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Illustrated stories are a powerful form of popular expression. Formats such as the single cartoon, panel strip, comic book, graphic novel, and illustrated book have been widely used in our culture to communicate and express ideas in dramatic ways.

Students, administrators and teachers at Gilbert Classical Academy have a new tool to express themselves that is rarely tapped by schools as a teaching aid: blogs. Blogs have been available on the Internet for years, offering Web users an opportunity to opine on various subjects and post images in a personal journal that anyone on the Internet can read. But schools have generally not utilized them as a classroom tool because officials have such worries as: What if inappropriate messages are posted? What if a hacker steals personal information on a child or staff member?

An attorney for a suspended Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher said Thursday she never intended for the public to view negative comments she made about students on Facebook. But the case is now part of a national debate that pits teachers' right to free expression against how communities expect them to behave.

Tutorial. Just like a tattoo, your digital reputation is an expression of yourself. It's highly visible, and hard to remove. Explore how your online identity affects you, your friends, your school and your job - for better and for worse - and how to make informed choices.

This is AWESOME! Thank you!

"In short, it is your digital identity. Just like a tattoo, your digital reputation is an expression of yourself. it is formed and added to by you and others over time."

Larry Magid discusses the rights of a child and freedom of expression as components of digital citizenship.

The overview of teachers' unique legal issues covered provocative topics such as how "search and seizure" laws apply to students, emerging threats with cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking -- such as aggressive texting, sexual harassment and hazing -- religious and personal expression, school violence and advice for teachers to sanitize their own personal Web pages.

Last year, the Court ducked an opportunity to determine in Morse v. Frederick whether public schools have authority to restrict student speech that occurs off of school grounds. The Court's refusal to address this issue was unfortunate. For several decades lower courts have struggled to determine when, if ever, public schools should have the power to restrict student expression that does not occur on school grounds during school hours. In the last several years, however, courts have struggled with this same question in a new context -- the digital media. Around the country, increasing numbers of courts have been forced to confront the authority of public schools to punish students for speech on the Internet. In most cases, students are challenging punishments they received for creating fake websites mocking their teachers or school administrators or for making offensive comments on websites or instant messages. More often than not, the lower courts are ruling in favor of the schools.

Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression.
The explosion in social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and Friendster is widely regarded as an exciting opportunity, especially for youth.Yet the public response tends to be one of puzzled dismay regarding a generation that, supposedly, has many friends but little sense of privacy and a narcissistic fascination with self-display. This article explores teenagers' practices of social networking in order to uncover the subtle connections between online opportunity and risk. Reprints of the complete article are available for a fee from Sage Publishing.

YouTube video of the presentation made by Cultural Anthropologist, Michael Wesch at the Library of Congress in June 08. He used students to prepare over 40 minutes of video for a 55-minute presentation, where he traces a timeline for development of digial text and digital media as a form of self-expression on the Internet.

This chapter explores why young authors find value in expressing themselves on the Internet.

[NYT Magazine, 5/25/08]. Examination of why people "overshare" their personal information on the internet through the eyes of a 20-something woman who compulsively blogs. This is a fruitful article to seed a discussion of how teens express themselves digitally and the importance of privacy and self-regulation. It could also be paired nicely with the Youth Privacy site ( previously bookmarked by another group member) for discussion in a digital citizenship class.

[May 18, 2008] Most online Americans view online shopping as a way to save time and a convenient way to buy products. At the same time, most internet users express discomfort over a key step in online shopping -- sending personal or credit card information over the internet. Internet users like the convenience but worry about the security of their online information.

Cyberethics curriculum from the eMINTS project. These sites highlight the debate about downloading music from the Internet for free. Watch videos of musicians expressing their thoughts on the issue. There is also information about copyright law and explanations about why these types of downloads are considered illegal and unethical. The sites are helpful for teachers who want students to debate the issue. There are links to eThemes Resources on Internet safety and computer basics.

Insightful (and harrowing in places): 7 chapters re online teenagers - a revolution in classrooms and social life - self expression, trying on new identities - the child predator fear - private worlds outside parents' reach? - cyberbullying - updates

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect a person's sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.

Six topics are available as free downloads online:
Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Current Volume
Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media
Digital Young, Innovation, and the Unexpected
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning
Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility
Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth

Teeming with chatrooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there's a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives-often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false-will follow us wherever we go, accessible to friends, strangers, dates, employers, neighbors, relatives, and anyone else who cares to look.

John Paulfrey (Berkman Center) provides a review of the book in his blog, here.

John Palfrey (Berkman Center) provides a review of the book on his blog, here.

Power will soon belong to those who can master a variety of expressive human-machine interactions. Already, various thinkers about the future have proposed a number of candidates for the designation "twenty-first-century literacy." That is, what are the key skills humans must possess in order to be considered literate?

The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.

Steve Balkam, FOSI: Digital Citizenship includes not just the rights of free expression (as important as that is) and the right to remain safe online but also duties and responsibilities of a full active and engaged citizen, respecting others' rights and looking out for other cyber citizens in a civil and respectful manner. Excerpts from conversation about National Broadband Plan adoption.

According to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life project (Lenhardt & Madden,2005),more than one-half of all teens have created media content,and roughly one-third of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced.In many cases,these teens are actively involved in what we are calling participatory cultures.A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one's creations,and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices.