Author: George Milliken

recommended reading on screentime and social media

‘Screentime’ – recommended reading

This page contains links to articles and papers exploring the risks of ‘screentime’ and social media and the lack of data and evidence supporting its purported impact on mental health, particularly children and young people:

The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? (nature.com)

OII | Study finds screen time – even before bed – has little impact on teen well-being (ox.ac.uk)

Do smartphones really cause mental illness among adolescents? Ten problems with Jonathan Haidt’s book – Parenting for a Digital Future (lse.ac.uk)

Focus on teen social media use obscuring this key cause of depression (sfchronicle.com)

Systematic literature review of digital risk

A systematic review of digital risk and mitigations in children aged 8 to 12 – Challenges and Opportunities by Hana Butorova, Yvonne Skipper, and Christopher Hand, School of Education, University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow have undertaken this systematic review of literature on the subject of cyber resilience on behalf of Education Scotland.

A systematic review of digital risk and mitigations in children aged 8 to 12



cyberbullying

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Cyberbullying

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

Cyberbullying is a potential harm to children and young people online. It is classified as a communication risk as it involved at least one other person interacting with the user. (def, date)

“It is important not to get too hung up on the fact that your child has experienced bullying online, but to recognise that they have been bullied and need the same support as they would if they had experienced any other type of bullying. Take their concerns seriously, remain calm, and consider what they would like to happen.” Respect Me

Respect Me, Scotland’s national anti-bullying charity, defines bullying as:

“… a mixture of behaviours and impacts; what someone does and the impact that it has on you, which affects your ability to feel safe and in control of yourself. Bullying behaviour happens face to face and online and can include:

  • Being called names, being teased or made fun of
  • Being hit, pushed or kicked
  • Having your belongings taken or damaged
  • Being ignored, left out, or having rumours spread about you in
  • Being humiliated
  • Receiving abusive messages or having nasty comments made about you online
  • Being targeted because of who you are or how people see you

Cyberbullying is bullying that involves the internet and internet-enabled devices, such as mobile phones and computers. This can include the bold text in the list above.

Supporting children and young people to reduce and manage risks, and report potential harms

Learners should learn:

Further information

Online Bullying – respectme

inappropriate content

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Inappropriate Content

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

Inappropriate content is a potential harm to children and young people online. It is classified as a consumption risk as it involves the user viewing, listening to, reading or playing online content, such as videos, livestreams, social media posts, podcasts, music or games. (def, date)

The NSPCC provides more information on inappropriate content here Distressing online content

They suggest that:

  • parental controls are enabled
  • children know how to use the in-app settings
  • inappropriate content is reported
  • children know how to take time away and relax if they see upsetting content – see the Childline Calm Zone for activities – go to Calm Zone

self generated media

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Self-generated Media

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

Self-generated media is a potential harm to children and young people online. It is classified as a creation risk as it involves the user creating images or videos of themselves. (def, date)

It is closely associated with communication risk, which increases the risk if the media is shared with another user. This also increases the potential harm, which might become cyberbullying or sexual abuse.

Further information (partner)

ipsum lorum

gaming

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Gaming

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

The main risk of gaming platforms is consuming and communicating and the potential harms are inappropriate content or cyberbullying.

Games may be played on consoles, mobiles or PCs. This guide deals with consoles as the most common platforms.

Main features

Most gaming platforms offer ‘social’ elements, such as chat, messaging and creating and sharing content such as videos made in-game which pose potential risks.

Gaming consoles are the most common platform to access the most popular games:

  • Nintendo (Switch)
  • Microsoft (Xbox)
  • Sony (Playstation)

Risk and potential harms

Ofcom data suggests that the most common potential harms on these types of platforms are:

How to set up an account

Almost any app will require the same details to create an account and access its content:

There may be requests for additional information, such as name, address or phone number – these are not always required.

These links explain how to register for and set up an account on the most popular platforms:

 

Using platform settings to manage risk

Each platform will have a setting for security and privacy – this can be used to control a number of aspects, including:

  • who can see your posts or media
  • the media and posts shown in your feed
  • who can contact or follow you

These links explain how to use settings to reduce the potential risks of unwanted contact, being tagged in abusive or bullying content, or seeing inappropriate or unwanted content on the most popular platforms:

How to report harmful conduct

If a user thinks they have been potentially harmed on the platform they should be aware of how to report this to the platform and potentially the police and trusted adults.

 

ABUSIVE OR THREATENING MESSAGES SHOULD BE REPORTED TO POLICE SCOTLAND

Online Reporting Form | Police Scotland

 

These links explain how to report users and content on the most popular platforms:

Resources and activities

Resources and activities

Although not specifically teaching resources, these guides from Shore (The Lucy Faithfull Foundation) can support discussions and are useful to point learners to for information on harmful sexual behaviour, such as unwanted contact or unwanted sexual messages:
What to do if… 

Topic Library

Thinkuknow by CEOP is the national website for learning about child exploitation and online protection (CEOP). Their learning resources site offers information and resources for learners, families and educators. 
These are a selection of the resources for different ages:

Jessie & Friends (4-7s)

Play Like Share (8-10)

Send me a pic? (11-14)

Exploited (14+)

Computing in Primary Schools: teacher survival kit SECOND LEVEL

This series of resources is designed to lay the foundations of learners developing an understanding of what computers are and how they work. This level introduces the concepts of:

  • computers are machines designed to do jobs
  • computers have instructions to tell them how to do those jobs

The learning will be about identifying the different jobs computers do in their lives and the wider world. It is important to link between the physical computer (parts) and the instructions (apps/software) that controls them.

Educator notes

Computer systems have a common model, the von Neuman architecture, which almost every machine is designed with:
inputs – memory/processor/storage – outputs

The processor runs the software, executing one instruction at a time. The instructions (for every app running) is stored in memory until the processor is ready for the next line. So too, are any inputs until processed. Anything that needs to be kept after the computer is turned off is ‘saved’ in storage, such as a hard disk or ‘the cloud‘.

Computers can be connected to each other to share data and resources. The internet is the biggest and most common computer network in the world. Information is sent between computers using cables under the ground and under the sea. Although we often think of mobile devices being ‘wireless’ they use radio waves to send information a short distance to a router (WiFi) or transmitter (3G, 4G or 5G).

The world wide web or ‘web’ is the most common user-friendly software used to navigate the internet (the hardware). This is often done using web browsers, such as Edge, Chrome or Safari.

Computers use a voltage (on or off) to activate or not activate a series of switches. This is how a processor processes the code. IS is represented by a (high) voltage and the computer processes this using the number 1. IS NOT is represented by no or low voltage and the computer understands this to be the number 0. This is how every computer works. 

The binary number system can only represent the number 0 or 1 in each place value. The first four place values being 8, 4, 2, 1 as opposed to our denary system which can represent 0-9 in each place, with the first four places being 1000, 100, 10, 1.

Modern computers use millions, if not billions, of microscopic switches, to make millions of decisions (selections) per second. This gives the illusion that computers can do lots of things at one time, such as run the operating system, web browser, play music, and display on the screen.

The main bit for learners is that computers are simple machines that have complicated processes. In order to make them easier to use Grace Hopper created the first ‘high level code‘ that looked like English. This is what we generally mean by code. Block-based code is an even higher level of code making it even easier to understand.

How the computer ‘thinks’

In between the inputs and outputs there are other components that make up the computer. Three of these components are the processor, storage and memory (sometimes called RAM (Random Access Memory)).

Learners should read and make notes to remember this information:

Computers store things (even when turned off) in storage, usually a disk (local disk, such as a Hard Disk (HDD) or DVD) or on the cloud (remote disk, such as OneDrive).

The computer loads the instructions it needs into the memory until the processor needs to use them.

The processor gets the instructions (one line at a time!) from memory and works out what it needs to do – this might be check inputs, display data on outputs, or make a decision (selection) 

Processor:  Inputs and outputs – BBC Bitesize 

Memory: How is all our digital data stored? – BBC Bitesize

Storage: How do digital devices store information? – BBC Bitesize 

 

They can then investigate Alan Turing and his role in the development of computing.

Alan Turing was a computer scientist and mathematician who was very important in the development of this structure and process. He also played an important part in WW2. 

How computers store data

Computers were originally mechanical devices (see back to Tommy Flowers and Colossus!) and used switches to make the decisions (selection) but these were too big. Modern computers use tiny switches called transistors and can have billions in each computer (even a phone!) 

 

Using literal switches meant a decision (selection) had to be made using Boolean logic (IS (True) or IS NOT (False)) – the switch is either ‘open’ or ‘closed’. So computers were programmed using binary (number system using only 0 (False) and 1 (True), instead of 0-9) 

 

This gets complex, so keep learners to knowing computers store everything in 0s and 1s and let them wonder or investigate how this might work.

How is all our digital data stored? – BBC Bitesize

 

Investigate how Grace Hopper, a computer scientist, and mathematician, invented a form of code that looked like English. This made it easier for programmers to create instructions for computers and led to the block-code we have used so far.

The internet

A new concept to introduce is that of computer networks – two or more computers being connected and able to share data and resources. The internet is the biggest and most widely used example of this.

Networks – BBC Bitesize 

The internet – BBC Bitesize 

 

The internet relies on physical connections using cables. Learners might consider digital devices to be wireless but they are only able to send information a short distance using radio waves to either a router (computer) or transmitter (phone).

A Journey To The Bottom Of The Internet (youtube.com) 

Thin underwater cables hold the internet. See a map of them all. (youtube.com) 

https://www.barefootcomputing.org/resources/modelling-the-internet 

ruby – hiding in plain sight internet components 

 

Like most computer systems, the internet has been made easier to use with modern software, this is the world wide web or web.

Investigate the role of Tim Berners Lee in developing the web, web browser and some internet protocols (http, URL)

Checking learning

Learners should be able to describe the von Neuman model of a computer:
input, process, memory, storage and output

Learners should be able to use block-based code to create a short set of instructions in the correct sequence and using a selection and creating a variable:

Learners should be able to predict what a set of instructions in block-based code might do and fix it:

Computing in Primary Schools: teacher survival kit FIRST LEVEL

This series of resources is designed to lay the foundations of learners developing an understanding of what computers are and how they work. This level introduces the concepts of:

  • computers are machines designed to do jobs
  • computers have instructions to tell them how to do those jobs

The learning will be about identifying the different jobs computers do in their lives and the wider world. It is important to link between the physical computer (parts) and the instructions (apps/software) that controls them.

For the teacher

For the teacher:
Computer hardware can be classified as input or output:

  • Users use inputs to control the computer and give it information, such as movement (mouse), button press (keyboard) or sensors (temperature, sound, current)
  • Computers use outputs to provide information to the user, such as audio (speaker), photo or video (screen) or movement (phone or controller vibration)

Code is instructions used to control the computer. Outwith the computer these might be called algorithms. The computer always follows the code in the order it is written (sequence) and code can be repeated using ‘loops’ (repetition).

Block-based code is used at this stage to allow learners to see the instructions, make predictions about what code will do on the screen.

Code uses logic statements to make decisions (selection) between one thing or another. This is Boolean logic:

  • the computer is turned on or is NOT turned on
  • the cat is on the mat or the cat is NOT on the mat
Identifying inputs and outputs

Start with learners identifying and then classifying computer hardware as inputs (used by user) and outputs (used by computer) 

What are input and output devices? (BBC Bitesize) 

 
They can then use this knowledge to analyse devices they use and categorise the hardware and software in them

Ruby – software or hardware/input or output 

 

Make a model of a computer or device and include input and output devices

Ruby – make computer model

 

Finish off this learning by investigating the work of Tommy Flowers who created one of the first digital computers in the world – Colossus 1|2

Coding: the computer’s instrcutions

Computers follow instructions in order (sequence) and one step at a time.

How are computer programs constructed? – BBC Bitesize 

Will this code get the squirrel to the nut? (code.org) 

 

Programmers (who write code) need to think about the problem they are fixing and work out what they need the computer to do (one step at a time) – try making these algorithms before coding.

 

We use algorithms to think out problems and solutions in sequence

All about algorithms – BBC Bitesize 

Ruby – Dance Time 

 

Start with these sequence levels, at level 7 it introduces the loop (repetition) block to repeat an action – why might this be useful? Repetition is useful to keep the computer doing a job as long as needed – it might play one song after another or keep showing the time, speed or temperature while you are using it 

Programming with Angry Birds | Express Course (code.org)

Coding: how computers make decisions

Most instructions need the computer to make decisions, often based on how they are used (inputs) this is called selection.

Repetition and selection – BBC Bitesize 

 

Selection uses Boolean logic (a statement that IS or IS NOT true) to decide what to do. In code the instructions used are:
IF true THEN do x, or ELSE do y.

It takes lots of these simple statements to make the computer do even ‘simple (to us) things’ and this is where coding ‘gets hard’ so this is going to try and stay simple 

 

micro:bits add a level of complexity (connectivity for example) but offers concrete experiences for learners.

Code.org has ready-made games but is only code on the screen, which may be harder to abstract for learners.

 

Code.org 

Looking Ahead with Minecraft #10 (code.org) (no selection) 

Looking Ahead with Minecraft #11 (code.org) (intro selection) 

If/Else with Bee #1 (code.org) (IF block) work through 

 

micro:bit 

Beating heart | micro:bit (microbit.org) (loop forever) 

Sunlight sensor | micro:bit (microbit.org) (selection/conditional loop IF/ELSE) 

Rock, paper, scissors | micro:bit (microbit.org)  (selection/conditional loop IF/ELSE) 

 

Finish off this learning by investigating Ada Lovelace, who is credited with writing the first ever computer programme (software).

Checking learning

Learners should understand that computers are used in the world all around them and can classify inputs and outputs:

 

Learners should be able to use block-based code to create a short set of instructions in the correct sequence and using a repeat block (loop):

 

Learners should be able to predict what a short set of instructions in block-based code might do: