Tuesday 25 January 2011

Last week I had the opportunity to attend E-Safety Live in Dorset. I would like to say it was an enjoyable break in this idyllic county where I consumed lots of Badgers beer, seafood and ice cream!
Sadly it was a 242 mile round trip and home in time for a late dinner.

The event run by South West Grid for Learning (swgfl) focused on protecting your professional online identity. The day had a great mix of sessions including:

* Identifying the professional risks
* What is the police response?
* Every Teacher Matters
* Copyright Infringement
* Employment Law
* Data Protection
* Privacy and Defamation
* Using Social Networking Sites Professionally and Managing Risk
* Managing your Personal Privacy Settings – Your Digital Footprint
* Incident Management
* Tools and Resources.

Thing that I really found interesting about this event was it focused on the safety of professional and the institution and by listening and watch the other delegates in the room it was easy to see a large number seemed very concerned over how exposed they are online even though they consider themselves to be tech-savvy.

One slide in particular within the Managing your Personal Privacy Settings – Your Digital Footprint presentation that caught my eye shows the levels of private information available to ANYONE unless careful attention is applied to your privacy settings within Facebook. It was very worrying to see how Facebook have altered the way default privacy settings have been configured are over the past 5 years. The following diagram was produced by Matt Mckeon http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/ depicts this change. This is well worth including in any eSafety training session you run for staff, students or the SMT?

I have to say I really got a lot out of the day and I now have access to all of the resources used on the day! If you want to find out more please get in touch Jason.curtis@rsc-wm.ac.uk .


Before signing off I have to mention 360 degrees safe. It is an online tool designed by swgfl which provides a user friendly and interactive means for learning providers to review their eSafety provision and to develop an action plan to bring about improvements. The tool is currently free of charge to learning providers on completion of a simple registration process. Although the tool was originally designed for the schools sector swgfl will allow post 16 learning providers from across the country to utilise the tool.

Further eSafety information is available on the RSC WM WIKI for those that are interested.

Monday 24 January 2011

Mobile Phone App to help spot paedophiles.

I came across this news item today and thought it might be worth a mention.



Isis Forensics http://www.isis-forensics.com/ have developed a tool after parental concerns over children accessing sites on their mobiles. Although the App has been received positively a number of child protection groups warn against complacency.

As yet I can't work out if the App has been released or which platforms it will be available on.


"The team behind Child Defence say the app can analyse language to generate an age profile, identifying potential paedophiles".
BBC. (2011). Researchers launch mobile device 'to spot paedophiles'. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-12249172. Last accessed 24th Jan 2011. google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);




Thinking lateraly I can see this App being of benefit to learning providers who educate and care for vunerable learners.

Friday 21 January 2011

Change of Direction?

More and more of my time is now being devoted to eSafety, this being the safe and responsible use of technology.

It is sometimes presented as primarily a child protection issue. While children, young people and vulnerable adults do need support to keep themselves safe online the risks associated with the use of technology are not confined to them. e-Safety issues may also affect adults – for example, the mismanagement of personal data, and risks of financial scams, identity theft and cyberbullying. This will be particularly relevant for those adults who are new to using technology.

As the two main areas of my role (Learning Technologies and eSafety) are so closely linked I am going to use this blog for both areas. I aim to increase the number of posts each month with a mix of useful text, video and poscasts. My first full post will be next week, watch this space.....