There are two kinds of troll victims, actually: those who are directly and cruelly tormented by trolls and those who are manipulated into contributing to the attacks. That's one of my takeaways from an insightful New York Times Magazine article about people who use the Internet to attack, in depraved ways, other people who are emotionally vulnerable. Trolls steal identities, torment with 24/7 … [Read more...] about Troll exploits: Critical thinking needed
Literacy & Citizenship
Watch this video, parents
If you want to understand... who digital natives are and what they're doing online how community is experiencing a rebirth online how identity-exploration can be a collective experience and how that can be therapeutic and maybe even why YouTube is the No. 1 site among 2-to-11-year-olds for video viewing (see this)...pour yourself a tall glass of iced tea or something and watch "An Anthropological … [Read more...] about Watch this video, parents
Social networkers want more options
The PC World headline calls it "next-generation social networking." Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology are saying exactly what UK teens told Prof. Sonia Livingstone in her study (see "Fictionalizing their profiles"): that social sites need more ways to characterize friends and more options for what anybody can see in a profile. They need to reflect socializing in the "real world" … [Read more...] about Social networkers want more options
Another kind of filtering needed too
Apple retail stores aren't the only places employing tech "geniuses." Libraries are too. The Internet has turned out to be a "major tool" not only for patrons but librarians as well, saving space, making library resources accessible at home, and bringing more patrons to the library, Michigan's Saginaw News reports. Research that the Saginaw News cites indicates patrons are figuring out that … [Read more...] about Another kind of filtering needed too
Videogame program for libraries
You just may be seeing more videogame play at a public library near you. "The American Library Association has announced a new project funded with a $1 million grant from the Verizon Foundation" to study how videogame play improves literacy skills and create a "tool kit that libraries across the country can use to develop gaming programs," the Arizona Daily Star reports. One of the librarians … [Read more...] about Videogame program for libraries