Cybersafety, curriculum matrix released

Netsafe have released a matrix of what they would like to develop as an education curriculum to help educate students on the the safety of the internet.

It does however appear that netsafe website is unavailable at 11:20pm
however through google and the use of the View as HTML I can copy and write

Attached is a draft release of the NetSafe Cyber Citizenship Education Matrix. The purpose of this document will be to provide teachers and schools with a framework for developing good cybercitizens. It is intended that the document will be referred to when planning for the integration of cybersafety into school curriculum delivery.

A good cybercitizen is a person who uses ICT confidently, safely and responsibly to participate and collaborate online.

As NetSafe publishes our own cybersafety learning material, or becomes aware of other cybersafety material available, we plan to provide advice as to how such resources could be used to promote the competencies outlined in the Cyber citizenship Matrix.

The Matrix is a fairly high level document and at first glance may not seem to provide too much specific advice on the skills required by modern cybercitizens. This is intentional as the document is intended to allow cybersafety education to be integrated throughout the official New Zealand Curriculum, while also allowing educators scope to focus on particular areas of interest or relevance. It is also necessary to future proof the framework as much as practicable and not therefore become bogged down with specific technologies. As the technologies and the issues that cybercitizens face come and go, schools and educators will be able to flesh out the matrix with more specific and relevant learning objectives.

The layout of the document will be recognisable to anyone who is familiar with New Zealand curriculum statements. Down the left are the three ‘Attributes’ (or strands) as referred to in the definition of a good cybercitizen. Across the top are a sequence of year levels beginning with early childhood education, and moving through to year 13.

Unlike the New Zealand Curriculum which is arranged in levels and recognises that students in the same class may be performing at different levels, the cyber citizenship matrix is divided into distinct year bands. This is because the matrix is intended as much to provide a framework for linking in cybersafety learning materials from around the country and around the globe, as it is to provide a suggested learning progression.

Once complete, the document will be published on the NetSafe website.

NetSafe would like your feedback on any aspect of the NetSafe Cyber citizenship Education Matrix (including the title). Some suggested areas you might like to comment on may include:
• The attributes
• The breakdown of the bands
• The progression within each attribute in terms of developmental appropriateness
• How the language could or should help link through to the key competencies as outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum
• The overall complexity or simplicity of the document
• The practicality of providing such a framework
• The perceived usefulness for educators…

Ideally I would like to gather all feedback by 31 October

I thank you in advance for any time at all you may be able to spend providing feedback. Your feedback is valuable. Please email it to: richardb@netsafe.org.nz

There are three sections
Confident - Understand the impacts and potential of use for individuals and society.
Safe - Apply sound cybersafety strategies which promote personal safety
Responsible - Understand, follow and promote cybersafety guidelines which support community safety and wellbeing

There are two sections for secondary schools, Year 9-10 and 11-13, these will have some comment on tomorrow after I get some sleep and my laptop's battery gets charged.

Right to carry on,

Year 9-10
Confident - Investigate and compare how cyber-technologies are used by individuals, groups or organisation to achieve various objectives both positive and negative.
Safe - Display appropriate methods of dealing with specific cybersafety incidents, and explain how the risk of such incidents occurring could be minimised.
Responsible - Contribute to the formation, review or promotion of cybersafety guidelines for a community.

Year 11-13
Confident - In the context of cybersafety, analyse and critically evaluate the impact of cyber technologies on themselves and society both in the present day and historically.
Safe - Is able to proactively identify and appropriately respond to a range of potentially risky incidents when using cyber-technologies.
Responsible - Demonstrate a commitment to interacting within the online environment in an ethical and socially responsible manner.

These have a great amount of interest to me, as we are using more and more web technologies in the classroom, however, it is how they are being used outside the classroom. The way they are being used at home by various students to inflict pain and hummilation on some students, and the other adage of one you put it up it will never disappear. Students and parents have never had to deal with these forms of electronic bullying and problems before. A photo you could tear up, paper could be burnt. But once you put something online, it will be there forever.

my response
having a look at the draft matrix I like the idea of it. Though there are some things I would like to comment on.

The attributes, I agree with safe and responsible, though I feel confident isn't the right word when it comes to understand the impacts and potential of ict use for individuals and society.

The breakdown of the bands, these are clearly defined at the lower levels, however I feel there does need to be a change at the senior end 9-10 and 11-13, I would probably look more at 9-11 and 12-13. the reason for this is 9-11 are still grasping with the ICT and internet use. 12-13 would be able to have the life skills and the reasoning to be able to pro actively identify and appropriately respond to a range of potential risky incidents when they are using cyber-technoloiges, as well as being able to demonstrate a commitment to interacting within the online environment in an ethical and responsible manner, I know at our school we make more use of the LMS and other web 2.0 technologies at years 12-13 and this would be a way to be able to monitor them against the attributes.

I would like to see more details or achievement objectives before I comment on the key competencies, or at least wait till after the new curriculum has been announced and have some time to digest it.

It is a overally simple document that will help with early childhood and primary education, though I think it needs some more complexity when it comes to the secondary schools. more details may help with this.

I look forward to providing this framework to my year 9 and 10 students. As well as looking at the challenges I could pose to my year 12-13 students. I don't think I have the space to be able to fit it into my year 11 scheme though. The Health subject in the school may be able to focus on this, health will be able to catch those students that miss the ICT modules throughout years 9-10 and help the students to meet the bands. Although some development may need to be associated with this for those non-ICT teachers. I also am interested in educating the students through the netsafe network use agreement that we are busily trying to get together for the start of next year as we make more use of web 2.0 technologies and mobile devices as well as research in the classroom.

This will be able to help all teachers met the set of guidelines to help our students with internet access and to be able to educate parents and caregivers on the use of ICT and the internet through schools. This has already started through the use of hectors world in the primary schools and has been missing in the secondary schools where teachers are making more and more use of ICT without knowing what students are accessing. I remember a couple of years ago when students asked if they could access bebo in class time, and now dealing with the issues that bebo has throughout the school. Students are great adapters of ICT and teachers need to be able deal with those issues in a more confident and collaborative manner. this document may be able to help get some Professional Development to educate teachers about how to use the internet in a collaborative and safe manner.

I look forward to seeing the next stage of this matrix and I believe it has been a long time coming, I remember going to a netsafe meeting a couple of years ago where this question was asked. Since then I have been wondering how it was going to be incorporated into a already fill curriculum.

response back
Thank you for your honest and detailed feedback regarding the cybercitizenship matrix. Your comments will be most helpful as we develop his document further. I appreciate the pressure on your time, especially at this stage of the year.

To briefly respond to a couple of your comments:

The term 'confident' comes from the government's digital strategy. Within the strategy, the NetSafe programme is designated a major contributor to the confidence strand. At NetSafe we think of cybersafety as a learning enabler - giving individuals confidence to realise the benefits ICT can bring. I have tried to incorporate this into the 'attributes'. Perhaps it is more about awareness than understanding of the impacts of the use of ICT?

We could provide more detail in the upper year levels. In fact in the original document there were two further 'stands. I am also hoping that the detail will actually come as the matrix is populated by example lessons and resources either from NetSafe, overseas, or teachers themselves. We are still developing this process.

Thanks again for your input.