Author: George Milliken

Microsoft Accessibility Tools Quick Guide Posters for Learners by Viewforth High School

At Viewforth High School, we are on a digital journey to ensure all learners and educators are able to benefit from digital technology to raise attainment and improve outcomes for all.  

Most of our students are familiar with Microsoft Teams accessing via Glow and staff have been using it to set work and assignments during previous lockdowns and continue to do so now we are back in school.  

However, some pupils are faced with challenges when trying to access digital learning both in school and at home and to support our pupils in accessing their learning we identified areas where both the skills of staff and pupils needed to be developed. One of these key areas was the accessibility features (and knowledge of these) of digital tools for pupils and ensuring staff know how to use these tools with pupils.  

In response to this, I have created several Quick Guides to support both staff and pupils in accessing and using the features of Microsoft Tools.  

 

I created guides for each of the following tools: 

  • Immersive Reader 
  • Live Captions 
  • Speech to Text  
  • Translate 
  • Office Lens 

These guides have been shared amongst staff and with colleagues in other schools across the country to support them to support their pupils.

Tech We Can: Tech for the Planet lesson resource

Tech She Can is delighted to share the brand new Tech We Can lesson, ‘Tech for the Planet’ which is out now!

“Since the COP26 climate summit earlier this month, topics such as sustainable living and protecting the future of our planet have dominated the news agenda, as well as entering our everyday conversations, including those taking place in schools and among young people.

Our latest free on-demand Tech We Can lesson, ‘Tech for the Planet’ aims to show some of the innovative ways in which technologists around the world are using technology to protect our air, reduce waste, help clean the oceans and preserve our wildlife. It also highlights role models working in these areas – Lucinda Jones from Unilever and Mikya Rozner from Tesco – which we hope will inspire young viewers to consider a future career in technology.

You can watch the lesson, aimed at 8 – 14 year olds, and taught by Becky Patel and Katie King here.

If you’d like to explore other Tech We Can educational resources, for use at school or at home, please head over to techwecan.org to gain access to a wide range of on-demand lessons and lesson packs. Each explores the use of technology in a different area – from sport, to food and outer space – and highlights the types of careers that students could go into in the future.

 

 

Go to Tech We Can resources

Level 4 Resources for Cyber Fundamentals and Internet Safety

Education Scotland have collaborated with Girvan Academy in South Ayrshire to produce a set of resources that combine the SQA level 4 units in Cyber Security Fundamentals and Internet Safety.  These resources reinforce our belief that every learner should have the knowledge and skills to use the internet and online services safely, allowing them to spot potential risks and recover from any potential harm, they face while using online services. 

 

 

The following teaching resources have been created:

 

Assessment evidence  

The assessor will use the portfolio approach to generate evidence that learners have achieved these units. 

A learner must complete the Getting Started with Online Accounts booklet, one of the relevant ”Getting Started with Chromebook/iPad’ booklets (depending on what device they have set up), and then the assessor must complete an observation checklist for every learner:

  • Assessor answer booklet  
  • Observation checklist  
  • Learner profile  

 

The teacher answer booklet and prior verification certificate can be downloaded from the SQA secure site.

technology assisted harmful sexual behaviour

Communicate: technology-assisted harmful sexual behaviour with Stop It Now

The Stop It Now! programme is designed to help teachers support learners with Technology-Assisted Harmful Sexual Behaviour.

   go to cyber home

DigiLearnScot home

School guidance document for responding to TA-HSB

Education Scotland Tackling TA HSB Digital Resource

Back to Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety

Technology Assisted Harmful Sexual Behaviour (TAHSB) is unfortunately an issue that educators deal with on a daily basis. It impacts on friendships and relationships of everyone involved. However, it is important that educators understand what it is, how to identify it, and how to support the learners involved. 

Stop It Now! Scotland is part of a child protection charity that believes that the key to preventing sexual abuse is awareness among parents and community members. They work to build public confidence in recognising and responding to concerns about the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

With their experience of delivering the Rosa project in Glasgow, they were are an obvious choice to support us to develop our TAHSB professional learning course. This course is designed to support educators to:

  • develop their knowledge and awareness of TAHSB
  • increase their confidence in identifying and categorising the TAHSB they are dealing with in school
  • take action to help the learners they are supporting with TAHSB

Enquire about TAHSB training

Christmas Activity Booklets for Early, First and Second Level – North Lanarkshire Digital Pathfinders

The North Lanarkshire Digital Pathfinder Team have created these digital Christmas Activity Booklets for Early, First and Second level.

Book Creator was used to create the booklets as it allows children to access the books independently at home or in school. The booklets are a more sustainable method to accessing a range of Christmas activities across the curriculum and can help to reduce photocopying. The learners have enjoyed using this resource as it allows them to engage with different digital media. The booklets also provide the opportunity for the learner to consolidate their digital skills and use personalisation and choice when completing the activities.

Communicate – Email

Communicating online carries greater risk than just consuming or creating content because it involves other people and their ability to influence or affect our behaviour.

This page looks at email, which is typically the information required to create other accounts or activate devices, is still the most common form of communication in the workplace and is targeted relentlessly by criminals for financial gain.

The risks:

  • phishing emails
  • sharing private information (social engineering)
  • sharing or receiving content that is inappropriate, offensive or harmful
  • reading unreliable, or false, information
  • being groomed or exploited
  • being bullied

Becoming cyber resilient is the first step to being safer online. Talk to your learners about the devices and accounts that they use to access online information:

Being more cyber resilient reduces the risk of internet safety issues arising. We all want the internet to be a more welcoming space for children and young people and that is why we promote this positive message of safe, smart and kind.

With your learners:

  • Are they aware of the risk of grooming – what it looks like, how it happens and how to report it?
  • Ensure that learners are aware of the risks of direct messaging (DMs) – could they be offensive, harmful or bullying to someone else?
  • Even though it may created and shared privately, it probably won’t stay private after you share it so, what does your content say about you?

Email resources:

Critical Thinking – Childnet

Trust Me – Childnet

Media Smart Body Image 9-11 yrs / Key Stage 2 / PSHE

Digiduck Stories – Childnet

Information:

When people’s posts are getting you down – Own It –

I want to know more about Cyberbullying – Childnet
Just a joke? – Childnet

I want to know more about Sexting – Childnet

Bullying or Harassment (reportharmfulcontent.com)

Staying-Safe-Online-advice-for-parents-and-carers.pdf (cyberscotland.com)

welcome to forms header

What is Microsoft Forms?

What is Microsoft Forms?

Microsoft Forms is a tool for creating surveys and quizzes

  • Microsoft Forms allows users the ability to create surveys and self marking quizzes.
  • Forms can be shared with Glow users and externally with parents and the community.
  • Forms automatically collates data which is displayed in interactive graphs.
  • All this data can then be exported into Excel for further analysis.

welcome to forms header

View all previous webinars

Creating new forms, and adding headers and media

Adding questions and sections to your form

Creating quizzes

Sharing forms, settings and accessibility features

Managing your forms

Using the file upload feature in forms

Communicate – Direct Messaging (DM) Apps

Communicating online carries greater risk than just consuming or creating content because it involves other people and their ability to influence or affect our behaviour.

This page looks exclusively at direct messaging (DM) apps, such as Snapchat and Whatsapp, not social media or gaming which also have messaging features. Dating apps, such as Grindr and Tinder may also be considered as Messaging apps but we do not currently have age appropriate content on those platforms.

The risks:

  • sharing private information
  • sharing or receiving content that is inappropriate, offensive or harmful
  • reading unreliable, or false, information
  • being groomed or exploited
  • being bullied
  • receiving inappropriate images or messages 
  • phishing scams

Becoming cyber resilient is the first step to being safer online. Talk to your learners about the devices and accounts that they use to access online information:

  • Make sure that platforms are protected by stronger passwords and 2FA is enabled to stop others from accessing the account without permission
  • Ensure they are aware of privacy settings, such as who can see or share your messages, media or location (Snapchat Snapmaps are enabled by default and allow other users to see your exact location)
  • Check that they are aware of the risks of grooming, cyberbullying and scams
  • Show them how to report concerns on the platform
  • Forward phishing messages to NCSC on 7726

Being more cyber resilient reduces the risk of internet safety issues arising. We all want the internet to be a more welcoming space for children and young people and that is why we promote this positive message of safe, smart and kind.

With your learners:

  • Are they aware of the risk of grooming – what it looks like, how it happens and how to report it?
  • Ensure that learners are aware of the risks of direct messaging (DMs) – could they be offensive, harmful or bullying to someone else?
  • Even though it may created and shared privately, it probably won’t stay private after you share it so, what does your content say about you?

Messaging (social media) resources:

Critical Thinking – Childnet

Trust Me – Childnet

Media Smart Body Image 9-11 yrs / Key Stage 2 / PSHE

Digiduck Stories – Childnet

 

Information on behaviours:

When people’s posts are getting you down – Own It –

I want to know more about Cyberbullying – Childnet
Just a joke? – Childnet

I want to know more about Sexting – Childnet

Bullying or Harassment (reportharmfulcontent.com)

Staying-Safe-Online-advice-for-parents-and-carers.pdf (cyberscotland.com)

Information on apps:

Social networking and messaging apps guide | Internet Matters

Snapchat Checklist – Download or Buy Snapchats Checklist | SWGfL

WhatsApp | Safer Internet Centre

Kik | Safer Internet Centre

Digilearn.scot Shortlisted for Scottish Cyber Awards 2021

We’re delighted, and immensely proud to be able to announce that we have been shortlisted for two awards at the upcoming Scottish Cyber Awards 2021.
Even to be shortlisted is a great achievement for us and we’d like to thank all of the educators who have engaged with us, and also our Education Scotland colleagues that support us.

The awards we’re shortlisted for are:

  • Best Cyber Education Programme category for the
  • Best New Cyber Talent

We can’t wait to see you all at the Cyber Awards and hear about the impact that everyone’s work us having across the country.

#ScotCyberAwards21