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This new resource adds breadth to online safety education by including strands on Digital Citizenship and Information Literacy, the materials covering a young person’s journey from Foundation Stage right through to Key Stage 4 & 5.

Based on the hugely successful Common Sense Media scheme in the United States, it brings together a wide range of resources not only from that scheme but also the highly-regarded Australian ACMA Digital Literacy scheme and European/UK materials, all carefully mapped to a set of UK curriculum opportunities.

The content is media-rich, engaging, informative and challenging and includes:

• Long-term and medium-term planning schema matched to age and key stage
• Detailed, pragmatic lesson plans for the busy teacher and
  non-specialist
• Video and whiteboard materials
• Printable student materials
• Parental letters & information packs linked to every lesson so families
  understand their children’s progress
• Track student progression with “Digital Passport”, a unique, online tracking
  and assessment dashboard
• iTunesU portal to distribute lesson materials to students’ own devices

This free scheme is a ready-made, robust solution for any school that wants to build resilience in it’s learners by developing an online safety programme that goes beyond a one-off assembly on e-safety. It has been designed to fit around existing curriculum and brings education around these “new literacies” bang up-to-date.

You can find the content at www.swgfl.org.uk/digitalliteracy available as individual PDF files or the whole scheme as a zipped download. If you have any queries about the scheme or would like to arrange training then please email hos@worcestershire.gov.uk

Oh, by the way … did I say it was FREE?

Michael Gove announces new courses designed with help from Facebook, Microsoft and IBM to improve basic, boring school lessons

Read more…

17 September 2012

One in five schools have admitted to having insecure email systems,the Information Commissioner’s Office has said, as it issued new advice to help schools tackle data protection weaknesses.

Having surveyed 400 schools across nine local authority areas, the ICO said awareness of data protection law was “generally good”.

But schools needed to pay more attention to complying with data protection laws, which if seriously breached could result in fines of up to £500,000.

95 per cent of schools were found to have provided some information to pupils and parents about what was done with personal information.

But the ICO said a third of schools with password-protected computer systems said passwords were not necessarily strong enough and were not changed regularly.

20 per cent of schools admitted their email systems were not secure.

“Whilst awareness of the law was broadly good, knowledge on how to comply with it wasn’t always there,” said Louise Byers, ICO head of good practice.

“In many respects that should come as no surprise – it’s not teachers’ area of expertise – and it is precisely what our report is aiming to address.

“I’d urge teachers and heads to take a look at our recommendations and make sure they’re complying with the law. The sensitive personal data that schools handle means it is crucial they get this right, and we hope the ICO’s report will help them achieve that.”

For schools that have already bought Clicker 6: 

Crick Software have been busy over the summer completing a new update for Clicker 6. It is now available to download from the Crick website. The release includes many program enhancements, including the ability to add videos to Clicker 6 activities. Here is a list of the most important new features.

 Teachers who would like to try the software before purchasing are now able to do so by downloading the new Clicker 6 evaluation version from the Crick website. This 28-day trial can be added to as many computers as necessary.

Those of you looking for some comprehensive CPD reagrding ICT subject leadership may be interested in the above course.

We are exploring the possibility of delivering this with a local flavour to reflect the established ways of working and resources we most commonly use in Worcestershire, but the course outline, costs and sign up as offered by NAACE can be accessed HERE.