Cyber Cafety Boot Camp TONIGHT!

Last minute reminder for parents and students of Year 5 in 2013:

Cyber Safety Boot Camps begin

TONIGHT 

Tuesday Jan 29th

and

TOMORROW NIGHT 

Wednesday Jan 30th

please arrive 6.45pm for a prompt 7pm start

concluding at 8.30pm

in the YEAR 5 CLASSROOMS, C Block.

Attendance is compulsory

at ONE ONLY of these events

for all students 

with at least one accompanying parent.

The programme will be identical at both events.

Cyber Safety Boot Camps

Welcome to the new school year everyone!

We kick start Term 1 with a focus on Digital Citizenship, in particular, the online safety of your children. With internet-enabled devices in their hands, your children have ready access to a world of learning opportunities. Alongside these opportunities lurks a world of risk. It is crucial that the safety and privacy of your children is never compromised through their online behaviours. In order that parents, students and teachers share an understanding of the potential risks of internet activity we aim to establish a consistent approach digital citizenship at school and at home.

Step One - Attendance at Cyber Safety Boot Camp

Digital Citizenship education will permeate everything we do at school this year. This is not something that can be accomplished in one evening... Digital citizenship is a way of life! 

In recognition of the importance of our program and of the importance of strong links between home and school, we require all Year 5 students with at least one parent (each!) attend ONE ONLY of the Cyber Safety Boot Camps held this week. The program will be identical each night.

Please arrive at 6.45pm for a look around your child's new classroom, ahead of a prompt 7pm start. The events will conclude by 8.30pm... Everyone needs a good night's sleep in the first week of school!

We look forward to seeing you all at EITHER:

Boot Camp 1

Tuesday 29th January, 2013

7pm - 8.30pm

OR

Boot Camp 2

Wednesday 30th January, 2013

7pm - 8.30pm

Parents we highly value your family's time. We do recognise that the coming week will be one of the busiest and most anxious weeks of the school year. We also recognise that the issues that we plan to address at these events concern the safety and well-being of your children, which is of paramount importance to all of us.

 

Sensitive Material Warning:

Parents,

One of the video clips we will be viewing with your children on the night contains inappropriate language. While we believe its use is necessary to the impact of the video, we would like to give you the opportunity to view the clip beforehand and express any concerns you may have. Be assured that the clip will be introduced appropriately by the teacher leading the group. You will find the clip here:

"Let's Fight It Together"

If you have any concerns about your child viewing the content of the clip, please contact Maria. 

mmead@bne....

Apple IDs and other clarifications...

Thank you and congratulations...

iPad Setup night was a learning experience for all (especially some 'lifelong learning' presenters!!). The organisers wish to sincerely thank all who attended, particularly the students present who conducted themselves so well. The positive feedback from our 'outside' helpers was most enthusiastic. We know we are blessed with a wonderful community but it is always a pleasure to hear such effusive praise and appreciation expressed from our visitors. We were reminded this evening in very clear terms, just how fortunate we are to be working alongside you all.

A couple of issues clarified:

As with any new program, there will always be issues that no one has the best answer for at the outset. The safety and well-being of your children is always our most important priority when decisions must be made. Despite our best efforts to avoid confusion and to plan ahead for the smoothest way forward, there may be issues or considerations that we just have to work out or refine as we go along. 

1. Apple IDs

The Apple ID is one such issue. You need an Apple ID to download apps (see Parent Handbook - Setup Guide for more information). In the previous Padwise post, "The Drum on Student Email" the final section mentions Apple IDs, advising parents to create a new, unique Apple ID for their child. For most of you, this will be the best and simplest option. When asked to enter a birth date, you will have to use your own details, or select a birth date greater than 13 years ago. But this keeps any apps, music, movies etc owned by other family members quite separate from your child's school requirements. It also ensures that messages, emails etc associated with a shared Apple ID do not find their way onto your child's iPad.

A unique Apple ID for your child is our recommendation, made after consultation and research, in the interests of supporting those who need guidance. This option is the most straightforward as it requires fewer precautions and intervention. The ultimate decision about how you manage your child's Apple ID rests with you.

Those of you who already comfortably manage multiple Apple devices in your home, may wish to use your own or a shared family Apple ID to manage your child's school apps. Again, this is entirely your decision to make. If you do use a shared Apple ID, we remind you to note the cautions mentioned about this option in the previous post "Purchasing Apps". If ever you connect your child's iPad to a family computer, you will need to ensure that settings for syncing of apps, music and other media are carefully considered.

2. Games on the iPad

Games are great. Using digital games in teaching and learning is an area of rapidly growing interest in schools around the world. At St Catherine's, we intend to use a multitude of digital games for educational purposes throughout this 1 to 1 program and in other classes throughout the school.

Games can also be an unwelcome distraction that can negatively affect your child, as well as others who work alongside them. For this reason, the Parent Handbook - Policy and Guidelines document, stipulates that:

"Non-requisite apps or data should not inhibit the use of the iPad as a learning tool. Non-requisite apps or data on any student's iPad should not compromise learning opportunities for any other student at the school." (page xiv)

The iPad is owned by you and of course you are free to install whatever recreational apps you deem appropriate when the iPad is used at home over weekends and holidays. During the school week, we believe that purely recreational apps will inhibit the use of the iPad as a learning tool. Such games are not to be used at any time at school, for these reasons:

• This practice has caused innumerable problems in other 1 to 1 schools with no apparent benefits. 
• Many iOS games access the school's wireless network and can compromise the speed and efficiency of our network for legitimate management or teaching and learning activities.
• Recreational apps and the associated data can also take up valuable storage space on the iPad. 
• Purely recreational gaming taking place within the school environment may promote undue and overt pressures for onlookers to get involved in the latest 'must have' trending games. 
• We believe that break times at school are better spent developing physical and social skills away from digital devices.

The use of educational games can be of considerable benefit to your child's learning. However, the use of any non-requisite apps must be negotiated with the teachers. As always, the needs of your child and the rights of others sharing a learning space with your child will be considered.

Students will be shown alternative sources for apps including educational games. iTunes and the App Store are not the only nor the best place to find such apps. We will also be developing students' ability to evaluate apps, encouraging them to be critical users.

--- oOo ---

The issue of recreational games on the iPad is another area through which we need to tread gently and carefully. We understand your need to make the most of your investment. We ask that you understand our need to maintain an optimal learning environment for all of our students during school terms. Particularly in the first semester, we will be regularly inspecting iPads to monitor potentially distracting apps and data. These first months will set the tone for the entire program and help students establish sustainable behaviours and practices to maximise the benefits of the iPad as a learning tool. The iPad as a recreational gaming device has its place, as long as we keep the relevant school policy and guidelines in mind when the device is used at school.

Keep your questions and comments coming! 

It is of great benefit to all when these issues can be discussed and evaluated from all sides. 

We always welcome your input....

Reminder: iPad Setup Evening

Our iPad Setup Evening is a chance for parents with limited experience in using and managing iPads to come along and learn from those with more experience.

Where?

Nano Nagle Centre, St Catherine's

When?

6.45pm for a 7pm start

Tuesday 27th November, 2012

What do I bring?

Bring your child's iPad if you have it already. If you don't yet have your own, there will be school iPads available to play with.

You must bring the Access Consent Form signed by you and your child to have the wireless certificate installed on the night**.

Can my child come along?

You are welcome to bring your Year 4 child along if you need to, however the information provided on the night is aimed at parents.  This includes management information, restrictions and passwords that your child should not have access to. The students will receive their own 'on the job' training next year.

This is not a compulsory event.
Support documents for those who do not attend are available from the Parent Handbooks and Tips, Tricks & Troubleshoots pages on this blog.

**Important Note:  
School Wireless Access: Consent Form required
Our technician Trevor Weatherhead will be available on the night to install a wireless certificate for access to the school network. Before this certificate is installed and school wireless access is granted, we require a copy of the Access Consent Form signed by you and your child. This form refers to the Acceptable Use Agreement in the Parent Handbook - Policy and Guidelines.

The form is contained in the Parent Handbook that was sent home with your child last week. To avoid dismantling your handbook, a separate copy of the form can be accessed and printed from the link below:


Access Consent Form ICT Resources

The Drum on Student Email

1. What student email?
Brisbane Catholic Education now provides all students with a Live@edu email account. The purposes of the student email addresses are to:

• facilitate student to teacher communications and file sharing
• facilitate student to student collaboration
• allow access to the St Catherine's Student Portal
• allow access to LIFE, our new learning management system

2. A Cautionary Note:

As the email accounts are automatically generated though our student database (eMinerva), the addresses contain students' surnames. While this is not best practice in terms of maintaining online privacy, BCE Information Services personnel assure us that if the addresses are only used as intended - to access secure services within BCE and for communications with other BCE email addresses - then our students' safety will not be compromised. BCE's email filters are stringent and extremely effective in blocking spam. Though a small amount may slip through from time to time, students will be taught to recognise spam and phishing emails, the possible unsavoury consequences they present and how to deal with them.

3. Required: an "anonymous" secondary email address

Students will need an email address for their Apple ID and to access several online tools they require in 2013-14. We recommend that their BCE email address is not used for these purposes as it contains their surname. Here's what we suggest instead:

1. Use a free email service such as Gmail to create an email address for your child.
2. Decide together on an appropriate username which does not compromise their privacy.
3. Decide on a password with your child that is secure but easy for them to recall.
4. Keep a record of the password so that you may also monitor the activity on the email account.
5. Remind them that this password is never to be shared with anyone else.
6. Be ready to provide the email address when your child's teachers ask for it.

4. Which online tools does my child need for school?

Your child will be using the following valuable web 2.0 tools for their learning over the next two years:

• Evernote - please create an account at https://www.evernote.com/Registration.action 
• Fotobabble - please create an account at http://www.fotobabble.com/register/index and do NOT sign in with Facebook. No children at St Catherine's should be using or accessing a Facebook account.
• VoiceThread - please create an account at https://voicethread.com/login/ 
• Dropbox - please WAIT until an email invitation is sent from the Year 5 Dropbox account to create this one. This will give both your child and the Year level account extra Dropbox storage space.

Access to these tools may be restricted for children under 13 years of age due to legislation in the US. For this reason it is important that you create the accounts at home, on your child's behalf. Use the secondary email address (e.g. Gmail) that you have created for their Apple ID. Use the same (or very similar) password as their email address. This does go against best practice for password security but it will be much easier for them to access these accounts if they use a familiar password. Keep a record of the password yourself so you can monitor their use of the tools.

5. Something else to keep in mind:

Your child will not need to use this secondary email address for any school-required communications. Their MyBCE email address will be used for all communications with their teachers and required collaboration with classmates. The secondary address is only required for account registrations for certain school-required online tools and services. Strict guidelines should be set with your child about how and when they may use their secondary email account for their own purposes.

As with any online activity, safe practices will form part of our Digital Citizenship program. This program is embedded throughout all school activities and will be ongoing over the two year program. Support from home is expected by following the Policy and Guidelines outlined in our Parent Handbook which has been provided to families of all continuing students. This document is also available on this blog. Click the Parent Handbooks link in the menu bar above.

So what do I have to do?

1. Create an email address for your child, using Gmail or similar free service. Refer to the guidelines in Section 3. above.
2. Use this email address to create an Apple ID for your child. After further deliberation and consultation, we realise that an exclusive Apple ID will be your child's best option. This way your child's iPad won't become cluttered with iMessages, apps, photos, music and videos etc that you may have/take/purchase on a shared account. 
3. Use this exclusive Apple ID to sign into the iTunes App Store to download your child's school apps. Free apps are listed on this previous Padwise post. Paid apps will be redeemable using the codes that will be emailed to your child's BCE student email account. More information on this soon.

Booklists and Apps Lists

Last week you would have received the Year 5 Book list for 2013. Hopefully you noticed how sparse that list seems to be. Every effort has been made to keep the items required (in addition to your child's iPad) to an absolute minimum. Most stationery items such as sharpeners, scissors, coloured pencils etc will be supplied by the school and stored centrally in the learning spaces as shared class resources. This arrangement suits our contemporary "Innovative Learning" model.

The $30 levy designated for "iPad Learning Resources" will cover the Paid Apps that the school is purchasing on your behalf. Redemption codes will be supplied to you:
a) when the school has made the apps purchases
b) when receipt of the $30 levy has been confirmed
Additional apps may be required throughout the year. A list will be published at the commencement of each school term. No further funds will be required from you to cover apps for 2013.

Despite the school purchasing all paid apps on your behalf, an iTunes card is still recommended to create an Apple ID (to avoid using your credit card). In the interests of flexibility and individualisation, apps may be occasionally be recommended by the teachers to support your child's learning needs. Similarly, your child may find additional apps to meet their individual needs. A small denomination iTunes card would therefore be useful. So keep your eyes peeled for those specials - you rarely have to pay full price for these!

Which Apps do I need to install? 

The initial list of iOS apps for your child to use next year is the result of a long process of research, app trials and consultation.

Some are paid apps...

All paid apps will be purchased by the school on your behalf, to take advantage of the cost reductions available through Apple's recently released Volume Purchase Program. Once we have finalised these transactions and the $30 levy has been paid (via your child's 2013 book list), you will be emailed redemption codes so you can install these apps. Please ensure that the school has a record of your current email address for this purpose.

...and some are free apps.

The free apps your child will need are listed below. You will need to install these before the first day of Term 1 in 2013. It's a long list but we hope that this will minimise the need to ask you to install apps throughout next year. We don't anticipate that your child will use every app by Easter - some of these apps may not be required until later in 2013.

App prices can change without warning. At the time of posting, these apps are all free. If by the time you install them, you find that there is a cost involved, please email Maria (mmead@bne....) and the school will arrange a redemption code or find an alternative app for you. Please download as early as you can to avoid these issues.

Tools and Utilities

• Skitch
• Evernote
• Dictionary Free
• Scan (QR scanner)
• Socrative Student
• Dropbox
• SkyDrive
• Quick Voice
• Australian Curriculum

Religion, Prayer, Christian Meditation

• Bible+
• Mandala HD Lite
• Koi Pond HD Lite

Literacy

• Spelling Free
• SpellingCity
• Grammar Jammers (for iPhone)

Numeracy

• Woolworths
• King of Maths
• King of Maths (Yes, there are two apps here with the same name. May as well install them both as they will be useful and we wish to avoid confusion!)

Science & Geography

• Google Earth

Creating & Communicating

• Fotobabble
• (for iPhone)

• Videolicious
• Voice Thread
• Aurasma

Drawing & Thinking

• Glow Draw
• Popplet Lite

iPad 2 only

• Dragon Dictation (a substitute for the dictation tool on the iPad 3 keyboard)

*Please note: To find apps denoted "for iPhone" you will need to select the iPhone tab in the App Store app. Otherwise they will not appear in the list.

Screen shot of the top of the App Store search window

Apps can be difficult to identify by name alone. When searching, ensure that you enter the app title exactly as it appears. To make it easier for you to identify the correct apps from your App Store search results, we have created an illustrated version of the above list which includes the app icons. You may view and print this from the link below.

Year5FreeAppsList_Term1_v2

   

Not sure how to find and install apps? 
Here are some simple steps to follow:

Step 1: Locate the App Store app

Step Two: Search for an app 

Step 3:  Click  'Install'.

When prompted, type your Apple ID password. 

You will not need to re-enter your password unless you leave the iPad idle for more than 15 mins.

For further assistance, come along to school on the evening of Tuesday 27th November for a demonstration and some more personal support from our resident 'experts'. If you would like to join us and have not yet returned your form, please email Maria asap.
(mmead@bne....)

Lifelines - Options for iPad Support

OPTION #1

Your first port of call - AppleCare Protection

When you purchase any Apple product, you get 90 days complimentary support from AppleCare Protection. Click here for more information about iPad support.

Parents of St Catherine's 1:1 iPad students are welcome to phone the Education AppleCare support line for help for faster service tailored for school students.  Even if it is as simple as trying to work out how to load photos on to the iPad, connect to your wireless network at home or make an iMovie for homework!

Education customers have their own phone number : 1300 968 979
Hours of operation for phone support are as follows:
9am - 9pm Monday to Friday
9am - 6pm Saturday

[Image source: http://bestclipartblog.com/clipart-pics/telephone-clip-art-7.png]

OPTION #2
iPad setup night at school


Keep Tuesday night November 27th free for a special opportunity to 'drop in' and pick up a few tips and 'how to's for using your iPad. Year 4 students are also welcome. Arrive in time for a 7pm (sharp!) start and stay as long as you need to. We have a few 'experts' coming in to help show you what you need to know - our school "mac" technician Trevor Weatherhead, our Next Byte representative Elizabeth McKellar and several St Catherine's teachers. There'll be various tables set up for help with specific aspects of iPad management so we need to know ahead of time what kind of help you're after. Keep an eye out for a note that will be sent home with your child next week. The note will have a response form to help us cater for your needs and reduce your wait time on the night.

The school venue will be decided when we have a better idea of expected numbers. It would be great if we had a few experienced iPad users come along as well, to assist us in helping other families. So please consider coming along as a helper, even if you don't require help yourself. We can use all hands on deck to make everyone feel comfortable managing their device.

Finally, don't feel that you all have to be 'experts' on all aspects of iPad use. Your children will be 'learning on the job' throughout next year. They will amaze you with their competence and creativity. But they do need a responsible adult to manage the account side of things - purchasing of apps and parental supervision of content and access. These aspects will be our most important focus on the "iPad setup night".

[Image Source: http://phpbizonline.blogspot.com.au]

SOLUTION #3
Here's another all-round option for support with your family's digital learning...

Brisbane Catholic Education provides subscription to Atomic Learning for all teachers, students and families. This is a fantastic resource that we hope you will turn to for any support you need.

At Atomic Learning you can access a collection of thousands of short video tutorials on just about any software application you can think of. The account details cannot be published in this space but check out next week's Contact newsletter. Then you can log in and see what's on offer.

Here's a sneak preview of the collections on iTunes and iPads, for example...

With access to Atomic Learning you can teach yourself how to use any number of software applications - for FREE!