Nobody's completely sure – even social-media researchers who talk to teens a lot – but it is clear that the Formspring phenomenon didn't come out of nowhere. Remember those personality tests and fashion-sense quizzes in teen magazines? In the digital-age versions, danah boyd writes in DMLcentral.net, teens would – through questions and answers in pre-Web public online spaces like Usenet; "chain … [Read more...] about Formspring: What’s really going on?
Risk & Safety
Principal’s anti-Facebook plan: Is banning Web sites the fix?
It was an interesting pair of education news stories to break in a single week: a principal urging his students' parents to ban their kids' use of Facebook and the Teacher of the Year being honored for teaching with, among other things, Facebook (see this). In an email to parents, Anthony Orsini, principal of Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgeway, NJ, said that "the main problem is that … [Read more...] about Principal’s anti-Facebook plan: Is banning Web sites the fix?
Social gaming’s social engineering
Zynga, creator of Farmville, claims 70 million active players in all of its social-Web games a day (Farmville getting nearly half of them), reports eModeration CEO Tamara Littleton in iabUK.net, and Zynga's just-launched Treasure Isle "gained an extraordinary 5.4 million players in its first week." Littleton says Zynga CEO Mark Pincus chalks it up to meeting three basic criteria: "interaction with … [Read more...] about Social gaming’s social engineering
Reflection on filters, social media & school
School filtering works better when less restrictive and blended with teaching students how to "take responsibility themselves for using new technologies safely," said a study by British education watchdog Ofsted I blogged about in February). Educator Tom Whitby and the amazing comments to his blog post, "Deal or No Deal" got me thinking about this all over again this weekend. User-produced … [Read more...] about Reflection on filters, social media & school
MA passed its anti-bullying law
The Massachusetts state legislature unanimously yesterday passed a new law "cracking down on bullying," the Boston Globe reports. "The bill gained momentum after the deaths of the 15-year-old [Phoebe] Prince [of South Hadley] and 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Springfield, who allegedly committed suicide after being bullied." The bill now goes to Gov. Deval Patrick for signing; a … [Read more...] about MA passed its anti-bullying law