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A new Facebook program aims to prevent suicides by connecting distressed users with counselors via chat. The program, which launched Tuesday, lets friends alert Facebook when users express suicidal thoughts, reports The Associated Press. If your friend posts a comment related to suicide, for instance, you can report it to Facebook by clicking a link next to the comment. Facebook will then send an email to the comment's author directing them to a telephone hotline or a link they can click to start a confidential chat. Facebook reps could not be reached for comment on the program, which was identified as "Lifeline."

Collaboration & sharing Young people communicate and collaborate every few minutes - it's an obsession. They text, MSN, BBM, Myspace, Facebook, Facebook message, Facebook chat and Skype. Note the absence of email and Twitter. Then there's Spotify, Soundcloud, Flickr, YouTube and Bitorrent to share, tag, upload and download experiences, comments, photographs, video and media. They also collaborate closely in parties when playing games. Never have the young shared so much, so often in so many different ways. Then along comes someone who wants to teach them this so called 21st C skill, usually in a classroom, where all of this is banned. I'm always amused at this conceit, that we adults, especially in education, think we even have the skills we claim we want to teach. There is no area of human endeavour that is less collaborative than education. Teaching and lecturing are largely lone wolf activities in classrooms. Schools, colleges and Universities share little. Educational professionals are deeply suspicious of anything produced outside of their classroom or their institution. The culture of NIH (Not Invented Here) is endemic. 

Sociologist and Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd has written a lot about how younger users respond to privacy issues around Facebook, and it's a lot more nuanced than just saying "kids share everything now." In some cases, younger users are even more concerned about privacy than older users, and they come up with interesting ways of dealing with that

Don't shoot the medium. While no doubt FB presents challenges in its application in education, the real problem is not Facebook. The issue is professional value of teaching in the US, and North America in general. Until teachers are treated as professionals with salaries, responsibilities and statuses on par with university professors, following the Scandinavian and Asian models, the calibre of professional conduct will be as inconsistent as the pool of quality teacher candidates committed to an underpaid and undervalued profession.

Next Thursday, April 5, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and TED will partner to host their annual TEDxChange event, this year in Berlin, Germany. TEDxChange is a partnership between TED and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to bring forth new ideas to tackle global problems. [When to Watch]: Watch TEDxChange live on Facebook on Thursday, April 5 at 8:30am PST/11:30am EST/5:30 CET. This year's theme is The Big Picture, where the speakers will apply new, bold ideas and perspectives to discuss the world's most pressing social issues.

Great discussion piece... good for TOK and beyonmd... Good for a staff discussion... . I like #1, 2 (especially for Mulgrave! I want access like Starbucks!), 4 (go Wikipedia), 5 (go Facebook),  #6 is Mulgrave's moment. Love #8: If you were a video game, no one would play you -- feedback is too slow. But I'm slow anyways 

As Marjorie's suicide reverberated across Quebec, schoolyard bullying was exploding into the political spotlight, with Ontario on Wednesday unveiling tough legislation that could lead to expulsion for students who send classmates hateful text messages or shove them in the hallways at school. Quebec on Wednesday said it would review its school anti-violence programs, and Edmonton's school board on Tuesday evening joined the Canadian school districts that have voted to adopt an anti-bullying policy for sexual minorities.