Head in the Cloud

Read this tweet from our Education Minister, Leighton Andrews this morning: "Question for today - do subject advisers in your LA get the digital world? Tweet at me or email me Leighton dot Andrews at Wales dot gov.uk" Now, how shall I start answering this? Should I even bother?? For balanced perspective I hope to see follow up questions from the minister over the next couple of days asking: Do teachers  get  the digital world? Do schools  get the digital world? Do parents  get  the digital world? Does Estyn get the digital world? Do politicians get the digital world?

Spent this afternoon at a primary school presenting an e-safety talk with both teachers and then separately to parents. The content of each presentation is adapted to the needs and experiences of each group but does initially follow principle of a balanced view of the internet. Highlighting the enormous benefits ('biggest library', communication, collaboration, publishing, commerce, etc) it offers to users with the obvious concerns and problems that arise too (cyberbullying, inappropriate content, copyright, viruses, etc.)  You never seem to get a large group of parents together for sessions like this but I always enjoy talking with them and getting their views and opinions on e-safety. A fairly usual response is that " my children always know more about computers and using the internet than me! " Finishing the session with ways in which they can help and guide their children when using the web. Much of it centring around talking to their child about their use and wha...

"Beatbullying today publishes  Virtual Violence II: Progress and Challenges in the Fight against Cyberbullying  - an in-depth study of the state of cyberbullying amongst children, young people and teachers in the UK. The report is commissioned by  Nominet Trust  and in association with the  NAHT . It will be unveiled in a hard-hitting Panorama documentary airing on the BBC tonight (Monday February 6th, 2012) and reveals that cyberbullying, as a weapon of choice amongst the nation's youth, is showing no signs of dissipating, with 350,222 children – or 1 in 13 – experiencing persistent and intentional cyberbullying, with just under a quarter (23%) reporting that the bullying lasted for a year or more, and two in five (40%) said that it lasted for months or weeks. These findings closely mirror Beatbullying's first Virtual Violence study published in 2009. Looking at the long-term effects of cyberbullying, Virtual Violence II reveals the detrimental ...

Did you see this programme? I was particularly interested in the first section of the programme which looked at multi-platform storytelling or 'trans-media' (isn't that a horrible word?) Basically it's how a book or story grows into something much bigger through the use of websites, social networks and mobile technologies.

Another resource for Safer Internet Day 2012 on 7th February. Here is Google's YouTube Family Safety Channel.  Could be a useful resource to share with parents?

Had a little time to digest what I saw and listened to at the ICT For Education event yesterday. First up, it's good to attend an event where the focus is on education and ICT in Wales. Perhaps I shouldn't say ICT, this was much more about technologies for learning and teaching than curriculum ICT - no mentions of 'programming' today. Too often I attend meetings and conferences where the focus is primarily from an English education system. And while this isn't too much of an issue, references to Ofsted, Academies, Free Schools and Michael Gove, while interesting, don't have a daily influence on my life as an ICT adviser in Wales. That's not to say we don't learn from what happens across our border, far from it , what I am saying is that Wales needs to learn from its neighbours, take what has worked well, learn from others mistakes and form this into something unique for Wales. That's why an event like this is important, it's a chance to bring t...

A write up from the conference coming shortly.

If some of you weren't already aware, next Tuesday (7th February) is Safer Internet Day . The theme of this year's campaign is Connecting Generations with the slogan "Discovering the Digital World Together Safely". We are encouraging our schools to take part in this event. In fact we are suggesting to schools that they use could use this event to raise the issue of e-safety across the whole school community for the whole week. I'm going to one school next Tuesday to talk separately to both parents and to staff. We have, alongside a group of ICT coordinators, put together a series of assemblies for primary schools for the whole week, and should also have ready a brand new interactive esafety resource aimed at teachers and school staff on how to keep themselves professional online. I'll blog telling you more about these resources shortly. If you go to the UK Safer Internet Centre you will also be able to download a school pack containing an assembly, a s...

Off to the ICT for Education Conference at Hensol Park on Friday. Should hopefully be a very interesting day. Particularly looking forward to listening to Fraser Speirs and the work he has done with iPads at Cedars School of Excellence. http://www.ictforeducation.co.uk/events/ict-live-cardiff-03022012/