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Blog post resource for parents, students and teachers on cyberbullying and internet safety.

This blogpost is intended as a resource for parents, pupils and staff and came from the excellent PHSCE evening for parents recently organised by Ms Tina Duff. It supported the strong approach to these topics by the school's senior leadership team. Cyberbullying and Internet Safety have been the subject of whole school assemblies and are part of the IT curriculum taught in KS2 and KS3 when pupils are given their own blogs and encouraged to use social networking tools to support their learning in class.

This research group out of Harvard includes Danah Boyd. Live web casts and chat. The Berkman Center's Interactive collection features conversations with and talks by leading cyber-scholars, entrepreneurs, activists, and policymakers as they explore topics such as: the factors that influence knowledge creation and dissemination in the digital age; the character of power as the worlds of governance, business, citizenship, and the media meet the Internet; and the opportunities, role, and limitations of new technologies in learning.

The Guidelines on Child Online Protection (COP) are aimed at establishing a safe and secure cyberworld for future generations. The set of four guidelines advocate empowering children and young people through education and awareness; providing information, advice and safety tips for parents, guardians and educators; and providing key information to policy makers as well as to industry in order to formulate national and international strategies.

In an effort to better understand the intersection between sex and cyberspace with respect to attitudes and behavior, the National Campaign to Prevent teen and unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com commissioned a survey of teens and young adults to explore electronic activity. This is the first public study of its kind to quantify the proportion of teens and young adults that are \nsending or posting sexually suggestive text and images.

"The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media."

"The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media."

Microsoft and ISTE have joined forces to put together a series of web literacy lessons, activities, and support resources to help students develop their critical thinking skills when searching the web. The new student-centered curriculum will provide guidance and activities for your students on how to search effectively, how to analyze "the anatomy of a search result," and moreover, understand how to judge the validity and source of the content they find on the web. This curriculum was developed collaboratively by ISTE and Microsoft and will be available soon free to educators.

Existing law, the Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985, states that the intent of the Legislature in enacting its provisions is to encourage school districts, county offices of education, law enforcement agencies, and agencies serving youth to develop and implement interagency strategies, in-service training programs, and activities that will, among other things, reduce school crime and violence, including bullying. Existing law establishes the School/Law Enforcement Partnership and charges it with undertaking several efforts intended to reduce school crime, as specified,including bullying.

This bill would specify that bullying, as used in these provisions,means one or more acts by a pupil or a group of pupils directed against another pupil that constitutes sexual harassment, hate violence, or severe or pervasive intentional harassment, threats, or intimidation that is disruptive, causes disorder, and invades the rights of others by creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment, and includes\nacts that are committed personally or by means of an electronic act, as defined.

Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the principal determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts, including, but not limited to, hazing, as defined. This bill, in addition, would give school officials grounds to suspend a pupil or recommend a pupil for expulsion for bullying, including, but not limited to, bullying by electronic act.

What Can Parents Do? Schools should start addressing students, parents and staff about the issues of cyberbullying. Students need to be reminded that what they do in cyberspace is not really anonymous. They need to know their behaviors and words are downloadable, printable and sometimes punishable by law. The courts have given some direction for schools dealing with cyberbullying. "School districts are well within their legal rights to intervene in cyberbullying incidents - even if these incidents were initiated off-campus - if it can be demonstrated that the incident resulted in a substantial disruption of the educational environment"

This district directly addresses a code of ethics about content posted to the web. The content of Arp ISD Website, DVDs, CDs, videos, PodCasts, streaming video sessions, and publications directly reflect on the image of the district and as such must be handled responsibly, ethically, and taken seriously. Publications and media are intended to be used for the communication of school information and the activities of classes, clubs, athletics and other school events. The content of these Web pages and publications follow the same guidelines as the Arp ISD's acceptable Internet use policy. Submissions to the site will not permit unacceptable, obscene, derogatory or objectionable information, language, media or images.

The Future of Reading: Digital Versus Print.
This is the first in a series of articles that looks at how the Internet and other technological and social forces are changing the way people read.

Young people today born into a digital world are experiencing a far different environment of information-gathering and access to knowledge than a generation ago. Who are these "digital natives" and what are they thinking? How are they using the technology, and are IT experts adequately responding to them? These questions will be addressed in a new Library of Congress series titled "Digital Natives." The four-lecture series will examine the generation that has been raised with the computer as a natural part of their lives, with emphasis on the young people currently in schools and colleges today. The series will seek to understand the practices and culture of these digital natives, the cultural implications of the phenomenon and the implications for education -- schools, universities and libraries.

2nd in the CyberCop Series, AIRDOGS was designed to show teenagers that online crimes have lifelong legal and social consequences for teens and their families. In the game, Luke is a teenager who shows great promise as a snowboarder. He needs money for gear and training, so he begins to counterfeit software in his basement. Players collect data and evidence to catch Luke's boss, who is the ringleader of the operation. The message of Air Dogs is clear: theft and extortion are crimes, whether you're 16 or 60. Available both as a home edition and a school edition. [Windows and Mac OSX versions available]

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.

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.

People used to say a child's suicide ripples through a community. These days, it rides an electronic wave. Teenagers relay the news with cell phone calls, text messaging and Internet social networks, complicating the efforts of teachers, counselors and parents trying to manage grief after a young person's death. To our readers This series stems from our continuing examination of what led 19-year-old Robert Hawkins to become a mass killer last December at Omaha's Von Maur store. Today's stories describe how Internet postings, cell phones and text messages allow teens to spread their angst rapidly under the radar of adult oversight. Three-part series The World-Herald investigation into Robert Hawkins' murder spree and suicide last December leads to the discovery of a teen suicide cluster in Sarpy County. Sunday: Connections between suicidal teens cross community and school district lines. Today: Technology spreads teenage grief and angst quickly, with no parental oversight. Tuesday: A widely used but controversial suicide screening program is urged for use in Nebraska schools. Cyberspace is fertile ground for suicide contagion. It provides a forum for prolonged and excessive grieving in a highly charged, emotional atmosphere - precisely the kind of atmosphere psychologists warn to avoid after a death. It is also unmonitored by all but the most vigilant parents.

Internet2 is a non-profit membership organization of 208 universities working in conjunction with government and industry to operate a private national Internet Protocol (IP) network reserved for the exclusive use of the US research and education (R&E) community.As the national R&E backbone, the Internet2 Network provides connectivity between institutions and connectivity to international research and education networks thereby providing access to the global research and education community. While there are many benefits of using Internet2 in the classroom here are the top three for K12:
1. Immediate access to experiences and expertise
2. Access to rich multi-media digital collections and resources
3. A truly global education network at your fingertips.

In California, we have a localized statewide version of this effort called K12 High Speed Network/K12HSN

Many school districts are adopting Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) to educate parents and students about Internet use and issues of online privacy and safety, and seek parental consent for their children's use of the Internet. For example, an AUP may tell parents about the privacy policies of online services with which a school has contracts and students' use of non-contract websites. It may include cautions against children disclosing personal information to websites - such as their full name, home or email address, and telephone number. Or it may tell parents that the school has established classroom email accounts rather than individual accounts if email communication is necessary between students and online services.

Adults need to be good role models. Politicians need to think about this the next time they consider demonizing (as opposed to criticizing) an opponent. Media personalities and talk show hosts need to think about the messages they're giving to children when they engage in name calling. We all need to be aware of comments we make in the presence of children and even people who comment on blogs need to think about the difference between legitimate criticism and derision. Children learn by observing our behavior, and there are plenty of adults who behave like bullies. Changing behavior isn't easy, but it's not impossible. I've been watching episodes of the TV show Mad Men, which is set in the 1960s when it was acceptable to smoke around other people, ride in cars without seat belts, leave trash everywhere, make derogatory comments about minorities, and treat women as inferior beings. We haven't yet completely eliminated any of those dangerous or antisocial behaviors, but we've come a long way. With concerted effort and national leadership, we can do the same with bullying.

In summer 2007, a music professor at BU was shocked to learn that he had a Facebook page - in his name, with a recent photo and a spot-on bio. But, the professor recalls, "embedded in the document were really scurrilous things that were reputed to have been said by me, and they were quite unpleasant and ugly and immature."

My Pop Studio is a creative play experience that strengthens critical thinking skills about television, music, magazines and online media directed at girls. Users select from four behind-the-scenes opportunities to learn more about mass media: My Pop Studio strengthens media literacy skills, promotes positive youth development, and increases knowledge about health issues. Highly interactive creative play activities are used to create an online community that guides users through the process of deconstructing, analyzing and creating media. Video segments, flash animation, media deconstruction games and quizzes, and moderated blogs make the website lively, fun and educational. My Pop Studio was created by a team of researchers and media professionals at the Media Education Lab, located at Temple University's School of Communication.