Digital Learning:A Guide for Parents and Carers

Containing advice on: Distance Learning Digital Competence Online Safety Resources

Getting Started

0

The COVID-19 virus has meant that we have all had to make changes to the way we live our lives. During this time schools and settings are closed to most children and their learning will need to continue in a different way. The most important thing for your children is to make sure that they are able to Stay Safe and Stay Learning.

Hwb is available to all schools in Wales to provide a safe, online environment where teachers will be able to communicate with your child and your child will be able to communicate with their friends and class mates. Hwb allows your child’s teacher to send them work and enable your child to send work back to their teacher and for them to provide feedback where required. There is a wide variety of tools available to your child within Hwb and they will be guided by their school as to which tools to use for particular tasks. A full list of these tools, together with a short description of each can be found at the end of this document.

Before getting started, your child will need access to three things. These are: A device – Computer or mobile device. The internet – Hwb is a web-based platform. A quiet area / space (where and when possible) – children learn best when they

are not distracted. Also, some tools may require sound and audio files, which need to be heard.

Well-being

There are a number of things which you may want to think about when your child is using digital devices which will have an effect on their well-being:

Staying Connected

It is important during these times that digital platforms are used to continue a feeling of connectedness between the school, teachers and pupils. Schools are sociable places and your child is used to interacting with many people throughout the day. When possible, your child may wish to use the features in Hwb to communicate with friends, class mates and teachers.

Screen Time

Although your child will have to use digital devices to access and complete tasks set by their teacher, it is important to think about the amount of screen time that they are having and where possible, making sure they take part in their allowed physical activity.

Distance Learning – Supporting Your Child

1

Support for Parents and Carers

Schools are grateful to you for supporting your child’s learning, off-line or on-line, at this difficult time. During the summer term they will set work for your child to do, maintain contact and provide help along the way. Any encouragement and support you offer will be very helpful, but you are not being asked to be a teacher.

We hope that the information on the link will explain more about how this Hwb website, Welsh Government’s learning platform, will help your child learn.

Click on the tile to access the information.

Distance Learning through Hwb

Advice, guidance and videos on how to access learning, support learning and submit work can also be found on Hwb. This includes how to log in to your child’s account and how to use some of the available tools.

Click on the section area of the table to find the answers to these frequently asked questions:

Section Frequently Asked QuestionsWelcome to Parents and Carer’s Support

Introduction to Hwb

Accessing Learning How do I access my child’s assigned tasks?What is Hwb and how can I log in?How can I access specific tools or download them?

Supporting Learning Where can I find additional activities for my children to do?How do I keep my child safe whilst working online?

Submitting Work How do I send work back to the teacher?

Digital Competence

2

Digital competence is the set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that enable the use of technologies and systems. Please click on the following links for further information.

Click on. Click on the tile to find out more about the Digital Competence Framework

Click on the tile to find out more about the Digital Competence Framework

Areas of the Digital Competence Framework

The Digital Competence Framework identifies four areas for your child to develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes:Citizenship

• Identity, image and reputation.• Health and well-being.• Digital rights, licensing and

ownership.• Online behaviour and

cyberbullying.

This strand helps learners to develop their understanding of the quickly changing digital world around them.

Interacting and Collaborating

• Communication.• Collaboration.• Storing and sharing.

This strand helps learners develop their understanding of how to use digital tools to communicate, work together and store information.

Producing

• Problem solving and modelling. • Data and information literacy.

This strand helps learners to develop their understanding of digital tools to create and produce pieces of work using different features.

Data and Computational Thinking

• Planning, sourcing and searching.• Creating.• Evaluating and improving.

This strand helps learners to develop their understanding of using information in different ways to find solutions and solve problems.

Areas in the Digital Competence FrameworkCitizenship Click here to find out more about how citizenship plays an important

part of your child’s digital skills.Interacting and Collaborating

Click here to find out more about how interacting and collaborating play an important part of your child’s digital skills.

Producing Click here to find out more about how producing plays an important part of your child’s digital skills.

Data and Computational Thinking

Click here to find out more about how data and computational thinking play an important part of your child’s digital skills.

Online Safety

3

The experience of managing your child’s learning from home may be new to you. We want to reassure you that there are plenty of resources and guidance available on the Online safety zone on Hwb to help you and your child to keep safe online.This guide explores some online safety considerations and points you towards helpful education resources that can help you learn with your child.

Click on the area to visit guidance for that aspect of online safety:

Consent, privacy and data Gaming Illegal and offensive content

Live streaming Mental health and well-being Misinformation

Online bullying Online hate Online relationships

Pornography Radicalisation and extremism Screen time

Sharing images Social media Further help and support

Alternatively, you can view them all here:

Further age appropriate resources and activities can be found by clicking on the area:

4

Subscribe to the Online Safety Newsletter

Ages 4 – 5 years old Ages 5 – 7 years old

Ages 8 – 10 years old Ages 11 – 13 years old Ages 14+ years old

Resources

Hwb is the digital platform for learning and teaching in Wales. Hwb provides its users with access to a range of safe digital tools and resources.

Downloadable Software

Teachers and learners in maintained schools in Wales are also able to download and install the latest Microsoft Office tools including Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as Minecraft: Education Edition at no cost on up to fifteen devices through Hwb.

Click on the tile to download Microsoft office and Minecraft: Education Edition for free.

The following tools are available online through logging into Hwb:

Platform Purpose - Tool GraphicOffice 365 Word Processing – Word

Spreadsheets – ExcelPresentations – PowerPointCollaboration – Teams / CloudCommunication – Outlook (email) / Teams

Minecraft Education Edition

A game-based learning platform that promotes creativity, collaboration and problem solving in an immersive digital environment.

5

G Suite for Education

Word Processing – DocsSpreadsheets – SheetsPresentations – SlidesCollaboration – Drive / Groups Communication – Sites / Meet

Just2easy Communication / Collaboration – j2e5Storage / Sharing – j2launchOffice Suite – j2officeEarly Years / Foundation Phase Platform – JiT5Communication – j2webby

Flipgrid Teachers, learners, parents and carers can record and share short videos / audio files.

Adobe Spark An online tool that allows children to create graphics, short videos and single page web stories.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

A general knowledge, online encyclopaedia.

Support for Parents and Carers

Hwb offers a large library of digital resources for teachers. These resources are also available to you as parents and carers, and may help you support your child’s learning during this period.

Click on the tile to view these resources.

As well as these help videos, a comprehensive Support Centre is available on Hwb, and while this is predominantly aimed at teachers, it may give you the help that you and your child might need with a specific application in Hwb.

Application Support

6

Click on the tile to access the Support Centre for these applications.

7