ProjectEVOLVE, our award winning digital literacy toolkit, has reached the significant milestone of 10,000 accounts.
Used by schools and education professionals around the country, ProjectEVOLVE provides free teaching and learning resources (also called aspects) for online development, for children and young people. The toolkit is regarded as an essential resource for many in the education sector.
SWGfL Online Safety Director and ProjectEVOLVE lead, Ken Corish said, “We are proud to regard this as a remarkable achievement, given the wealth of digital literacy resources there are across the education landscape.
We fully launched ProjectEVOLVE two years ago and its momentum has not only demonstrated it is a resource that is valued but also the data we have analysed as a result has shown it has moved learner's digital competency forward, one school/one child at a time.
Whilst our recent awards were gratefully received, this project was designed to evolve. We have exciting plans for the tool's development over the coming months. Stick with us and let's grow together.”
In March this year, Professor Andy Phippen from Bournemouth University released a report which analysed the ProjectEVOLVE’s data and findings from the schools which were using the toolkit, with the aim to understand online safety and assessment within schools across the UK.
The findings were important, providing unique knowledge on how online safety is delivered in schools and how digital competencies are assessed. Top statistics showed that aspects had been viewed over a quarter of a million times, with some schools viewing resources over 500 times. This underlines the value of the toolkit which provides eight different strands relating to online safety and digital literacy. These include concepts such as Self Image and Identity, Online Relationships and Privacy and Security.
There are also assessments within ProjectEVOLVE called Knowledge Maps which are used to assess and understand student knowledge. The report showed over 80,000 of these maps had been used, indicating rapid growth of this resource.
Findings from the report concluded that the majority of activity around online safety education takes place at primary school level which is crucial, but drops off during the secondary school phase. This raised concern that young people still need to develop their knowledge as their lives and relationships become more complex.
The milestone reached by ProjectEVOLVE and findings from the report, both highlight a need for the toolkit and for all ages to continue their online development and critical thinking.
For education professionals who are delivering online safety and development and would like to access ProjectEVOLVE for free, please visit the website!
