Digital Citizenship in Schools

The most enlightened and relevant article I have read for a long time on how to approach using digital technologies in schools that references the work of Scott McLeod as well.

"From cyberbullying and photo sharing to digital footprints and online safety, the Connecting Families program helps parents and kids address important topics and have meaningful conversations about making great choices in their digital lives. This free, year long program includes everything parent facilitators need to encourage their schools and communities to use connected technologies in ways that are both fun and safe. Our resources include a step-by-step hosting guide, conversation topics, and printable resources to share -- all carefully researched and crafted by Common Sense educational technology experts. Get started with the Program Overview, and then follow the steps below."

"Generate a random fake name, address, username, password, and (usable) email address for use with online message boards, social media, or whatever else."

"Published on 21 Jan 2014 A short documentary about a Chinese boot-camp-style treatment center for young men "addicted" to the Internet."

Macarthur Foundation 2008

"A CYBER safety expert has slammed primary schools for letting students as young as eight use Twitter. Roxburgh Homestead Primary School is one of a number of schools to set up classroom Twitter accounts so students can share snippets of their work with the outside world. Parents have been encouraged to 'follow' the accounts for an insight into their children's school life."

Article showing both sides of the argument for letting younger students use social media (including Twitter) for learning.

One of the better articles I have read about the flipped classroom or flipped learning.

"Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.  If an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger automatically blocks that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser.  To the advertiser, it's like you suddenly disappeared."

"Bullying online is only half as common as traditional forms of bullying, according to a two-year study of research around the world. Kathryn Modecki from Murdoch University in Perth and colleagues looked at all existing studies measuring traditional and cyberbullying among adolescents. "We found that despite popular thought, cyberbullying was only half as common as traditional forms of bullying with about 15 per cent of adolescents reporting either cyber perpetration or victimisation compared to around 30 per cent for traditional bullying," Dr Modecki said."

"The recent furore about the Facebook Messenger app has unearthed an interesting question: how far are we willing to allow our privacy to be pushed for our social connections? In the case of the Facebook Messenger app, the answer appears to be: "Not as far as Facebook thinks.""

This news article caught my eye as it is my old high school in Victoria! This type of media reporting is problematic - a typical negative report based on the need to have ultimate control. A more positive approach is for teachers to be modeling best online behaviour and being online in the same spaces as the students. The conversation needs to be about how to best represent yourself and your ideas online while being respectful to others.

Want to ditch your online account? Shouldn't be a problem, right? Unfortunately, on many websites, including popular ones like Facebook, deleting your account can be a real pain. AccountKiller collects direct links and deleting instructions to make account termination easy. Websites like Skype that do not allow deleting your profile in an easy way at all get blacklisted. Luckily there are websites that do care about your online privacy.

"These days whenever things go wrong - or even right - it's search engines we turn to for answers and affirmation. So how did the internet become our best friend, confidant, oracle - and what do the questions we ask reveal about our lives? Kate Bussmann investigates."

"There's no helpline for pedophiles who want treatment before they act. So a teen with a terrible secret had to find his own way to save himself and others like him."