The skills required to access the Web safely are several and various and must be understood by different people of different ages and from different backgrounds, following consequential and precise steps. The Web is full of educational activities that provide expertise for a safe navigation, but the material is not organized and, above all, is not divided into precise and well built paths user-designed. The need is particularly felt and urgent for the youngest sections of the population. This is why one of the most important IOs of the project is an Online safety Roadmap that organizes and shares well structured and easily accessible resources on the security issues for children.
We think Online safety covers a lot of different areas such as safety online, hate speech, integrity online, how to search online, critical thinking online, recognise fake news, how to behave online, how to express oneself as an active, creative and democratic world citizen. These are big headings and they all require time to work through them.
We are well aware of the fact that many different stakeholders have created very good material and that there is a lot of good material out there but how does a teacher know where to find the different ones, which one suits them best. The Online safety Roadmap will be based on an investigation of various areas of internet resources that students use and what security issues that are connected to students’ use of the internet and connected apps.
The roadmap will include descriptions of online safety skills that need to be developed in the age groups 4-8, 9-13, and over 13. This is because the needs of the students are very different between these age groups when it comes to online safety. Lesson plans and support materials will be produced to help schools in realising these goals. Separate versions with the same main ideas will be produced for teachers, students in the different age groups, and their parents. The materials will be localised in each participating country as needed to follow local or national curriculum requirements.
The target group for this IO is initially European schools but of course the Online safety Roadmap published on the open portal will be available for all schools and running long after the end of the project