Loisath-My ICT Journey

Students think SuperClubsPlus is “the coolest website”.

Super cyber safety with SuperClubsPLUS Australia & Telstra

Last term I introduced SuperClubsPlus to our grade 3 and 4 students so they have had their passwords for nearly a term. Even though they have only had one session in class time many of the students have made excellent progress in their own time. They have completed the Internet Safety Stars, created multiple web pages with music, pictures, games and surveys, web-rings and more.

SuperClubsPlus is an educational social networking site for primary aged students and a place where they learn about online safety and using online tools. NowWeAreTalking has more detailed information about the supporters in Australia if you are interested in introducing this in your own school.

Students become the teachers

When we have a class session of SuperClubsPlus the room is buzzing with students working together and helping each other work through the tasks to build their web pages and get their stars. The level of engagement is “super” high. Students start conversations in the yard at recess just to let me know how they are going or to ask a question about their web pages.

Great feedback on student progress

The statistics pages in the teacher section let me see at a glance the student’s progress and give a great overview of how often the students access the site and participate in the various activities.

Authentic Learning

I’ve been impressed about how effective the online safety message is when students actively participate in this community and get instant feedback from the mediators. Students often get carried away with giving out too many personal details but with SuperClubs they get instant reminders to change their behavior and it seems to work. It is like the game mentality where they have to obey the rules to proceed so they adopt the new behaviors and share the information with their friends to help them if they get stuck. I  am sure this behavior will spill over into their other online communities too.

We have really just scratched the surface with learning opportunities that we could create in SuperClubsPlus.

THE project is over and all the files have been emailed or sent home on CD or USB drive. Another huge component of the whole exercise – so would I do it again?

Yes I would. The learning for students, teachers (including me) and even parents was considerable. Teachers learnt about network structure, managing files, photos, photostory, email attachments and staying calm while under pressure to complete the project in time for Father’s Day. You can imagine that when there is an emotional investment in a project with young children and their parents that the intensity is magnified. In addition teachers supported each other and worked as a team.

Students had similar learning experiences, photostory, audio, coaching and supporting their buddy with recording, email- but also in resilience and patience while their frazzled teachers found where they had copied the mssing photos, helped edit photos that had been sent in a composite image, tried to download email attachments with strange formats and so on. Some students learnt a lesson about the cost of not being organised which would not of happened with a regular project and assessment. The real evaluation was the students satisfaction and sense of achievement in creating a unique gift for someone in their family so it soon became obvious to those students who weren’t putting in an effort that they were missing out. This was a project with authentic purpose.

The one extra bonus of the whole exercise was the rise of some students as mentors and experts to help other students when time was running out to complete their projects. They became experts in all aspects and part of the team pulling together to get the job done.

Feed back from the parents was fantastic. And yes it would be a project I would do again but with a lot more communication and a couple of extra weeks up my sleeve.