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This model program for "restorative justice" is used by trained 8th grader facilitators at Del Mar Middle School to handle school incidents that would previously have been grounds for student suspensions. Cyberbullying is included in the restorative justice program. Students make amends for their actions, learn from their mistakes and become part of the solution, rather than the problem.

In June 2008, the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) released an update to their technology standards for teachers. The revised National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Teachers mark a significant overhaul of the group's original teacher technology standards, which ISTE introduced in 2000. The new ISTE teacher standards begin with the assumption that every teacher recognizes the importance of technology and how it can transform teaching and learning. The revised framework focuses on what teachers should know to help students become productive digital learners and citizens. "NETS for Teachers, Second Edition" includes five categories, each with its own set of performance indicators:
1.Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments
3.Model digital-age work and learning
4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
5. Engage in professional growth and leadership.

If you made a list of sounds you might hear at your local library, the rumbling of explosions and the loud hum of race-car engines probably wouldn't rank high on it. But in a darkened room at the Quincie Douglas Branch Library, about 20 preteens and teens gather around two screens. It's a mostly soundproof room, to make sure their efforts to rack up points on Nintendo's Wii and PlayStation 2 don't bother the consumers of decidedly more static media. It's a sight that could become more frequent at a library near you.

Schoolyard bullies are a long-standing problem but now, in the age of the Internet, they are increasingly using electronic devices to torment their victims. Because cyberbullying has become so prevalent, several states, including New York, have proposed legislation to control cyberbullying.

We are facing a new frontier in the ever growing challenge to close the skills gap impacting many of us in business. The deficiency in digital literacy has created a need for companies to evolve in the understanding that literacy in technology has become equally as important as literacy in the English language; our workforce must be technologically fluent to compete in a global economy.

For anyone who attended college before the era of e-mails and the Internet, the notion that bulky textbooks could someday become obsolete might seem ludicrous. Yet with a wealth of information on virtually any topic now readily accessible online, more people are starting to ponder if these hefty staples of education will remain relevant.

Brave New World of Digital IntimacyIt is easy to become unsettled by privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools. But there is another - quite different - result of all this incessant updating: a culture of people who know much more about themselves.

When school starts today, Broward County schools will be armed to take action against you.A new district policy, adopted July 22, allows a range of punishments, from "positive behavioral interventions" to suspensions for students, to sanctions against teachers' certificates for "egregious acts of bullying." Included are cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying, which experts say are becoming more common among South Florida students.

Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment.\n\n

Although there are those high-profile news stories of how cyber bullying has led kids to commit suicide, most of it is much lower key. High-school-age kids tell stories of how cyber bullying has become a routine part of the world they inhabit, so pervasive that they can't imagine a time when it didn't take place.

As online social networking becomes increasingly pervasive, Teaching and Learning News interviewed one professor who's embracing the technology and using it to extend the classroom communications. Dr. Jennifer Golbeck is Assistant Professor in the College of Information Studies who has found several advantages to an academic foray into Facebook.

While reports and stories in the media focusing on Internet predators have become all too frequent, the closer-to-home threat to our children may really be cyberbullying, also known as electronic or online bullying. A recent survey of 395 students (11 to 19 years old) found that 28% of students have been cyberbullied, and more than 1 in 7 admitted to acting as the bully."Cyberbullying could be the biggest online threat facing teens today," says James Leasure, co-founder of Pandora Corp. "Of course Internet predators do still exist, but statistically, kids have a much greater chance of being involved in some way with electronic bullying." Most cases of cyberbullying go undocumented because, fortunately, many kids are able to shrug off the 'unkind words' and look the other way. But there are some cases that make national headlines when they turn into tragedies, such as the Megan Meier case in 2006. Larger cases like this have prompted several states to adopt legislation that makes online bullying illegal.

Cyberbullying is becoming so prevalent in Canadian schools and society that it should be made a separate Criminal Code offense, according to a new policy that will be adopted Saturday by the Canadian Teachers' Federation.

NETS for Teachers 2008
Unveiled June 30 at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Antonio, ISTE's revised National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Teachers mark a significant overhaul of the group's original teacher technology standards, which ISTE introduced in 2000. The revised framework focuses on what teachers should know to help students become productive digital learners and digital citizens.

17-minute parent presentation on cybersafety developed by IKeepSafe and Comcast with Bob McDonnell, Attorney General, Commonwealth of Virginia. The video is available free for all Comcast Digital Cable customers via Comcast's signature On Demand service. It explores the risks associated with the Internet, and teaches parents and guardians how to become involved and take action to protect their children from these risks. It can also be downloaded online.

In this activity, students become international traders from one of six continents: Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North America or South America. They negotiate prices with buyers and sellers from the other continents. Sometimes they are thwarted from trading by barriers, and they come to understand how the IMF, by fostering free trade, enhances the flow of goods and services worldwide. [Grades 5-8]

Fighting cyberbullying isn't just a technical problem. We need to educate children and young people to anticipate, recognize and deal with risks and problems as and when they arise. Children and young people will continue to give out their personal details so they need to be taught more about the management of personal information, both their own and other people's. More importantly they must be encouraged to become emotionally resilient in all areas of their daily lives.

The popularity of Facebook, MySpace, IM, and email with youth in developed countries demonstrates how second nature the online world has become for youth.

This video from WebWise Kids tells Katie Canton's story and is excellent to use in class with students. When she was 15, Katie met a 22 year old guy in a chatroom and fell in love. Only after playing the game MISSING with her family, did she come to realize that "John" was an online predator. He is now serving 20 years in prison, after Katie worked with the police and turned in evidence against him. Katie has become an articulate spokesperson for Web Wise Kids and she speaks at school assemblies to advise other kids. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can download Katie Canton's story here. When she was 15, she met a 22 year old guy in a chatroom and fell in love. Only after playing the game MISSING with her family, did Katie come to realize that "John" was an online predator, who is now serving 20 years in prison. Katie has become an articulate spokesperson for Web Wise Kids and she speaks at school assemblies to advise other kids.