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Anne Bubnic

Cyber-bullying cases put heat on Google, Facebook - 2 views

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    The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.
Anne Bubnic

Digital Citizenship Includes Rights as Well as Responsibilities - 8 views

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    Larry Magid discusses the rights of a child and freedom of expression as components of digital citizenship.
Anne Bubnic

Curbing Cyberbullying in School and on the Web - 0 views

  • Many of the most egregious acts of cyberbullying do not take place during school hours or on school networks, a situation that presents a dilemma for public school administrators: If they punish a student for off-campus behavior, they could get hit with a freedom of speech suit.  If they do nothing, students may continue to suffer and school officials theoretically could get hit with failure to act litigation. For school administrators, it appears to be an unfortunate “catch-22.” For lawyers, it’s a “perfect storm,” pitting freedom of speech advocates against the victims of cyberbullying and schools that try to intervene. There are no easy answers in this arena, few laws, and no well-established precedents that specifically deal with cyberbullying.
  • “School administrators can intervene in cyberbullying incidents, even if the incidents do not take place on school grounds, if they can demonstrate that the electronic speech resulted in a substantial disruption to the educational environment.”
  • These cases illustrate not only a lack of precedent on cyberbullying cases, but also a dilemma for school administrators on how to handle cyberbullying.  “There are few laws that address how to handle cyberbullying, and many schools don’t have an internal policy to deal with cyberbullying that takes place off-campus,” offers Deutchman.  “It may take an unfortunate and tragic event on school property to get more schools to consider tackling electronic behavior that originates off campus.  It’s only a matter of time before a cyberbully, or the victim of cyberbullying, uses deadly force during school hours.”
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  • So, what should schools do in the meantime?  First, school officials should establish a consistent internal policy (much like a crisis plan) and a team (minimally made up of the principal, school counselor, and technology director) to deal with cyber-misconduct. This team should fully document disruptive incidents and the degree to which the learning environment is affected. The principal should invite the cyberbully’s parents to review the offending material before considering disciplinary action. Most parents at this point will do the right thing.
  • Second, schools should educate children, starting in elementary school, about the importance of cyber-safety and the consequences of cyberbullying, especially on the school’s own network. These rules should be clearly posted in the computer labs and written in age-appropriate language. The rules should be sent home to parents each year—and they should be posted prominently on the school’s website.
  • Third, teachers should continue incorporating in their curriculum projects that utilize the web and other powerful new technologies. This probably won’t help schools avoid lawsuits; it’s just good pedagogy. It’s not surprising that schools that keep up with the latest technology and software—and employ teachers who care about the quality of online communication—report lower incidents of cyber-misconduct.
  • In addition, schools should update their codes of conduct to include rules that can legally govern off-campus electronic communication that significantly disrupts the learning environment. They should also assign enough resources and administrative talent to deal with students who engage in cyber-misconduct. One very big caveat: Disciplining a student for off-campus electronic speech should be done only as a last resort, and certainly not before seeking legal counsel.
  • Finally, schools should realize that not all cyberbullies need to be disciplined. Schools should act reasonably, responsibly, and consistently—so as to avoid the very bullying behavior they are trying to curb. Until the courts provide clear standards in the area of off-campus electronic speech for young people, these recommendations will go a long way in making schools a safer learning environment for everyone.
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    Most school administrators have more than one story to tell about cyberbullying. They report that victims of cyberbullying experience low self-esteem, peer isolation, anxiety, and a drop in their grades. They note that victims may miss class or other school-related activities. Principals also point to recent high-profile cases where cyberbullying, left unchecked, led to suicide. In response, some schools have created new policies and curbed free speech on the school's computer network and on all electronic devices used during school hours. This article offers practical advice for actions schools can take to curb bullying, ranging from policy development to education.
Lorna Costantini

Free speech vs. class disruption - 0 views

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    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.
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    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
Anne Bubnic

Email Archiving - 0 views

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    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.
Anne Bubnic

ReadWriteThink: Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in EMail - 0 views

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    With the increasing popularity of e-mail and online instant messaging among today�s teens, a recognizable change has occurred in the language that students use in their writing. This lesson explores the language of electronic messages and how it affects other writing. Furthermore, it explores the freedom and creativity for using Internet abbreviations for specific purposes and examines the importance of a more formal style of writing based on audience.
Jess McCulloch

Keeping students cybersafe! « On an e-journey with generation Y - 0 views

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    As we are pioneers in cyberspace, cybersafety is a concern that is being refined and evaluated all the time - trying to balance transparency with privacy, allowing students some freedom, yet protecting them and ensuring their safety at all times. This article provides a review of what was done with a class of students over a year's time to teach them digital citizenship and cybersafety.
Anne Bubnic

What Parents Should Know About Chatroulette - 0 views

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    Chatroulette allows people around the world to see each other and chat via text or audio. Users can click "next" to skip from person to person, never knowing what the next image will be. But this unregulated freedom presents serious safety concerns for children. Violent and sexually charged images frequently turn up on Chatroulette, according to Sam Anderson, who chronicled his experience on the site for New York Magazine.
Anne Bubnic

Tapscott on Changing Pedagogy for the Net Generation - 6 views

  • Collaboration is another major hallmark of the Net Generation. However, Tapscott said, we have a tendency to squander or prohibit this strength in schools and workplaces.
  • "What do we do with this collaboration-geared generation? We stick them in a cubicle, supervise them like they're Dilbert, and take away their tools (i.e., blocking sites like Facebook and Youtube)." Tapscott calls this creating a generational firewall. "It says, 'We don't get you, we don't understand your tools, and we don't trust you to use them.'"
  • We can’t just throw technology in a classroom and expect good things," notes Tapscott. We need to move away from an outdated, broadcast-style of pedagogy (i.e., lecture and drilling) toward student-focused, multimodal learning, where "the teacher's no longer in the transmission of data business; she's in the customizing-learning-experiences-for-students business."
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    To reshape pedagogy, Tapscott says that we must consider eight norms for the Net Generation: freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation.
Anne Bubnic

ReadWriteThink: Electronic Messaging & How It Affects Other Writing - 0 views

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    With the increasing popularity of e-mail and online instant messaging among today's teens, a recognizable change has occurred in the language that students use in their writing. This lesson explores the language of electronic messages and how it affects other writing. Furthermore, it explores the freedom and creativity for using Internet abbreviations for specific purposes and examines the importance of a more formal style of writing based on audience.
Anne Bubnic

Pupils 'must manage online risks' - 2 views

  • The five schools judged outstanding for online safety all used managed systems to help pupils become responsible users of technology.
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    Pupils given a greater degree of freedom to surf the internet at school are less vulnerable to online dangers in the long-term, inspectors say. "Managed" online systems were more successful than "locked" ones at safeguarding pupils' safety, they said. The inspectors' research was commissioned in response to a report by Dr Tanya Btron, which assessed the risks children faced when using the internet and video games.
Anne Bubnic

'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer - 0 views

  • The prosecution looked like an error right out of the gate.  The photo didn't show sexual activity or genitalia, and even the sheriff's office conceded it was "inappropriate" but not "criminal" -- making it unclear what the "child abuse" was supposed to be. In any event, as a matter of law, Oei was only required to report suspected abuse to his principal, which he'd done.  It was then Forester's job to report it to authorities if needed. Oei said Forester didn't step in to defend him to authorities. (Forester didn't return phone calls for this story)
  • Four months later, Plowman charged Oei with two more misdemeanor counts for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, claiming Oei broke the law when he had the 16-year-old boy send the photo to his cell phone and advise him on how to then forward it to his desktop computer. Each count added another year to his possible prison term. "The December charges really felt like piling on," Oei says.
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    Rumors had been flying at Freedom High School in South Riding, Virginia that students were distributing nude pictures of each other on their cell phones. It's a phenomenon, known as "sexting," that's become increasingly worrisome to educators across the country, and Ting-Yi Oei, a 60-year-old assistant principal at the school, was tasked with checking it out. The investigation was inconclusive, but led to a stunning aftermath: Oei himself was charged with possession of child pornography and related crimes
Anne Bubnic

Education is Best Way for Congress to Address Cyberbullying - 0 views

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    If Congress wishes to address cyberbullying through federal legislation, it should focus on education-based approaches instead of criminalization, argue Berin Szoka and Adam Thierer in "Cyberbullying Legislation: Why Education is Preferable to Regulation," released today by The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Criminalizing what is mostly minor-on-minor behavior will not likely solve the age-old problem of kids mistreating each other, a problem that has traditionally been dealt through counseling and rehabilitation at the local level.
Peterss Jone

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    Are you facing issues of Monetary crisis? The only thing that is coming to your mind is how to gain Economic freedom without having to wait for a Short time? You are worried also at our tough monetary time because you have no support from anywhere. You can apply easily without any hesitation though online mode.
adjustingto6figu

Staying Focused While Self-Employed: 4 Tips for Independent Adjusters - 0 views

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    The freedom of self employment is a perk of being an IA, but there are also challenges. This post gives tips for staying focused while self-employed.
Anne Bubnic

The Newest Breed of Bully, the Cyberbully - 0 views

  • While some of what is published online may seem libelous (i.e., intended to harm the reputation of another), proving that point can be difficult and expensive. In order to prove libel, you have to prove malicious intent, something that might prove difficult if the offending Web page was put up by an adolescent. And many times, freedom of speech wins out.
  • Unless an actual crime has taken place, law enforcement officials often are unable to arrest anyone, even if they can identify the culprit. According to Lt. John Otero, commanding officer of the computer crime squad for the New York City Police Department, individuals would actually have to post a direct threat in order for the police to act. "For example, if they say, 'tomorrow I am going to hurt, kill, or injure an individual,' that would constitute a crime," he explains. A person posting such a threat could be arrested and charged with aggravated harassment. Although Otero says his department has seen some arrests, anyone under the age of 18 would not be dealt with harshly: "If the kid is too young, he would get a scolding and the incident would be brought to the parents' attention; if they are under 16, they are considered minors."
  • Like cliques, cyberbullying reaches its peak in middle school, when young adolescents are trying to figure out who their friends are and whether they fit in. "Third- and 4th-graders are just having fun with computers," says Loretta Radice, who taught computer skills to middle-schoolers in public and private schools for more than 15 years.
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  • While the cyber- bully believes he cannot be caught, Radice notes that everyone leaves footsteps in cyberspace. "Everything is traceable," she says. "Kids often don't realize that."
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    Because cyberbullying is such a new phenomenon, school and law enforcement officials in the United States and other countries are still sorting out the legal technicalities. "Most of what is done online is protected as free speech," says Frannie Wellings, policy fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC.
Vicki Davis

Identity Theft Leads to Child-Porn Arrest Nightmare - 0 views

  • Simon Bunce of Hampshire, England, not only had his credit-card number stolen online but was arrested and falsely accused of being a pedophile when that card number was used to buy child pornography.
  • Yet that only came after he'd lost his $250,000-a-year job, his father and siblings stopped talking to him and his computer was taken away for several months, the BBC reports. Bunce had the misfortune of being caught up in Operation Ore, a massive British online kiddie-porn crackdown in 2003 that itself grew out of Operation Avalanche, an earlier American bust which began with a 1999 raid on Landslide Productions, a Texas mom-and-pop operation that handled credit-card transactions for porn Web sites.
  • about 7,200 people — whose card numbers showed up on the list.
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  • Bunce was arrested "on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, downloading indecent images of children and incitement to distribute indecent images of children" — all before a single image of such had been found on his computers at home and at work. He quickly found himself unemployed and estranged from his family. But his wife stuck by him, and while his computer sat in police custody waiting to be examined, Bunce took action.
  • Bunce used the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and a catalog of Internet Protocol addresses to establish that his credit-card number had been used in Jakarta, Indonesia, to buy child pornography online at the same moment he used the card to pay the bill at a London restaurant.
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    Learning how to safely use e-commerce websites is important, but also, people need to be aware to protect their credit card numbers and identities as can be seen in this horrific case study. When websites are not safe about their use of credit card numbers, it can have horrible impacts such as this man losing his $250,000 a year job and becoming estranged from his family, when they thought he bought child pornography.
Anne Bubnic

ACLU demands schools allow access to gay Websites - 0 views

  • The American Civil Liberties Union wants Tennessee districts to stop blocking non-sexual Web sites that advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals. Those include:
  • Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, www.pflag.org• The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, www.glsen.org• Human Rights Campaign, www.hrc.org• Marriage Equality USA, www.marriageequality.org• Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, http://rcfm.dbdes.com/myshare.php • The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, www.glaad.org• Dignity USA (an organization for LGBT Catholics), www.dignityusa.org
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    Students and parents are demanding Metro Nashville's public schools stop blocking access to Web sites about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. They complained to the American Civil Liberties Union, which on Wednesday gave Metro and Knox County schools an April 29 deadline to announce plans to open access to the non-sexual sites. A letter to the districts threatened lawsuits if they don't comply.
Kevin Rose

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Kevin Rose

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