CMIS Evaluation Technology Focus

Primary schools are invited to participate in a Cybersmart detectives activity designed to teach students about safe behaviors when using internet chat rooms and personal websites. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has adapted the online game, initially developed by UK-based child advocacy agency Childnet International,  for use in Australian schools.

In the scenario, children play the role of a school Deputy Principal concerned about the welfare of a new student, who may be being bullied by someone they have met in an internet chat room. Guided by a series of clues, children work collaboratively in teams to solve the mystery of what is worrying the student, and why. ‘Cybersmart Guides’ respond to the questions and theories posed by the students, and guide the teams through each of the ‘clues’. As the scenario unfolds, the children discuss the risks of certain online and offline behaviours, and ways of managing those risks.

• Australian Communications and Media Authority: http://www.cybersmartkids.com.au

• Netalert - the Australian Internet Safety Advisory Board: http://www.netalert.gov.au

In case you missed it - there are a couple of items in the August 8th Eddymail of interest to DET schools.

1. There has been a modification to school bandwidth allocations which is effective immediately. Details of the allocation formula changes can be found on the Intranet Some schools may find their allocation decreased whilst others will have increased. Generally schools will have a “per student” mb increase.
2. Improvement in Anti-virus protection for the Department’s Network should result in safer Internet browsing for DET users.

 For further information, please contact the Customer Service Centre on 9264 5555, regional callers 1800 012 828 or via email.

Your Year 10 students can shape future safety in the cyberworld.

Schools are invited to nominate up to 6 Year 10 students to attend the Cyber Friendly Student Summit to be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Wednesday October 22, 2008.

Participating students will take part in interactive activities, facilitated discussion groups and will have the opportunity to cast their vote about issues and actions relating to cyber bullying via electronic voting technology.

To increase students’ knowledge of key cyber bullying issues before they attend the Summit, nominated students are required to create and send in an original multi-media submission in any format up to 30 seconds long. Students are NOT required to present their submission at the Summit, but a selection of multi-media submissions will be shown during the Summit program. Students who participate in preparing a multi-media submission for the Summit or who attend the Summit may count these hours as contributing toward their Community Service requirement.

The CMIS Cyberbullying webpage provides links to resources to support cyber safety teaching and learning programs.

There is no denying that a well constructed boolean search is the way to improve your search results.

Teaching students to use boolean search strategies has now been made easier. Boolify helps students understand their web search by visually demonstrating the logic of their search. As students add or remove the jigsaw piece qualifiers ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘not’ the changes in their search results appear at the bottom of the search screen. This dynamic display gives continuous feedback on the effectiveness of their chosen search strategy.

A short and simple expanation of boolean search logic is available on the Boolify Help page. The Boolify page notes that ‘Search results are presented through Google’s “Safe Search STRICT” technology. However, no filtering technology is 100% secure, as this blog posting astutely points out.’

The CMIS website has more information about Search Tools and Student Safety Online.

In an earlier blog post we looked at Search Engines other than Google.