People get sick of hearing me lament about how little research there is about the effectiveness of cybersafety education. So its with some excitement that I came across this article about the effectiveness of an iKeepSafe education programme.

To cut a short article shorter. The finding is that the programme of iKeepSafe resources delivered in classrooms by DAREofficers improves understanding of the ‘three keeps’ of internet safety. As an aside, this was the first time I’d come accross iKeepSafe’s three keeps concept (keep safe, keep away, and keep telling).

For those of you into that sort of thing, the full report is here.

I’m not surprised that the findings are positive. The ‘lesson’ is close to best practice as we are coming to understand it. There are four identifiable components contributing to its success.

1) The iKeepSafe resources are fun and engaging. Kids will watch the movies. They provide a great centerpiece to build learning around.

2) The lesson is delivered by an expert. Young people will listen to advice from somebody they believe is an expert.  That’s a lot easier at 6 years old than at 16. At 6, almost all children believe adults are experts at everything. By 16, no adult knows nothing.

3) The partcipant children are guided in discussion – as opposed to presented content. This style of lesson gives children the opportunity to discover concepts and evolve their thinking. Its a better style of teaching. Teachers know this already.

4) The lesson is delivered in a classroom. Here’s a news flash. It turns out that the classroom is a good place to explore and learn new concepts. Kids don’t learn much in assemblies – which is why schools don’t teach in them.  Computer based training can teach some things well (look at the success of  mathleticsfor example) but not all things. The reason that cybersafety education based in a classroom facilitated by an expert works  is because its a model of education that works! 

We shouldn’t be banging out our messages in assemblies – nor should we try and rely on websites to deliver cybersafety education. If we’re educating children, then we should use models of education that we know work with children.

Of course the reasearch shows an improvement in identifying strategies to deal with cyber issues. It doesn’t tell us that they will employ them. However, knowing the strategies is one step closer to being able to implement them. One stat really jumped out at me - the research showed the children who recognised they should tell an adult about another child being cyberbullied rose 77%.  We know that appropriate peer intervention is critical in bullying. That’s why its a key theme of NetSafe’s ‘At A Distance’ video (which you can view here ).