ISB’s Media Mentor Month Teaches Kids Online Safety

(Newswire.net — May 3, 2019) Beijing, Beijing —

April’s Media Mentor Month at the International School of Beijing (ISB) starts the conversation around technology and media literacy to teach students to be safe and act responsibly online, and help support parents to teach those same values to their children at home.  

And in just its second year running, it’s a much anticipated month.

“There are always examples of students asking critical questions to the adults in their lives (teachers or parents) after we have these important digital citizen discussions [about Internet safety],” said Clint Hamada, Educational Technology Coordinator at ISB.

“Whether it’s questioning the amount of screentime for their parents, or asking teachers information about copyright and attribution for materials they are using in their classroom, it’s always great to see students of all ages internalizing this information and applying it to the world around them.”

The month began with ISB distributing a calendar with 30 suggested activities parents could do with their children – in English,  Korean, and Mandarin – to help encourage family discussions about values and beliefs around technology and media. The school also started off April inviting parents to a workshop to introduce the calendar and discuss the concept of media mentoring.

“There is a misconception that children are inherently able to navigate and participate meaningfully in a digital world,” said Hamada. “While they may be more adept at swiping and clicking, and may have fewer fears about trying out a new device or app, I think it’s more important than ever that adults are there to provide guidance and role-modeling.”

Digital Citizenship Lessons in Practice Year-Round

At ISB, even with a themed-month where Internet safety is discussed extensively, the school makes sure to keep the conversation going year-round.

According to Hamada, in addition to stand-alone digital citizenship lessons that occur throughout the year in Middle and High School mentoring classes, the school embeds opportunities in the curriculum for students to practice and exhibit the skills required to be responsible citizens in our digital world.

“Whether it’s thinking about the information they are sharing online about themselves, or thinking about copyright, ownership and fair use of the work of others along with how to properly attribute that work, there are tons of opportunities to get students thinking about safety and responsibility online,” said Hamada.

In addition to keeping the discussion going with students, ISB also supports parents to teach those same values at home.

Hamada referred to the example of requiring Grade 6 students to bring back a copy of their family agreements before allowing them to take their Apple devices home as a way of facilitating these conversations between parents and children.

“With family agreements, we expect our Grade 6 students to lead a discussion with their parents and reach agreements around where, when and for how long they can use their school device,” said Hamada.  

The most important things to keep in mind with regards to this exercise, according to Hamada, are it’s a dialogue rather than rules handed down by the parents, it hopefully applies to all members of the family, not just children and families determine what works best for them as a whole.

“While we mandate this for Grade 6 students, we also offer a session for all parents to help them facilitate this conversation at home for any age student,” Hamada said.

The school also runs coffee mornings and other discussion groups for parents around the importance of understanding the digital environment their children are growing up in today.  

“Almost every discussion with parents around technology ends up being a discussion about parenting in this tech-rich landscape,” said Hamada. “We encourage these discussions to take place whenever and wherever they occur.”

In addition to these lessons, there is also software in place to keep students even safer.

Specific Programs in Place to Guarantee Student Safety

Along with ISB’s commitment to educating students and parents about how to use the Internet safely, the school also has programs in place to monitor and control what students are accessing on their laptops.

The school has an initiative where all students are given an Apple device – an iPad from Kindergarten to Grade 4 and a MacBook Air from Grades 5 to 12.

“The school has a responsibility to ensure that it can both audit and manage all devices at all times and this is achieved in two ways,” said Garrett Nunan, ICT Director at ISB.

One, the school uses a software client called JAMF Pro, which allows the ICT office to deploy and manage software on the Apple devices, as well as take inventory on what software has been installed.

“This gives staff and students the flexibility to install any licensed software they choose but also affords our ICT department the ability to ensure there is nothing installed that shouldn’t be,” said Nunan.

The second piece of content management on Apple devices occurs at the network level. The school uses filters defined by the Palo Alto Network, an American multinational cybersecurity company, to block any inappropriate content.

“It is important to have these types of systems in place as we have a duty to protect our students from accidentally (or purposefully) coming across inappropriate content on the web,” said Nunan.

According to Nunan, the log files on the servers capture all traffic and in the event of allegations of inappropriate content being accessed and/or inappropriate behaviors such as cyberbullying, there is a full audit trail and a very high level of accountability provided by these systems.

“This is how we can confidently give our staff and students full administrative rights over their devices and not worry too much about inappropriate online behaviors,” said Nunan.

However, even though these programs do their best to keep students safe, it’s important to keep the conversation going.

“Challenges can be met through educating users rather than solely depending on systems prohibiting access or monitoring users actions,” said Nunan. “We all need to do our best to evolve [as media and technology] changes.”

And as changes occur and more questions surface, ISB is readying itself with answers.

“Our ultimate goal is to equip our students with the ability to think critically and to remain true to their own family’s and personal values when they are interacting with others, whether it is face to face or online,” said Hamada. “We serve a diverse community of learners and it is important that all students and families feel supported and valued.

 

(Newswire.net — May 3, 2019) Beijing, Beijing —