Online safety should be taught through all curriculum areas and become part of the routine conversations teachers have with students. Following on from my article relating school internet safety to the Unicef Rights of the Child legislation, here are a few practical lesson ideas to engage students with e-safety topics.
English lessons
Students collaborate to create a new social networking site, having to analyse advantages and disadvantages of online learning and social media first then design the safety protocols for their new fictitious sites.
Geography
Students created RSA animations for revision to summarise case studies, having to consider how to protect their identities during filming so that the material could be shared online. See www.daviderogers.org.uk for more information on the project.
Cross-curricular
Get involved with journalism projects that force students to assess the processes of information gathering and sharing, and the difficulties of protecting identities and avoiding inappropriate media while blogging and filming for broadcast.
See www.jodebens.co.uk for more suggested activities.
