Group items tagged

On the one hand, today's technology - particularly the Internet and cell phones - provides kids wonderful opportunities to learn, recreate, and communicate. On the other, it also provides the means for kids to make and compound mistakes, some of which can lead to trouble. The kinds of mistakes we're talking about are mostly errors in judgment, some large, some small, but all of them things you should think about.

Patrick Woessner's post on Digital Citizenship\nLast week I began unfolding the four "themes" that will guide our 1:1 Tablet PC implementation:\n\n * Information Management and Research\n * Digital Citizenship\n * Communication and Collaboration in a Global World\n * Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Design\n

Excellent post discussing the elements of digital citizenship.

Excellent blog post about the elements of digital citizenship from an educator. This makes a case about what should be done and how.

Very interesting post by Dan Shareski on the connections between parents, school districts, students and the internet.

podcast outlining a parent's fears about non filtering of Facebook at school

Great post by Alfred Thompson, "the" microsoft education blogger. I think he hits the nail on the head with this one. Great post!

Great post about how online activities should have offline consequences by Alfred Thompson.

What seems like an easy question - Will you be my friend? - is not necessarily so for teachers who have joined the Facebook phenomenon. The social-networking Web site, whose popularity has grown from the college crowd down to teens and up to boomers, poses a prickly question for teachers who want to connect with their tech-savvy students yet maintain professional boundaries.

We should talk to Darren and perhaps join in with some things he is doing with open PD. This is a great opportunity for organizations to learn more about the newest technologies.

Open professional development by Darren Draper and Friends. These opportunities will let you open up your classroom and join in with others to learn collaboratively about blogs, wikis, and more. Take a look at it.

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.

Schools should reflect the world we live in today. And we live in a social world. We need to teach students how to be effective collaborators in that world, how to interact with people around them, how to be engaged, informed twenty-first-century citizens.

Students share their views on Digital Citizenship topics including literacy, driving while texting, identity theft, photography, and also how this important topic should be taught in schools. From Vicki Davis' class at Westwood Schools in Camilla.

Discussion between parents and children is the best way to create trust. But computer use especially by new users can not be expected to be "private" from their parents. Filtering has its place, but should be used to generate trust and not access blame or perjorative measures. Students will always find a way to circumvent filtering and internet restriction. What are you're opinions? Has anyone used PC Pandora 6? Ray http://www.google.com/profiles/Raymond.WM.Lai#buzz

Technology not only changes how we write, but it also changes what writing is. Education will need to re-evaluate which writing skills teachers should pass to their students. Digital graphic writing is one genre students need to be fluent. Comic Life is the "word processor" of digital graphic writing.

How and when social network sites go about such policing of their users is up to them. Do the sites take such matters seriously? Some good (and bad features) of each are reviewed.

Reasons why educators should be open to utilizing cell phones in the classroom.

It's no secret that we live in a world of moral panics -- where new technologies are feared by those who don't understand them, often leading to regulations that block their potential. For years now, a number of politicians have sought laws to ban social networks in schools, assuming that they are either bad or simply inappropriate for schools.

Formspring takes cybercruelty to a new low by making it appear consensual. You sign up for your own account, literally inviting others to bash you with their "honest" opinions. Because it appears consensual, it no longer seems like cybercruelty at all. It just becomes another avenue for teens to communicate, and it desensitizes them to what they're doing.

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.

If the first decade of the 21st century was about data driven instruction and assessment, can we make the next decade about realizing potential of the student behind the data and publishing to authentic audience as part of student's school lives? Some great examples are given here of "Hand it In Teaching" vs. "Publish It Teaching"

On listservs and blogs, education researchers and teachers are beginning to discuss how to handle this latest online application. To most educators, filtering is never a preferred option. Teachers and media specialists almost uniformly choose to use opportunities like this to teach students how to make decisions about what's appropriate on their own. "One of the responsibilities of working with students on the use of online resources is to make them aware of potential dangers so they can make informed choices," says Deb Logan, librarian and media specialist for Mount Gilead (OH) High School, by email. "A discussion of online resources like Chatroulette offers a learning opportunity. These opportunities sometimes come at unexpected times." But educators believe Chatroulette may be a bit different then other similar sites like Omegle.com and Facebook's PopJam in that video is involved-and there's no way to edit what pops up on the screen other than clicking "next" after it's already appeared. There's no lurking allowed on Chatroulette-once a user signs in, they're visible to anyone who chances upon them, and anyone, in turn, is visible to them. Needless to say, there's a bit of nudity and sexual play being reported on the site, and the swiftness of people moving from image to image doesn't allow children to protect themselves-other than signing off.