We all – young people and everybody who works with them – are learning what that looks like: skilled navigation of a networked world. We're also working out what the skills are, how to teach them and what kind of environment (home, school and media environment) supports that learning. As a society, we've only just begun working the problem. The first 15 or so years of the public discussion … [Read more...] about When kids are skilled navigators of our networked world
Parenting
Top takeaways from US’s top Net-safety conference
Each November Internet-safety organizations, tech and media companies, researchers, authors and policymakers gather in Washington, D.C., to get an update on young people's social media practices, safety and privacy at "FOSI," the nickname for the Family Online Safety Institute's annual conference. That update just happened, and here are my top takeaways. Internet safety not really about the … [Read more...] about Top takeaways from US’s top Net-safety conference
The kids who are most at risk offline (& online)
In 2009, the Internet Safety Technical Task Force published a finding that the young people most at risk online are those most at risk offline, a clear indicator to me that online risk is not a unique new problem brought on by the Internet. In their thorough review of the online risk literature released right up through that year, the researchers on our task force shared some of the offline risks … [Read more...] about The kids who are most at risk offline (& online)
Schools’ disappearing walls: Explore the benefits!
School walls are disappearing. Probably anybody who's raising or teaching young digital media users has noticed this. For more than a decade and a half (in developed countries, anyway), schools have been opening up to the world just as more and more of the planet has joined the wired and wireless global network. Less and less can learning – formal or informal – be compartmentalized into rooms, … [Read more...] about Schools’ disappearing walls: Explore the benefits!
Neutralize the ‘negativity bias’ against kids’ Net use
This post is not about technology. It's about how we (humankind) have been wiring our brains to think about technology. We have quite a hole to climb out of. Not only are our brains already "wired to scout for the bad stuff," the Huffington Post reports, referring to what neuropsychologist and author Rick Hanson calls our "negativity bias." We've been reinforcing that bias with at least 15 years … [Read more...] about Neutralize the ‘negativity bias’ against kids’ Net use