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"This paper deploys notions of emergence, connections, and designs for learning to conceptualize high school students' interactions when using online social media as a learning environment. It makes links to chaos and complexity theories and to fractal patterns as it reports on a part of the first author's action research study, conducted while she was a teacher working in an Australian public high school and completing her PhD. The study investigates the use of a Ning online social network as a learning environment shared by seven classes, and it examines students' reactions and online activity while using a range of social media and Web 2.0 tools. The authors use Graham Nuthall's (2007) "lens on learning" to explore the social processes and culture of this shared online classroom. The paper uses his extensive body of research and analyses of classroom learning processes to conceptualize and analyze data throughout the action research cycle. It discusses the pedagogical implications that arise from the use of social media and, in so doing, challenges traditional models of teaching and learning."

"Does your employer / Institution have a policy for the accepted use, by staff, for how they can use Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, YouTube, WordPress, etc)? Is it limited to how you can use it for work, or in work, or does it cover your usage outside of work and how you talk/post about what you do at work? Are you allowed to use images/logo of your employer/Institution in your work?"

This document is a code of best practices that helps educators using media literacy concepts and techniques to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances-especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question-as it does for certain narrowly defined classroom activities.

"The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly. A young learner who is literate in the use of a tool, say a pencil for example, can use it to write, but does so haltingly because a great deal of focus is on the use of the tool. As time goes on, this learner will develop fluency with the use of the pen or pencil, or keyboard. No longer will it be an impediment, instead their thoughts and ideas flow directly to the paper. The use of the tool is transparent. This is the level of proficiency we will need to thrive in this digital landscape and is what we strive to develop in today's learners."

"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."

Essential aspects of incorporating digital citizenship in education. 

Essential aspects of incorporating digital citizenship in education.

"Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use"

An elementary school in our district recently got 30 iPads and asked for some advice implementing them with students and teachers. In addition to suggesting some starter apps, I recommended that we have conversations with kids around the appropriate use of these devices. While almost every child has used an iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone, the exciting learning opportunities these mobile, Internet-connected, media creation devices create also open the door to new challenges. Cyberbullying or inappropriate web publishing happens more through the camera than regular computer use does; the mobility of the device combined with the reality that multiple users are using the device with no personalized, password-protected, network-tracked accounts makes it more challenging to keep track of who is doing what with the device or that the device itself is safe.

"Well, to help, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has released an AUP guide ( Acceptable Use Policy Guide) to help school district leaders rethink their internet use policies and how educational technology can best be used to help students get the most out of their time in school."

"There are many ways that our kids can communicate now as the Internet continues to expand its collaborative/social applications. Many of us are encouraging the use of wikis, blogs, emails, discussion boards, and chats (text and video) for educational uses and are integrating them into our curriculum. But we know that the kids are also extensively using the Internet as a social meeting place. It's imperative that we are advocating acceptable manners for all communications. Commonly called "netiquette", there are a number of guidelines that we should be promoting in order to emphasize good online citizenship. "

Copyright Law explained by The Little Mermaid and Buzz Lightyear (video) Using Disney characters to explain copyright law and related concepts such as public domain and fair use, Bucknell University professor Eric Faden produced this cartoon cut and paste masterpiece, A Fair(y) Use Tale. Poetic justice indeed, considering how Disney has tried slamming the copyright door shut behind itself, having built its own empire on the public domain fairy tales such as those used here.   

"Munroe and Collins have joined a list of teachers and professors nationwide who have found themselves in hot water for expressing their views through blogs and social media. Both were critical of students, though neither used students' names. Some educators who blog or use social media as part of their teaching argue that when done right it can provide tremendous benefit. They say students will need to be proficient and should learn to use such tools responsibly."

The concepts of digital citizenship and citizenship 2.0 are particularly relevant in the context of globalisation and the knowledge economy. The most recent technology standards for students published by ISTE enshrine a major category for digital citizenship (ISTE, 2007). "Digital citizenship" is now being dubbed as "citizen 2.0" and in the simplest terms it refers to the ability to participate in society online and to use technology appropriately. Digital citizenship represents capacity, belonging, and the potential for political and economic engagement in society in the information age (O‟Brien, 2008). Digital citizens practice conscientious use of technology, demonstrate responsible use of information, and maintain a positive attitude to learning with technology (ISTE 2007 cited in Richards, 2010). The affordances of the recent raft of web 2.0 technologies - sharing, collaborating, networking, customising and personalization enable new forms of civic participation which are changing existing social relations (Punie & Cabrera, 2006). Social communication technologies offer new channels for political engagement, contacting officials, and discussing issues. The network effects or benefits of bringing people together online exceed the satisfaction gained by individual participants - creating what economists call "positive externalities" or spill over benefits.

"How is Twitter interesting for a teacher or educational personnel in general? How to use Twitter for teaching? Why Teachers need Twitter? These are some of the questions that you will be able to answer after viewing the following 18 YouTube videos on How Educators can use Twitter in Classroom! "

"Fear comes in many forms, and on Halloween things get creepier and crawlier than usual. But for some of us, the scariest thing of all has nothing to do with snakes and spiders - and everything to do with cybersecurity. Lax attitudes towards online accounts have led to major digital break-ins for years, which is why content security software Trend Micro realized we should all be a little bit more scared of password protection and less scared of heights and elevators. The company found that one in four of us use the same password, or a variation, for all our accounts. One in four people in the U.S. also don't bother to back up files."

"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."

"The most obvious is that social networks are simply tools: when used for activities of which we approve - like riot cleanup, or the Arab spring - their power seems unambiguously positive. When used for other causes, it is portrayed as sinister. There's no way to embrace the immense good such tools can use without learning to live with, and mitigate, their downsides."

"This is a study well worth reading and thinking about because it focusses on teaching and learning. It demonstrates clearly that the use of social networking can be used successfully in the processes of learning. Designing for Learning: Online Social Networks as a Classroom Environment provides a model for schools to consider as a starting point for using social networking in pedagogy. "

Some interesting research going on in the EU on how social media can be used to inform policy: Social networking technology provides major new opportunities for policy makers (eGovernment) to engage with the community (eSociety). We will develop a toolset that allows full advantage to be taken of a wide range of existing and well established social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, WordPress etc.) to engage citizens in two-way dialogs as part of governance and policymaking processes. The tools will make it possible to detect, track and mine opinions and discussions on policy oriented topics. The tools will allow discussions to be seeded and stimulated through injection of policy discussion points into relevant communities in a secure and managed way. The tools will allow the origins, bias and evolution of opinions to be tracked to provide auditable records of provenance, guard against misuse, and ensure trust and privacy for all involved. A key feature of our approach is to allow policy makers to move away from the limitations inherent in the current practice of using bespoke and dedicated platforms (e.g. specific opinion soliciting websites hosted by government) and instead make full use of the high levels of participation and rich discussions that already take place in existing social networking communities. In this way, WeGov will develop the tools and techniques for closing the loop between policy makers and the citizens.

The project-based methods used in the Digiteen Project are teaching students about digital citizenship by immersing then in authentic research and student-designed action projects. The DigiTeacher workshop is modeled after the principles used in the Digiteen Project and will use a wide variety of Web 2.0 research and collaborative tools in conjunction with project-based methods. Understand why this method works by experiencing it! Material for this workshop is found in the newly released book, 'Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time', by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay.

"Cyber-bullying, update-addiction, sexting - from the perspective of a parent raising a ''digital native'' child, social media seems fraught with dangers. But new research suggests the risks inherent in social media use by younger generations might be overblown. danah boyd, assistant research professor at Harvard and principal researcher for Microsoft Research - like k.d.lang, she prefers the lower case - has completed a large-scale study on how US teenagers use the internet in general, and social media in particular. Her book is called It's Complicated, and is the result of in-depth interviews with scores of teens over an eight-year period."