Group items tagged

"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."

I plan to do social media for my assignment but with an emphasis on learning. This, on the other hand, is a comprehensive blueprint of how schools can use a facebook page to keep in touch with its community. It's an easy-to-use addition but not a replacement for "a robust website". Worth reading as he discusses the sort of information that might be included and how schools can control the use and misuse of that information.

"It makes sense to have a policy to discourage individual teachers from posting specifics about their students to their personal profiles. But schools should counterbalance such a policy by setting up a Facebook Page to represent the school. Students, families, and faculty members are going to use Facebook regardless of whether or not schools choose to do so. By setting up a Facebook Page, schools can establish a controlled, professional presence that allows them to capitalize on this social space in many important ways, while still protecting their students. It's important to note that while a Facebook Page is an excellent opportunity for schools to supplement their web presence, it doesn't fully replace the benefits of a robust website. Here are some ways that schools can benefit from establishing an effective Facebook presence."

"Thanks to the continuing wave of school district communicators and administrators seeking ways to reach their communities, a common question gets asked: How do you set up a Facebook page for a school district? "

Scrible is a new service offering a nice set of tools for highlighting, annotating, and bookmarking webpages. Scribble offers browser bookmarklets for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer. With the Scrible bookmarklet installed, anytime you're on a page just click the bookmarklet to launch a menu of bookmarking tools. The Scrible tool set includes highlighters, sticky notes, and font change tools. When you annotate and bookmark a page in Scrible it is saved as it appeared to you when you were done altering it.

This article deals with BYOD in the workplace but I think many of the same issues could apply in the school setting.

"We now live in a world where the topics of technology and privacy seem to work hand-in-hand. Gone are the days of buying a brand new TV or video game console where concerns of surveillance never existed. Now, our smart phones and tablets can act as TVs while tracking our location via GPS or wi-fi. The new batch of consoles set to come out later this year are both going to come with high definition cameras, with one of them confirmed to be active 24/7. Not only that, but now people are concerned about other possible emerging technologies such as facial recognition and thumbprint scanning. But are these fears warranted? Or are we simply becoming too paranoid and suspicious of companies and the technology they hand us?"

Shares a set of principles around connected learning

"I set out to answer these questions through a study of attitudes, which compared digitally literate students' to digitally-challenged teachers and visa versa. In this study being undertaken at Swinburne University and sponsored by the Wesley College Institute for Innovation in Education, 321 students in years 9 and 10 and 100 educators were surveyed about their attitudes to digital literacy and the use of digital technologies. The schools were co-educational independent schools with laptop programs and significant differences were observed in student and educator attitudes towards each other's digital literacy. The hypothesis, "that there is a disconnect between the digitally capable students and digitally challenged educators in schools with laptop programs, limiting effective use of digital technology in the classroom" was supported in the findings. This has repercussions for educating "net generation" students and implications for the implementation of the National Secondary Computer Fund and National Broadband Network. The disconnect was revealed in terms of attitudes towards technology in the classroom, teaching pedagogy, internet use, adoption of cutting-edge technologies and limitations placed on school laptops and networks. In this study 57 statements were provided to research participants, who were then grouped into four groups: digitally capable students, digitally challenged students, digitally capable educators and digitally challenged educators."

here is another very good reason for "Googling" yourself - to find out if any private and sensitive information about yourself and / or your family has ended up online somehow.  Maybe you accidently changed your Facebook privacy settings and your mobile phone number is now public? Or maybe a disgruntled former friend or colleague is bad mouthing you online?  Both of these scenarios have happened to me in the past and speaking from those experiences, I can assure you that these are things you need to be aware about right away so you can do something about it.  At the very least, too much information about you online can lead to a serious risk of your identity being stole

"For most young people today, engagement with new digital media is a routine aspect of life. Through computers, mobile phones, and other handheld devices, youth can blog, tweet, participate in social networks like Facebook, play massive multi-player games, use online information sources, and share videos, stories, music, and art they've created. Important skills and knowledge can be gained from such activities, but there are also risks. For example, young people may only rarely consider what it means to be an ethical, socially responsible "citizen" on the Internet. Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. "

"We are thrilled to announce the release of our entire Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum as a set of eight interactive, multimedia iBooks Textbooks, available for free in the iBooks Store. As schools implement 1-to-1 programs, increasing student access to technology at school and at home, it's more important than ever to teach digital citizenship skills."

"If you chose the Facebook setting that hides your friend list from people who aren't you friends, Irene Abezguaz has some bad news. Abezguaz, a vice president of product management at Quotidium, outlined a loophole she discovered at AppSecUSA 2013, a New York security conference - that friend list isn't totally hidden. "

"Today, we acknowledge that the digital citizen is a global citizen. There has been, like the U.S. Constitution drafters recognized, a need for a definition of checks and balances that will govern this "new" world-wide technology. While it certainly is not a governing set of laws or even enforceable, digital citizenship nevertheless defines the model behavior of today's Global Digital Natives. So how do we make the definition clear for all? What are a few of the Global Digital Citizenship myths that we can get nipped in the bud? Read on …"

"Perhaps that makes the 55-year-old teacher sound like a dinosaur. What he discovered is, after all, one of the most obvious realities shaping education policy and parenting guides today. But, as Loewy will clarify, his revelation wasn't simply that technology is overhauling America's classrooms and redefining childhood and adolescence. Rather, he was hit with the epiphany that efforts in schools to embrace these shifts are, by and large, focusing on the wrong objectives: equipping kids with fancy gadgets and then making sure the students use those gadgets appropriately and effectively. Loewy half-jokingly compares the state of digital learning in America's schools to that of sex ed, which, as one NYU education professor describes it, entails "a smattering of information about their reproductive organs and a set of stern warnings about putting them to use.""

The Cyber Safety Lady is Leonie Smith a cyber safety expert based in Sydney Australia. She gives internet safety advice and and eSafety talks and workshops for teachers, parents, children and business. A quarter of Australian children report they have been cyber bullied. Finding is impossible to keep up with your kids on technology? Do the children/students in your care have the right privacy settings on Facebook? Are your children protected from accessing adult content online? Are online Trolls affecting your business! Are your employees aware of what they are sharing online?

"An internet tribute to a taunted public schoolgirl who died under a train has itself been hijacked by bullies. Natasha MacBryde, 15, was killed on St Valentine's Day following rumours that she had been teased about her parents' divorce. Friends set up a remembrance page to the 'model pupil' on Facebook so well-wishers could post messages. But amidst the fond memories came sick postings including one which said: 'Natasha wasn't bullied, she was just a whore', while another said: 'I caught the train to heaven LOL (laugh out loud)."

"Facebook is unveiling a new set of tools launched to squash bullies from having free reign across the social space. In 2008, the Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre discovered nearly 30.2 percent of students reported they had been bullied within previous months. Moreover, 24.9 percent of students stated they had taken part in bullying others at school (Anti-Bullying Centre, 2008). With the vast amount of data pushed through Facebook.com each day, monitoring harassment and demeaning behavior rests squarely on our shoulders. Facebook's new features allow users to report such behavior through several new options; Facebook says the intention is to create a "culture of respect" and a stronger sense of community."

"The recently released Public Discussion Paper, supporting the development of Australia's first Cyber White Paper, makes use of the term 'digital citizenship'. It's an odd term. Citizenship has traditionally been associated with being part of a nation, for example an Australian citizen. National citizenship has also been associated with a set of rights (the right to vote, the right to a level of protection, etc) and obligations (abide by the laws of the land). This concept of citizenship is underpinned by the notion of mutual consent. Citizens' consent to governments' political authority in return for governments' exercising their power justly, legally and in the interests of their citizens. This agreement between citizens and governments is commonly referred to as the 'social contract'. "

A quick link to Images draw of the main discussion points from the Learning and Teaching Scotland / Scottish Government Internet Safety and Responsible Use Conference - Stirling 2011.

tx to Tracey :)

"Social network sites must ensure that children's profiles are visible only to the child's friends and cannot be found on a search engine, the European Commission has said. The Commission adopted its stance after a survey (13-page / 198KB PDF) found that an increasing number of children were flouting social network age limits to set up their accounts. The survey was funded by the Commission and published by the EUKidsOnline network. EUKidsOnline quizzed 25,000 young people across Europe and found that 38% of children aged between 9 and 12 have a social network profile. The figure was 77% for children aged between 13 and 16. Most social networks ban children under the age of 13 from having profiles. "Growing numbers of children are on social networking sites but many are not taking all necessary steps to protect themselves online. These children are placing themselves in harm's way, vulnerable to stalkers and groomers," Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda said."