Ms Cliona Curley:

Obviously the school is the focus point for education. If we were to take a community approach like that, which we would support, the school is the natural central point for that.

There is material available. There are some excellent Professional Development Services for Teachers, PDST, and Webwise materials. Many teachers whom I meet do not know about these., yet no parents I meet know about them. Perhaps the materials are not available but it is also the case that many teachers are not using them because they do not have the level of confidence, not necessarily to teach them but to have the conversations with the children which will arise. They do not know about Snapchat. They do not know about the apps the children are using. They are terrified of the questions. They do not even want to go there. Some would describe themselves as quite tech savvy and they are interested and motivated, but they are just not using the same technology as the children. That is what we really need to address. How do we find a way to do so? We have looked at this issue over the last couple of years and we have recommendations on how this could be done. It is probably unrealistic to expect every teacher out there not only to be tech savvy enough or to have the confidence to be able to address this issue, but also to spend the time to develop a level of expertise which allows them to advise a principal on issues that are coming up, to be able to talk to parents about it and to deliver talks to parents. We have a different idea which Ms Cooney will speak about.