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From a study of Tech Abuse in Teen Relationships [Jan 07]:
Six Forms of Cyberbullying
1.Threats and Intimidation
2.Harrassment or Stalking
3.Vilification/Defamation
4.Ostracising/Peer-Rejecton/Exclusion
5.Publicly posting, sending or forwarding personal or private information or images
6.Manipulation

YouTube accounted for 75.43 percent of all U.S. visits in May 2008 according to Hitwise. Among a custom category of 63 online video websites, MySpaceTV received the second highest percentage of visits with 9.01 percent followed by Google Video with 3.73 percent.

Dizzywood, a virtual world and online game for children ages 8-12, today announced that it has been selected by the YMCA of San Francisco to enhance the youth program's technology curriculum. The YMCA is using Dizzywood's virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities that promote values such as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Children also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals. The YMCA program is similar to the elementary school program that Dizzywood recently completed with the Reed Union School District (Marin County, CA). The highly interactive workshop, which ran from April through June, used virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness, among other core values.

Child predators offering game points in exchange for nude images through Internet-connected video games have prompted a warning for parents. "Kids are playing games, and they are being asked to take photos of themselves naked in order to get game points," state attorney Cybercrime Detective Lt. David Maurer said. "There is not only the chatting version of the games but also a webcam involved."

Anne Collier provides us with thoughtful analysis and commentary on the MacArthur Foundation's recent symposium [April 2008) at Stanford, "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth." Click here for the entire Digital Youth presentation.

This three-part article includes a discussion of classroom connections to social networking sites and the school's role in intervening when information that affects the classroom is publicly posted on MySpace or Facebook. The authors also provide five key social networking tips:
1. Establish a policy for dealing with incidents in which students break school rules and their inappropriate behavior is showcased publicly on social-networking sites.
2. Outline clear guidelines for administrators that spell out how schools should discipline students based on information garnered from social-networking sites, and let parents and students know about those rules.
3. Educate students about online-safety issues and how to use sites such as Facebook and MySpace responsibly.
4. Have a policy in place for dealing with cyber bullying.
5. If teachers are using social-networking sites for educational purposes, they should establish clear guidelines for how they intend to communicate with students via those sites.

An excellent project for elementary students to connect with other classes.

A great way to get started with technology is to join in an exciting project. this project by Susan Silverman was designed using the principles of Universal Design for Learning. I've heard her present and she is a pro. (Along with my friend Jennifer Wagner.)

Afraid of technology, on the bleeding edge of new technologies, or somewhere in between - these Teen Tech Week Tech Guides will help you keep abreast of current technologies and how you can use them in a public or school library program.
1. Making Music with Teens
2. Online Surveys
3. Virtual Worlds
4. RSS, Blogs & Wikis
5. Gaming
6. Podcasts
7. Dungeons & Dragons @ Your Library.

From Anastasia Goodstein: Here are some of the lessons I've learned from studying young peoples' online habits, helping to launch a number of successful Web sites and TV properties for teens and twentysomethings, and founding a blog about youth culture for media and marketing pros.
1. Teens are multitaskers.
2. Teens prefer byte-sized entertainment.
3. Teens expect content on demand
4. Teens want to participate.

Public schools and local governments may have more stringent requirements than most businesses for email archiving and electronic discovery. Yet, with their limited budgets, schools and local governments are often the least equipped to respond.The newly revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure define how email must be handled in federal court cases. Businesses tend to think that the FRCP focus is on interstate lawsuits. Schools and governments, however, also need to be concerned with emails relating to federally funded activities or any activity governed by federal legislation.In addition, schools and local governments have the burden of responding to (1) requests under open meeting and Freedom of Information Act laws, (2) offensive emails or those with sexual content involving students, and (3) emailed threats.

The latest sad episode of humanity's ugliness allegedly being played out on Facebook's pages has resulted in Facebook itself being sued for $3 million.

Teaching literacy-reading and writing-is a core mission for schools, but today's young people increasingly "read" 3-D computer simulations and "write" via social networks such as Facebook. A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."

Teachers to meet Tuesday (3/3/09) with representatives from Google, MySpace, CNET, YouTube and Technorati for training on how to bring blogging, podcasting, online video and social networking into their classrooms.

CoSN Receives MacArthur Grant: Exploring Policy and Leadership Barriers to Effective Use of Web 2.0 in Schools
The $450,000 grant began July 1st and over the coming year CoSN will focus on the following key objectives:
1.Identify findings from existing empirical research relevant to the use of new media in schools and the barriers to their adoption and scalability.
2. Assess the awareness, understanding, and perspectives of U.S. educational leaders (superintendents, district curriculum and technology directors/CTOs) and policymaker's on the role, problems, and benefits of new media in schools within a participatory culture context.
3. Investigate and document the organizational and policy issues that are critical obstacles for the effective deployment of new media.
4. Develop a concise report of findings and construct an action plan for intervention.

This article offers seven things all adults need to know about social networking sites like MySpace.
1. Social networking is enormously popular with young adults.
2. Friends are probably just that.
3. Blocking sites at school won't keep kids away from MySpace.
4.Some degree of danger does exist for MySpace users.
5. The MySpace organization is working toward a safer online
6. Teachers might want to check to see if they have had a MySpace account created for them.
7.MySpace and social networking have value.

Anyone can make a website. How do you know whether or not to trust what you read online?This Information Literacy project from CTAP Region 3 was funded by a grant from the American Library Association.

CTAP Region IV has designed this collection of Administrator Resources specifically with the needs of school administrators in mind. Administrator Resources cover 6 vital areas:
1. Legal Issues
2. Student Misbehavior in Cyberspace: MySpace, YouTube, Facebook
3. Cybersafety and School Board Policy Statements
4. Cyberbullying Documentation: Incident Reports/Review Process
5. Articles Related to Internet MisUse in the Schools
6. Materials for PTA Presentations

Be prepared to answer questions when the law seems to make little sense, when a law is inconsequential, when a law is widely ignored, or when breaking the law may serve a higher moral purpose. [Doug Johnson]

Naming in a Digital World: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet. Students will:
1.Explore naming conventions in digital and non-digital settings.
2. Analyze the underlying connotations of names.
3. Analyze the ways that name-giving practices vary from one culture to another.
4. Synthesize their investigation by choosing and explaining specific names to represent themselves online.

Like many states, Texas now has state legislation driving cybersafety education in schools. In accordance with HB 3171, Section 38.023, the Texas Education Agency has developed and made available to school districts a list of resources concerning Internet Safety. In the navigation bar are links to 3 types of pages which are for students, educators and parents. Within each of the pages are links that categorize different aspects of Internet safety and digital citizenship to educate and inform.