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School officials are justifiably concerned about when and how to respond to cyberbullying of educators. What actions, if any, should administrators and teachers take when faced with such occurrences? Which responses will stand up in a court of law? Educators' most important first response is to pause, step back, and take a deep breath. Administrators and teachers must avoid reacting to students' offensive online communications in anger or fear.

Since social-media use is so multi-faceted, no single approach will apply to all situations. Some schools may opt to place an outright ban on social-media access at school as well as prohibit "friending" parents, students and other employees. Other schools may simply prohibit employees from identifying their school online. As the use of social-networking sites for educational and community communication purposes increases, schools may need to adapt to the mainstream use of such sites and recognize that a blanket prohibition simply isn't practical. Regardless, your school should take action now to safeguard against social media mishaps.

Salt Lake City's Granite School District is expected to approve a new policy this month barring students and teachers from connecting on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The policy - the first of its kind in Utah - provides an exemption for teachers' sites that are educational, not personal. Officials said there was no specific incident that spurred the new guidelines. But with the popularity of social networking sites in schools, Granite wants to eliminate any gray areas when it comes to teacher-student interaction, district spokesman Ben Horsley said. "The reality is if someone is going to interact inappropriately with a student, there's certainly lots of technology out there that can help them get around those rules and guidelines in a very nonpublic way," Horsley said. "This gives us some tools to move forward on a disciplinary track."

Computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person's identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number.

This is a demo of the microblogging and communications platform Edmodo, a private social network for K-12 education. http://www.edmodo.com/

This excellent series of interactive case studies explores 8 topics: Wireless, Social Networking, Digital Permanence, Cyberbullying, Misinformation, Fair Use, Privacy and Downloading. Through multimedia activities, students examine issues affecting schoolwork, class papers, entertainment activities and online safety. Units are illustrated with Nickelodeon-style graphics and include assessments of learning. "Power to Learn" is Cablevision's nationally recognized education initiative. Some of the resources here are available in Spanish.

One of eight interactive case studies for kids (GR 4-8) from Cable In the Classroom: Power to Learn.
It's very popular for young people to meet and connect online at sites like MySpace.com. However, an awareness of the risks and steps for being safe can ensure a positive experience with social networking. Don't give yourself away! This unit explores the concepts of identity, at-risk behaviors and safety online. The graphics are Nickelodeon style. A short quiz assesses learning. For the entire series, check out: http://powertolearn.com/internet_smarts/interactive_case_studies/index.shtml

One of eight interactive case studies for kids (GR 4-8) from Cable In the Classroom: Power to Learn.
Establishing basic guidelines for Internet use is the first step in ensuring students' online safety. Learn what information should and shouldn't be shared online and appropriate interaction with online "friends." This unit explores the concepts of privacy in social networking destinations, the importance of being honest but not revealing too much information. The graphics are Nickelodeon style. A template allows students to create class rules. For the entire series, check out: http://powertolearn.com/internet_smarts/interactive_case_studies/index.shtml

Eight Smithfield State High School students who joined a cyberbullying social networking group that branded another girl a "liar" have been suspended. The Smithfield High students, all girls, were suspended for one day and the Facebook group, which had 11 members, was shut down after The Cairns Post was alerted to it before the Easter school holidays. It is understood the Facebook group was started after an argument between friends. Smithfield High acting principal Barry Courtney said the school took a tough stance against any form of bullying."Our response is students who join any cyberbullying site will be dealt with and it is a suspendable offence and parents are contacted about it straight away," he said.

Here are 8 tips to monitor and protect one's online reputation from the U.S. Government Information Security Blog: Search your name. Type your first and last name within quotation marks into several popular search engines to see where you are mentioned and in what context. Narrow your search and use keywords that apply only to you, such as your city, employer and industry association. Expand your search. Use similar techniques to search for your telephone numbers, home address, e-mail addresses, and personal website domain names. You should also search for your social security and credit card numbers to make sure they don't appear anywhere online. Read blogs. If any of your friends or coworkers have blogs or personal web pages on social networking sites, check them out to see if they are writing about or posting pictures of you. Sign up for alerts. Use the Google alert feature that automatically notifies you of any new mention of your name or other personal information. Limit your personal information. Tweet/chat/discuss regarding business and the emerging trends in your industry, but limit posting information on your personal life, which could be a subject of major scrutiny by recruiters and hiring managers. Also, be sure you know how organizations will use your information before you give it to them. Use privacy settings. Most social networking and photo-sharing sites allow you to determine who can access and respond to your content. If you're using a site that doesn't offer privacy settings, find another site. Choose your photos and language thoughtfully. You need to ensure that information posted online is written professionally without use of swear words and catchy phrases. Also, be very selective in posting photographs, and use your judgment to ensure that these photographs are how you want the world to see you. Take action If you find information about yourself online that is embarrassing or untrue, cont

This exercise on "friendship" could also be done as part of a digital citizenship class to get kids thinking about appropriate behaviors online.

A quarter of UK internet users aged eight to 12 had profiles on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace last year, research has found, although the lowest minimum age set on any of the sites is 13. Ofcom's annual Children's Media Literacy Audit for 2009 also had bad news for the music industry, finding that 44% of children between 12 and 15 thought downloading shared copies of films and music for free should not be illegal.

It is easy to collaborate with your colleagues around you. What about other people in your PLN? Can you collaborate with 50, 100, 1000 people? "Collaborate", "Collaborative", "Collaboration" were the most frequent words I heard last year and I believe it will be more important and popular in this new decade. Here is my first 20 web tools to enhance collaboration among us!

An entire blog devoted to "My Digital Footprint" - with excellent analysis of the different facets.

This New Year, I resolve to Google myself regularly, delete outdated profiles and develop a cohesive online personal brand. I may be the social media professor, but my students taught me a big lesson.

Formspring.me, has the potential to be more dangerous to students than most other websites I've heard of. Just to give you an idea of it's prevalence, I took a quick poll of my 8th graders. About 1/3 have a Formspring page. About 3/4 know about Formspring.me.

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Children and young people in the UK discuss their views and experienes of internet safety with Professor Tanya Byron, Clinical Psychologist, two years after the Byron Report was published.

The prevalence of blogs, wikis, and social-networking web sites has changed the way students learn to write, according to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)-and schools must adapt in turn by developing new modes of writing, designing new curricula to support these models, and creating plans for teaching these curricula.

When Kevin Jenkins wanted to teach his fourth-grade students at Spangler Elementary here how to use the Internet, he created a site where they could post photographs, drawings and surveys. And they did. But to his dismay, some of his students posted surveys like "Who's the most popular classmate?" and "Who's the best-liked?"