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Students who send and receive instant messages while completing a reading assignment take longer to get through their texts but apparently still manage to understand what they're reading, according to one of the first studies to explore how the practice affects academic learning.

A "digital divide" exists in Canada between young people who see information posted online as private and older people who see it differently, according to a study released Thursday at a privacy conference in Toronto. Ryerson University professor Avner Levin, a keynote speaker at the Youth Privacy Online: Take Control, Make it Your Choice! conference, said in the study that young people have a notion of online privacy that is not shared by business managers and executives. He said the latter view all information posted online as public.

With its evidence room overflowing with cell phones, the Richmond County school board is wanting to give away what it has taken 15 years to collect. The board decided to give the phones back to students when it changed its policy for cell phones in June. The policy replaces the often-criticized rule to seize phones for 365 calendar days when a pupil is caught with one. In 15 years, 5,725 phones were taken from students, according to the public safety department. Of those, 4,566 were still being held by the department this summer. Under the new rules, a parent has 10 days to claim a phone before it is turned in to public safety on the first offense. For a second offense and any phones not claimed at the school on the first offense, public safety takes the phone for 30 days.

New study on the effects of instant messaging on reading comprehension. Students who send and receive instant messages while completing a reading assignment take longer to get through their texts but apparently still manage to understand what they're reading, according to one of the first studies to explore how the practice affects academic learning.

David Kosslyn and two other students are in the process of developing StudyBuddy - an online academic social networking site that allows students to form study groups with others taking courses in the same subject areas, both on/off the same campus.

Amends the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act. Creates the Cyberbullying Law. Provides that the offense of harassment through electronic communications also includes the use of electronic communication for making a harassing statement for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person on at least 2 separate occasions; or creating and maintaining an Internet website or webpage, which is accessible to one or more third parties for a period of at least 24 hours, and which contains harassing statements made for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person. Establishes penalties. Effective immediately. The new law takes effect January 1st and provides that the Internet safety curriculums in schools will begin with the 2009-2010 school year. The bill allows the age-appropriate unit of instruction to be incorporated into the current courses of study regularly taught in the districts' schools.

Parents who worry that their children watch too much television can take heart: a bigger concern may be children spending too much time online. For children ages 10 to 14 who use the Internet, the computer is a bigger draw than the TV set, according to a study recently released by DoubleClick Performics, a search marketing company. The study found that 83 percent of Internet users in that age bracket spent an hour or more online a day, but only 68 percent devoted that much time to television.

Ever wonder how your students do it? Steve Dotto shows you how you can take a picture with a camera phone and upload it to the web in only a few seconds. He discusses the privacy concerns around our pictures and sharing them.

Take this online quiz from the University of Maine to assess your knowledge of online security in the digital age. If you answer wrong, correct answers are given. Suitable for middle and high school students.

Sony Creative Software Contest- Winner, Independent Video Category [Cyberbullyiing Public Service Announcement ]

Background info from Josh Borugeois. "I wanted to try and create something that would stick out on a very low budget. I got the light bulb idea from "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." I thought it created sort of an "all alone in someone's head feeling". I wrote the dialog thinking of some of the things teenagers would never say, or never think. I believe there are lot of messed up people online looking to prey on clueless individuals. I thought if I could create a spot that made teenagers being careful look like the cool thing to do, then maybe some would try it. Teenagers like to see a peer taking control of a situation. This generation is all about owning decisions."

The world of chatrooms and instant messaging is foreign to many adults, but a British advocate for children's cyber safety says they need to understand its importance to young people.

To today's students, online social networking is almost second nature outside of the classroom. What about inside the classroom? Educational software and services are taking a cue from Facebook and MySpace, adding a twist of online collaboration and interaction that brings students, teachers and parents together.

"How I Learned to Type," was created by Diana Kimball and Sarah Zhang of the Digital Natives team. It takes a glance into how people of different ages learned one of the first skills every digital inhabitant needs - typing. Do you "peck" with two fingers, type in multiple languages at once, or have a typing teacher with a wooden leg? The people in "How I Learned to Type" do all this and more. Digital technology has become so ingrained in our lives that for digital natives, learning to type has become a ubiquitous experience, as memorable, say, as learning to read or ride a bike.

Although there are those high-profile news stories of how cyber bullying has led kids to commit suicide, most of it is much lower key. High-school-age kids tell stories of how cyber bullying has become a routine part of the world they inhabit, so pervasive that they can't imagine a time when it didn't take place.

Live feeds from social networking sites make it easy to monitor the actions of friends. But how much information constitutes "too much information" is a conversation that needs to take place with teens. Not everything is as private as it may seem.

Medford School District takes Cyberbullying seriously. In a new update to their board policy, students who use text messages or e-mails to harass schoolmates could lose their driver's licenses. Apparently, this policy has also been used for chronic truancy offenses. Prior to this new update, the school board policy on cyberbullying was already one that strongly articulated zero-tolerance for bullying in cyberspace.

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

Delegates at a meeting of a national teachers' organization have unanimously voted in favour of urging the federal government to make cyberbullying a criminal offense. Members of the Canadian Teachers' Federation endorsed the policy of taking a tougher stand against cyberbullies at the group's annual meeting Saturday in Moncton.

Teens who build and frequent social networking sites are learning 21st century skills (tech skills, creativity, diverse viewpoints and communication skills), according to a University of Minnesota study. This page takes you directly to video interviews with the researchers from U of M.

17-minute parent presentation on cybersafety developed by IKeepSafe and Comcast with Bob McDonnell, Attorney General, Commonwealth of Virginia. The video is available free for all Comcast Digital Cable customers via Comcast's signature On Demand service. It explores the risks associated with the Internet, and teaches parents and guardians how to become involved and take action to protect their children from these risks. It can also be downloaded online.