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MISSING, from Web Wise Kids, is designed to SHOW rather than TELL children about online safety. It's a fun and positive way to teach children how to avoid danger on the Internet. The interactive software adventure tells the story of Zack, a kid in Vancouver, Canada who forms an online friendship with Fantasma. This guy is so cool - he has an online magazine about beach life in California and he sends Zack great stuff, like graphic arts and software. Little does Zack know that he is a predator. After Zach agrees to go to San Diego to be with Fantasma, players work with a detective to find and rescue Zack and arrest Fantasma. Available both as a home edition and a school edition. [Windows and Mac OSX versions available]. Note: Local middle school science teachers have successfully worked this program into their science curriculum since solving the game involves researching and collecting clues.

This team of 6th graders captured 2nd place honors in the 2007 annual ThinkQuest competition for their entry, "Internet Safety, Keeping It Real." Topics covered include predators, cyberbullying and online safety. Although it does lean a little heavy on the side of fear-mongering, this was an excellent effort by a team of kids!

Accessing music online and via mobile phones has never been easier, but it does raise legal, security and ethical issues. This new guide for parents and teachers provides essential advice about how young people can get the best out of downloading and sharing music online and via mobile technology in a safe and legal way, as well as providing tips for discussion.

Do we all need to be that careful about our passwords? Probably not. But passwords are one of the web's most important security tools. Whether it's for your Google account, your banking center, or your favorite store, choosing a good password and keeping it safe can go a long way toward protecting your information online.

Advice from Google engineers on generating secure passwords.

The code doesn't cover every possible situation -- nor does it say educators have unfettered use -- but it's aimed at providing clearer guidelines to help teachers and students understand when they can use material without seeking permission or making a payment.

Research suggests that it'snot giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It's not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with\nstrangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web\nlike going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there,\nkind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil."

A kid-safe search engine powered by Google custom search. It uses a combination of Googles safe search mode and their own database of restricted elements. It also has a site removal request form if something does get past the filters

Model acceptable use policy from the U.S. Dept of Justice. Covers issues like copyright but does not address cell phone usage or cyberbullying.

Do you use strong passwords? Password Checker can help you to gauge the strength of your password. It is for personal reference only. Password Checker does not guarantee the security of the password itself.

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.

Legal Implications for Searching Student Cell Phones. Although this article is written against Michigan law, it does help clarify some of the concepts for what is permissable. Note that searching a student's cell phone or wireless device without parent permission may violate state wiretapping laws.

Confiscating and looking at information on cell phones by school officials is still not clear. This is a very interesting case study for those working with digital citizenship issues at their school.

Fascinating article explaining Michigan take on searching and confiscating cell phones.

These guidelines were developed during the Conference on Fair Use. Educators and students are advised to exercise caution in using digital material downloaded from the Internet in producing their own educational multimedia projects, because there is a mix of works protected by copyright and works in the public domain on the network. Access to works on the Internet does not automatically mean that these can be reproduced and reused without permission or royalty payment and, furthermore, some copyrighted works may have been posted to the Internet without authorization of the copyright holder.\n

It's important to teach students that just as we don't believe everything we hear on the radio, in the newspaper, on T.V., we can't believe everything on the Internet. Although the QUICK web site hasn't been updated since 2000, it does contain 8 great tips for evaluating web site information. They are presented in a clear and concise style with colorful graphics that will appeal to kids. Usually, such tips are offered by school librarians. This site was developed as an aid for consumers seeking health information.

Excellent organization and competition that is managed very well.

This fascinating project needs judges (oh and horizon still does too!) -- hat tip to David Warlick for this link.\n\nThe student web site entries are due in tomorrow (April 2) for the 2008 competition, and ThinkQuest needs people to judge these entries. To be a judge, you must be employed as a teacher or have a minimum of five years experience in the field of education; be proficient in the English language; and be able to, and have the time to evaluate and score websites based on the provided criteria.

Google may know more about you than your mother does. Got a problem with that?

An eleven year old gives an awesome one-minute rundown of all of the cool things he does with digital media at his school and in his life.

This fictional site was developed by a group of teachers as a means of teaching students about the Internet. Although the Internet can be a tremendous resource for gathering information about a topic, they found that students often did not have the skills to discern useful information from worthless data. The teachers set out to develop a series of lessons for elementary age students in which they would demonstrate that just because it is out there for the searching does not mean it is worthwhile.

This is a short presentation providing ideas on how to teach digital citizenship, with a focus on cyberbullying awareness. Many of the links are from the UK, but it does provide some ideas for using COMIC LIFE with students to address cyberbullying.

Bullying is a problem at every level of education. Every school has its own way to address the problem, but are these techniques effective? Do they ever make a deep impression on the students? Does the bullying ever go away? Not Likely. My school is no different from any other; we have implemented programs to combat bullying, but the bullying persists. Then, after experimenting with some new software, I got the idea to make bullying awareness important and exciting for my third-and fourth-grade students by having them create comic strips using Comic Life, one of the new programs available for Macs. With the aid of ready-made templates, word bubbles, pictures, etc. its users easily create a comic strip.

What does a friend of a friend of a friend know about you? Video generated by the Office of the Privacy, Canada.