Duration: 1:18
St Hilda's Collegiate keep their Internet as open as possible and manage its usage by educating their students. With ultra-fast broadband, staff and students are using the Internet constantly to both upload and download. Principal Melissa Bell comments, "We find that the students who have been through this one to one programme are better digital citizens. They’re far wiser about what they write .... and how they manage themselves and their profile."
We have a very open system and I see many schools going down that way now. They’re discovering that having things all locked up is actually not enabling. So we’re working on the premise that we actually trust the students.
So you can access the Internet wherever you are in the school whether you’re sitting outside, in a classroom, on the top floor. It’s always on.
We try to keep the system and the Internet as open as possible and manage usage of it by educating them.
We do deal with things as they come up; we try to keep it as open as possible because simplicity is good from the technical management as well but also for the students for their learning.
We could have a centrally managed computer system where there were file size limitations and things but it would be such a compromise to teaching and learning, especially they’re doing more and more with video
They’re far more sensible users of social media and I know that issues like Facebook used to create a lot of problems for schools. For us we find that the students who have been through this one to one programme are better digital citizens. They’re far more wise about what they write in those sites and how they manage themselves and their profile. That’s been a really positive outcome for us.
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