Generally after I run Cyber Smart sessions there is not normally a lot of feedback, parents tend to go home with a headful of items to consider arounf their use of technology and the internet and what their children are doing. The following is one of emails from parents that reinforce the work I do with students, parents and teachers.

"Hi Tony,

Your session with the children had a great impact in my daughter. I'm so grateful to you and the school for this! 

As soon as she got home she told me that she understands now why she has to delete the people she doesn't know. Her followers list is now 123 from 175. Considering that I was able to convince her to delete just 2; yours is a fantastic outcome! 

The issue in here was not convince her to delete the followers actually, my first intention was for her to understand the main reasons why she shouldn't let estrangers in her online experience, not just Instagram And I reckon you've got that objective completed.

I've also check some of the links and they are great!"

Remember to have a chat with your children/peers about what they do to be smart online!

Seeing as it is Safer Internet Day I thought I would add a few sites many are not aware of. The first site ti check out is:

Terms of Service; Didn't Read

This site covers the major tools and online services that most (practically all users don't read)

http://tos-dr.info/

20 things I learnt about Browsers and the Web

Great example of an HTML5 Book - all kids must read and know.

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/en-US

How Secure is My Password

Just check out hos secure your password is...

http://howsecureismypassword.net/

Adjust your Privacy

Maintain your privacy

http://adjustyourprivacy.com/

I hope you had a chat with your children and friends about being smart online. Every day should be Safer Internet Day - make it so.

Good news today I have finally completed all the details and requirements to be certified fully as a Google Apps for Education Trainer. It has been great connecting with another network of amazing people and validating the skill and knowledge that I have been developing and building on for the last 5 years.

You can check out my marketplace vendor details here, am expecting my listing to be approved any day.

If you are looking for any services around the planning, implementing, professional development and application of Google Apps for Education or Business please feel free to contact us.

Today I was lucky enough to be involved in the Google Apps for Education Summit held at MLC in Sydney. It was great to catch up with so many online friends and be apart of the first summit in Australia. It was also great to hear that another Google Teacher Academy intake will be occurring later this year in Sydney. Applications close for the next group on Feb 28th so it would be great to see a whole new bunch of Australians become involved in the GTA program.

 I was fortunate enough to hear Jim Sill speak at the morning session, Jim was entertaining, passionate and bit of risk taker during the session. All in all a satisfactory day with many people going away with new skills, ideas and resources. Check out the resources for yourself.

On the Friday day I presented on using chrome and the amazing resources and tools available within the browser and through the Web Store, you can access my Presentation and Notes.

WOW is all I can say. Last week I ran a full day cyber Safety session with 105 year 5 and 6 students. The experience was amazing I am so proud of the students for the effort and work that they put in. On the day all the students were prepared and ready to put in a big day concentrating on the task at hand, one which they had selected in groups of 2 or 3 (see previous post). 

So how did it all pan out....

At the start of the day I had worked out with the class teachers 4 students that would not be directly involved in group work but would be assigned to record the day. These students were asked to come in a little earlier so we could make sure things were sorted for the day. I had five forms of recording the day: photos via camera, video via iPod touch, video via Flip camera and audio via microphone recorder with the fifth element being a GoPro camera capturing still images every 30 sec. The following video is a slide show put together using some of the still images taken by my recorders on the day, I say some of the photos as these students didn't hold back on taking photos at the end of the day there were over 1300 images captured from the day.

There will be more artefacts from the day as we get them downloaded and edited.

Check back here in the next few days with more details about the day and the amazing work that the students created.