Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This is supplementary guidance to support the teaching of SMSC in computing. It will help identify activities and topics for computing which
lend themselves to each area.
Ray Beardmore
May 2014
Spiritual
Moral
Social
Cultural
Security
Theft ID theft, hardware
Friendships
Online gaming PEGI ratings
Online shopping
Online gambling
Local area CCTV
In game education
Mobile phone apps
Social development of children
Riots and social awareness
Data, information
Emails
Cloud computing
Whos data is it? Google, Dropbox
Google - GIS
Consumption
Creation
Environmental impact
Hacking
Cost and digital divide
Communications
Military technology
Literacy standards
Reading and writing impact
copyright issues freeware
Shareware, malware
Blogging
Wikis
Travel and culture
Globalisation
Teleworking and family
Jobs
Digital divide
Video conferencing
Robotics
Health
Politics
Police
App development
Online friendships
Bullying
Entertainment
Pornography
Crime
Games
Sport
Facebook and SN
Music
Are online friends real friends?
Online conferencing
Transitions
Global websites
Websites
Curriculum opportunities
Mobile technologies
Computer games culture
Music culture
Communication
Connectivity
Entertainment
Sport
Blogging
SMSC in detail
Spiritual
N.B. It is important to stress from the start that this is independent of particular faiths or religious beliefs.
1. Introductory task to raise awareness. Put pupils in groups of 3 with a sheet of A3. Ask them to write the word Spirit in the centre. Give
them 10 minutes to discuss and note down what it means to them on the sheet. This could be words or symbols or drawings. It could be
like a mind map but or a list it does not matter how they choose to record their ideas. The group chooses one of them to be an envoy
to take the groups ideas to another group to share. After visits to several other groups, the envoy returns to the home group and pupils
have 10 minutes more discussion time to share and reflect on what they have learned. They could then link in some the of suggested
topics identified below or within their current ICT task.
2. Opportunities for reflection and discussion of some challenging questions. First give pupils two to three minutes time to reflect on their
own then time to share their thoughts with a friend. Depending on the topic and its sensitivity pairs could snowball i.e. join with another
pair to make a four to share ideas. If the topic is sensitive or personal ask pupils to work with one friend then to move to find another
close friend to share with.
General Topics could include:
1) Do computers have intelligence? If so, what are they? (you could look at the Alice AI bot online for this)
2) Is there a difference between a persons mind and his/her soul?
3) Do animals have souls? If so, what are they?
4) What would you like to be remembered for?
5) How would you like to be remembered?
6) Do you think there is life on other planets?
7) Why do you think humans were put on the earth?
8) Are people born evil?
9) What do you think is mankinds greatest achievement so far?
10) If there were intelligent aliens in space, how do you think they would view human beings?
11) What are the three best qualities in human beings? What are the three worst?
12) If an unborn baby in the womb could speak, what would it say?
13) What advice would you give a new born baby on getting the most out of life?
14) How important is it to you when you give your word on something?
15) How important is it to have integrity?
16) How important are vows? Does it matter if they are broken?
17) If you could change three qualities about yourself, what would they be?
18) What are you most proud of about yourself?
19) What is your greatest achievement so far in your life?
20) Do lies matter? How easy do you find it to tell lies?
MORAL
1. Introductory task to raise awareness. Write up the words moral, immoral, amoral and ethical on the board. Put pupils in pairs to
discuss the meaning of each word. Provide dictionaries and thesauruses to help pupils distinguish the meanings. Agree a class
definition of each word.
2. Read and discuss a story or newpaper /online article with the class involving a strong moral issue e.g. viruses, malware, hackig and so
on.
3. Opportunities for reflection and discussion of some challenging questions. First give pupils two to three minutes time to reflect on their
own then time to share their thoughts with a friend. Depending on the topic and its sensitivity pairs could snowball i.e. join with another
pair to make a four to share ideas. If the topic is sensitive or personal ask pupils to work with one friend then to move to find another
close friend to share with.
General topics could include:
1) Is it important to teach young children right form wrong?
2) Is it always easy to distinguish right from wrong? Are there any examples you can think of where it is not so easy? E.g. stealing
food to feed your children?
3) What are white lies? Are they ever justified?
4) Is killing wrong? Can it ever be right to kill?
5) If you found a purse or wallet containing a sum of money e.g. a ten pound note would you hand it in? Would older people be
more likely to hand it in than younger people?
6) Is it right to kill for your country?
7) Is it right to kill for your family?
8) Do humans have the right to kill animals?
9) Is it alright to hurt someone or even kill in self defence?
10) If an animal is in pain with no chance of getting better, would it be right to kill it to save it further pain?
11) If a human being were in pain with no chance of getting better, would it be right to help him/her to die to save further pain?
Social
1. Introductory task to raise awareness. Write up the question What are social skills? on the board. Put pupils in pairs to discuss their
response. Allow five to ten minutes for them to discuss and record their answers. Provide dictionaries and thesauruses. Pairs could
snowball i.e. join with another pair to make a four to share ideas. Does ICT help with social skills? In what way? Does it hinder social
skills?
2. Opportunities for reflection and discussion of some challenging questions. First give pupils two to three minutes time to reflect on their
own then time to share their thoughts with a friend. Depending on the topic and its sensitivity pairs could snowball i.e. join with another
pair to make a four to share ideas. If the topic is sensitive or personal ask pupils to work with one friend then to move to find another
close friend to share with.
General topics could include:
1) At what age should young children start to socialize e.g. in play groups?
2) How important is it to have friends at school?
3) What advice would you give to someone new to your school about how to make friends and fit in?
4) How can we cut down on things like vandalism or litter?
5) What are the most important rules to have in a school or community?
6) Are school councils important?
7) At what age should people be allowed to vote?
Cultural
1. Introductory task to raise awareness. Write up the word culture on the board. Put pupils in groups of 3 with a sheet of A3. Ask them to
write the word Culture in the centre and to note down everything they associate with culture e.g. clothes, music. Explain that it can be
seen in terms of How we do things around here. Give them 10 minutes to discuss and note down what culture means to them on the
sheet. This could be words or symbols or drawings. It could be like a mind map but or a list it does not matter how they choose to
record their ideas. The group chooses one of them to be an envoy to take the groups ideas to another group to share. After visits to
several other groups, the envoy returns to the home group and pupils have 10 minutes more discussion time to share and reflect on
what they have learned. What do they think of as Computer culture? Computer game culture?
2. Read and discuss an online article involving other cultures and traditions and their use of ICT to support this. Discuss in groups and
share back feelings.
3. Opportunities for reflection and discussion of some challenging questions. First give pupils two to three minutes time to reflect on their
own then time to share their thoughts with a friend. Depending on the topic and its sensitivity pairs could snowball i.e. join with another
pair to make a four to share ideas. If the topic is sensitive or personal ask pupils to work with one friend then to move to find another
close friend to share with.
General topics could include:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
SMSC Aspect
Pupils spiritual development is shown by their: beliefs,
religious or otherwise, which inform their perspective on
life and their interest in and respect for different peoples
feelings and values
sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about
themselves, others and the world around them, including
the intangible
use of imagination and creativity in their learning
willingness to reflect on their experiences.
Date:__________
Evidence in Department
Action plan
Based on the audit above, list your department top three priorities:
Priority
Who
By when
Success criteria