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Online safety means empowering AND protecting ConnectSafely offers research driven strategies to mitigate negative digital citizenship and safety issues from both a technology and behavioral perspective

What originally piqued my interest in this site was the "Training for Traffic" that I read on the SL Work Success Stories site (http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/successstories/case/tuvnord/). No small wonder that that topic caught my eye, what with my 15 year old constantly begging me to let her drive. TUV NORD created several traffic situations that they turned into interactive driving tasks. I vaguely remember being in driver's ed and watching a movie in a "simulator" when I was 15. Once I found out that I could spin the steering wheel in any direction and it made no difference, I went on to what was, at the time, my next priority: sleeping. Parenthood brings new perspectives; I shudder at the thought that my child might do the same during her own driver's training class. This sim sounds realistic enough to not only keep a kid awake at the wheel, but give them experience before they get behind the wheel of a deadly weapon. Unfortunately, the sim was not up and running when I visited. This island also has some other interesting items of educational value. You can learn how to use ground penetrating radar (GPR) to find tree roots and underground electrical lines that you might not want to cut through. There is also a huge interactive fuel cell that you can fly through to investigate the inner workings of the thing, which would be useful in a discussion of chemistry, even at the grade levels that I teach (4th & 5th). The only drawback is that most of the notecards you get are in German. Most of the signs do have a translation tool, though (click on the British flag for English). SLURL: http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/successstories/case/tuvnord/

The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report that examines the incidence of sexually and violently explicit content in online virtual worlds. The congressionally mandated report, "Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks," urges operators of virtual worlds to take a number of steps to keep explicit content away from children and teens, and recommends that parents familiarize themselves with the virtual worlds their kids visit.

Given that Congress has the lowest approval rating of any branch and that most sessions are broadcast on CSPAN (zzzzz....), I'm not sure what good a Second Life for Congress will accomplish, however if teachers want to have students in a government class explore. At the sim-hearing that took place, Congress people posed questions about the dangers of the second life community (e.g. safety for children, etc.). This was back in 2008, but doesn't Congress already have enough on it's hands than to worry about hte dangers of second life?

Dizzywood was developed by the entertainment company Rocket Paper Scissors. It is considered a virtual game, but there are many learning experiences built in. Dizzywood is participating in an elementary school program with the Reed Union School District in Marin County. "The highly interactive workshop uses virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. Students also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals." In addition, they have partnered with the YMCA to create a virtual learning program promoting cooperative skills.