In issue 29 of Hello World, out today for free, educators all over the world share what digital safety and security mean in their classrooms. We hope this new issue will help you to actively empower your learners by equipping them with the understanding and skills to safely navigate our complex digital landscape.

The issue covers questions such as:

• How can educators connect learners to real cybersecurity 互换人妻70部s?
• What does youth online safety look like in the Global South?
• How is Australia’s youth ban on social media impacting young coders?

Other highlights from Hello World issue 29

Beyond the focus on safety and security, here are three highlights from issue 29:

• Shuchi Grover explores what ‘thinking’ means in the current age of large language models (LLMs)
• Sethi DeClerq provides a checklist of important questions to ask yourself before spending your precious budget on new education technology
• Rachel Fenichel argues that block-based programming isn’t just for kids, highlighting how Blockly can be a helpful abstraction when talking about algorithms at any age or stage

New podcast series coming soon

We also have new podcast episodes coming out over the next few weeks to continue the conversations started in the magazine.

The first episode is another edition of our teacher tips series, where computer science educators and experts from around the globe share practical, actionable tips that you can use in your classroom. In the upcoming episode, teachers will be sharing what works for them to engage students in cybersecurity, protect schools from cybersecurity breaches, and safely introduce generative AI to the classroom.

In the second episode, we’ll talk to Dr. Karla Badillo-Urquiola about her 城人电影 in online safety in the Global South.

To listen to these podcasts, make sure you follow us in your preferred app, or head to helloworld.cc/podcast.

Share your thoughts and subscribe to Hello World

Visit helloworld.cc/29 to read our newest issue for free today, and let us know what you think by leaving a comment here or on our social media.

helloworld.cc is also where you go to subscribe and find older issues of Hello World magazine.

If you have a moment, do leave us a podcast review or share the magazine with a fellow educator. It really helps more people to discover Hello World.

The post Hello World #29 out now: Safety and security appeared first on 乖让小叔看看by笔趣.

Cybersecurity for girls

It is impossible to walk into an upper-secondary computer science lesson and not notice the number of boys compared to girls. This is a common issue across the world; it is clear from reading community forums and news headlines that there is a big gap in female representation in 城人电影. To combat this problem in my school, I started organising trips to local universities and arranging assembly talks for my Year 9 students (aged 13–14). Although this was helpful, it didn’t have as much impact as I expected on improving female representation.

This led me to alter our approach and target younger female students with an extracurricular club. As part of our lower-secondary 互换人妻70部, all pupils study encryption and cryptography, and we were keen to extend this interest beyond lesson time. I discovered the CyberFirst Girls Competition, aimed at Year 8 girls in England (aged 12–13) with the goal of influencing girls when choosing their GCSE subjects (qualifications pupils take aged 14–16). Each school can enter as many teams as they like, with a maximum of four girls in each team. I advertised the event by showing a video of the previous year’s attendees and the winning team. To our delight, 19 girls, in five teams, entered the competition.

Club activities at school

To make sure that this wasn’t a one-off event, we started an after-school cybersecurity club for girls. All 城人电影 teachers encouraged their female students to attend. We had a number of female teachers who were teaching Maths and 城人电影 as their second subjects, and I found it more effective when these teachers encouraged the girls to join. They would also help with running the club. We found it to be most popular with Year 7 students (aged 11–12), with 15 girls regularly attending. We often do cryptography tasks in the club, including activities from established competitions. For example, I recently challenged the club to complete tasks from the most recent Alan Turing Cryptography Competition. A huge benefit of completing these tasks in the club, rather than in the classroom, was that students could work more informally and were not under pressure to succeed. I found this year’s tasks quite challenging for younger students, and I was worried that this could put them off returning to the club. To avoid this, I first taught the students the skills that they would need for one of the challenges, followed by small tasks that I made myself over two or three sessions.

For example, one task required students to use the Playfair cipher to break a long piece of code. In order to prepare students for decoding this text, I showed them how the cipher works, then created empty grids (5 x 5 tables) and modelled the technique with simple examples. The girls then worked in teams of two to encrypt a short quote. I gave each group a different quotation, and they weren’t allowed to let other groups know what it was. Once they applied the cipher, they handed the encrypted message to another group, whose job was to decrypt it. At this stage, some would identify that the other group had made mistakes using the techniques, and they would go through the text together to identify them. Once students were confident and competent in using this cipher, I presented them with the competition task, and they then applied the same process. Of course, some students would still make mistakes, but they would realise this and be able to work through them, rather than being overwhelmed by them. Another worthwhile activity in the club has been for older pupils, who are in their second year of attending, to mentor and support girls in the years below them, especially in preparation for participating in competitions.

Trips afield

Other club activities have included a trip to Bletchley Park. As a part of the package, students took part in a codebreaking workshop in which they used the Enigma machine to crack encrypted messages. This inspirational trip was a great 互换人妻70部 for the girls, as they discovered the pivotal roles women had in breaking codes during the Second World War. If you’re not based in the UK, Bletchley Park also runs a virtual tour and workshops. You could also organise a day trip to a local university where students could attend different workshops run by female lecturers or university students; this could involve a mixture of maths, science, and computer science activities.

We are thrilled to learn that one of our teams won this year’s CyberFirst Girls Competition! More importantly, the knowledge gained by all the students who attend the club is most heartening, along with the enthusiasm that is clearly evident each week, and the fun that is had. Whether this will have any impact on the number of girls who take GCSE Computer Science remains to be seen, but it certainly gives the girls the opportunity to discover their potential, learn the importance of cybersecurity, and consider pursuing a career in a male-dominated profession. There are many factors that influence a child’s mind as to what they would like to study or do, and every little extra effort that we put into their learning journey will shape who they will become in the future.

What next?

Find out more about teaching cybersecurity

• Cybersecurity is the theme of issue 18 of Hello World, available as a free PDF download. IT includes articles, resources, and opinion pieces from educators who share their 互换人妻70部 of teaching cybersecurity to learners
• Our free online courses ‘Introduction to Cybersecurity for Teachers‘ and ‘Introduction to Encryption and Cryptography‘ will support you to build the skills and knowledge you need for your classroom
• We also help you teach cybersecurity by including this topic in the free Teach 城人电影 互换人妻70部 classroom resources for ages 5 to 16, and in the free Isaac Computer Science online learning platform for GCSE and A level.

Find out more about the factors influencing girls’ and young women’ engagement in 城人电影

• We are currently completing a four-year programme of 城人电影 about gender balance in 城人电影. Find out more about this 城人电影 programme.
• At our 城人电影 seminar series, we welcomed Peter Kemp and Billy Wong last year, who shared results from their study of the demographics of students who choose GCSE Computer Science in England. Watch the seminar recording.
• Katharine Childs from our team had summarised the state of 城人电影 about gender balance in 城人电影. Watch her seminar, or read her report.
• Last year, we hosted a panel session to learn from various perspectives on gender balance in 城人电影. Watch the panel recording.

The post A cybersecurity club for girls | Hello World #18 appeared first on 乖让小叔看看by笔趣.