Cybersafety Competition

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Golden Square Primary School
Cybersafety Competition
This term Junior School Council are running a Cybersafety competition.
There will be 3 categories:
JUNIORS – Best colouring in of Constable Kenny (for a copy see your classroom
teacher or
Junior School Councillor).
MIDDLES – Design a poster, a rap song or animation with a Cybersafety slogan.
SENIORS – Design a poster, a rap song, short film or animation with a Cybersafety slogan.
There will be a prize for each category winner and the winner’s work will be displayed as a part of our
Cybersafety program.
Below are some possible slogans you may want to use:
 Treat people how you would like to be treated.
 Keep personal information private.
 Be careful of people you don’t know on the internet. They might be pretending to be someone else.
 Don’t arrange to meet up with someone you have met online.
 Don’t tell strangers where you live, your phone number or where you go to school.
 Never post your phone number or address online.
 Don’t send photos of yourself to people you don’t know.
 If you ever feel uncomfortable or scared about something on the computer, tell an adult.
 If someone is mean to you on the computer, don’t reply but do tell an adult so they can make it stop.
 Use your privacy settings on social media to make sure people you don’t know can’t find out personal
information about you.
 Don’t download anything without speaking to your parents first.

MinecraftEdu

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Students from grade 3 – 6 will be involved in an exciting new project.  This project focuses on a game-based approach to learning using a computer game called MinecraftEdu.  This will take place during ICT class time. For those parents who are familiar with Minecraft these are the key differences with the Education version.

  • Minecraft Edu is a customed version of the game designed specifically for teachers and students with many extra features that support classroom use. This includes the ability to restrict access to features which may disrupt their learning.
  • Students work in a collaborative nature in an environment which is only accessible with their own classroom at school at designated times.
  • World-building tools that make it simple to incorporate school curricular content.
  • A free library of worlds / levels / activities is available that can be used with the software to teach a variety of subjects.

Minecraft is an independently developed video game that has grown rapidly in popularity among online game players.  It is what is commonly referred to as a “sandbox” game, or a virtual space for players to explore and build nearly anything they can imagine.  Our students will work cooperatively in this virtual world in an environment which is only accessible with their own classroom at school at designated times.

Through this experience, we’ll be exploring the basics of design, planning, spatial reasoning, teamwork and leadership in a way that will engage higher-order thinking skills, all while playing in an immersive game world.

Increasingly our students will become involved in collaborative on-line environment that may take many forms for a variety of purposes.  MinecraftEdu will help students to learn how to work co-operatively within a closely monitored shared on-line experience, ultimately preparing them to become the responsible digital citizens they aspire to and we know they can be.

If you would like to know more about MinecraftEdu, take a look at their website www.minecraftedu.com or read the article about the game on Wikipedia – http://minecraftedu.com/wiki/ .  Our Minecraft server will be hosted internally on a school computer, so your child will only be learning with fellow students.

As this program develops we would also love to share your child’s work with the world.  We feel this gives them not only a sense of ownership of their learning, but also helps to connect that learning to a global future.

If you would like to know more about the project you can discuss the program with Graeme Draaisma our ICT teacher.

Welcome to Mr. D’s ICT blog for 2013

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For 2013 I have made decided to clean out the ICT blog. It will be a way to keep students, parents and staff informed about what is happening in ICT this year.

It has been a busy and exciting time for us. We have a new ICT Learning Team that includes Mr. Freer, Mr. Westcott and myself. We are well supported by Tim McNeilly our technician.

When student from the Maple St. campus moved over to the Laurel St. campus at the start of the year we felt it was time for a new start with ICT. We had a total clean out of all the schools desktop computers, student netbooks and staff laptops. We have over 225 netbooks which students have access to from Prep through to Grade 6. There is also a weekly ICT program that is undertaken in the Resource Room.

In term 1 the focus will be on adopting the eSmart policy.

“eSmart aims to make cybersafety a normal part of everybody’s life by equipping them to use technologies in ways that are positive and that protect them from the potential risks. The first major focus of eSmart is to help schools create a cultural norm of smart, safe and responsible use of digital technologies. eSmart is an initiative of The Alannah and Madeline Foundation.”

Here is a link to the eSmart website.