Group items tagged

The Rochester Regional Cybersafety and Ethics Initiative has conducted the largest cyber safety and ethics survey of K-12 students in the Nation, with more than 40,000 students throughout the area participating. This new study shows that the majority of cyber offenses involving children, adolescents and young adults are perpetrated, not by adults, but rather by peers of approximately the same age or grade level. For a summary of the research report, see: Key RIT Cybercrime Research Findings.

Bullying middle school program. The pupils at Franklin Middle School tapped into real-life experiences as they filmed "The Stories of Us," a 25-minute movie being sold to American schools as part of a new anti-bullying program. They wrote, produced and acted in the film, which many educators say looks more like a documentary than make-believe. Previews of the two films can be accessed at : http://www.storiesofus.com/previews.html

MISSING, from Web Wise Kids, is designed to SHOW rather than TELL children about online safety. It's a fun and positive way to teach children how to avoid danger on the Internet. The interactive software adventure tells the story of Zack, a kid in Vancouver, Canada who forms an online friendship with Fantasma. This guy is so cool - he has an online magazine about beach life in California and he sends Zack great stuff, like graphic arts and software. Little does Zack know that he is a predator. After Zach agrees to go to San Diego to be with Fantasma, players work with a detective to find and rescue Zack and arrest Fantasma. Available both as a home edition and a school edition. [Windows and Mac OSX versions available]. Note: Local middle school science teachers have successfully worked this program into their science curriculum since solving the game involves researching and collecting clues.

What kids don't realize is that trading nude photos by cell phone (another form of cyberbullying) comes under the laws of child pornography. If prosecuted to the full extent of the law, they could end up in juvenile hall and/or have to register as a sex offender for the rest of their lives! We cover this whole issue with cell phones (and other issues) on our web site at: http://www.ctap4.org/cybersafety/ArticlesCellPhonePolicies.htm

steps to protect children on the Internet

Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, will add more than 40 safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies. The changes include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users' ability to search online for subscribers under 18 and building a task force seeking ways to better verify users' ages and identities.

Named in honor of Megan Meier, who took her own life rather than face continued harassment at the hands of a neighborhood mom posing as a cute 16-year-old boy. The campaign seeks one million teens to take a pledge against cyberbullying in Megan Meier's name.

[May 2008] AASA article gives examples of school organizations that are desperately and inappropriately blocking the future and Scott McLeod pleads, "Please don't block the future." Please don't relegate your students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to second-class status in the new economy because you left it to them and their families to figure out on their own what it means to be digital, global citizens. Ask AASA and its state affiliates to provide more technology leadership-related professional development opportunities. And let us know how we can help.

Eighty-one percent of kids have visited a social networking site such as MySpace \nor Facebook. Yet more than 50% of schools block social networking altogether and \nover 80% block instant messaging and chatting services.

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.

Guarding Kids.com - A Practical Guide to Keeping Kids out of High-Tech Trouble . From podcasts to porn, cyberbullying to cell phones, Dr. Russell Sabella helps readers understand the risks that emerge when high-tech tools, uninformed parents, and exuberant youth collide. Because kids are growing up with modern technologies, many are more expert than their parents. As a result, a parent's ability to make effective decisions for how technology is used may be compromised.

Obama Works is an independent grassroots organization that helps Obama supporters in neighborhoods across the country to organize community service events. The group was founded in early 2008 by a group of Yale students who were inspired by Barack Obama and felt that the energy surrounding his campaign could be channeled to do more than generate votes.

Obama Works is an independent grassroots organization that helps Obama supporters in neighborhoods across the country to organize community service events. The group was founded in early 2008 by a group of Yale students who were inspired by Barack Obama and felt that the energy surrounding his campaign could be channeled to do more than generate votes.

More than two-dozen British schoolgirls have been suspended for using the Facebook website to engage in a hate campaign against their teacher, a school principal said.

According to new research, more than half of parents cite inappropriate people such as strangers or child predators and content such as adult imagery or depicted violence as the biggest online threats they perceive to their children. But it found that only about a third of them know that there are parental control tools available that can help insulate kids from these perceived threats.

Note that this "research" was done by a company that sells security products so the questions about "biggest online threats" may have been slightly skewed.

UC Berkeley study administered by the Institute for the Study of Social Change and funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The complete findings on three years of ethnographic work [22 different case studies of youth engagement with new media] will be published in Summer 2008. The project has three general objectives. The first objective is to describe kids as active innovators using digital media, rather than as passive consumers of popular culture or academic knowledge. The second objective is to think about the implications of kids innovative cultures for schools and higher education, and engage in a dialogue with educational planners. The third objective is to advise software designers about how to use kids innovative approaches to knowledge and learning in building better software. The research focuses on learning and cultural production outside of schools: in homes, neighborhoods, after school, and in recreational settings.

The increasing trend of cyber-bullying has transcended the playground, according to a study cited by the Christian Science Monitor, as over a quarter of teachers and principals are the subject of mocking blog posts or doctored images. This new brand of bullying tends to be more malicious than normal schoolhouse pranks, and can undercut a teacher's ability to perform in the classroom. Opinions differ, however, on what solutions to pursue. Some school districts have come down hard, using provisions like North Carolina's cyberstalking law to charge students criminally for electronically communicated threats, racial slurs, and, in one case, spurious accusations of pedophilia.

Soaring numbers of teachers are calling helplines for advice on how to cope after being "cyberbullied" on the internet by their pupils. A survey by the Teacher Support Network found 17 per cent of teachers had suffered cyberbullying. Pupils were responsible in more than a third of cases.

The Global Education Collaborative is an online community for teachers and students who are interested in joining global education projects. With more than 800 members, the site encourages users to post media, blogs, and ideas for advancing collaborative education worldwide.

From Andy Carvin's PBS Blog. Many advocates of filtering policies insist than an educator may ask to have a site unblocked when it needs to be used in the classroom. But very few teachers have the ability to either get this done promptly by the filter's administrators, or the authority to do it themselves.

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

This research article has the facts about sexual predatory behavior.