Give yourself a gift this holiday season and watch this 3 min. video. You might find you want to share it with your children or students. Not because it represents who they should be or what they should do but because it represents who they (and all of us) really are. This is the kind of goodness that's happening all the time, all over the world – especially among the youngest generation, I'm … [Read more...] about ‘One Good Thing’: THIS is what middle schoolers are like
Console gamers’ loyalties getting divided
Parents of console gamers, did you already know this? The Xbox 360 devotees at your house may be switching loyalties for the first time in a long time – to the new PlayStation 4. I knew Sony's system was popular in other parts of the world, but Xbox ruled among a lot of young gamers in the US. Now, though, after several paragraphs of hemming and hawing, a gaming reporter at the Financial Post … [Read more...] about Console gamers’ loyalties getting divided
Flawed early laws of our new media environment
Before any more laws aimed at protecting young people's online privacy get passed, I wish lawmakers could spend more time with kids using social media – kids of both sexes and various ages, at least their own children or grandchildren – and less time reacting to constituents' concerns and news reports about kids in social media. Certainly not all they'd observe and discuss with kids would be … [Read more...] about Flawed early laws of our new media environment
The ‘lived curriculum,’ Part 2: What that looks like
Part 1 looked at citizenship as a disposition and practice in digital environments, not an academic subject to be taught. Here, a little more about what that looks like in digital spaces used in classrooms – from the viewpoint of an educator who has worked with teachers and students in them for over a decade…. Here's what digital citizenship practice looks like in Quest Atlantis, an educational … [Read more...] about The ‘lived curriculum,’ Part 2: What that looks like
Digital citizenship, the ‘lived curriculum’: Part 1
Have you ever heard of taking a cooking class that didn't include a kitchen or learning how to swim in a classroom not a pool? It can be helpful to watch instructional videos on YouTube, but mastery of anything usually requires practice with the tools and within the context of whatever a person wants to master. Especially digital citizenship. But students are being taught this "subject" largely in … [Read more...] about Digital citizenship, the ‘lived curriculum’: Part 1