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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.

Job characteristics and strengths at work at Google -
\n\n... analytical reasoning. Google is a data-driven, analytic company. When an issue arises or a decision needs to be made, we start with data. That means we can talk about what we know, instead of what we think we know.
\n\n... communication skills. Marshalling and understanding the available evidence isn't useful unless you can effectively communicate your conclusions.
\n\n... a willingness to experiment. Non-routine problems call for non-routine solutions and there is no formula for success. A well-designed experiment calls for a range of treatments, explicit control groups, and careful post-treatment analysis. Sometimes an experiment kills off a pet theory, so you need a willingness to accept the evidence even if you don't like it.
\n\n... team players. Virtually every project at Google is run by a small team. People need to work well together and perform up to the team's expectations.\n\n... passion and leadership. This could be professional or in other life experiences: learning languages or saving forests, for example. The main thing, to paraphrase Mr. Drucker, is to be motivated by a sense of importance about what you do.

On April 23, 2008, public forum, "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth," reported on the interim findings of the ethnographic project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, "Kids' Informal Learning through Digital Media," conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. This event addressed how digital technologies and new media are changing the way that young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. The forum was presented by Common Sense Media, the MacArthur Foundation and the Stanford University School of Education.

Slick video made by the Pearson Foundation for COSN that explains the shifts that need to happen if we are going to enable students to become fully digital literate.
\nThe Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) provides a voice for K-12 education leaders who use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning. CoSN provides products and services to support leadership development, advocacy, coalition building, and awareness of emerging technologies.

Alex Hayes, Janet Hawtin and other members of the TALO list are mobilizing a "Learning in the 21st Century" f2f round table and discussion on Safety and Privacy online. It will hopefully involve not only educators but also parents, students, IT staff, management and other members of the community. It is extremely important that people listen and become aware of the different perspectives.

This documents students using Google Lively to teach other students about digital citizenship

For our project, we chose to create a virtual room, called Digiteen World, on Google Lively. Our main objective of this project is to get people more aware about Digital Citizenship. We will be allowing kids from our school to get on Lively, and react in the virtual world. We have created nine superheroes. Each superhero has a lesson to teach abut the nine aspects of Digital Citizenship. By teaching the lessons in a virtual room, the kids get to have a great time and still learn very important lessons. The goal of this project is to educate people on how to act online. In allowing kids to be a part of this project, we hope that they will learn how to be good digital citizens.

On the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website consumers can learn how to avoid identity theft - and learn what to do if their identity is stolen and offers materials to use in your community.

This site (from the federal trade commission) is a one-stop national resource to learn about the crime of identity theft. It provides detailed information to help you deter, detect, and defend against identity theft.

A short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

How can we maximize the learning power of participatory Web sites while ensuring students are protected and behave responsibly? Creating and administering a private social network is an excellent method for establishing a safe social learning experience.

Enter social video games as a solution - immersive environments that simulate real-world problems. Today, technologically eager schools are replacing textbook learning with social video games, and improving learning outcomes in the process. Here's how they're doing it.

Spotlight magazine showcases the projects and people funded by the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative and covers the intersections of technology and learning. We go beyond the research to show how digital media is being used in classrooms and programs around the world.

Executive Summary of a white paper on the same title, available at http://www.pearson.org. The study begins a discussion of how digital media is changing the way children learn and whether the way they learn is evolving to meet a new, dynamic digital media format.

The keystroke is mightier than the sword, was the message that social studies teacher Gideon Sanders of Washington, D.C.'s McKinley Technology High School helped send last October.( (While 200 angry McKinley Tech students took to the streets to protest the loss of 15 of their instructors and counselors after the layoff of 229 D.C. public-school teachers (see video HERE)-and a scuffle with police resulted in the arrest of one student and one adult-11th graders Aaron Kitt and D'Angelo Anderson took to their screens.

A commericial solution to social networking in the classroom. ConnectYard enables schools to leverage popular social media for teaching students where they live and socialize, online. The platform offers K-12 schools their own private learning communities with controlled access that are integrated with popular social networks like Facebook, which serves to make course work more social and collaborative by keeping students involved and engaged both in and outside of the classroom. Only users approved by the school are permitted to join the community and interact with other users. This eliminates a primary concern of both parents and administrators.\n\nConnectYard also provides teachers with the ability to audit student groups, walls, etc. This serves to ensure that both the interactions and information being shared are appropriate, which helps to guard against cyber bullying or posting of copyrighted materials. Thus fostering safe and secure learning communities, or Yards, that improve the student educational experience and chances for success.

While many stakeholders are involved in developing policies on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 education, new research suggests that teachers are the most important group driving adoption. This is a major finding from a national research survey of more than 500 district technology directors. The survey was commissioned by Lightspeed Systems Inc., a leader in network security and management software for schools, and Thinkronize Inc., creators of netTrekker, America's number one educational search tool, with support from Atomic Learning.

HE Journal recently spoke with Knezek about the myriad of opportunities schools and teachers have available to them, both for exploring new technological tools and solutions in education and for making optimal use of the resources already at their immediate disposal. "The real goal," Knezek explained, "lies in moving all the programs in a school forward toward 21st century learning, or digital age learning."

According to Canadian digital learning consultant Dean Shareski, Craik School in Saskatchewan, Canada, recently experimented with cell phones as learning tools and discovered improved student engagement, responsibility and innovation as well as problem solving skills. The K-12 school discovered students aren't dazzled by their phones, but simply use them to share ideas, pictures, sounds and videos.

One of the challenges now facing educators is how to get today's technology-charged student reinvigorated in the learning process. Increasingly, teachers are introducing their students to the exciting possibilities of collaborating online. Increasingly, teachers are introducing their students to the exciting possibilities of collaborating online. Saywire is another commercial solution to the problem of providing a safe, protected environment in the schools.

Learn how to write auto flood claims quick & easy. Learn how to set yourself up for success to get into the writing zone when working on flood vehicles with this new course from IA Path.

Draw a line between digital use and abuse via cell phone and Internet. Great place to learn about digital disrespect, innocent and appropriate online behaviors. Learn how to identify, respond to and stop the spread of digital abuse. The site contains a number of great videos for kids created by their peers. See: http://www.athinline.org/videos