Group items tagged

"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."

"What does privacy mean in an age of ongoing privacy breaches? With new privacy law coming online in Australia on March 12, our Privacy in Practice series explores the practical challenges facing Australian business and consumers in a world rethinking privacy."

I like this - a clever short video reminding us of essential digital citizenship concepts and practices. Raises a question about image citation - one of my Flat Classroom images was used - final citation screen (if that is what it is) is unreadable. Hmmmm

"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."

I'm really excited about this article. Although the American laws may seem foreign, we have similar privacy and child protection laws. What caught my attention was the strategies to encourage and monitor the use of social media by learning groups and the inclusion of three elements of my own social media policy, namely alternative work options, the use of real names and initial rather than avatar and the recording of the effectiveness of using social media.

"Inspired by an article about cyberbullying I asked my fifth-graders to write podcast scripts. They wrote about teasing, cyberbullying, gossip, intention vs. consequence, advertising, digital footprints and the lack of facial cues in electronic communication. Working mostly in collaborative groups, my students recorded complete "'casts" on our informal laptop studio."

"I've been following the unfortunate story of Alexandra Wallace. If you haven't heard about it, here is a quick summary: Miss Wallace, a student at UCLA, posted a video rant on the internet complaining about Asian students talking on their cell phones in the library. In the video, Miss Wallace mocks the Asian students' speech and makes other racially insensitive remarks. The video went viral - people were outraged - Miss Wallace received all sorts of scorn in various forms from parody videos (the one below with over 3 million views) to death threats. She then apologized and withdrew from UCLA. In her apology, Miss Wallace said, "I could write apology letters all day and night, but I know they wouldn't erase the video from your memory, nor would they act to reverse my inappropriate action." She is correct, and that is precisely the lesson we should be reminding and reinforcing with our students - it is difficult, if not impossible , to take something back that you post on the internet."

"In all my work on online child safety issues, I always try to stress how important education and media literacy efforts are. Indeed, technical parental control tools and methods, while important, should be viewed as just one part of a more holistic approach to encouraging digital literacy and digital citizenship. In recent years, many scholars and child development experts such as Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, Anne Collier and Larry Magid of ConnectSafely.org, Marsali Hancock of iKeepSafe, Common Sense Media, the Family Online Safety Institute, and many others have worked to expand traditional education and media literacy strategies to place the notion of digital citizenship at the core of their lessons and recommendations."

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.

The device in your purse or jeans that you think is a cellphone - guess again. It is a tracking device that happens to make calls. Let's stop calling them phones. They are trackers.

"So, it is time to get your school into social media in a way that is safe, makes sense, and will help your image in the community. We've discussed in Social Media Syndication Part 1: Where is your Audience?why social media is important to schools. In Facebook Friending 101 for Schools (170 tweets on that one) we discussed the impact of Facebook Friends on your teachers, students, and staff. You've resoundingly flooded my inbox with requests for more on social media and how to get your school in safely - so, let's keep going"

"As I lamented in my last post, many of the fabulous Web tools out there are restricted to users 13 and over. This limits what Elementary/Primary schools students can access online to create content to collaborate. To save others at school some time, then, I have compiled a list of popular/well known Web tools that can and can't be used by children under 13 - 1), so we are legally covered in what we are allowing our students to use and 2), so they know what is available. Please note that generally the sites that allow for under 13s still ask for parental permission ( even Edmodo if you haven't read the Terms of Use) so a solid school user agreement is needed to use these tools. Some of the sites are not US based so are not bound by COPPA and CIPA regulations. It still requires schools to carefully check out what can be viewed on these sites to ensure they are appropriate to access."

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.)

"Despite the fact that I know many teachers who would rank Twitter as the most valuable and powerful networking tool they have access to, there are still many more who simply don't "get" the value of Twitter. I've been to lots of conferences over the last few years where the enormous value of belonging to a Personal Learning Network was being touted, and Twitter is nearly always being suggested as the ideal tool for building that network. At one recent conference I asked for a show of hands for who was not yet on Twitter, and many hands went up... my response was "Why not? What are you waiting for? How many times do you need to hear people say that Twitter is the most valuable tool they have, before you actually try it for yourself?""

"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."

Updates from digital citizenship guru Mike Ribble. He then added the following details to the S3 framework elements: ■ Safe (Protect Yourself / Protect Others) ■ Savvy (Educate Yourself / Educate Others) ■ Social (Respect Yourself / Respect Others)

really useful article about the process a school can take towards DC. Will share with my colleagues.

Librarianship Blog

You may already have come across this link on the OZTL_Net. I'm adding this short video to my Digital Citizenship teaching program. It's simple and informative.

Watched this as I researched for my assignment topic. It is lengthy (21 mins) but made excellent points about the nature of copyright and patents of early years with the concept of intellectual property and litigation, particularly as it relates to digital environments.

Social media is fast becoming as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. In recent months, many schools and districts around the country have taken steps to create social media policies and guidelines for their students and staff. In my work with several districts to draft these documents, I have seen many approaches that work well, and some that don't. That said, there is no silver bullet for administrators; every school, district, and state has a different set of circumstances. With that in mind, here are some steps that will help you determine the best approach for your own community.

How to Create Social Media Guidelines for Your School http://t.co/11t78TNg8g