Author: George Milliken

teacher digital skills toolkit user story form milngavie primary

Using the Teacher Digital Skills toolkit to identify and support staff needs

Milngavie Primary School, East Dunbartonshire, used the Teacher Digital Skills Toolkit to inform their professional learning.

The school’s ‘digital leader’ explained how they used the toolkit:

“I ran the session for collecting the data during the February in-service. It was very easy to use and being able to have the document to use alongside the Forms meant that I could explain what was meant by certain questions if anyone was unsure.The data collected on the duplicate form will be used to offer training to those with gaps, either individually or in small groups, starting with the essential skills. I will also direct some staff to online resources available to increase their skills rather than give personal training – whatever fits their needs. If there are areas where the majority of staff require support I will be able to deliver professional learning during an in-service day. to develop those skills.”

Got a story to tell? Get in touch with us and share it using this form: DigiLearnScot – Get Involved!

cyber week 26th february, ai week 25th march, digital literacy week 13th may

Digital Weeks 2023/24

We’ve got some exciting dates for your calendar this school session. 

Join us for:

Each week will have teacher training and professional learning opportunities and live lessons for teachers and learners to join in with.

Keep an eye on this page and our comms for more info and updates closer to the dates.

CyberFirst S2 Girls Competition

CyberFirst S2 Girls Competition 2023 Results

The CyberFirst Girls Competition aims to inspire girls interested in technology to pursue a career in cyber security.

The competition is a team event. Each team, of four girls in S2, tackles challenges from cryptography and logic to artificial intelligence and networking for the chance to be crowned cyber security champions.

Well done to everyone who took part but a special congratulations to the top 10 scoring Scottish schools and St Kentigern’s Academy from West Lothian who were this year’s top Scottish school!

Top 10 schools in Scotland for S2 Girls CyberFirst Competition 2023

  1. St Kentigern’s Academy  
  2. Girvan Academy  
  3. Hyndland Secondary School  
  4. Glasgow Gaelic School  
  5. Marr College  
  6. James Gillespie’s High School  
  7. Perth High School  
  8. Pitlochry High School  
  9. Stirling High School  
  10. Carluke High School  

Education Scotland is the proud regional partner with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) CyberFirst programme.

Find out more about our work and how your school can register to be a recognised CyberFIrst school here: about CyberFirst partnership.

Streaming and Video

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

Gaming, streaming and videos covers a wide range of apps and services. This section provides information on the most common ones and covers:

  • main features of the services
  • potential risks
  • how to setup an account
  • using platform settings to manage risk
  • how to report harmful conduct

Main features

Games are traditionally played on consoles and PCs but increasingly on mobile devices, such as tablets and phones. View our Games Hub for advice on Playstation, Xbox and Apple Arcade.

Video and streaming platforms, such as TikTok, Twitch and YouTube are used to view other people’s content or create and share your own.

All of these platforms are primarily used to consume content but also offer the chance to follow and friend other users and interact with them through direct messages and live chats.

Increasingly these are for brands or individual ‘influencers’. They usually post short videos (sometimes live), photos and short pieces of text.

Main features

Games are traditionally played on consoles and PCs but increasingly on mobile devices, such as tablets and phones. View our Games Hub for advice on Playstation, Xbox and Apple Arcade.

Video and streaming platforms, such as TikTok, Twitch and YouTube are used to view other people’s content or create and share your own.

All of these platforms are primarily used to consume content but also offer the chance to follow and friend other users and interact with them through direct messages and live chats.

Increasingly these are for brands or individual ‘influencers’. They usually post short videos (sometimes live), photos and short pieces of text.

How to set up an account

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

  • username (usually an email or the phone’s linked Google or Apple account)
  • password

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:

  • our Games Hub
  • Twitch
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

  • 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 posts or media
    • 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.

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

  •  

streaming and videos

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Streaming and Videos

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

The main risk of streaming and video platforms is consuming and the potential harms are inappropriate content or misinformation and disinformation (fake news).

Twitch, TikTok and YouTube are the most popular apps for viewing streams and videos.

 

Main features

Platforms like Twitch, TikTok and YouTube offer a way to connect with, and view content, from people across the world. Increasingly these are for brands or individual ‘influencers’. 

These platforms also offer direct messaging and the ability to ‘tag’ other people in the posts or comments – usually with @username.

It might be useful to think of these services in the context of their main media:

  • Twitch – live videos, often play-alongs on games or watch-alongs of other videos
  • YouTube – longer user-created videos
  • TikTok – shorter user-created videos

Risk and potential harms

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

The presence of brands and ‘influencers’ adds the potential harms of scams and influenced or pressurised spending.

Because they offer direct messaging and the ability to ‘tag’ other people in the posts or content there is also a potential harm of abusive or bullying messages.

How to set up an account

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

  • username (usually an email or the phone’s linked Google or Apple account)
  • password

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

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+)

social media messaging

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Social Media Messaging

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

The main risk of social media and messaging apps to send messages is communicating and the potential harms are cyberbullying and unwanted contact.

Snapchat and WhatsApp are the most popular apps for direct and group messaging.

Main features

Platforms like Snapchat and Whatsapp offer a way to send direct messages to individuals or group chats. These can include text, voice notes, photos or video.

 

It might be useful to think of these services in the context of their main media:

  • Snapchat – direct messaging or public posting short media 
  • Whatsapp – direct messaging to individuals or groups (can include media)

Risk and potential harms

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

With these harms, it is important to differentiate between problematic behaviour and harmful behaviour where there is a risk to safety, such as an adult contacting a child.

The presence of brands and ‘influencers’ adds the potential risk of scams and influenced or pressurised spending.

How to set up an account

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

  • username (usually an email or the phone’s linked Google or Apple account)
  • password

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, media or messages 
  • who can contact or follow you

These links explain how to use settings to reduce the risks of unwanted contact and cyberbullying:

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

Prevention is better than fixing problematic behaviour and these resources might be useful to get learners thinking about how their behaviour may affect others:

Be Internet Legends curriculum

Be Internet Kind section

Common Sense Edcuation

Meet Heart of the Digital Citizens!
 
Our Digital Citizenship Pledge

The Power of Words

 

Childline
 
Friendship problems

 

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+)

social media feeds

Cyber Resilience Toolkit: Social Media Feeds

  go to cyber resilience toolkit home

The main risk of social media platforms when scrolling feeds is consuming and the potential harms are inappropriate content or misinformation and disinformation (fake news).

Instagram, TikTok and Twitter are the most popular apps for viewing social media content.

Main features

Platforms like Instagram, Twitter and TIkTok offer a way to connect with, and view content, from people across the world. Increasingly these are for brands or individual ‘influencers’. They usually share short videos (sometimes live), photos and short pieces of text (posts).

These platforms also offer direct messaging and the ability to ‘tag’ other people in the posts or content – usually with @username.

It might be useful to think of these services in the context of their main media:

  • Instagram – photos
  • Twitter – short texts (posts)
  • TikTok – short videos

Risk and potential harms

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

The presence of brands and ‘influencers’ adds the potential risk of scams and influenced or pressurised spending.

Because they offer direct messaging and the ability to ‘tag’ other people in the posts or content there is also a risk of abusive or bullying messages.

How to set up an account

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

  • username (usually an email or the phone’s linked Google or Apple account)
  • password

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:

  • what posts or media you see 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.

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

Resources and activities

Our Learner Digital Skills Toolkit has a section on information and media literacy with advice and resources to use in class Finding and checking – learner digital skills toolkit 

This includes Project Real resources for understanding misinformation and disinformation Project Real

 

Digital Literacy Series 2024

Digital Literacy Series

DigiLearnScot home

This section contains a series of three documents designed to support educators in delivering the Scottish Government Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy (2016). The three documents detail:

  • the digital skills and knowledge that teachers require for their workplace
  • the skills and knowledge that learners require, with contexts and examples for teaching them
  • guidance on how teachers might apply their digital skills to enhance aspects of learning and teaching, such as delivery and assessment

digital learning teaching strategy Scottish Government

YouTube player

Male learner sitting holding iPad - The support document aims to make clear the digital knowledge and skills that learners require to be digitally competent. Being digitally competent means being able to use the most common devices and apps. It is… …
Male and female teachers holding devices - The toolkit document outlines the skills and knowledge that comprise digital literacy in the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS)'s standards. The skills are organised into three levels: Essential skills that are required by every teacher… …
male and female teacher holding devices - This document aims to support educators in evaluating their use of digital to enhance learning and teaching. It takes features of How Good is Our School and exemplifies how digital can be used to enhance… …