ICT Conference 14th July 2007- Alan November

Another day of great ideas and inspiration to take back to the classroom, filled with goodies from all the software houses to take on approval.

Alan November was an excellent speaker that has certainly made me think out about empowering our future children to think outside of the box. I have included both his blog and web links. Do visit it is well worth it! He mainly spoke about how to educate children to be "critical thinkers!" and giving children the tools to compare authors writings on the web, checking ownership of Websites and making opinions about the content displayed. There were also plenty of tips and tricks to enable us to go away armed and ready to fight off a few sharks along the way.

He also stated that children at school are safe, as much as possible because of the filtering systems that we have in place. However, when those same children go home and continue their searching, they do not have that same safety net to stop them swimming into deep water's; and no matter how vigilant you are as a parent it's impossible to watch them all of the time whilst they are on line. What they see at home, typing in the same key phrases they did at school will be totally different than what results are displayed at home. The children need to know that!

I have always felt that the Internet was filled with plenty of sharks and stinging jelly fish, ready to attack. But, its been a question in my mind-How do you empower children to embrace the new technology out there while keeping safe. I think the answer is you can only advise. It made me reflect back to all the many other things out their that could be harmful to the future children of today. I think the same thing applies. Giving the children the facts/tools to realise for themselves the dangers gives them the control to make decisions about the choices they make.