Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

Access, Analyze, Act: A Blueprint for 21st Century Civic Engagement. Discover the power of social media while promoting your students' civic engagement.

ThinkQuest Newswire Announcement: Students from 13 countries took top honors in this year's ThinkQuest International 2008 Competition. The competition is utilized by teachers to engage their students in developing critical skills for life and work in the 21st century.This year's winning teams collaborated in the research, writing and creation of websites on educational topics ranging from mathematics to promoting tolerance and preventing bullying.

ThinkQuest International 2008 included 972 teams from 60 countries and the winning entries included students from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. Each team had approximately eight months to complete their final websites. The submissions were then reviewed by an international panel of volunteer judges who selected the winners in each of the three age divisions. The judges also awarded the "Global Perspectives" prize to the team best exemplifying respect for diversity and recognition of global interdependence.

Four suspects pleaded guilty to raping a Seattle-area girl who later identified two of her attackers on her MySpace page.

Teachers warned about communicating with students via social networking sites

These are my notes from Kevin Honeycutt's breakout session titled "" at the TTT conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008. Kevin's online safety website is mysafesurf.org. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I'm recording this session to share as a podcast later. My notes from Kevin's keynote this morning are also available. Kevin's main website is kevinhoneycutt.org.

Your name as an Internet domain. Follow on from previous bookmark - a graduating class were given a domain name each and instructions to set google pages on them. Really good idea!

video for educators and students on the importance of online safety

Disney.com Internet Safety site with safety rules, a parent/child internet contract, and safety tips. Developed in collaboration with Wired Safety.

Interesting article about CC

The Creative Commons Foundation launched a much-needed database of case studies today, highlighting CC licensed content from around the world. Creative Commons licenses are built on top of international copyright law but let content producers offer their work with more refined permissioning for re-use than the de facto "it's mine don't touch it" sentiment of standard copyright.

School counselors are not the only people in the school who are responsible for the safety of students, but they may be the primary contact person for parents and students seeking information or help. Providing leadership for students, faculty, administrators, and parents in addressing the topic of cyberbullying may be an important step in ensuring students' safety.

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.

Ernie Allen, a Google Policy Talk explores the mission and challenges of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Cops Fear Vt. 12-Year-Old May Have Gone To Meet Someone She Met Through Online Social Site

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.

Sexual predators are using gaming consoles such as the Wii, PlayStation and Xbox to meet children online. "Child predators are migrating from traditional methods to alternate media," says Detective Lt. Thomas Kish of the Michigan State Police. "They are going to places where children are." Predators view games that allow kids to access the Internet and text message other players as a "foot in the door," he says.

Short video of Internet Safety presentation at NECC 2008