Actually, the library is both a filter and a developer of the most effective filter there is: the software between students' ears (as my ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid first put it years ago). It's a great filter as school's nerve center of media competency and literacy (hopefully including new media as well as the traditional kind).As for the filter the library helps develop in students' … [Read more...] about School libraries: Vital filter developers
Literacy & Citizenship
Privacy on the social Web: Varying views
Our kids - the people who've never known life without the Internet - do think about their online privacy, and social technologies are actually giving them "greater control over their information," writes Heather West at the Center for Democracy and Technology in a Wired blog. She makes an important point about privacy in the new media environment that I think those of us who grew up in the … [Read more...] about Privacy on the social Web: Varying views
1 billion videos viewed (a day)
That's what co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley said as he marked the third anniversary of YouTube's acquisition by Google, the San Jose Mercury News reports. He added that YouTube is seeing more demand for longer format videos, meaning movies and TV shows. "In August, for example, YouTube said it would add clips from Time Warner programming such as 'Gossip Girl' and 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'. The … [Read more...] about 1 billion videos viewed (a day)
Media literacy of UK youth: Study
Nearly a third (32%) of British 12-to-15-year-olds think Web search engines rank and display sites by "truthfulness," The Telegraph reports, citing UK regulator Ofcom's 2009 interim Children's Media Literacy report. It adds that "philosophers will note that the finding raises interesting moral and epistemological questions about what the children thought would happen if they searched for 'god … [Read more...] about Media literacy of UK youth: Study
Posting pix: How cautious should we be?
The other day I was talking to a psychologist who described a time when he was driving into a busy 4-way intersection on a highway frontage road – one of the craziest intersections I've ever heard described. He came to a stop, he said, and suddenly found he just couldn't take his foot off the brake, paralyzed by a voice in his head saying, "Be careful. Don't move. Don't get in that driver's way. … [Read more...] about Posting pix: How cautious should we be?