E -Safety

E- Safety, is an issue for individuals, organisations and business.There's a host of information, documentation and reports available. I have sign posted a few sites which I think will be useful to give you the basic information.

The RSC's, Learning Technologist Jason Curtis has created a wiki page on E- Responsibility, this is a good place to start. www.rscsystems.org.uk/index.php/EResponsibility.

Ofsted feel that its very important have the correct procedures and policies in place to try to cascade the right messages to staff and learners alike. The Excellence Gateway has guidance on Strategy, and creating Acceptable User Policies http://www.excellence.gateway.org.uk/ .

JISC Legal have created a template to help you identify your priorities before creating a strategy, carrying out an e- safety audit will give you ideas as to where to focus your strategy . http://TinyURL /2WJT9ek

Ofsted advocate that training is key to safe guarding. They believe that all students should feel safe online and be able to evaluate the risk or know how to report any issues. Ofsted's report into safe guarding can be found at http://tinyurl.com/Yg2j34c

Identifying resources for staff development like videos and websites can be found on the RSC's Wiki, however I felt that the 123people website is worth a mention as this gathers online information from Social Networking sites such facebook and Flickr. Checking your privacy settings will stop your information being shared with other websites. http://www.123people.co.uk/

The general message is that your staff and learners should be able to identify issues and feel safe online. Training seems to be the key to spreading the word regarding e-Safety. If you would like offical training on e-Safety then the CEOP, Think You Know Training is aimed at professionals working with children and young people. This training will give you both a law enforcement and education persepective. http://www.thinkyouknow.co.uk/
















Take a look the Jisc Legal Top Ten checklists on their website http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/

RSC West Midlands - Events: Accessibility and Inclusion Forum

RSC West Midlands - Events: Accessibility and Inclusion Forum: "The agenda for the day will include an update from the RSC outlining projects and New Open Source Software. Jason Curtis, RSC-WM Learning Technologies Advisor will identify some of the issues regarding esafety and highlight resources and information. There will also be a presentation by JISC TechDis who are the leading educational advisory service working across the UK for Accessibility and Inclusion.

The afternoon session ‘Make it Accessible’, introduces some key universal rules for making reading and learning materials accessible. The course will continue to introduce computer software to assist in making specific alternatives formats, including large print MP3 audio DAISY talking books and Braille.

Target Audience: The forum is aimed at anyone working with learners who need support with writing, reading, planning and organisation and is open to learning providers across all post-16 sectors who are based in the West Midlands including HE, FE, ACL, Specialist colleges, WBL and Offender learning."

Funding with LSIS

LSIS regional response fund of £150k will support immediate improvements needs in the further education and skills sector brought about as a result of changes to funding mechanisms and allocation.

The fund can be used to :

• help organisations to respond to the challenges of reduced funding and new priorities


• and promote collaborative sector led activities that allow providers to enhance quality improvement in strained times.

The deadline for application forms is the 25th of February the details can be found at http://www.lsis.org.uk/

Save the Date

Discover-e 2011
This years online conference is being held on the 17Th and 18Th of May. This looks to be packed with case studies best practice and information from the RSC West Midlands Learning Providers. The conference sessions will be delivered through webinar software Elluminate. All conference and fringe sessions will be run through Moodle. We are hoping to have several of the JISC services available to help you navigate your way through what each service does and how they can help you.

Save the date in your calendar 17Th and 18Th May 2011.

Create and Convert

With the new Public Sector Duty coming to force in April 2011, any help in being proactive with our learners in providing content in an accessible form is warmly welcomed. JISC RSC Scotland have a new edition to the Edu Apps family called Create and Convert. This software is open source and will allow you to convert electronic documents into accessible format such as audio, large print or talking book. The software is free to use and can be downloaded from RSC Scotland website

Related Links
Create and Convert