Group items tagged

Do risque pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents and school officials don't see them? At what point are these young teachers judged by the standards for public officials?

Public Profiles Raise Questions of Propriety and Privacy. Article cites many of examples of inappropriate commentary from teachers on Facebook accounts that were not so private.

Excellent article by Suzie Boss at edutopia about filtration. I think this is an article to print and send to IT departments and headmasters. Excellent writing. Incredible article!

Excellent article on digital citizenship in schools.

Schools can teach basic principles of good citizenship to help shape students' behavior in the virtual world.

Google Latitude lets cell-phone users share their whereabouts with friends and family

These go with the growing up online series.

Bookmarks from the growing up online series for parents. These are links to the major websites for online safety.

Technology integration matrix from Florida. This amazing resource was picked up from Lucy Gray. Really amazing.

This is a great guide. I would love to use something like this as a model for how we develop our PD.

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students

As far as high-tech misunderstandings go, this was a big one. An East Stroudsburg University sociology professor made two provocative posts on her Facebook page, according to the Web site Inside Higher Ed: "Does anyone know where to find a very discreet hitman? Yes, it's been that kind of day" and, "had a good day today, DIDN'T want to kill even one student :-) Now Friday was a different story."

Teachable moment/Good lesson for kids: online actions have offline consequences, even in the adult world.

Chatting with Kids About Being Online from http://www.onguardonline.gov/.

This 54-page downloadable booklet from http://onguardonline.gov offers parents practical advice for talking with their kids about socializing and communicating online, file sharing, privacy and socializing and communicating on the go (mobile phones).

MTV's campaign to educate teens about the dangers of SEXTING. Sending or forwarding nude, sexually suggestive, or explicit pics on your cell or online. For some people, it's no big deal. But real problems can emerge when the parties involved are under 18, when people get pressured into sexting, and when sexts go viral.

Significant concerns raised about student-teacher intractions in a social media environment, including the issue that students flirt. Relatedly, anything performed online by a public school employee - including information and images posted on social networking sites - will be used to judge the character of that individual. There is also the concern that the friends of the staff member may post unflattering information or tag inappropriate images of them which will quickly be used to prompt one major question: "Is this the kind of person we trust to be responsible for our children?"

While house parties have always been a part of teenage life, with the introduction of "Facebook" and other social media sites a relatively small party can quickly turn into an out of control affair. Home damaged after teens spread word of raging party through Facebook and texts. That is what happened to the Abbett family's home in East Bridgewater, Mass., when they took a trip to Paris left their 18-year old son Alex in charge.

Legal Debate Springs Up 18 year old is Put on Sex Offender List for Forwarding Risque Images

Excellent 8-minute video from the UK's Thinkuknow education program that helps children to understand what constitutes personal information. The assembly enables children to understand that they need to be just as protective of their personal information online, as they are in the real world. It also directs where to go and what to do if children are worried about any of the issues covered.

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.

Produced in Canada, this new interactive program targets middle school students. Designed for school usage, it explores the social and ethical challenges of the cell phone era. In some locations, it is used as part of the DARE program. The story is set in the fictitious BRAINCELLS HIGH, which is in turmoil. After students begin carrying cell phones, a group of older boys start to steal phones from the younger students. Eddie is the leader of the gang and he forces a younger computer geek named Oliver to hack into the school computer and "adjust" his grades. The venture creates an uneasy bond between the two teenagers. Oliver uses his cell phone to commit the crime for Eddie and Eddie eases Oliver into the inner circle of teens at the high school. Finally, Oliver has to make a decision. Will he go to the police? The story is told through quizzes, animations, activities and games.

Wednesday "Good Morning America" and Internet safety expert Parry Aftab of WiredSafety.com brought parents and kids together to discuss a new, possibly dangerous phenomenon called "sexting" -- teens sharing with friends sexually explicit images or messages via cell phones.

They came from pretty much every sector-nonprofits, government, wireless executives, and think tanks-to a day-long conference in Washington D.C. on how to respond to the panic du jour over kids, mobile phones, and sex