Editor's note: This week, my holiday gift to you, dear readers. Below you'll find Part 1 of a three-part series of guest posts by teacher Marianne Malmstrom about what students learning in digital environments can teach all of us – parents, educators, risk prevention experts, and anybody else who works with young people. Editing this series felt like a gift to me, and it'll keep on giving, because … [Read more...] about Mining Minecraft, Part 1: Little gamers’ digital play through a teacher’s eyes
Youth
Activist app developers: Reachout.com’s winners
The winning app developers of Reachout.com's "Don't Just Stand By" cyberbullying prevention contest not only received prize money but also serious professional mentoring: Timothy Mullican, 15, in Alabama, who has been writing code since he was in the 6th grade. The first-place winner, who aspires to being an information security specialist for government or the private sector, told Reachout … [Read more...] about Activist app developers: Reachout.com’s winners
Teachers’ views on how tech’s changing students: Studies
For a new report, the Pew Internet Project surveyed and held focus groups with more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers in the Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) communities and found that 77% feel "the Internet and digital search tools have had a 'mostly positive' impact on their students’ research habits, but 87% say these technologies are creating an 'easily … [Read more...] about Teachers’ views on how tech’s changing students: Studies
Teens, social media & trolls: Toxic mix
This is and isn't about technology. Mostly isn't. But digital media allow for and expose a dangerous blend of two very different aspects of humanness, one destructive, the latter normative: social cruelty and teenage vulnerability (a lot of focus recently having been on the female variety). The cruelty, the extreme version called trolling – which feeds on outrage and weaponizes cultural … [Read more...] about Teens, social media & trolls: Toxic mix
How to help fix a world problem 1 child at a time
This may seem a little off-topic, as it's not fundamentally about technology, but social media can be a tool in the healing process. Let me explain. More than 5 million US children (275 million worldwide) are dealing with domestic violence – what UNICEF calls "one of the most damaging unaddressed human rights violations in the world today" – and 40 million US adults were once children who lived … [Read more...] about How to help fix a world problem 1 child at a time