What kind of information/resources are available for schools/caregivers on Cybersafety/Digital Citizenship?
There are plenty of resources available online but I can only recommend the ones I have used and looked at myself. Around 2009/10 I got involved in Superclubsplus with Sonya Van Schaijik at Newmarket Primary School so a lot of my knowledge extends from that experience.
Netsafe is one of the first places I would recommend any teacher or parent to head to for information. If you want to grow digital citizens who are cyberaware and cybersafe it should be your first port of call. They have a blog and are also on all kinds of social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. "NetSafe is an independent non-profit organisation that promotes confident, safe, and responsible use of online technologies..." (You can check out a list of their partners and their current work by clicking on that quote).
Netsafe have plenty of resources on their site and also links to other sites they are part of or recommend. One resource they have is The Netsafe Kit for schools which I would highly recommend for schools who are starting out on their cybersafety/digital citizenship journey. If you get in touch with NetSafe they will be able to put you in touch with someone who could come out and talk to your staff and/or school community about the importance of digital citizenship and cybersafety.
They have an awesome site called HectorsWorld which has fun activities/videos/songs etc. for kids aged 2-9 years old. It has a parent section where you can view information on everything from dealing with upsetting online content to safety buttons and webcam covers. There is a teacher section too which has lesson plans/story books/hand outs etc. Another site worth looking at is Cyberbullying, it offers information, advice and guidance for students, caregivers and schools.
I can highly recommend Superclubsplus (now Skooville here in New Zealand) as a safe place for children to be online (mediators are always online monitoring conversations/content etc.) to learn about how to be safe online. I haven't used the new Skooville but when we were using Superclubsplus the students had pages similar to a type of Myspace/Facebook page and progressed through badges to earn a cybersafey certificate. I can only assume that they still follow a similar social media format and have badges to work towards. If schools decide to get involved I would encourage teachers to get on board with students so that they can experience what the students are doing and how they progress through. I completed my Superclubsplus cybersafety certificate and super teacher award so that I had an idea of how the programme worked for my students (NZ Y3/4 at the time).
I saw an add on the TV the other day that Netsafe and The Parenting Place have teamed up with Vodafone. They have created a space online called Digi-Parenting. The site offers advice to parents on how to become more Digi-Savvy as well as including information on how to get help and keep their family safe online. This is perhaps another place you could recommend to parents who want to know more. They seem to have a lot of good suggestions and information worth having a read through.
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