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More than 1,000 schools found to be ‘spying’ on children’s internet use

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Nicky-Morgan-internet-use.jpg

More than 1,000 UK schools are using software that “forces” staff to spy on pupils as they work on their computers, privacy campaigners have warned.

The programme can be used by schools to monitor pupils’ internet activities, but also access their web history, block certain websites and monitor what they are typing.

The technology aims to protect children from grooming and stop them from accessing adult websites, the Daily Mail reported.

In some cases, however, schools have installed the programme without making families aware, prompting concerns that the extreme level of monitoring and filtering online content may go “too far”.

Figures obtained by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch show that of 1,420 secondary schools in England and Wales which provided data, 1,000 admitted to using the spying software.

The schools have spent some £2.5m on the software, and installed it on a total of 832,386 computers, laptops and mobile devices.

Of the 1,000 schools questioned, one in six were able to provide details of acceptable use policies, with just 26 able to give information about the type of software and how it was used.

 Of the schools contacted, 123 did not give any further detail beyond stating that students may be monitored when using technology in school.

In its report, Big Brother Watch said that schools often consider buying the software in order to keep pupils safe online, or to protect them from potential radicalisation.

But, campaigners added: “We are concerned that the use of technology which allows real time monitoring is placing teachers unwittingly in the position of being Big Brother.

“Forcing staff to oversee their pupils’ every digital move represents a fundamental shift from the traditional method of overseeing pupils by engaging with them from the front of the class.

“Schools currently offer little explanation about the use of the software in their acceptable use policies.

“Pupils and parents, who have to sign such policies to say they agree to the use of the software, are therefore left completely in the dark.”

The understanding that teachers are able to “spy” on pupil activity comes amid wider concerns raised over pupil data protection issues in schools.

Big Brother Watch urged that use of the software in conjunction with school CCTV and biometric systems risks “normalising” children to surveillance.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Computer monitoring software is used in schools to safeguard the welfare of children and young people by ensuring that they are not exposed to damaging online material.

“There is no secrecy about the use of this sort of software in schools. Pupils are very much aware of rules about computer use and most schools have policies which are available to parents.”

[Source:- independent.co.uk]

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Internet

Children’s Day in India: 11-Year-Old Pune Girl’s Doodle Featured on Google India

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Children's Day in India: 11-Year-Old Pune Girl's Doodle Featured on Google India

November 14, birthday of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is celebrated as Children’s Day in India and Google is continuing its tradition of featuring the doodle by winner of its Doodle 4 Google contest on google.co.in on Children’s Day. “Happy Children’s Day! Meet the Doodle for Google winner!”, says the hover text when you hover your mouse over the doodle image, and search results for “Children’s Day in India” are shown when you click the doodle on desktop or tap it on mobile.

The doodle featured on the Google India home page on the occasion of Children’s Day 2016 is that by 11-year-old Pune girl Anvita Prashant Telang, who was announced as the national winner of the “Doodle 4 Google” contest last week. The sixth standard student from Vibgyor High School in Balewadi area was chosen for her Doodle submission on the theme titled “If I could teach anyone anything, it would be”.

Twelve doodles made by kids across India were shortlisted as national finalists of the 8th edition of Google’s annual Doodle 4 Google (D4G) competition. The entries that came from over 50 cities across the country were evaluated on artistic merit, creativity and theme communication as well as their unique and novel approach to the Doodle. All D4G participants are grouped into three categories: Group 1 comprising students from Class 1 to 3; Group 2 with students from Class 4 to 6; and Group 3 with students from Class 7 to 10. Google then invited everyone to help choose the winner by voting for their favourite doodle to select one winner from each group. Online voting was open from November 2 to November 2010.

“With ‘Doodle 4 Google’ competition, we aim to promote creativity, passion and imagination in younger users. We congratulate Anvita for being judged as the winner this year,” Sapna Chadha, Head of Marketing, Google India, said in a statement.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Education

Scotland’s Children’s Panels launch recruitment drive

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Launch of children's panel recruitment drive

A drive has been launched to sign up 500 volunteers as Children’s Panel members.

Recruiters are particularly looking for more applications from younger people to help support some of Scotland’s most vulnerable children.

They say they may be better able to relate to those they’re trying to help.

The Children’s Panel system aims to help vulnerable youngsters who get into trouble, often as a result of having suffered neglect or abuse.

It currently has around 2,500 panel members across Scotland.

‘Different backgrounds’

Boyd McAdam, national convenor and chief executive officer of Children’s Hearings Scotland, said they were looking to “top up their numbers”.

“We rely on volunteers from the community to take decisions about what needs to be done for our vulnerable children,” he said.

Mr McAdam said they wanted to ensure a gender balance in hearings and that different backgrounds were represented on the panels.

He added: “I think the challenge for us is always to bring in younger people.

“It’s what young people say they would like to see – panel members of an age closer to themselves.”

‘Very rewarding’

All volunteers receive extensive training to help them in their role.

Mr McAdam said: “We are looking for someone who has empathy with children and young people who has an ability to listen and obviously to read the paper work and take decisions.”

One existing volunteer, Drew McCulloch, said his role on the Children’s Panel was “very, very hard work but very, very rewarding”.

The supermarket worker from Darvel in Ayrshire, said: “Basically, I have worked in and around Kilmarnock all my life so it’s just something I can give back to the local community that I have worked and served in for 30 years.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Fantasy books such as Game of Thrones can damage children’s brains, head teacher says

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Fantasy titles 'encourage difficult behaviour in children', according to the teacher 

Aprivate school head teacher has urged pupils not to read Game of Thrones books, claiming they can damage their “sensitive subconscious brains”.

Graeme Whiting also said fantasy titles – such as Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter – “encourage difficult behaviour in children”.

He told parents to steer clear of the “mystical and frightening texts” and they should instead read classics such as those by Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare.

Writing on his blog, Mr Whiting – head of the independent Acorn School in Nailsworth, Gloucester – said fantasy books can be bought without a “special licence”, despite damaging the “sensitive subconscious brains of young children”.

He wrote: “I want children to read literature that is conducive to their age and leave those mystical and frightening texts for when they can discern reality, and when they have first learned to love beauty.

“Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, and Terry Pratchett, to mention only a few of the modern world’s ‘must-haves’, contain deeply insensitive and addictive material which I am certain encourages difficult behaviour in children; yet they can be bought without a special licence, and can damage the sensitive subconscious brains of young children, many of whom may be added to the current statistics of mentally ill young children.

“For young adults, this literature, when it can be understood for what it is, is the choice of many!

“Buying sensational books is like feeding your child with spoons of added sugar, heaps of it, and when the child becomes addicted it will seek more and more, which if related to books, fills the bank vaults of those who write un-sensitive books for young children!”

He added: “Children are innocent and pure at the same time, and don’t need to be mistreated by cramming their imagination that lies deep within them, with inappropriate things.”

Mr Whiting says he stands for the ‘old-fashioned values of traditional literature’ rather than the modern ‘dark, demonic literature’ which could warp children’s subconscious minds.

Ironically, one of Keats’ most famous poems, ‘Lamia’, is about a seductive serpent woman and Shakespeare’s plays are full of ghosts, demons and bloody violence.

He ends by telling parents: “It is the duty of parents to spend time to study such matters and form their own conclusions, not to think that because the world is filled with such sensational literature they have to have it for their children, because everyone else does!

“Beware the devil in the text! Choose beauty for your young children!”

Mr Whiting refused to comment further on his blog, but Nikki Ellis, parent and former teacher at the school, agreed with his views – even though she had only read one Harry Potter book.

She said: “I absolutely agree with Graeme Whiting’s views. For me, having read the first book of Harry Potter and watched one of the movies I feel that the darkness of the books is so palpable that it wasn’t the sort of thing that we would want to expose young children to in their formative years.

“I thinks there’s an element that’s so detailed and about occultism that it can desensitise children to the dark things in the world at a time when we want to build them up in a positive way.

“They are being exposed to things that can drag them into the dark world and the occult.

“And particularly in Harry Potter it suggests that ordinary people are boring or wrong and only the people who have magic powers are interesting. And right from the beginning the child is orphaned. These things are portrayed in a graphic way.”

She suggested that children should not read Harry Potter books before the age of 12 and warned parents off children’s favourite Roald Dahl.

“I love the humour of Roald Dahl but there’s a degrading element to his books. There are better books out there for children.”

Mr Whiting founded the Acorn School, where children do not wear uniforms or take state exams, in 1991.

It has been assessed as “outstanding” by Ofsted and its ethos is to “educate students as threefold human beings, nurturing the will, feeling, and thinking elements which are related to the head, heart, and hands”.

The last Ofsted report said “the school aims to provide young people with the finest education possible, using the principles of Rudolf Steiner, as well as those developed by the proprietor and his wife”.

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Education

Parents’ smartphones harming children’s ability to hold conversation, say teachers

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Children in the playground at primary school

Parents’ immersion in smartphones has left some neglected children starting primary school unable to hold conversations, new research  warns.

Almost a third of children starting school are not ready for the classroom, with many lacking social skills, having speech problems or not toilet trained, the survey of senior primary school staff has found.

Teachers warned of children suffering from a lack of attention and interaction from parents obsessed with their smartphones.

One head teacher said: “There is limited parent/child interaction. Four year-olds know how to swipe a phone but haven’t a clue about conversations”.

Another primary school leader warned: “We are having more and more children entering our early years stage with delayed speech and a lack of school readiness.

“I feel much of this is down to challenging family circumstances alongside the rise of mobile phones and other mobile technology, which means parents are more often to be seen on the phone than talking to their children.”

Four year-olds know how to swipe a phone but haven’t a clue about conversations”Head teacher

The survey of more than 1,100 senior primary staff carried out by The Key, an information and advice service for head teachers, estimates at least 194,000 children could be ill-prepared to start school in September.

The State of Education report found four-fifths of teachers were worried about poor social skills or children having speech problems. More than two-thirds had seen children lacking “self-help skills”.

Teachers also reported levels of reading, writing and numeracy were lower than they should be.

Fergal Roche, The Key chief executive, said: “School leaders are already struggling to retain staff and manage their teachers’ workload, so add thousands more pupils arriving ill-prepared for the classroom to the equation, and the burden placed on our schools will be huge.

“An agreed definition of what ‘school-readiness’ means, could be the first step to helping schools, parents and early years practitioners identify what national or localised support is required to meet this growing issue.”

Gareth Jenkins director of poverty policy at Save The Children said the report “provides yet further evidence that too many children are not getting the support they need to thrive in their early years”.

He said: “Research for Save The Children has shown that falling behind in their early years can drastically limit a child’s chances of success later on, affecting results throughout school, and even earnings as adults.”

Last year, a leading child psychiatrist suggested parents enforce a “talk not tap” rule at the dinner table to stop smartphones and tablets taking over children’s lives.

Dr Hayley Van Zwanenberg, of the Priory clinics, warned that children “transfixed” by social media and messaging risk growing up emotionally stunted and unable to cope properly with the real world.

Today’s research comes after the Department for Education halted its controversial attempts to measure the abilities of four- and five year-olds as soon as they start school.

Teachers and unions had said children starting school were too young for the baseline tests designed to see how pupils developed through primary school.

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