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By mandating schools restrict internet access, CIPA and other federal and state legislation intend to guard students' safety online-but all they may be doing is keeping vital educational technology out of the classroom. No one disputes the need to protect kids from the harm that lurks online. What's at issue is whether or not mandated internet filters are the best way to achieve those safeguards-or whether the filters aren't up to the task and are actually interfering with the educational mission by obstructing use of important Web 2.0 tools.

Most parents accept the importance of digital media but wonder about the impact on students social skills, according to findings from a Common Sense Media poll.

Illustrating how important this threat has become, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) proposed a federal law that would criminalize acts of so-called cyberbullying. In this blog, two national security advisors propose to take it further so that on-line masquerading is also defined and considered. They would also like to see H.R. 2163 increase the penalities when a cyberbully uses a false identity or steals another person's identity when bullying a victim.

In his article, Thompson offers an exploration of the meaning and application of Web 2.0; evaluates how Net Generation students, who will enter the classroom with Web 2.0 expectations and experiences, will reshape institutions of higher education and their practices; and examines what some of these IHEs are specifically doing to meet the needs of the next generation of students. Thompson suggest that in order to move our educational practices forward, it is incumbent upon us to recognize and react to our changing student population.

Excellent post about how many are relinquishing their privacy. Very insightful post.

Fascinating ponderings by Mike Curtain about how many of us are relinquishing our own privacy. This is a very thought provoking post and yet another one I wouldn't have read, had he not linked to my blog post yesterday asking for bloggers to share their links. This is a very powerful blog post. Wow! I personally think there is a balance here, but also agree than many are not considering the privacy they are relinquishing when they post things that don't belong out there for everyone to see. Internet privacy is an illusion, it really is.

American School Counselor Association with tips on the use of the Internet

From the Center for Intellectual Property, University of Maryland. The Center for Intellectual Property provides education, research, and resources for the higher education community on copyright, academic integrity, and the emerging digital environment. The Center accomplishes its mission through the delivery of workshops and conferences, online training, consultations on campus, and electronic and print publications, and it provides continuous updates on legislative developments at the local, state, national, and international level.

A court case from May 2007. It was a sophomoric online video criticizing the hygiene of a teacher. Is suspension a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech?

UPDATE: In a federal court session on May 23, 2007, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman turned down the request of Gregory Requa, 18, to grant a temporary restraining order ending the 40-day suspension. "The court has no difficulty in concluding that one student filming another student standing behind a teacher making 'rabbit ears' and pelvic thrusts in her direction, or a student filming the buttocks of a teacher as she bends over in the classroom, constitutes a material and substantial disruption to the work and discipline of the school. "The 'work and discipline of the school' includes the maintenance of a civil and respectful atmosphere toward teachers and students alike -- demeaning, derogatory, sexually suggestive behavior toward an unsuspecting teacher in a classroom poses a disruption of that mission whenever it occurs.

Bullying by students - filming teacher in the classroom - targeting a teacher and posting on YouTube ensuing court case about the accountability of the Kent School Board for making a decision on punishing a student using unsigned, unsworn statements from anonymous students

What do you think about the term "social" networking -- I rather like the term "educational" networking.

This teacher is fighting for "social" networking -- I left a comment that she instead fight for "educational" networking. I think that the demonization of "social networking" by our media makes this term a death sentence for one's efforts.\n\nRead this post and see what you think.

Burt Lo from CTAP6 attended the CTAP4 School Administrator workshop, MySpace, Your Campus and You(Tube). In this blog, he captures some of the take-aways from the workshop.

A helpful article on how to use Facebook. A good article to look at when explaining Facebook to students

Oh no! Your mom just joined Facebook and what's even worse, she wants to be your friend. More and more people are finding themselves in this situation today and unsure of what to do. Friending mom and dad, the boss, or other work colleagues opens up the details of your private life for the whole world to see - and you might not be entirely comfortable with that. What's to be done?

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.

As online social networks explode in popularity, administrators wonder: Is it OK for teachers to 'befriend' their students online?

I blog about pupils' use of interent, safe searching and the read/write web

This documents students using Google Lively to teach other students about digital citizenship

For our project, we chose to create a virtual room, called Digiteen World, on Google Lively. Our main objective of this project is to get people more aware about Digital Citizenship. We will be allowing kids from our school to get on Lively, and react in the virtual world. We have created nine superheroes. Each superhero has a lesson to teach abut the nine aspects of Digital Citizenship. By teaching the lessons in a virtual room, the kids get to have a great time and still learn very important lessons. The goal of this project is to educate people on how to act online. In allowing kids to be a part of this project, we hope that they will learn how to be good digital citizens.

Results from the most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media show that America's youth are developing important social and technical skills online - often in ways adults do not understand or value.

Kids can be mean.\n\nIt's a fact of life we've all experienced. Gone are the days, however, when avoiding a bully meant ducking out of the back door at school. Thanks to personal computers, cellphones and instant messaging, it's now easier than ever for children to attack each other, often anonymously.

What preventative steps can we take to reduce the risk of being sued?

Excellent video tutorial by Larry Magid of ConnectSafely.org. It walks users through the process of setting up privacy settings on a Facebook account.