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"Last week my wife and I told our 13-year-old daughter she could join Facebook. Within a few hours she had accumulated 171 friends, and I felt a little as if I had passed my child a pipe of crystal meth. I don't mean to be a spoilsport, and I don't think I'm a Luddite. I edit a newspaper that has embraced new media with creative, prizewinning gusto. I get that the Web reaches and engages a vast, global audience, that it invites participation and facilitates - up to a point - newsgathering. But before we succumb to digital idolatry, we should consider that innovation often comes at a price. And sometimes I wonder if the price is a piece of ourselves. "

"People complain that they want privacy, and then they put all their information up on Facebook. Thus, hacking is ultra-easy. I have seen teenagers post pictures of their first credit card, then a month later their new college student I.D. These kids are so excited to have signs of growing up, but as we grow up our lives need to be more private to guard from hackers. Now I am a culprit of being very relaxed about my online privacy, meaning, I have the same password for multiple sites, I use my high school name as my clue, and the name of my high school is on Facebook somewhere. So hack away, I look forward to meeting the person who decides to take up my identity!"

An answer to the question, "In the 21st century, what does a school librarian do?" I found this very interesting to read but overwhelming too. The school librarian is expected to be able to do so much, however I feel if we take one or two aspects at a time and slowly developed these, our confidence and interest to pursue others increases.  I am going to give this article to my colleagues to read and reflect upon at my next TL meeting.  I look forward to hearing their responses.

HERE'S a scene in my house: My almost 9-year-old is on the internet doing something or other, and I am not standing over her shoulder or otherwise monitoring her. Is this negligent? Am I throwing her to the wolves? I have no idea how to approach these thorny questions, so I have lunch with the academic and Microsoft researcher, danah boyd (she spells her name in lowercase letters for complicated philosophical and aesthetic reasons), who has studied this cluster of issues in an original and challenging way.

"Hello, my name is Kara Lee and I am an Instructional Technology Facilitator. I received my Master's of Science in Instructional Technology from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. I currently work in the NC Public Education School System. When talking to staff, parents, other employees and friends, their biggest concern is keeping up with technology and the language the new generation speaks! As adults, it is our job to educate ourselves on emerging technology so that we are always aware of things our children have access to and how they are using them. I hope this site will be helpful to you in becoming more aware of things parents of Digital Natives need to know to help keep their children safe in a Digital World! "

"Last September, I wrote a post about how scammers had been using my photos to lure women into online, romantic relationships for the purpose of 'borrowing' or extorting money. Since that time, the scams have continued. I get, on average, one new report a day from women (and occasionally men) who have been tricked, or nearly tricked, into sending money. In many cases, individuals have reported forming deep attachments or even falling in love with these scammers. This has been a frustrating predicament that has been going on for many years now. In this post, I thought I would share a few of the things that I've learned about the scams, the scammers, and their potential victims."

Great article - I especially like this tip: "Make something together. Create a kooky, silly film or a photo collage after a family adventure. Turn the conversation to creation instead of consumption."

"A few years ago, I was surprised to find out that my friend Peter Eckersley - a very privacy conscious person who is Technology Projects Director at the EFF - used Gmail. I asked him why he would willingly give Google copies of all his email. Peter pointed out that if all of your friends use Gmail, Google has your email anyway. Any time I email somebody who uses Gmail - and anytime they email me - Google has that email."

"Privacy issues are a very hot topic for anyone using social media. As educators, I believe it is our responsibility to teach our students the ins and outs of how to responsibly use social media. ...... I believe social media is important for educators and students. But I also believe it must be used responsibly and that cannot be accomplished without knowing the intricacies of social media privacy. Take a look at this infographic from MDG about the sad state of social media privacy."

This is an old article and I find that many of the examples are outdated. However, the underlying structure and social media literacies are as current and as valid as ever. -Attention (this is a big one for teachers and certainly one that worries everyone in my school. Some great strategies are described here to raise awareness among the students) Participation ("That doesn't mean, however, that all forms of participation are beneficial to the participant or others" "I don't believe in the myth of the digital natives") Collaboration (Here he talks a lot about collaboration towards social change and activism. Academic Integrity should probably be included here, too. "Though collaboration has a slightly different definition from cooperation and collective action, in general doing things together gives us more power than doing things alone.") Network awareness Critical consumption (I like that he talks about being overwhelmed with information and having to decide what action to take. It is a very hard thing to do though.)

This link was posted on the OZTLNet, so my apologies if you have come across this already. I have a handful of students who love Prezi and produce very impressive results with it. This helpful tutorial makes me feel that I can now follow in their footsteps.

This link was posted on the OZTLNet, so my apologies If you've come across this already. I have a handful of students from different secondary years who love Prezi and produce great presentations using it. With the help of this video tutorial, I think that I may be able to follow their lead.

"Teacher librarians are trained to quickly and effectively critically analyse and evaluate learning materials in a way that teachers may not. That being the case, it is more vital than ever before to assist them to navigate the tsunami of information flooding every communication channel by creating curated content."

Hi Kate. I can't believe I finally remembered to pin something to diigo....look at you go though. You are even commenting! I thought this article from SCIS was perfectly timed. I only work part-time but I have spent days and days curating resources for teachers since lockdown went into action. They have been so thankful not to have to trawl through a million items to find something they will actually use with their students. Most helpful at the moment has been a libguide created to share all of the online read alouds so generously being offered by authors and illustrators.

"Edmodo provides consistency in teaching subjects from year to year. We don't have have books for my classes, so everything is teacher created or scavenged off the internet. As a result, things "disappear," including saved documents. The solution was to save and organize my documents are always in my Edmodo Library. I am finding that my classes are MUCH more consistent and I don't lose documents."

"This is a great list from Deb Ng, founder and former owner of the Freelance Writing Jobs. I thought hard about what she'd written to see if I could add anything, enhance or disagree. You have to teach internet safety. It's not part of the human genome. Nothing. It's a great list, as good as any I've seen since social media exploded on the education landscape. Read and take note:"

"That was the question I asked my students this fall and the answer I got surprised me. Students increasingly aren't going to the premium information services we've set up for them through our school library. They might not even be inclined to go elsewhere on the Web. Instead they often turn to Apps for their information. From The Elements to NASA, from National Geographic to the National Science Foundation there is a wealth of credible content in the App Store, but if students are using this information in an academic setting how do we help them correctly document and cite these sources? "This is a case of technology being ahead of the Modern Language Association," said my colleague Stephen Freeborn, longtime English teacher, but together with our school librarian we found a work-around hack that gets the job done."

"There are days I just hate technology. Just when I think I'm ahead of my kids, up pops another ridiculously stupid app like Yik Yak. The latest app to make news, Yik Yak allows users to comment anonymously-because you know, who needs to take responsibility for their words, right? I've read a couple of blogs about it, too-great takes from Portrait of an Adoption,  Baby Sideburns and Tween Us. And then there's the schools, at least locally, trying to get the app disabled. Good luck with that. Because here's the thing. The app developers only care about one thing-and it's not your kid."

"I'm pretty sure that we're all aware of computer hackers. The real shocker comes with just how easy it is for hackers to steal your information. Today's infographic lets us regular folk know just how easy it is for our information to be tracked and potentially stolen. I have personally been guilty of being too trusting of public routers.  Since I don't have internet at home, I'll spend HOURS surfing the net, and getting personal things done at Mcdonalds, where the internet is free for the public to use. But not after reading today's infographic! It's crazy to realize that this entire time someone could have been cyber stalking my information! I'm going to have to beef up my antivirus and keep my internet time to a minimum. Seriously, for your personal and financial safety, read today's infographic and be protect your computer. The facts in today's infographic are too scary to ignore!"

"Can we be addicted to a computer? No, I don't think we can. Addict is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "One who is addicted to the habitual and excessive use of a drug." A computer is not a drug, so in fact I would tend to say that we can be dependent on what the computer offers us. Shotton (1989) spoke at great lengths about the misuse of the word addict or addiction in the context of computers."

"What I gained from this exercise was a thorough understanding of issues surrounding Cloud Computing and the information I needed to be able to speak confidently with my school community about the move we were making. If you're a school looking to move into the Cloud Computing space, then measures like this are necessary. If you're an Australian school looking for links to assist you with the process, then take a look at the following."

"If you pay attention to the mainstream news media, you can't have failed to have seen several instances of school related bullying last week in both New Zealand and Australia. Whilst pupils in Auckland and Wanganui clashed and the fights were recorded on cellphones, it was the case of Casey Heynes that went truly global due to the visual power of the recording taken by a bystander and shared online. I won't repeat the details of the case - there are links to videos below that provide viewpoints from both Casey himself and the mother of the boy doing the bullying - I want to comment on the surprisingly swift nature of how details of the fight spread."