Internet Validity

A previous post highlighted some useful sites for developing pupils’ ability to question the validity of websites. Hopefully it will also help eliminate printing off entire pages and claiming it as their own research.  Another good resource to go alongside those already mentioned is: http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/

The great thing about this example is there is a mix of fact and fiction that the pupils actually need to read to extract the facts. It comes with teachers’ notes and lesson ideas and covers a number of different explorers such as Christopher Columbus. All in all a fun way to start to introduce some important messages.

  

Kent NGFL Resources

 I was looking again at the wonderful resources  on the Kent Ed website, these range from those aimed  at supporting an ICT Subject Leader,  cross curricular resources such as the ever popular Sebastian Swan and games and ideas to support Early Years ICT . The colourful and easy to navigate website also includes a number of free interactive games such as Star Writer and the Writing Repeater. The latter allows a demonstration of handwriting on an interactive whiteboard to be saved and played back. It can capture a total of 17 letters, words or joins which can be played back any number of times.

Teaching Internet Safety in Keystage 1 and 2

As previously mentioned, there is a wealth of resources available for helping teach primary pupils how to use the Internet safely. However, if time is short (what really?!) and you can only look at two then try Hector’s World for Key stage 1 and the Cyber Cafe from the thinkuknow Internet Proficiency scheme in key stage 2.

Hector’s World is great for introducing internet safety issues to Key stage 1 pupils. There are a series of lesson plans and activities aimed at younger children. Hector, who is a dolphin, can be downloaded onto your computer and will then float over internet pages. If anything appears on the screen that makes children feel uncomfortable then they can click on Hector Protector who will cover the page and give them a positive message for doing the right thing.  

The Cyber Cafe has been recently up dated and relaunched. There are characters in the cafe to take children through the issues they may be interested in such as searching, email, chat and social networking. The site now uses more audio rather than text and comes with free lesson plans and resources.