they pretend they are employees in a workplace, searching for information for their job.

• Brainpop: Computer Viruses

  • In this BrainPOP movie on computer viruses, students will learn how these little bugs can get inside your system and wreak havoc on your hard drive. They will discover why computer viruses are so much like biological viruses. They will also learn all about different kinds of viruses, including software viruses, email viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Students will also be told about the ways in which you can protect your system against viruses.

• Digital Life: Which me should I be?

  • What are the outcomes of presenting yourself in different ways online?

    • Students learn that presenting themselves in different ways online carries both benefits and risks. Students first consider what it means to adopt a different identity online. Next, they watch the video, -Henry’s Story -“ Creating Online Identities,- and discuss their responses to the different ways Henry presents himself to others on the Internet. Students complete the Take a Stand Student Handout, where they explore the ethics of exaggerating, deceiving, or adopting a different identity online. They complete the lesson by reflecting on the choices they make when they present themselves in different ways online, and the benefits and risks involved in doing so.

• Digital Life: Scams and schemes

  • What is identity theft, and how can protect yourself from it?

    • Students learn strategies for guarding against identity theft and scams that try to access their private information online. Students learn what identity theft is, what kinds of information identity thieves want, and what can be done with that information. Students then analyse phony emails and identify tricks that identity thieves use online. Finally, they create a phishing email that includes the features that they have learned about, and see if classmates can identify the scams.

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eLearning Strategic Plan Review Update

The eLearning Strategic plan review continues during Term 4 and seeks to find the best technology solutions and processes to best support our students in staff in teaching and learning. The 21^st Century classroom clearly sees technology as an integral part of the modern school’s teaching and learning and the new Victorian Digital Technologies is designed to enable students to become confident and creative developers of digital solutions through the application of information systems and specific ways of thinking about problem solving.

The eLearning Strategic Plan Review is being carried out by the College ICT Executive committee and has been gathering information on effective 21^st Century technologies from a variety of academic sources and papers to help form the vision of the what the effective use of ICT in supporting teaching and learning in the classroom explicitly looks like.- To assist with this formation of the vision, the committee has gathered feedback from the College community. Focus Groups with students from a variety of year levels were held at the start of Term 3. These Focus Groups were facilitated by respected educators external to the College who have provided the committee with reports that summarise their findings. As well as the Focus Groups, the committee has invited all members of the College community to participate in an online survey which allowed participants to voice their views on how ICT can be most effective in teaching and learning. Surveys have now been completed by staff, students and parents and we are currently collating the data gained from responses from all of the surveys to help guide our strategy and decision making in the eLearning Strategic Plan Review process.

Mark Holland

Director of ICT