TY Update Summer 2018 | Page 9

CRITICAL THINKING During our year of CRITICAL THINKING and debunking FAKE News we have been delighted to see the massive growth in WEBWISE and SAFER INTERNET DAY. We have asked Lorcan Tuohy- Donnelly to give you a bit more information about these special projects .. I’m Lorcan and I’m in 5 th year in Borrisokane Community College. I’m a Safer Internet Day Ambassador with www.webwise.ie and I am also a member of the Webwise Youth Panel. After my first year as a Safer Internet Day ambassador I think that this is a great role for TY students to consider as there are so many opportunities to develop a wide range of skills. Who Are Webwise? Webwise is part of PDST Technology in Education, who promote and support the integration of ICT in teaching and learning schools. They are based in the Invent building in DCU but you don’t have to be based in Dublin to be a Safer Internet day Ambassador. They develop resources and ideas to help us to be more effective and safer when we are online and develop a range of materials that are suitable for students, teachers and parents. For TY co-ordinators there are a wide range of resources in the teacher section on www.webwise.ie that could be used in TY and teachers can also order copies of these to be delivered to schools. What does a Safer Internet Day Ambassador Do? Safer Internet Day Ambassadors should have an interest in doing something positive to address issues such as online safety or cyberbullying. Prospective ambassadors complete a Doing things his own way - Lorcan Tuohy-Donnelly Student, Borrisokane Community College Cycle Against Suicide Student Leader and Ambassador Safer Internet Day Ambassador and Webwise.ie Panelist form explaining why they would like to be involved and the team at Webwise get in touch to explain more about the programme and the training that is involved. This involves a day of hands-on workshops where you get to meet other ambassadors from around the country and some webinars to follow up on the training. You then work with teachers in your school to plan some events for Safer Internet Day. This takes place at the start of February every year. There is a host of activities and resources you can use in your campaign that can be accessed on both webwise.ie and saferinternetday.ie. Over 102,000 students took part in Safer Internet Day across Ireland in 2018 supported by the ISSU, Webwise.ie and us as student Safer Internet Day Ambassadors! WWW.TYIRELAND.COM