Here at Zeeko, we provide our subscribers with a weekly blog offering advice and tips for parents to enhance and improve their knowledge of internet safety and how to best manage their children’s time online. Our blog this week tells you all you need to know about Appyness Online a new way for children to educate each other about staying safe online.

It’s an incredibly exciting week for us at Zeeko as we launch our interactive, peer- led online safety learning Platform, Appyness Online!! Appyness Online is the culmination of 2 years work by our research and development team and marks a new direction for peer led education in Ireland!

So, why did we decide to develop this particular product? The answer is simple. Our vision at Zeeko is to create a world where young people can safely benefit from the internet. Who better to educate children about staying safe online than their peers? Also, the recently launched Government Action Plan on Online Safety highlights the importance of encouraging peer to peer learning and helping students to be self-reflective and autonomous in the learning process. Appyness Online centres on children teaching their peers internet safety promoting empowerment and self-directed learning.

What Does Appyness Online Offer:

To Pupils:

Learning about staying safe on the internet using ‘Appyness Online’ offers pupils the opportunity to improve their listening skills and how to think about staying safe online not what to think. It also helps parents to become more engaged with what their children are learning about when it comes to internet safety.

To the Peer Educator:

Helping their peers to learn about staying safe online offers the peer educator the opportunity to develop and improve on presentation skills, helps to raise their self esteem and improve their confidence.

To Teachers:

Using Appyness Online in the classroom will offer teachers a unique opportunity to observe children interacting with their peers. Teachers will also have access to the lesson plans via Appyness Online.

To Principals:

Deciding to use Appyness Online in your school will help you to save you and your staff time as the lessons are prepared. You will have increased peace of mind that the children in your school are being educated by each other about how to stay safe online. You can be assured that your staff will have time to reflect on how the children in their classes are interacting with each other as the peer educator delivers presentations to their peers.

All of the content in Appyness Online is underpinned by a commitment to promoting positive mental health for young people who are spending time online. Creating strong digital citizens who are armed with the tools to navigate the ever changing and challenging online world is extremely important to our team at Zeeko.

If you want to learn more about Appyness Online take a look at our website! Schools interested in learning more about using Appyness Online should contact our Commercial Manager Robbie Wheelan.