A Parent Information Evening
Presented by Graham Wegner, ICT Coordinator
Lockleys North Primary School
We know that this generation of students are linked into the digital world
Digital music (ipods, mp3, DVD)
Digital entertainment (YouTube, online games, video games)
Digital communication (mobile phones, IM, skype, social networking sites)
Digital creation (blogs, online worlds, podcasts, digital stories)
What has this all got to do with education?
Education needs to stay connected to the digital world.
The digital world is part of the real world - the world your children and our students will build their future in.
"Students today connect to the online world as part of their life. They figure out the technology part very easily and can manipulate the various applications and tools to communicate with others and to build their own content. Unless someone with the skills, experience and foresight steps in to assist them, they also have to figure out the ethics, the safety and the potential future consequences on their own.
This is where education comes in.
Do we leave the job of equipping our students with these essential life skills in a connected life to media hype, parents and caregivers who already feel disempowered or just chance? Or can educators step in and help students with their experience, their wisdom and guidance? Is the best way to do this by imposing rules or by standing alongside them as they learn?"
First, a brief look at some recent history.
The World Wide Web – around in schools since 1995.
www meant a big challenge for schools and students - went from information being scarce and reliable meaning that there was little need to worry about inaccuracy, to being plentiful and open to question in terms of accuracy, reliability and truthfulness
Scientists, universities, experts clamoured to put their research, content, expertise online
But so did hate groups, spammers, scammers and conspiracy theorists
And people in between - hobbyists, businesses, politicians, traditional media
So the important skill to learn was critical literacy - how to assess an online source for authenticity, how to avoid the malicious, ignorant and blatantly untrue
The "information superhighway" has changed
Web 1.0 was consume - like traditional media (TV, newspaper, radio) - view, read, listen, download, even play
Web 2.0 is a new phrase designed to describe the difference and the shift in interaction
Web 1.0 meant technical skills - web authoring, programming, design
Web 2.0 is about tools and services where you can be the creator, the author, the programmer, the collaborator
Sometimes called the Read/Write web
The internet continues to evolve
Not everything on the web is useful or even desirable
There are people, organisations and content that we do not want our children / students involved with
I believe that teachers need to be alongside the students as they learn and that we need to offer opportunities for our students to develop these online skills of safety, ethics and responsibility. Blogging and the use of web logs is our choice for providing those opportunities.
What's a blog?
Show "commoncraft" video.