Youngsters quite at home with the web world at their fingers
RECENT research by Lancaster University professor Michael Hulme found that 75 per cent of young people admitted they couldn't live without the internet.
Its importance in the daily lives of youngsters cannot be underestimated – in school, the World Wide Web has become an intrinsic learning tool, while at home it gives limitless access to information, entertainment and communication.
All schools across the county are now fully connected to Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online (CLEO), one of 10 regional specialist broadband networks providing broadband technology and educational content for schools in England.
A county council-led Home Access scheme also targets children in care, at risk or those unable to attend school through illness.
Under the scheme, children receive a Home Access Unit, comprising a laptop, including relevant programmes, technical support and a year's filtered internet access.
Government funding also enables families on low incomes to qualify for a laptop.
Head Brendan Conboy is confident every pupil at Our Lady's Catholic College now has access to a computer outside school.
"We have laptops available to loan to families who wouldn't otherwise have access to them, and we are as confident as we can be that 100 per cent of our pupils now have internet access at home," he said.
In class, the internet is now widely used for teaching, with pupils able to access information and sources direct from the web.
"The internet has completely changed the world of education; the resources out there are unlimited," Mr Conboy said. "We have adapted to that in school, and we have also adapted homework to allow for online learning."
With most children now growing up surrounded by new technology, for their teachers it can often be a case of trying to keep up.
By the time they enter primary school, many youngsters are already familiar with computers and the internet.
Rose Starkey, head at Dallas Road Primary School, said: "They come in to school with such confidence.
"They have good mouse control and they know what it does; they have played games online and they are comfortable with it all.
"It's an integral part of life now and a lot of parents probably don't realise how good at multi-tasking their children are becoming."
At Dallas Road, the internet is now used as an everyday support to the education process.
"We use it daily," Mrs Starkey said. "There's so much on there that supports learning.
"For whatever topic you are doing you can see it online which makes learning so much more visual and you can engage the children much more.
"The hardest thing is to make sure they are not just copying, but are making decisions for themselves.
"Teaching needs to go alongside it and use it to support learning, rather than take the place of it."
Considering the amount of time youngsters spend online nowadays, it's important for parents to ensure their children are safe.
With many children having more knowledge about modern technology than their parents, help is now being directed towards those most in need.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) works with councils and schools nationwide on internet safety, this year holding a special Safer Internet Day on February 9.
Neil Scanlon, chairman of Lancashire County Council's anti-bullying strategy group, said cyber bullying is an issue the council takes very seriously.
"We have taken advice from experts on how we can support schools, children and their families with cyber bullying issues," he said.
"Families really need to understand that they need to be aware of it and know the signs to looks out for. It's a growing issue because most children have access to computers and mobile phones.
"Cyber bullying is treated as seriously as any other type of bullying. It's now embedded in the school curriculum and we have relaunched our anti-bullying guide for schools to include cyber bullying."
To enhance the online safety stance, specially trained police officers recently gave talks to parents and pupils.
Schools across the district were visited by officers who explained to children how to stay in control while on the net and how to report inappropriate behaviour or approaches from other users.
PC Derek Snalam, youth involvement officer and CEOP ambassador, said: "From speaking to pupils we know that more than 90 per cent of them use the internet every day. More and more children have easy access to a computer and they need to know how to stay safe while online and how to report something if they feel uncomfortable with it."
Staff at Our Lady's use a 'Ranger' system which allows them to keep a check on what pupils are looking at in the classroom.
The system allows teachers access to every child's computer screen from their own computer, helping them keep track of the pupils' work progress as well as monitoring what sites they are looking at.
With internet safety such an important issue, Ranger also allows teachers to block certain websites from view.
Others – including social networking sites such as Facebook – are automatically blocked by the CLEO system.
"Cyber bullying is a problem the world over," Mr Conboy said.
"As a dad it's something I am really aware of and we work really hard with both parents and children to make them aware of it."
Last year the school devoted a week to the importance of online safety, with ICT head Rachel Bowyer trained to give talks to both parents and pupils.
"It was really worthwhile," she said. "We had several pupils afterwards who came to us about it; you just don't know how many people it might be affecting."
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Weather for Lancaster
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 3 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
