Though Americans represent the 2nd-biggest population on Latvia-based social media site Ask.fm, they also represent only 10% of the activity on the site. But all 105+ million users will benefit from new safety measures the service has put in place, one of them being a new Safety Center, which includes a page with a clear description of how the site works. Based on recommendations from a … [Read more...] about Significant safety changes at Ask.fm
Factors in good policymaking about youth & digital media
Informed citizens sometimes forget that the reason why negative, tragic or just plain-old bad news is news is because it's the exception to the rule. That's why it's newsworthy. And this is true whether we're hearing about airplane crashes or online bullying. Sometimes the news is unspeakably tragic, but it's still the exception, not the rule. It's not an event from which we can extrapolate what … [Read more...] about Factors in good policymaking about youth & digital media
Youth Voices & Outer Voices: 2 fine participatory media projects
Two youth-serving, youth-participating projects were the highlights of last week's Digital Media & Learning Conference (#DML2014) for me: Youth Voices, by educators, for students and educators, and the Outer Voices Podcast, a student-guided digital radio program. There are never enough young people participating in conferences about media and education, youth risk and wellness or safety, … [Read more...] about Youth Voices & Outer Voices: 2 fine participatory media projects
New Facebook policy targets guns, other regulated items
In the wake of vocal demands that it take action against users promoting gun sales, Facebook just announced new policies around content about firearms and other regulated products. One of the activist groups Facebook worked with, Moms Demand Action, applauded the social media service and its app Instagram for taking "significant steps to block potentially illegal firearm sales through their … [Read more...] about New Facebook policy targets guns, other regulated items
Google’s new learning tool that learns
This may be the next step beyond tutorials on YouTube, MOOCs (massively open online courses), Google Play for Education and YouTube EDU. It may even be signaling the next step for education. It's called "Oppia," and it's a learning teaching tool. It helps teachers customize what they're teaching, student by student – by asking the individual learner questions and, "based on how the learner … [Read more...] about Google’s new learning tool that learns