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
How social media helped save a life this week
Rarely do we see news stories about how social media can save lives, but that's literally what happened in the metropolitan New York area this week. An 18-year-old posted in Facebook that he was thinking about jumping off the George Washington Bridge, and "a concerned Facebook user who saw the post contacted local New Jersey police, who then called the Port Authority Police Department, which has … [Read more...] about How social media helped save a life this week
When kids are skilled navigators of our networked world
We all – young people and everybody who works with them – are learning what that looks like: skilled navigation of a networked world. We're also working out what the skills are, how to teach them and what kind of environment (home, school and media environment) supports that learning. As a society, we've only just begun working the problem. The first 15 or so years of the public discussion … [Read more...] about When kids are skilled navigators of our networked world
A courageous target turned upstander
Read Caitlin Seida's story for a great example of resilience and how to be an upstander online. Caitlin had publicly posted an unflattering Halloween photo of herself, forgetting to make it private, and the photo – along with plenty of nasty comments – went viral. What started out to be a fun Halloween became a nightmare. "I don’t generally view my body size as positive or negative – it simply … [Read more...] about A courageous target turned upstander
Top takeaways from US’s top Net-safety conference
Each November Internet-safety organizations, tech and media companies, researchers, authors and policymakers gather in Washington, D.C., to get an update on young people's social media practices, safety and privacy at "FOSI," the nickname for the Family Online Safety Institute's annual conference. That update just happened, and here are my top takeaways. Internet safety not really about the … [Read more...] about Top takeaways from US’s top Net-safety conference