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"According to the National Crime Prevention Council, around 43 percent of children and teens reported being a victim of cyber bullying in 2011. A problem affecting so many students needs to be taken seriously. Cyber bullies have chosen technology as their weapon of choice, but you can turn their weapon against them and use technology to stop the bullying."

""Why does this matter?" Teachers are often called upon to answer this question about an academic subject, and computer science instructors may face this demand more frequently than most. Learning to write lines of code can seem, to many students, like a pointless exercise in tedium. But a few professors of computer science have a compelling reply at the ready. They are participants in the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software project, known as HFOSS-or, more grandly, Software for Humanity. Why does this matter? these professors might respond. Because it's helping to feed needy people in Haiti, or to deliver supplies to earthquake survivors in China, or to manage the medical care of malaria victims in Rwanda."

Great class project idea

"Online abuse directed at teachers by parents has doubled in the last year due to an increase in the use of social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. In the last year, 40 per cent of teachers said they had been the victims of cyber bullying by parents, compared to 21 per cent a year earlier, a new survey has found. Threats made by parents also rose by 8 per cent from 2014. The increase coincides with the growing popularity of social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, with abuse on both rising 5 per cent from a year earlier. Most remarks are either abusive, sexist, racist or homophobic and are made in relation to a teacher's looks, competence or sexual orientation."

""Full access to a person's phone is the next best thing to full access to a person's mind," says cybersecurity expert Eva Galperin. In an urgent talk, she describes the emerging danger of stalkerware -- software designed to spy on someone by gaining access to their devices without their knowledge -- and calls on antivirus companies to recognize these programs as malicious in order to discourage abusers and protect victims."

"n Texas, a 13-year-old boy built a robot that could rescue victims of natural disasters. In Georgia, a 15-year-old girl developed a device that alerts parents who have have left their child in the car. And in California, a 13-year-old boy created a Braille printer that would be almost six times cheaper than the currently available model. Young people aren't just the future. They're the present, innovating and creatively solving problems in a range of fields. Students across the country, from every background, have the ability to build new products that could change lives around the world. That's what educators at the forefront of the "Maker movement" believe. Leaders of this initiative are changing the American educational landscape by engaging kids in discovery-based learning from a young age, encouraging them to learn not just by watching, but by doing - to not only consume, but also create. Photos: National Maker Faire Takes Washington EXPAND GALLERY Maker spaces - studios and labs designed for students to pursue projects of their choosing - are popping up around the country in schools, universities and informal learning environments such as community centers and libraries. In these labs, students are challenged to develop solutions to real-world problems, from designing and prototyping to refining and marketing."