Digital Safety

What is Digital Safety

Our children live in an increasingly digital world in which there are a growing number of ways people can communicate and connect with others. As a result of this there are many more safety issues that families, schools and communities need to be aware of and manage.

Digital safety is a new term that refers to being safe when using communication technologies such as the internet, email, mobile phones and other tools.

Click below for some great links:

Hectors World

Cyber Kids

Netsafe

Some Definations:

Social networking Software: is a broad term to describe a range of web sites that enable people to connect or collaborate through computers and to form online communities.

YouTube: is a very popular free video sharing site that lets users uploas, view and share video clips. This can be used in both positive and negitive ways.

Bebo: is a site designed to allow friends to communicate in various ways. It is an online community where users can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another, and is similar in format to MySpace, Hi5.com, Xanga, and Yahoo!360.

Blog:is a website where entries are made in journal style. A good example of a blogs is a personal online diary. Blogs are a great personal writing tool!

Wiki: is a type of web site that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove or edit the content. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring: but this does not guarantee accuracy and authenticity of the information.

Podcast: Is similar to a blog but it uses audio rather that text. this is a very fun and creative way to share learning.

'Google It': is a term that refers to 'searching for something' using the search engine Google. We suggest using the advanced search feature of any search engine because it helps develop information literacy skills

Information Literacy: an important term for schools that refers to a set of competencies/skills that an informed citizen of an informatin society ought to posess to participate intelligently and actively in that society. becoming an ethical user of information and communication technology falls into this area.

PXT: a fancy name for sending pictures, video clips and other multimedia files, usually via a mobile phone. Most modern mobiles support the sending and receiving of pictures, images etc.

Netsafe: is the main New Zealand organisation for educating and guiding online safety. check out their web site at www.netsafe.org.nz