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VERY helpful document!!!

A growing number of people are promoting Internet Safety Education in effort to keep youngsters safe from Internet sex offenders. But be cautious about some of the statistics that you may find from lectures, pamphlets, videos and web sites. Not all of the data accurately reflects what researchers have learned about cyberpredator crimes. For the real stats and myths vs. realities on child predators , download a copy of: Internet Safety For Teens: Getting it Right . This fact sheet (created by Dr. David Finkelhor at the Crimes Against Children Research Center) is packed with helpful clarifying information for your next presentation.

In 101 Facts about Bullying, Dr. Robin D'Antona and Dr. Meline Kevorkian have crafted a down-to-earth and useful guide to a number of basic facts about bullying, its causes, and its consequences. Kevorkian systematically discusses topics ranging from relational bullying to cyber bullying to media and video violence to the legal ramifications of bullying, debunking myth and uncloaking the facts about bullying and its prevention.

A warning from the head of a prominent cancer research institute has rekindled fears about the possible health risks associated with extensive cell-phone use, especially among children--and it comes as a growing number of children are using cell phones to communicate.

In alarming numbers, teenagers who think they are fully prepared to make ethical decisions are also driven by the pursuit of success to cheat, by time constraints to plagiarize, and by vengeance to inflict physical violence. This paints a disturbing picture for employers who will be relying on this age group to fill the pipeline in their future workforces. The fifth annual JA/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey found that while most teens (71 percent) feel fully prepared to make ethical decisions in the workplace, nearly 40 percent of those young people believe that lying, cheating, plagiarizing, and violence are sometimes necessary to succeed in school. Download the attached Executive Summary and survey results documents to learn more.

The ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT®) is a FREE online tool that provides a set of questions to guide classroom observations of a number of key components of technology integration.

Frustrated by workers so plugged in that they tuned out in the middle of business meetings, a growing number of companies are going "topless," as in no laptops allowed. Also banned from some conference rooms: BlackBerrys, iPhones and other devices on which so many people have come to depend.

Web proxies are almost as old as the Internet itself as a means to route Web traffic through an anonymous domain name or circumvent content-filters, and they've long been the territory of corporate networks and the tech savvy seeking privacy. Nowadays, an increasing number of teenagers are setting up proxies on home PCs to sidestep school filtering traps, in addition to using free proxies set up on the Web, according to technologists at schools and at content-filtering technology providers.

From Anastasia Goodstein: Here are some of the lessons I've learned from studying young peoples' online habits, helping to launch a number of successful Web sites and TV properties for teens and twentysomethings, and founding a blog about youth culture for media and marketing pros.
1. Teens are multitaskers.
2. Teens prefer byte-sized entertainment.
3. Teens expect content on demand
4. Teens want to participate.

Facebook's millions of users are in the crosshairs of a computer virus dubbed Koobface that is being spread through the social networking site's messaging system. Users whose computers are infected may have their credit card numbers stolen or their searches on Google, Yahoo and MSN diverted to fraudulent Web sites.

The efforts are few and far between right now, but as the world of blogs, wikis and podcasts grows, an increasing number of Canadian educators are finding new ways to enrich the learning experience for their students.

The challenge for education "How do we handle the abundance of inputs and outputs available to our students given the scarcity of two major problems in our schools: Allowed / Accepted Channels of Access (number of computers per child, bandwidth, filtering, restrictions on publishing, etc...) and time. \n

Digizen.org's documentary film on Cyberbullying produced by Childnet International. Includes teacher's guide and lesson plan. The film is based on a composite of real events using professional actors. It depicts the story of a teenager who becomes the target of bullying via the Internet and by his mobile phone. The film shows a number of ways that cyberbullying can occur, who it involves, and how it can affect different people (including the teacher, who is in this film also subject to humiliation).The film and teacher's guide are designed for classroom or assembly use.

Power will soon belong to those who can master a variety of expressive human-machine interactions. Already, various thinkers about the future have proposed a number of candidates for the designation "twenty-first-century literacy." That is, what are the key skills humans must possess in order to be considered literate?

MySpace is public enemy number one in many school districts. But that doesn't mean social networking tools should be banned outright.

From Qwest Communications. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America with 18-29 year olds being the largest group of victims. Educating 13-18 year olds about how and why they are being targeted is critical in preventing new victims. Clean credit and a low level of identity theft awareness are two top reasons teens are targeted. A new survey from Qwest Communications Teen Council Program shows that an alarming number of teens are making it easier for thieves to steal their identity. With answers from more than 1,600 students about their online habits, the report identified the top 5 ways teens are compromising their identities.\n

A comprehensive online resource for people concerned with the growing problem of internet plagiarism. There are a number of helpful handouts in downloadable form on topics such as copyright laws, citing sources, how to properly paraphrase, and guidelines for students and educators.

Chatroulette, a Web site that connects videochatters with a limitless number of "random strangers" from around the globe, is an Internet sensation -- but it poses unique dangers for minors and new challenges for law enforcement.

Little or no grammar teaching, cellphone texting, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, all are being blamed for an increasingly unacceptable number of post-secondary students who can't write properly.

Many school districts are adopting Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) to educate parents and students about Internet use and issues of online privacy and safety, and seek parental consent for their children's use of the Internet. For example, an AUP may tell parents about the privacy policies of online services with which a school has contracts and students' use of non-contract websites. It may include cautions against children disclosing personal information to websites - such as their full name, home or email address, and telephone number. Or it may tell parents that the school has established classroom email accounts rather than individual accounts if email communication is necessary between students and online services.

It's no secret that we live in a world of moral panics -- where new technologies are feared by those who don't understand them, often leading to regulations that block their potential. For years now, a number of politicians have sought laws to ban social networks in schools, assuming that they are either bad or simply inappropriate for schools.