Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

Just before midnight, an eMail popped into Robert Morris University professor Chris Davis' eMail box. It was from a student. When the student did not receive an immediate reply, another eMail arrived 30 minutes later. By the time Davis logged on the following morning, he had four eMails from this student. "A lot of our younger students using technology are used to that instant gratification when they reach out and ping somebody," Davis said. "But I tell students I'm not available 24 hours a day."

Helpful suggestions for how to teach your kids the proper way to respond to sites asking for personal information that would definitely keep their privacy at the same time while enabling them to still use the site.

Almost a thousand incoming freshmen at ACU (Abilene Christian University) received an Apple iPhone 3G or iPod Touch Aug. 16 as part of their first day in college. The deployment marks the first time that a university has introduced the Apple mobile devices as learning tools on such a large scale.

Developed by the folks who designed the Olweus Bullying Prevention program, this curriculum offers students an opportunity to:
1. interact, collaborate and publish with peers, experts or others, employing a variety of digital environments and media.
2.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences, using a variety of media and formats
3. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

This is the link to purchasing information for this book. The authors are three School Psychologists who also published Cyberbullying in the Digital Age.

The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies is part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (section 802) approved by Congress on July 31, 2008, and signed into law by President Bush on August 14, 2008. The National Center will be organized as a Congressionally originated 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation located within the Department of Education. Supporters are seeking a $50 million appropriation for the National Center for FY 2009.

Superintendents & Need for Vision on 21st Century Skills. Video was produced by COSN, the Consortium for School Networking.

Congress has authorized a new federal research center that will be charged with helping to develop innovative ways to use digital technology at schools and in universities. The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies was included as part of the latest reauthorization Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader of the Higher Education Act, approved last month. President Bush signed the law on Aug. 14. The center will be charged with supporting research and development of new education technologies, including internet-based technologies. It will also help adapt techniques already widely used in other sectors, such as advertising and the military, to classroom instruction.

AT&T announced it is returning to the classroom through online safety education developed by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe) and presented by Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) officers.The Nation's Largest Broadband Provider and 4,500 D.A.R.E. Officers will Provide Online Safety Lessons to Parents, Students and Communities Nationwide.

Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act - A federal law has been proposed that defines cyberbullying and specifies penalties (in the form of fines and up to two years imprisonment) for violators. The bill is formally called the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act (HR 6123), and was introduced jointly by Representatives from Missouri and California. It anmends the federal criminal code to impose criminal penalties on anyone who transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior.

In an effort to protect children and teenagers online, Vanden Corporation, based in California and dedicated to youth safety is proud to introduce CyberBully Alert a ground-breaking software designed to help the thousands of young people who every day are the victim of the growing crime of cyberbullying. CyberBully Alert is a web-based solution that simplifies the notification and documentation of cyberbullying. It lets children instantly notify predetermined, caring adults of bullying or online harassment - in a communication style used by today's tech-savvy, young people.

When school starts today, Broward County schools will be armed to take action against you.A new district policy, adopted July 22, allows a range of punishments, from "positive behavioral interventions" to suspensions for students, to sanctions against teachers' certificates for "egregious acts of bullying." Included are cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying, which experts say are becoming more common among South Florida students.

Last year, the Court ducked an opportunity to determine in Morse v. Frederick whether public schools have authority to restrict student speech that occurs off of school grounds. The Court's refusal to address this issue was unfortunate. For several decades lower courts have struggled to determine when, if ever, public schools should have the power to restrict student expression that does not occur on school grounds during school hours. In the last several years, however, courts have struggled with this same question in a new context -- the digital media. Around the country, increasing numbers of courts have been forced to confront the authority of public schools to punish students for speech on the Internet. In most cases, students are challenging punishments they received for creating fake websites mocking their teachers or school administrators or for making offensive comments on websites or instant messages. More often than not, the lower courts are ruling in favor of the schools.

School districts student and Parent Internet & User Agreements for access to the district network.

Texas school district electronic device policy covering use of pagers, cell phones, PDA's, handheld, laptops and similar devices.

This district directly addresses a code of ethics about content posted to the web. The content of Arp ISD Website, DVDs, CDs, videos, PodCasts, streaming video sessions, and publications directly reflect on the image of the district and as such must be handled responsibly, ethically, and taken seriously. Publications and media are intended to be used for the communication of school information and the activities of classes, clubs, athletics and other school events. The content of these Web pages and publications follow the same guidelines as the Arp ISD's acceptable Internet use policy. Submissions to the site will not permit unacceptable, obscene, derogatory or objectionable information, language, media or images.

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.

The Creative Rights Education initiativewas developed to create awareness of intellectual property rights, to foster a better understanding of the rights connected with creative content, and ultimately, to instill in students a personal respect for creative rights in a way that changes their behaviors and perceptions about digitally delivered content. This program, sponsored by Microsoft, offers a comprehensive set of cross-curricular classroom activities designed for grades 8-10 (but easily adaptable for use in grades 6-12) and organized into thematic units.

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.

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.