Keeping Safe Online

Below are a series of tips for keeping yourself and your students safe online.

All our teacher Google accounts have Youtube accounts attached. You can upload your own video content to Youtube and then set the viewing settings (e.g. open to public/ only viewable with the link etc) to your liking. The uploader is very straightforward and walks you through step by step.

We all know Youtube is a great resource for learning, but it is also a great resource for procrastination. Avoid having those pesky ads/ linked videos by either:

• Embedding your Youtube link into a Google Slide (just go Insert/Video and then follow the prompts). This is particularly handy, because you can add a WALT or instructions to the slide

• Embedding your Youtube link into a Google Form (great as a watch and respond activity)

• Using a website like safetube.net to strip away the links/ ads

Basically, if you created the resource then you are free to distribute it as you wish. If someone else created it then it is not yours to share, even if you purchased it. If someone else generated it, then try one (or some) of these things:

• Link to the original source e.g. the website it came from. [Easybib is great for older students.]

• Make sure you distribute it on a closed network e.g. reading a story to your class and sharing the video on Seesaw rather than uploading it to YouTube (which would make it public domain).

• Don't distribute the original document in its whole form e.g. load a pdf file someone else has created onto a public website.

Keep yourself safe during video calling- particularly if one on one with a student. Tips for this:

• Try and have someone else in the room with you (headphones will help).

• Notify the parents via email before engaging in a video conference with a student.

• Keep your end on mute to avoid your video attendees hearing your kids in the background.

Want your students to do some research? Consider either:

• Sending them directly to a kid-friendly website (such as National Geographic Kids, Wonderopolis etc)

• Directing them to a kid-friendly search engine (such as Kiddle, Google Safe Search or AnyQuestions)

If you're in doubt, just ask. 😜