In releasing its study "Creating & Connecting: Research & Guidelines on Online Social - and Educational - Networking," the National School Boards Association this week added some balance to the public discussion about safety on the social Web. The 10-page report is just as useful to parents as it is to educators. Conducted for the NSBA by Grunwald Associates, the study found that…These days US … [Read more...] about Important new study: Students on the social Web
School & Tech
Oxford fined Facebook users
The age-old UK university's disciplinarians - the proctors - are cracking down on an ancient tradition using Facebook against its Oxford student users. The tradition is called "trashing," whereby students douse each other with stuff like champagne, shaving foam, and flour to celebration completion of exams, The Times reports. "Staff at Oxford University are searching [Facebook], collecting … [Read more...] about Oxford fined Facebook users
‘Falling rocks [teachers]’
Veteran tech educator David Jakes seems to have struck a chord in his blog post about technophobe teachers labeled as "falling rocks" by colleagues and students in many schools. There are a number of very substantive posts from other educators underneath his article in TechLearning.com. "They’re called rocks because they won’t budge, and you just can’t get them into new things, things like … [Read more...] about ‘Falling rocks [teachers]’
Teen news editor
His screenname is Gracenotes and, “after his homework is done,” he works on cleaning up breaking news stories on Wikipedia for six hours at a shot, the New York Times reports. We all know how popular Wikipedia has become as a source for term-paper research (the Times article takes you behind the scenes at Wikipedia so you can see how viable this actually is, as long as other sources are in the … [Read more...] about Teen news editor
Teens’ digital story
Amanda and Nick’s final project as high school seniors in the Chicago area this past spring was a digital storytelling assignment. They were asked to “tell a story in digital video about “what it meant to be an American and to tell the world about that. Move beyond the rhetoric, the politicians and the media. Speak as a kid. What do you have to say to the world?” writes their teacher and … [Read more...] about Teens’ digital story