The Fresh education program is adding a digital emphasis to learning, incorporating iPads into daily school life to promote and enhance safe online behaviour.
A Western Bulldogs community program, Fresh provides an alternative pathway from mainstream education with an emphasis on practical learning, which makes the use of iPads and other technology a useful education tool.
Receiving an ‘Everyone Connected Grant’ from Telstra, the program has been able to better educate and prepare students for real life situations and issues they may face online including privacy and bullying.
“The Everyone Connected grant has enabled us to integrate a program into our curriculum that addresses issues of cyber-safety thoroughly,” Fresh Program Manager Belinda Batty said.
“We’ve invested in a set of the latest iPads and docking stations to deliver the course, which we’ve called “What’s Your Online Status?” run with the help of the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police.
“After completing the program we hope to see our students emerging with the ability to identify and address common issues, protect their personal information and feel confident in seeking help when faced with inappropriate or unsafe behaviour.”
Student appraisals:
“It was really good to learn about cyber bullying, it showed us the good and bad ways people talk to each other on the internet.”
- Hannah
“Learning on the iPads has been good because its new technology and we know how to use it. We are lucky to have them because we can use them for research, music and presentations.”
- Rhys
“Bullying online happens every day, we all use Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Snapchat. It was good to learn about cyber-bullying because there are a lot of scary things that happen online that we need to know about.”
- Vanessa
