Internet Safety programme launch

I attended the launch of Glasgow Community & Safety Services Internet Safety programme this morning. The event was held at Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow. The programme is designed to warn young people (Primary and early Secondary pupils) of the dangers in using the Internet. A resource pack is available to all Glasgow schools. More here. 

Safety awareness wiki

This looks like an interesting resource for teachers and parents.

Skypecast

We held an online meeting yesterday morning using Skype. Only three people attended (me, Ted and Alan Paterson) but it was an interesting exercise in conducting an online meeting.

Technically, it went very well - which shows how mature this technology (VOIP) is becoming. There is an art to online meetings that humankind in general (and me in particular) has not mastered so my chairing skills left something to be desired. But the meeting went well.

I had hoped to record the meeting and share the resulting MP3 but one of the microphones was not picked-up properly so the recording was partly inaudible and not worth sharing. Oh well, you live and learn. But I would definitely use this technology again.

Online meeting is scheduled

We're planning on having an online meeting on Thursday to give teachers from pilot centres the opportunity to talk to the development team.

To join the discussion, you'll need to have Skype installed on your computer (any version will work) and a headset (microphone and headphones) if you want to participate in the discussion.

Ted and Lisa will be there to answer any questions you may have about teaching materials or assessment - and I will be happy to answer questions about any other aspect of the project.

I'll need to know your Skype ID before the meeting so drop me an e-mail if you want an invitation.

I plan to record the meeting and I'll share the podcast once the meeting is finished.

So, I hope to see you on Thursday!

Wiki is available

The Internet Safety qualification is actually part of SQA's "e-only" project - which is an experiment to trial various online technologies. One of those technologies is a wiki.

We have put all of the teaching and learning materials into a wiki so that teachers and lecturers can change the materials. So, if you've discovered errors or omissions then this is your chance to fix them.

Wikis sound a great idea - but practical issues (such as time constraints on busy teachers and lecturers) might be a problem. So it will be interesting to see if this wiki is used.