Studying with social media

A pediatrician who follows social-media research! How cool is that?! Concerning the effects on young people of large amounts of time in and multitasking with digital media, parent Perri Klass, M.D., cites researchers as saying that, basically, the jury's still out. She refers to pediatrics professor Dimitri Christakis at the University of Washington saying that young people may have some advantages in the new-media space because they're coming of age in it. "So I decided to test my digital-immigrant biases," Klass writes in the New York Times, "which tell me that no one can study effectively while watching, listening, surfing, messaging, against my professional experience, which tells me that medical students who don’t study effectively can’t learn the huge and complex body of material they have to master, and will therefore not pass their frequent tests." She asked her medical-student son and classmates about their study habits. Definitely read the piece to find out what she learned – and there's some great advice, too, from a psychologist she talked to, for parents worried about their kids' "terrible" study habits. Because we all, as a society, have so much to learn about the effects of growing up online, I wish all pediatricians could be as informed and open-minded about social media. They could help parents calmly apply the good parenting sense they already have and stay a little open-minded too. That, in turn, will keep parent-child communication lines open, one of the best Internet protections around. [And BTW, there are some things we do know from the research, at least about informal learning in social media (we put those in "Online Safety 3.0."]

EFF's copyright curriculum for students

"Youth don't need more intimidation - what they need is solid, accurate information," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation in its introduction to Teaching Copyright, a curriculum about students' rights and responsibilities when using technology. "When we surveyed existing digital education resources related to copyright, we were dismayed to find that much of the available material relied on inaccurate generalizations about technology and law," the EFF says. So it worked with educators around the US, it says, to design "a fun and flexible plan that would not just provide information, but also help foster basic skills in research, writing, and critical thinking." The curriculum addresses these three questions: "What is legal online?", "How is creativity being enabled by new technologies?" and "What digital rights and responsibilities exist already, and what roles do we play as users of digital technology?" The curriculum was released last week, as the Copyright Alliance - "backed by the recording, broadcast, and software industries" was promoting its "Think First, Copy Later" curriculum, the Music Industry News Network reports, editorializing that the latter curriculum "is just the latest example of copyright-focused educational materials portraying the use of new technology as a high-risk behavior."

NJ to address bullying of gay students

The New Jersey Governor's Commission on Bullying will soon be looking into bullying, particularly against gay students, and what schools are doing to stop it, the Daily Record reports. Commission chair Stuart Green "said gay students are perhaps the most vulnerable when it comes to bullying, and that schools have not done enough to address the issue.... School officials have been saying for a couple of years that they have just begun to deal with gay and gender identity issues, long after other diversity issues had been addressed." The commission will consider what educational programs and teacher training are needed and - pointing to the online part of bullying - "whether school officials should do more to punish actions that take place outside of school but have an impact on the classroom, as allowed by state law."

Federal judge allows students' suspension

The 10-day suspension of two eighth-graders in Pennsylvania school was in response to their creation of an imposter MySpace profile representing their principal "as a pedophile and a sex addict, among other things," ArsTechnica.com reports. In its coverage of the ruling, the Student Press Law Center reports that US District Judge James "wrote in his opinion that the arguments fell into three categories: 1) Were Snyders’ First Amendment rights violated by the school?; 2) Were the district’s policies unconstitutionally vague and overbroad?; 3) And did the school violate the Snyder’s parental rights?" He answered all three in the negative, saying the oft-used Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District was about the censoring of political speech not the "lewd and vulgar" speech in the fake profile. "Munley instead analyzed Snyder’s speech under three different student speech rulings by the US Supreme Court," according to the Student Press Law Center, in particular "Bethel School District v. Fraser, which said public schools could 'prohibit the use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse" and "Hazlewood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which said 'educators do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of speech so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate, pedagogical concerns.” An attorney for the ACLU said the judge "failed to recognize that a school cannot restrict a student's speech 'anywhere it is uttered' simply because it's vulgar and targets a school official."

Top cellphone picks for students

Yes, it has come to that: cellphones among back-to-school supplies (though maybe not on school administrators' lists!). "All cell phones are not created equal, and some are better suited for students than others," CNET reports. CNET editors picked a quiver of phones that, in various ways - e.g., full QWERTY keyboard, organization tools, multimedia features – are suited for students.

Students: Portable is good

For students shopping for computers these days, "it's clear what most will be opting for: anything that can be packed up and taken to go," CNET reports (adding that 90% of Amazon's top-selling computers right now are notebooks). They also want style and convenience features, of course: "like Bluetooth connectivity, integrated Webcams, and fast boot times." Students aren't just looking for laptops, though, of course - they're shopping for "smart phones, digital cameras, all-in-one printers, and of course, a hip case in which to lug their new notebook around."

Finnish teen fined for YouTube video

A 15-year-old student in Finland has been fined for posting a YouTube video "showing a karaoke performance of his teacher and for claiming she was a lunatic," the Associated Press reports. The video depicts his teacher singing karaoke at a party. The student said that he did it as a prank "and had not intended to insult the teacher." The video said the teacher was "a lunatic singing at the karaoke of the mental hospital." As a good a warning as any that there can be consequences from posting defaming photos and video, prank or not. It's always good to ask permission before uploading images of others. In Finland, as in most other countries, there can be legal consequences.