Safer Internet Day 2011

Safer Internet Day 2011 is 8 February. As part of a wide range of national initiatives to support this event, SQA will offer part of the Internet Safety course for free to learners during the week commencing 7 February and ending 11 February.

We hope that the course will of interest to all sorts of people -- young people who may be concerned about online bullying and older people who may be concerned about identity theft or online fraud. The one week course will provide a taste of everything that's in the actual course.

We plan to use social media to engage learners. The course sign-up will be done using Twitter, which we will also use for course updates, and we will use a blog for the actual teaching and learning. The entire course has been optimised for delivery on a mobile phone (although it can be done on a PC). There is no formal assessment.

We could do with your help! Please encourage your learners to follow us on Twitter. That's all you need to do. Once they do, we will take care of them. The only thing the learners require is a mobile phone (or a PC). There is absolutely no cost, no form filling and no time commitment.

We hope that this short taster course will not only be fun and interesting (and short!) but also deliver genuinely useful knowledge and skills about how to protect yourself when you're online. So I would be grateful if you use your own networks (websites, student forums, etc) to pass on the following URL to everyone who may be interested:

http://twitter.com/sqaesafety

Please contact Caroline if you want to know more about this initiative.