We will work with the twinspace in our lessons.
eTwinning offers the twinspace a safe platform for staff (teachers, head teachers, librarians, etc.), working in a school in one of the European countries involved, to communicate, collaborate, develop projects, share and, in short, feel and be part of the most exciting learning community in Europe. Teachers who register in eTwinning are checked by the National Support Service (NSS) and are validated in order to use all the eTwinning features.
Students are safe on the twinspace: No addresses will be collected, student names will not be linked to any address. Student work will not be publically visible unless agreed otherwise. Furthermore, the twinspace for our project closes after the school year, so student work can only be addressed during the current school year.
To ensure working together in a enjoyable environment that promotes transnational understanding and learning, some rules need to be adhered to:
- Our school has a general rule of strictly only allowing a minimum of online communication tools tested for safety. Therefore communication channels like Whatsapp, Snapchat and other comparable services cannot be used for classroom activities.
- Since students use these communications channels in their spare time and carry access to them on their devices, ‘bring your own device’ can only be seen as a last resort, when media provided by the school is not appropriate for a given task or not available.
- We respect the code of conduct outlined in the EU guidelines (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/code-eu-online-rights/). A simple rule of thumb is to think of what would you do offline. In general, the rules are the same both on and offline, but you might find yourself in a situation that does not have a clear point of reference to the 'real world', so it is equally important to know your rights whilst online: This comprises: no contact to strangers, no pictures of yourself send to a contact or platform other than identified to be safe in the classroom context, no online purchases, personal details about yourself, that you do not wish other people in your class to know. Good conduct as we would do it in real life: We act in a polite and helpful way with each other, we think before we post, we do not spam others, we are ourselves and do not pretend to be other people
- For your information – guarding our school PCs comprises:
- Material posted to the twinspace will not be publically visible outside of our classroom community.
- Providing our staff with basic training on detecting potentially infected files and secure practices when downloading files or using portable devices.
- Everybody, staff and students are taught to first scan all files for malware before they are used on school machines.
- Maintaining separate computer network environments, one for pupil, staff and parent interactions and the other on a highly secure server for administration.
- Keeping your anti-virus protection systems updated to avoid becoming a target of hackers.
- Encrypting and password-protecting sensitive data, and never store un-encrypted data on a portable device.
- Creating a rigorously applied protocol for copying or downloading sensitive data from the administrative systems and avoid doing this whenever possible.
- Running back ups of according devices regularly.
- It is important for you as students to guard your home PCs and Smartphones as we guard our school PC to avoid malware from spreading. There follow each of the steps outlined below, if you have not already done so:
- Installing firewalls and anti-virus protection systems and keep them updated to avoid security breaches.
- Blocking unwanted websites and pop-ups by personalising the security settings of the web browser(s) used on the school machines.
- Explaining to pupils why this is done and make clear that this is for their protection.
- Creating a rigorously applied protocol on the use of the internet and the automatic checking for malware of personal mails on school machines.
- Change your passwords regularly. We suggest applying the following rules: Make it long and complex, ideally between 10 and 14 characters; the length of password is the most important aspect of password strength
- b. Use a mix of numerals, symbols, upper- and lower-case letters and punctuation;
- c. Use mnemonic devices to help you remember it i.e. an acronym for a sentence such as “My daughter, Harriet, is a great tennis player” becomes “Md,h,=gr8tP” or “I love singing in the rain every single day!” becomes “I<3SitR364!”
- We use material that has a Creative Commons 00 license. One search engine available for creative commons material is https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/
- For more information on e-safety in eTwinning you can also use https://twinspace.etwinning.net/48921/pages/page/323187, https://www.etwinning.net/de/pub/code-of-conduct.htm, https://www.etwinning.net/de/pub/support/esafety-and-etwinning/a-esafety-in-etwinning-and-th.htm; https://www.betterinternetforkids.eu/web/portal/onlineservices
https://www.childnet.com/resources/the-adventures-of-kara-winston-and-the-smart-crew/smart-crew-guidance-and-activities
https://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/support/esafety-and-etwinning/b-trendsissuespolicies-an.htm
- Follow the SMART principles: The following mnemonic might be of SMART help, when talking to your children/pupils:
- S for “safe”: Be careful what personal information you give out to people you do not know.
- M for “meeting”: Take precautions when meeting up with people you have only chatted to online. Tell someone where and when the meeting is due to take place. Stay in public places and do not agree to anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.
- A for “accepting”: Be careful when accepting attachments and information from people you do not know they may contain upsetting messages or viruses.
- R for “reliable”: Always check if information is from someone reliable; remember some people may not be who they say they are.
- T for “tell”: Always tell a trusted adult if something or someone online is making you worried or upset.
