Digital Technologies

On Tuesday 21st February 9 Year 6 girls travelled on the school bus with Betty and Mrs Jones to participate in the Robogals Challenge.  The challenge was to collaborate with girls from other schools in small groups to program a robot - EV3, to replicate the Thai Cave Rescue.  Our girls were certainly great ambassadors for St.James.  The way they lead, listened, contributed, collaborated and participated in the day was great to see.

Here are some pictures from the day.

On Tuesday 21st March we have a guest presenter - Paula Jarski who will work with students from Years 3-6 in regards to online safety.  The students will have completed an anonymous survey before the day, so the presenter can talk with students about areas they are concerned about and online games/sites/apps they are using, their settings and the concerns of these sites.  Following the students' presentation Paula will speak to the staff and work with us about what we need to look at and how we can help our students be safe when online.  At 7.30pm that evening Paula will be running a presentation for parents.  I highly encourage one parent/career from each family to attend, regardless of year levels.  What your son/daughter is doing and seeing online changes so quickly and it is important that you are aware of current trends and how you can help your son/daughter be as safe as possible when online.

Last Friday I attended an eLearning Network where we had guest presenters talking to us about online safety for our students.  There was plenty of information for me to ponder but I will leave you with one that made me worry.  If you allow your son/daughter to sign up for a site or social media platform that has an age requirement above how old they are, they will always be receiving information from that site above their actual age.  For example, if your 10 year old son/daughter signed up to Tik Tok, which has an age requirement of 13, they, as a 10 year old, will be seeing content aimed for 13 year olds.  This is the algorithm that these sites use.  So when your son/daughter is 15 they will be seeing content aimed at 18 year olds.  Something to think about!

Nadine Jones

E Learning Leader 

STEMMS Teacher