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Educators find themselves with mixed opinions about the role of social media in higher education and its importance in the classroom. Some see it as the technology of tomorrow, an important piece to the puzzle of connecting with students, while others try it doubtingly in their classrooms, assuming that the traditional face-to-face contact cannot be replaced.

Like many states, Texas now has state legislation driving cybersafety education in schools. In accordance with HB 3171, Section 38.023, the Texas Education Agency has developed and made available to school districts a list of resources concerning Internet Safety. In the navigation bar are links to 3 types of pages which are for students, educators and parents. Within each of the pages are links that categorize different aspects of Internet safety and digital citizenship to educate and inform.

Note: Diigo is failing to add the final slash needed to access this site. The correct URL is: http://www.ctap4.org/cybersafety/

The California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP Region IV) is a state-funded agency that has been a leader in cybersafety education for the California public school system since 1997. We have invested hundreds of hours into research on topics related to cybersafety education and curriculum development. We work in partnership with school districts, Safe School Planning teams and the local Educational Advocate for AT&T in the SF Bay Area. We have many great resources posted on our site for educators, parents and kids.

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

Cyberbullying: Using Virtual Scenarios to Educate and Raise Awareness [Research Paper: Discussion] Vivian Wright, The University of Alabama with Joy Burnham, Chris Inman and Heather Ogorchock Monday, 6/29/2009, 8:30am-9:30am WWCC 159, Table: 1 This session will teach educators how to use student feedback and reactions to scenarios created in Second Life to educate and raise awareness on cyberbullying prevention techniques.

2008 National Educational Computing Conference also touts collaboration as a key to 21st-century learning

SF Bay Area educator, Jerome Burg's Global Education Ning - a start on making global education a central "Standard" in all curricular areas. See also his Google Lit Trips for some excellent curriculum ideas.

The Global Education Collaborative is an online community for teachers and students who are interested in joining global education projects. With more than 800 members, the site encourages users to post media, blogs, and ideas for advancing collaborative education worldwide.

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.

AB 307 charges districts to "educate pupils and teachers on the appropriate and ethical use of information technology in the classroom, Internet safety, avoiding plagiarism, the concept, purpose, and significance of a copyright so that pupils can distinguish between lawful and unlawful online downloading, and the implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing."

This bill shows up as additional items in the planning criteria found in the EETT grant applicationCalifornia Education Code Section 51871.5, -- legislation, monitoring student internet use, ethical use of educational technology in the classroom, information literacy, aspects of information literacy/Internet safety, cyber-bullying, research studies and reports.

California State-approved technology plans that meet certain criteria must be in place before federal funding for technology may be secured by a school district. Education Code Section 51871.5 also requires the addition of a component to educate students and teachers on cyberbullying and Internet Safety, among other topics.

Electronic Media and Youth Violence: A CDC Issue Brief for Educators and Caregivers focuses on the phenomena of electronic aggression. This document was developed for educators and caregivers. It summarizes what is known about young people and electronic aggression and discusses the implications of these findings for school staff, educational policy makers, and caregivers. You can download the full report at this site.

Instead of using scare tactics and statistics that are misleading, we must paint a realistic picture and use statistics appropriately. Rather than pass legislation that puts constraints on schools, Congress needs to fund online safety education and public awareness campaigns that show the true picture. "You can't get there from here." it's not just the punch line of a driving direction joke. For educators, whose destination is the realization of educational technology's potential, that punch line sometimes seems closer to the truth than we like.

From MySpace to Hip Hop, A MacArthur Forum, Part 3
This is the third of three videos, a panel discussion featuring Dale Dougherty,General Manager, Maker Media Division, O'Reilly Media; Deborah Stipek, Dean, Stanford University School of Education; Kenny Miller, EVP & Creative Director, MTV Networks' Global Digital Media; Linda Burch, Chief Education & Strategy Officer,\nCommon Sense Media and moderator Connie Yowell, Director of Education, The MacArthur Foundation

For the last 11 years Marje Monroe and Doug Fodeman have worked to educate schools, parents and students about the issues that affect children in an online world. Their Web site, ChildrenOnline.org, offers practical articles, resources, research, and a monthly newsletter on the topic. Recently, the team, which has a long background in education, self-published Safe Practices for Life Online, intended to show middle and high school students what scams target them and how to use the Internet more safely. A teacher's edition of the book will be available through the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in November.

University of Minnesota study uncovers the educational benefits of social networking sites. "What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today," said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher in the university's College of Education and Human Development and principal investigator of the study.

Online social networking site for kids age 7 and younger. Connected with ownership of webkinz plush toy animals. Used in a classroom setting by Maria Knee, kindergarten teacher at Deerfield Community School in Deerfield, New Hampshire, who has been named this year's winner of the Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-Based PK-2 Education. The award is given by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) to recognize PK-2 educators who demonstrate vision and creativity in a project or program that effectively integrates technology in the classroom.

The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education.

iKeepSafe partnered with Woogi World to reach children and educators directly. Children will learn more effectively about digital citizenship including cybersafety, security, and ethics through the moderated kid to kid interaction, the online challenges or "episodes", and parental/educator involvement. Marsali Hancock, iKeepSafe Coalition President, says, "Woogi World allows us to create content which organically combines cybercitzenship education, play, and academic learning in a way that is exciting for kids."