Friday 10 June 2016
Week 29 Ethics around digital technology
Our school has BYOD from year 5- 8. In line with the Netsafe video, our school community values social networking as part of our teaching practice toolkit, we understand there are challenges with it but want to use it in ways that don't have significant risks. One of the areas that is tricky for our school is the blurred responsibility between the different sets of rules for home and school. Some students, when they are using their iPads at home, are allowed to watch and listen to videos and music and download apps and play games which are not suitable for the school environment. With the 2 sets of rules, the students can push the boundaries at school and this can cause problems when students and their peers have been found on games that they are underage for. We have had a few issues with imessage . The students have their own email through office 365 and we have had complaints from parents that their ākonga have been using imessage and that some of the things the year 8 students have been writing are not appropriate for the Year 5s to read.
If students are not being responsible with their iPads, the principal, the students and the parents have a meeting immediately and often as a result the iPad is confiscated by the parents or it is allowed for learning purposes only. To help counteract some of these issues, we have a policy of everyone outside at playtime and lunchtime and no one on their devises except during class time, this includes after school as well. In line with the digital technology safe and responsible use guide for schools, 2015, the principal and classroom teachers run a digital safety workshop regularly for anyone who is interested and go over the simple ways to protect your child (and yourself) from unwanted content and charges, social media issues or just how much screen time is appropriate. We discuss exactly how we use devices at school, how much time we spend on them and the expectations of them being used as an educational tool. We have tried having the digital workshop at a variety of times but struggle to get some parents to be proactive in the digital safety area until something has happened. Some of our parents are unconfident in the area of digital technology and the ākonga know more and so control everything. This was highlighted recently when we had a case of a year 5 child running up huge amounts on her mother's debit card buying all sorts of apps through the app store. It was almost like an addiction for the child. It is very hard not to feel some responsibility for such things as we encouraged the families to buy the iPad and we deemed that the child was old enough to be responsible around technology. One way of addressing this that our school community is thinking of is not letting students bring their own devise until the parents have attended a digital safety workshop. Our school needs to be thinking of ongoing ways to keep in touch with our families around digital safety to ensure that it remains a priority for them and us.
References
Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital technology- Safe and responsible use in school. Retrieved fromhttp://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf
New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/49216520
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Thank you for sharing your schools approach to handling safety around digital technology. As a high school it is easier for us to reason with students and they are far more aware of the issues involved - this does not stop it being a serious problem. It is very difficult when the student is the one who controls what happens at home because of their parents/whanau not understanding the technology. I think it is a fantastic idea to make the workshop a requirement before the student is allowed their own device in school. I also believe that there needs to be a place where parents who are having difficulty with the technology can come and get help and support in a face-to-face situation, so I am a firm supporter of Internet Cafe's at school where the learning happens in a real context and students can share the knowledge they have with others. Other students can also learn Barista skills and service skills and this can become a community collaborative effort, such as what happens at an East Tamaki School in Auckland that run "Geek-Cafe".
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda. Yes I too like the idea of not letting students bring their own digital devices until parents have attended a digital safety workshop. I think this could be one way of helping to address the area of the ‘blurred responsibility between the different sets of rules for home and school’ that you mention. While I am sure they are aware of some of the dangers that the cyber world exposes their children to, it is not until they themselves or someone close to them experiences something untoward that it ‘hits .home’.
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