Author: George Milliken

April 6, 2023

Cyber security advice and guidance for Early Learning and Childcare providers.

All ELC providers want to create a safe and secure environment for the children in your care. As we become ever more reliant on digital technology it is increasingly important that you protect data (on children, staff and families), finances and also the integrity of any digital systems you use, including email, communication channels and databases.

There are a handful of steps you can take to minimise the potentially costly and disruptive effect of a cyber incident, and better safeguard the children in your care, as well as your business’s finances and reputation. This short seminar is for anyone working in childcare in Scotland. It is run by the National Cyber Security Centre (www.ncsc.gov.uk), and supported by the Scottish Government, Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate, as part of CyberScotland Week. It will provide you with advice and steps you can take to minimise the likelihood and impact of a cyber attack on your setting, and information about where to get help and advice if you need it.

Please click here to download e-pamphlet PDF Early Years practitioners: using cyber security to protect your settings.

Keeping-Under-Fives-Safe-Online2.pdf (childnet.com)

ELC cyber home

April 6, 2023

Supporting resources for Cyber for Early Level practitioners

ELC cyber home

April 6, 2023

Embedding early level Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety through play

This session recording aims is to support and equip you with the knowledge and confidence to embed cyber resilience and internet safety at early level through a practical play-based approach. It will explain where Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety (CRIS) sits within the Technologies curriculum and where it overlaps with the Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy and Maths and Literacy and English curriculum, and why it is so important to embed across your curriculum. We will unpick the CRIS experience and outcome and explore what this means in the context of play and how it can be part of everyday conversations, and what this might look like in your own setting.

ELC cyber home

April 6, 2023

Living with Digital – learner digital literacy theme: ELC

This page outlines the digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners should have to participate fully in the modern world. This ranges from awareness of digital devices, platforms and services and how they affect our lives to being able to troubleshoot common issues with technology.

Back to ELC learner digital literacy

learner digtial literacy planning support document

The Digital Literacy Planning Support documents are examples of how educators might plan learner digital literacy learning. The documents identify the Technologies Experience and Outcome, a theme to apply this, suggestions of the skills and knowledge that that might be delivered, and links to some resources that might be relevant.

Living with Digital (the world around them)

Below are suggestions on how educators might set a context for learning digital literacy skills and knowledge:

Scottish Government policy

“Scotland’s future will be forged in a digital world. It’s a world in which data and digital technologies are transforming every element of our nation and our lives – people, place, economy and government.”
(Scottish Government, 2021)

It might be worth exploring some of the features of this policy with learners and considering the impact of an evermore digital world.

What are computers?

Without going too far into Computing Science (a specific Technologies organiser within CfE) it is important to understand the basics of how computers and other digital devices work.

These BBC Bitesize pages are a great place to start:
What is a computer system? – BBC Bitesize (first level)
What is the internet? – BBC Bitesize (first level)
Input and output – BBC Teach (second level)
Computer networks – BBC Teach (second level)

Technology shaping the world

After learning about what computers and digital technology is, and how they work, learners could investigate how technology is used in a range of industries. These resources from Tech She Can are free to use and easily adapted to suit different ages and stages:

Lesson packs – TechSheCan

Environmental impact of technology use

All of the devices and technology we use has two obvious environmental impacts – the raw materials to make (which then need recycled again) and the energy to power them. There are lots of activities and lesson ideas on this page about Sustainability that could be linked into learning about device manufacture, energy consumption and eventual disposal.
Could your learners reimagine or improve this cycle?

2nd level Learning for Sustainability – BBC Bitesize

This page on the BBC Future site has some fascinating reading with lots of information and statistics for teachers. Do you know the CO² emissions of sending emails and direct messages or watching a video on YouTube? There’s facts and figures that could be used to create challenges for learners to consider and solve:

Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think – BBC Future

Living with Digital (their own knowledge and skills)

Evaluating their own skills and knowledge

Learners’ own digital literacy skills and knowledge

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting: diagnosing and solving technical problems with devices and platforms

Accessibioity and usability features

Usability features: using devices, platforms and services’ features to make them easier to use (accessibility)

April 6, 2023

Learning with Digital – learner digital literacy theme: ELC

This page outlines some of the key digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners could make effective use of in the classroom. This ranges from being able to upload, share and collaborate on platforms like Teams and Classroom to using platforms like SeeSaw and Showbie to journal and share their learning.

Back to ELC learner digital literacy

Professional learning

Developing Your Learners’ Digital ‘Pencil Case’ is the corresponding professional learnign to support teachers plan, teach and assess this set of digital literacy skills and knowledge.

Supoprting documents

It may be useful to make a distinction between the functional ‘office-based’ platforms available in Glow, like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and the wide range of devices and apps available to create multimedia content. Although designed for professional use these platforms can be utilised for learning too.

Communication

The first aspect to consider is how learners can use Glow and other online platforms to connect, contact and communicate with each other. Are they using email, direct messaging or video calls? How are these skills useful in learning, life and work?

What are digital communication systems? – BBC Bitesize

Collaboration

Using cloud drives, such as OneDrive (Microsoft) and Drive (Google), learners can create and share content with peers, teachers and even learners in other schools or countries. Not only can they be shared, they can be co-created and edited at the same time on multiple computers at once! How is this useful for life, learning and work?

Collaborating using IT – BBC Bitesize

Tech She Can has a short video explaining how cloud computing works for younger learners:

Tech for Katie and Tex explore the cloud (techshecan.org)

Literacy & English

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Word, Docs, PowerPoint and Slides might lend themselves to Literacy & English Es and Os:

When creating documents (writing a text) consider the impact of layout and presentation
Make use of lettering, graphics and other features to engage readers

Typing is a useful, but not essential, skill in modern digital literacy. Teachers might plan some typing practice as part of this functional suite of learning in order to enable learners to use them more effectively:

Dance Mat Typing for 7 – 11 year olds – BBC Bitesize

Numeracy & mathematics

$numeracy and maths experiences and outcomes$

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Excel and Sheets might lend themselves to numeracy & Mathematics:

When displaying data, consider the use of spreadsheets, graphs or tables to create clear visual representations

Creating and understanding charts and graphs – BBC Bitesize

Microsoft and Google app tutorials

These two collections of tutorials may support teachers develop skills with the Microsoft and Google suites of apps:

Free Microsoft Office Tutorials at GCFGlobal
Free Google Tutorials at GCFGlobal

April 6, 2023

Creativity with Digital – learner digital literacy theme: ELC

Back to ELC learner digital literacy

April 6, 2023

Searching with Digital – learner digital literacy theme: ELC

Back to ELC learner digital literacy

April 6, 2023

This is Digital: ELC

About this programme

This course consists of four webinars, each examining a theme of planning, teaching, learning and assessment. Attendees are required to participate in discussions, share examples of practice and will receive a certificate of completion from Education Scotland for completing this.

Participants are required to be digitally literate and confident in applying digital technology in their class. Ideally, but not essentially, having achieved Microsoft Expert, Google Educator level 2 or complete Apple Portfolio.

DigiLearnScot ELC home

Programme rationale

This programme focuses on what is ‘effective use of digital technology’ and how this can enhance learnign and teaching, instead of focusing on the wide range of novel digital technologies available to teachers.

This is because teachers in Scotland are required to have an enhanced and critically informed understanding of digital technologies to support learning and the skills and competencies that comprise teacher digital literacy and know how to embed digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning; as well as being able to consistently demonstrate the enhanced skills and abilities working both individually and collaboratively to ensure that every learner has access to and are enabled to select from well-chosen/designed resources including digital technologies. – GTCS (2021)

What can I expect?

This programme has been designed using Rosenshine’s principles of instructional design: smaller steps, revisiting prior learning, models of success and questions to check understanding.

Each webinar is underpinned by research and focused on one of the four themes of planning, teaching, learnign and assessment. Participants will be asked to share their thoughts on the theme and then the presenters will offer ideas and a model to scaffold participants’ understanding. The webinar will finish with a ‘call to action’ for participants to identify an idea form the webinar that they will test in their practice.

Preparing
Planning and resourcing
Delivering
Assessment & feed-forward

- Back to This is Digital page Reading and watching This episode of CLPL focuses on the rationale for using, or not using, digital technology in learning. An Education Endowment Foundation… …

- Back to This is Digital page Reading and watching This episode of CLPL focuses on the elements to consider when planning and resourcing lessons with digital. How does digital make… …

- Back to This is Digital page Reading and watching This episode of CLPL focuses on the elements to consider when designing and delivering lessons with digital. Creativity in the classroom… …

- Back to This is Digital page Reading and watching This episode of CLPL focuses on the elements to consider when assessing learning and providing 'feed forward'. Using digital technology to… …

What do I need to do or know?

Participants are required to take an active role in sharing their current practice, as well as their own personal successes and failures. The aim being that we build a community of support and guidance, helping everyone involved reflect upon where they are now, where they need to be, and how they will get there. It would be expected that some practitioner enquiry take place as evidence of the professional development you have undertaken with us.

The programme meets the GTCS Standard for Career-Long Professional Learning 2.1.1, 2.1.3 and 3.2.1.

Participants should ensure they have an understanding of these documents before attending, as they will be referenced throughout.

GTCS Standard for Career-Long Professional Learning

Technologies: Experiences and Outcomes

European framework for the digital competence of educators

March 27, 2023

This is… Digital Leaders: skills to help you lead change in your school

This programme aims to support teachers develop their leadership, improvement and coaching skills in the context of digital skills. It will provide the skills and knowledge to develop a strategic plan based on the needs of your colleagues, learners and wider school community; develop your understanding of improvement methodology and support you undertake an enquiry-based approach to developing professional learning for teacher digital skills and the digital literacy curriculum planning for learners.

This CLPL will run throughout the academic year 2023/2024.

Entry requirements

Teachers need to be digitally confident:

professional certifications, such as Apple Teacher, Google Educator Level 2 or Microsoft Expert are required to demonstrate this

Applicants will need time to be able to deliver training, develop curriculum planning and implement school improvement planning:

approval from their headteacher to join the programme

The programme requires an enquiry-based approach to learning:

applicants must take the time to read the literature, test change in their practice and reflect on their learning to complete a portfolio of learning

Programme content

Applicants will be provided with a list of recommended literature to ensure they have a deep and informed knowledge of digital skills and learning and teaching. This will underpin their development work in school.

There will be inputs from across Education Scotland to support the applicants’ development of skills and knowledge in:

leadership
improvement methodology
curriculum development
effective pedagogy

These sessions will provide the practitioner with the knowledge to evaluate their schools’ needs for:

teacher digital skills
the use of digital to enhance learning, teaching and assessment
learner digital literacy curriculum planning
engaging families in digital learning

This evaluation will be used to identify an area of inquiry to develop their thinking and practice over the course of the learning programme. This will be shared as a final summative assessment to pass the course while informing the Scottish education system of effective digital leadership and practice.

The applicant will need to be able to demonstrate how they took evaluated school needs, developed and delivered professional learning to colleagues, and developed the digital literacy curriculum for learners and engaged families with this. The particular aspects that the applicant identifies and develops will form the basis of their professional enquiry.

Programme calendar

calendar

March 1, 2023

04 May 16:00, Cyber Toolkit webinar

The Cyber Toolkit is designed to help teachers find the most appropriate and useful advice, information and resources to support learners.

When we use the internet we either consume, create or communicate. Each of these behaviours has different levels and types of risk. This toolkit will help you to diagnose, understand and then support learners with their digital needs.

Before you start with the toolkit, find out what your learners are using and doing online; and the issues or risks this presents. With this information you can use the toolkit to locate information, resources and professional learning to support you in planning meaningful CRIS learning.

Click this button to go to the Cyber Toolkit