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Introduction...

Young people are already conversant with ICT. They are engaging with the world around them through bebo, facebook, online news, online forums and much more.

In Citizenship it's our role as teachers to equip these young people with the necessary skills and knowledge to play active roles in society. Campaigning for change is an inherent part of this. And the internet is an essential tool for any campaign.

It's up to you to guide your pupils through creating a campaign for something they believe in and that means online campaigning.

It really is dead simple

...and very effective

Tools easily available to you and the kids include blogging, facebook campaigns, videoing, linking to existing resources such as youtube, flikr etc.

You do not need to be an expert IT geek to do this.

Using ICT to Campaign for Change was the theme of ACT's national conference this year.

ACT Conference and young campaigners

The Campaign

The internet is useless unless you've got something to say - but if you do it's invaluable in getting your message across and starting a dialogue about your campaign issue. Citizenship is about enabling young people to be effective and powerful citizens - this means they need to be experts at campaigning for change. Understanding how to use ICT to achieve this is essential - which means teachers must understand it too!

First your class will need to choose a campaign they want to run. The Campaign Toolkit has plenty of ideas for how to facilitate this in class.

Once they've done this they need to identify key players, plan their action and take action!

Again, the Campaign Toolkit shows you how to do this in class.

ACT's Campaign Toolkit

Why Use ICT in class at all?

BECTA has published papers on

Pupils' Entitlement to use ICT in Citizenship Education - Primary

Pupils's Entitlement to use ICT in Citizenship Education - Secondary

Becta is the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.

Blogging

The basics

A blog is an online diary. A blogger is someone who writes their diary entries online. You can allow anyone to see this or you can set security settings so that only those with a password can view them.

See also the Metro's Beginner's Guide to Blogging

And check out Year 10 at Kingsbury High school's blog!

Why use blogging in teaching?

Blogs have the potential to reach a huge audience. Young campaigners at the ACT conference spoke about about how their campaigns were only really able to take off due to their online activity. Stop Gun and Knife Crime and Free Newspapers Cost the Earth. One person, or a group of people can work together to create a blog so this could be a class group activity or a homework task.

If you need more convincing you could read the NY Times' article on The Revolution in Iran and how this is being driven by Blogs and Tweets!

The nuts and bolts

Sign up for a blog (this is like buying a diary and a pen) by visiting a well-known site like www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. You can create a blog in three steps and it's really not rocket science.

For more detailed instructions on how to get started.

Social Networking

The basics

(Online) Social Networking is an online recreation of real life social networking - with the capacity to "network" beyond your immediate neighbourhood. By creating an online profile you can engage with your friends by writing them notes, showing photos, sharing ideas and music that other friends can see too. Like going up to someone in the playgound and saying "look at this!" only doing it online.

Despite all the scare stories in the media, this can be a safe way to engage with your friends and the world around you.

Just like in the real world you don't always want to speak to strangers or share your music or photos with anyone. Ensure that your pupils are using social networking safely by ensuring that they are not using settings that allow everyone to see their personal details. Why not set yourself up a facebook profile and play around with it to work out what it's all about?

Share on Facebook

Why use social networking in teaching?

The kids are already doing it! Find out which groups they're part of already. Find out if they have created any of their own.

This is a great way to link ideas about campaigning to the tools your pupils are already using to engage with the world around them.

For example, over 500 people have joined James's facebook campaign group on facebook Free Newspapers Cost the Earth - Facebook page

The nuts and bolts

It's best to work it out on your own, but once you start to get it you could ask a pupil or your child to show you more.

Learn about facebook privacy settings

Sign up for a facebook account for yourself!

What is Bebo?

Sign up for a bebo account for yourself!

If you're already on facebook and/or bebo why not become a fan of ACT to explain to all your friends what Citizenship is?!

Mobile Phones

The basics

This should be easy as you have one and pretty much all the kids in your class have one or can borrow one for the day.

Phones can be used for conversation, texting, photos, filming, voice recording, music sharing and more!

Why not ask all your kids to take a photo with their phone (or borrowing a friend's) and upload these onto a class montage with commentary? This can be used to illustrate anything to do with Citizenship.

You can also use the phone to film or record sound. Ask one of the kids how if you don't know how. You may need a USB cable to connect the phone to the computer, alternatively you can use bluetooth or infrared if you know how. Cables are probably the safest and easiest in 2009.

Why use mobile phones in teaching

Or try this!

Online Petitions

The basics

Rather than being on grubby pieces of paper that get presented to the Prime Minister - most petitions these days are e-petitions. Have a look at some at Petitions Number 10, a government site. As I write this there are petitions for everything from

Here is a Step-by-step guide to creating your own petition.

You and your class can also sign existing petitions on this site.

Some current peitions include peitioning the Prime Minister to:

• reverse his decision to have sir alan sugar acting for his government
• keep compulsory education at 16, instead of raising it to 18.
• review the current process of extending leases
• immediately freeze the Installation of more Mobile Phone Masts, until such time as these dangers can be scientifically and properly assessed. Ian R Elliott 12 June 2010 5
• retain the HMRC practice of equitable liability Keith M Gordon 12 January 2010 87
• change-government-legislation-on-homelessness Leanna Belsham 12 September 2009 5
• legislate to encourage people to vote.
• make school libraries statutory
• Stop Knife Crime
• Stop Circus animals ALTOGETHER

Wikis

The basics

A wiki is like an online piece of work. It can be worked on in the classroom, or at any computer that's online. It can be worked on by individuals or as a piece of collaborative work for small groups, whole class, whole school or whole community.

You can even watch the teamwork and use this for an assessment project. Using a wiki in class can help you meet the QCA criteria in the Citizenship curriculum.

wikis explained!

ACT has previously used www.wetpaint.com for educational wikis. One of the great things about this is that they do not have advertising on educational wikis.

You can see how other teachers have used wikis in class here. Lots of them are American or Australian, but there are also plenty of examples from the UK for both primary and secondary.

It was very simple to follow the instructions online and set up a new wiki from scratch.

Have a look at this example of a wiki in Year 9 art.

This page has been written by Millicent Scott

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