Learning how to stay safe online
Students from seven schools in Devon and Cornwall are celebrating their achievements as ambassadors in 'e-safety' for their peers this week and will be meeting the Head of Online Safety from Becta, the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning. At a special event on Friday 20 March at the University of Plymouth, the 25 Year 10 students will present their projects on e-safety to Ruth Hammond, Becta's Head of Online Safety, and representatives from Plymouth Children's Services and the South West Grid for Learning. The event is the culmination of the year-long, university-led E-Safety Ambassadors project, led by university researcher Shirley Atkinson and funded by Becta to investigate the effectiveness of peer education in relation to e-safety in a selection of schools. The school students have worked closely with staff at the university to shape and create the current peer education programmes within their schools. The project, which has involved discussions with over 200 young people to explore their attitudes to online safety and security as well as examining how effective current awareness-raising activities are, has covered cyber bullying, internet attack, identity fraud and problems with social networking. Following an initial training day last October, the students chose their approaches to engaging with their peers in a way that most suited their school. Some are part of a specific peer-mentoring programme that uses e-safety as one of its strands; others have made videos or created websites to get their message across.
