Excellence Gateway
The use of technology has become an essential skill for learning, life and employment. Technologies, including email, internet and mobile phones, are increasingly essential to both individuals and to businesses. Membership or use of sites which support collaboration, conversation, and the sharing of different forms of media, such as social networking services, are common. Being able to confidently use technology opens enormous professional and personal opportunities, and supports the delivery, management and process of lifelong learning.
Safeguarding further education (FE) learners, and providing them with the skills to safeguard themselves when using this technology, is a vital part of the education that organisations should give to learners. A key part of this process is understanding, and effectively mitigating against, the risks that exist as part of the use of technology of all types.
Organisations must develop policies that help to support learners and employees, and take responsibility for dealing with technology-related incidents. Most organisations provide guidelines regarding access to, and use of, information and communication technology (ICT) equipment. For example, they state what sites their network users can access. They do so, however, within a society where technology is pervasive and increasingly part of the fabric of everyday life. Even where access or activity is restricted, organisations may find their learners, their staff, or themselves adversely affected by the misuse of technologies, or by the unintended consequences of uninformed use.
They should be mindful that their approach to the management of systems, hardware, software and internet access does not inhibit effective innovation, or de-skill staff and learners. It is also important to remember that organisations are not just equipping learners and employees to work within their particular institution – they are equipping them for a lifelong engagement with both formal and self-directed education.
It is critical that they recognise that banning, blocking and filtering approaches – however appropriate to a particular learning communities own culture and circumstance – cannot be regarded as sufficient protection for individual members of that community, nor relieve the provider of a duty of care with regard to safeguarding learners and employees online.
Organisations need to be aware of and understand e-safety risks, provide support in terms of education, prevention and policy for their members, and be clear about how incidents that may arise will be dealt with, and by whom.
Many FE organisations have concerns around learners accessing ‘unsuitable’ sites, appropriate use of social networking sites, ‘search’ related risks and learners’ general inability to make sound judgements about downloading materials, applications or software. This problem is compounded by the range of people, in terms of age, ability, programme, etc, that are learners at these organisations.
As John Sewell, from JISC TechDis, states:
"It is apparent that a lot of colleges are finding it difficult to implement an effective policy in this area; in some colleges filtering is so aggressive as to prevent staff from doing their job, whilst some college managements are unfamiliar with the issues and seek to play safe by relying on the default ‘lockdown' state of network filtering."
The wide range of learners in post-16 education means that organisations have to be aware that placing the responsibility on the learner, and applying sanctions if monitoring reveals a breach of the rules, is, on its own, ineffective in ensuring safety; a more comprehensive strategy is required.
This theme highlights materials and resources which can support different aspects of online safety for adult learning providers. It is divided into four topics:
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/197281.
