Today I attended the launch of the Cybersmart website by Minister Conroy at the Beth Rivkah Ladies College in St Kilda. Minister Conroy spoke of the enormous benefit to education and the economy of the internet. However, there were negative aspects to the use of the internet. The Cybersmart program was a resource that supported the positive use of the internet for teens, staff in schools and parents. It was intended to take the ‘fear’ out of the use of the internet whilst recognising there were risks associated with it use.
The Cybersmart program consists of the website and an outreach program which provides professional learning for staff in schools. Greg Gebhart who was undertaking a professional development session with staff at the school commented on the fact that the use of mobile devices was now used extensively by students in primary schools and the target audience for things like cyberbullying, cybersafety and security needed to be focussed at the younger years in schools. The comments back from teachers at the school was that what Greg was presenting was a little scary but timely and important that teachers and parents realise the great opportunities and potential risks in the use of the internet.
education.au is proud to have supported ACMA in developing this site. It would also be an oversight if I did not mention that we were ably assisted by Robyn Treyvaud and Lee Burton from the Centre for Strategic Education who provided much of the content for the site.
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