Netsafe in a (tailored) Box at education conference

Potential contributors invited to submit digital material

Online safety promoter NetSafe will be creating a “NetSafe in a box” resource again this year for the ULearn educational conference in Auckland.

A standard box of digital educational material dealing with safety and responsible use of online services was given out at last year’s conference, but this year interested delegates will be invited to choose via the Netsafe website the resources they want to include in their particular box.

NetSafe has also put out a call for potential contributors of new digital material for the box. These have been given a deadline of this Friday to submit their input; NetSafe does not consider three days’ notice unreasonably tight as “a lot of people will have content they’ve already made,” says spokeswoman Sarah Thomson.

Last year’s box contained material on the NetSafe-affiliated site and resource Hector’s World, Net Basics educational material like that provided on NetSafe’s website and a collection of resources on cyberbullying.

This year’s box will include as an option the cyberbullying video Tagged, produced by the cybersafety unit of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). NetSafe has already distributed this video to a number of New Zealand schools. “It’s the best piece of video I’ve seen on the subject,” says NetSafe executive director Martin Cocker. “I wish we could afford to produce something like it.”

NetSafe in a Box is intended for the educational community rather than the general public. It will be available to delegates at Ulearn; those from the sector who cannot attend will be able to order a copy for a nominal fee to cover the cost of reproduction.

The Ulearn conference will be held from October 10 to 12.