Skip to content

Category Archives: Safety

Wisdom about bullying from a former target

06-Jun-13

There’s probably no better testimony to the power of social-emotional learning than this UK student’s poem about what happens to the “bully” when victimizing someone else (don’t miss this 1:25 min. video of Garrett reading his poem). Garrett was a student at New Line Learning Academy in Maidstone, Kent, UK, when he read this poem [...]

Share

Social literacy up, social problems down in Chicago Schools

05-Jun-13

More than 50 Chicago schools were recommended for closure this year, but one of the four schools that won’t close isn’t closing because of its strong, successful social-emotional learning program, Education Week reports. Marcus Garvey Elementary School “is recognized for helping children develop empathy and problem-solving skills.” SEL is “problem-solving with dignity,” as teacher-songwriter Tontaneshia [...]

Share

Stop using the word ‘bullying’ in school, researchers say

04-Jun-13

“Bullying” is a loaded term to say the very least, and not using it could not only defuse a lot of fear and harmful overreaction when it happens, it could save lives. I’ll get to the life-saving part in a minute, but first the problem with using the word. Because of all the (certainly well-intended) [...]

Share

Law enforcement & social media now working together

16-Apr-13

This is a significant sign of progress: The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is working with Facebook on consumer privacy education. We’re still only in the first half of this decade, and in the second half of the last one, the state attorneys general were threatening legal action against a social media service – [...]

Share

So we’ve all ‘let our guard down’?

01-Apr-13

It’s interesting that Daily Beast writer Caitlin Dixon precedes her question “When did we let our guard down?” with the story of sleeping on strangers’ couch in Italy after finding them in a couch-surfing site. Yes, she let her guard down (but the people were great hosts). What’s interesting, though, is that she compared couch-surfing [...]

Share

Tech & media intelligence-gathering in Sydney

27-Mar-13

“Intelligence” is the word that has come to mind most frequently as I’ve participated in conversation after conversation with Australians about kids in digital media over the past 10 days. Here’s just a sampler of examples: “Cybersafety education saturation”: A government is really “hearing” young citizens in Australia. Rosalie O’Neale of the Australian Communications & [...]

Share

Designing students: Check out these contests (learning opps)!

12-Mar-13

These are projects that get young people and classrooms participating in the digital maker movement: Current or aspiring videogame designers and videographers have about a month to submit their creations to three different contests: The National STEM Videogame Challenge, Whyville’s game design contest, and Trend Micro’s What’s Your Story video producing contest. Design a videogame [...]

Share

Young people’s own tactics for public image management online

01-Mar-13

As more and more people on this networked planet are living life out loud*, public image management is an increasingly useful skill. Some people call it online reputation management, but online is just a “place” where reputations are curated, and among the most skilled curators are thoughtful young social media users thinking about their futures. [...]

Share

Details, context on Rounds, Vine & other video-sharing apps

11-Feb-13

The company behind Rounds – a video hangout app for mobile and Web – has decided to keep the socializing just among friends. Referring to its “young user base” (it says 70% of its users are under 25, though it has yet to catch on at my son’s high school), this week announced that the [...]

Share

Making Digital Learning Day meaningful

06-Feb-13

“Powered up, self-directed students” using digital tools “to lead their learning” is how Leslie Wilson, CEO of the One to One Institute describes what Digital Learning Day (today, Feb. 6) needs to be about in her commentary “Connected Students and Agency.” It’s that blend of agency (self-directed participation or action) and connected technology that New [...]

Share