So in putting together my website for assignment 3 i have found myself battling the idea of cyber safety and what our responsibilities are as teachers. Obviously from a Professional Standards perspective we have a duty of care to not put our students in harms way and that clearly extends to any online environment we put the students in. However, wanting to put a forum component in my unit unit design, I am unsure how to ensure my students are safe and that the forum can not be targeted by individuals who represent a risk to students safety.
Having done several hours of searching, I am still unsure of how we can minimise these risks. I did manage to find what looked to be a Education Victoria based server but was unable to gain access without a Victorian registration. As frustrating as this was, it is a good sign as at least some thought had been given to students cyber safety. However, i remain frustrated that i could not find anything from either a Queensland or federal level.
In building my unit for assessment 3, I have settled on the simple and commonly used Proboards forum host, but in reality I am uncomfortable rolling this out to an actual class.
I am interested to hear other’s thoughts. Are we required to provided such safety measures to our students? I believe absolutely we should be. Is there an education based forum host that is available for Queensland teacher to utilise?
The Running Dad 