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Game involves a tiger posing young people and parents questions on safe and risky behaviour online
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Analysis of Data generated from the game enables educators to identify concerning online behaviour and areas to address
ACTION
While working in schools delivering internet safety workshops, Alison Watts realised there were very limited resources for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) to help teach them how to stay safe online.
“The existing resources were either outdated or not engaging enough for learners,” says Watts, Prevent education officer and lead for e-safety in schools at Buckinghamshire Council. “While working on another project with a local special school, we discussed this gap in the market and decided to explore it further.”
This was the beginning of a three-year journey that culminated last September in the launch of a free computer game that helps teach children with SEN to stay safe online and which, thanks to European funding, is being used internationally.
After meetings with a local software company, Watts and her manager Yvette Thomas, school improvement and traded delivery manager at the council, applied to the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme for funding. They had previously been involved in Erasmus-funded projects “so we knew the benefits of working collaboratively with colleagues across Europe and linking schools together to create solutions for more than nine years,” says Thomas.
To maximise the chances of success, the educators teamed up with colleagues at the Gothenburg Region Utbildning in Sweden and the Academie De Montpellier in France, who they had worked with on another project, “to combine knowledge and expertise” and “ensure a top-quality end product”.
A detailed project plan including costs was approved by the British Council and the project was fully funded by the Erasmus+ scheme.
Watts and Thomas explain that it became clear early on in the design process that they wanted to create an interactive learning game that students could play in the classroom and at home with parents.
“Often, one of the biggest barriers to young people seeking help if something goes wrong online is the fear of getting into trouble and perhaps having their tech taken away,” Watts explains. “We wanted to fully include parents in the learning journey to give them the confidence to positively support their child and reinforce learning at home.”
Watts says that parents and carers struggle to keep up with the games and applications their children use and often lack the confidence to broach the issue of online safety or the risks that are posed for vulnerable users.
“The best way parents can protect their child is to establish a positive relationship with them around their life online,” she says. “Talking to them, not just once, but having ongoing conversations as part of family life is really important. When there is a positive relationship around online life, children and young people are much more likely to talk to a parent when there is a problem.”
This is particularly important for children and young people with SEN, explains Watts, because those who struggle with real-life interactions can feel more comfortable engaging with others through a screen and at home.
“Despite the many positive benefits the internet has, children are often the most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and so arming them with the skills and knowledge of how to protect themselves is vital,” she says.
“Students with autistic spectrum conditions have shown particular vulnerability in a variety of contexts. This vulnerability needs and deserves practical tips, ideas and guidance on how to keep pupils with SEN safe now and in the future.”
During 2019, the concept of the game began to take shape. A panda named Bao was chosen as the central character, which means “to protect” in Chinese and also stands for Be Aware Online.
“The software company took our story-board ideas and turned them into the interactive game,” says Watts. “Their expertise gave us insight into what sort of game would appeal to our audience and advised on every aspect from sound and graphics to structure and content.”
The game addresses the serious topic of internet safety in a simple yet fun way and opens up opportunities for further conversation in the classroom and at home (see below).
To ensure the game “hit the right note” for its target audience, Watts and Thomas piloted its use with their local school, enabling them to identify and address potential issues.
“Our local school was pivotal in user-testing the game,” says Watts. “With their assistance and the partner schools in France and Sweden, we were able to make edits and amendments to fine-tune the concept, confident in the knowledge that the final product would be fully fit for purpose.”
Despite the pandemic slowing down the development and approval process, the game was launched last September with events in the UK, France and Sweden.
It is available for free to anyone and is accompanied by detailed guidelines for both parents and teachers, including conversation topics, lesson plans and activity packs, to get the most out of the resource and encourage ongoing discussion and learning.
“Anyone can play the game and it is simple enough to do so without support. However, we are encouraging teachers and parents to play the game with their children to help start conversations around staying safe online,” says Watts.
BAO HELPS PLAYERS NAVIGATE ONLINE ‘JUNGLE’
The player is taken on a journey through the internet jungle with Bao, starting with creating an online profile, and helping Bao overcome various situations along the way, including cyberbullying, contact by strangers, phishing, fake news and sharing personal information.
The journey gives points for discoveries and points based on your choices. The score and feedback of each choice creates curiosity to understand what went right and what went wrong, and encourage students to try again and beat their previous score.
By traversing the ”jungles” social media world, the students can learn the skills to handle scenarios that could happen in reality.
For example: A Gorilla from the neighbouring jungle is sending Bao insults. What should we do?
Possible answers are: Tell a trusted adult, report Gorilla to Junglegram, insult Gorilla back or just ignore it.
IMPACT
According to Watts and Thomas, feedback from students has been universally positive with playing the game improving understanding of how to stay safe online. Students have engaged with the game multiple times in a bid to try and beat their previous scores, reinforcing the learning.
The game was highlighted by the French government as one of the best education projects of 2021.
Although designed for use with SEN students, it is also being used in mainstream settings which Watts describes as an “unexpected bonus”.
Data gathered through the game can inform schools of the areas children are most vulnerable in and help educators gear lessons towards this.
For example, this month’s data shows that 30 per cent of players gave away their age and over half chose an inappropriate username, one in 10 children would join a video call with a stranger, and 15 per cent would accept the information from the first website in google.
On a positive note, people who played the game multiple times improved their scores by four times from the first time they played.
Meanwhile, the project partners in France are soon to submit a bid to disseminate the project and deliver training to 10 countries.
“We are awaiting confirmation of a successful bid to determine our role in the project going forward,” adds Watts. “The game will continue to be available into the future and we have secured this by purchasing a server for it to be hosted on at Adeptly.”
