As parents, we're now beginning to accept this, I think: "We live in a world that is re-creating itself one life and one digital connection at a time … a landscape for which there are no maps," as Krista Tippett said it in her introduction to a timely radio conversation with Seth Godin on American Public Media (not that we know quite what to do with that awareness yet (see this sidebar). … [Read more...] about EduCon 2.5 & helping kids learn in ‘a landscape with no maps’
What we know & don’t know about kids’ online socializing: Key study
Imagine a game in which a child not only discovers, collects, creates, and/or customizes 2- and 3-dimensional art objects that s/he then shares with fellow player-creators, but also creates his/her own levels of play. Imagine the literacies players could be developing in the process of playing such a game, including social literacy, through sharing, "liking," and reviewing each other's … [Read more...] about What we know & don’t know about kids’ online socializing: Key study
Using social media to grow student engagement
Though student engagement seems like a tough thing to measure, Gallup recently did, calling it the education version of "the fiscal cliff" so much in the news at the turn of the year. In a survey of 500,000 students in grades 5 through 12, Gallup Education found that, while nearly 80% of elementary students its surveyed "are engaged with school," that engagement falls to 40% of high school … [Read more...] about Using social media to grow student engagement
A social media company’s social-emotional learning
One of the fascinating impacts of our now very social media environment is technology companies having to learn a whole lot about the best and worst of humanity – and, for their own and their users' sake, about how to foster the best of it. Facebook, for example, has an engineering team working with empathy researchers, and this has direct impact on young users' social experiences, wherever FB's … [Read more...] about A social media company’s social-emotional learning
About 2 Presidents, an inauguration & youth rights
Ron and I went to see Lincoln on Inauguration Day. I finally got to reflect on it on my bike ride before the long trip to that wintry other coast for EduCon (which is also about forward movement). How fitting it felt to my husband and me to watch Lincoln, a film about "that other tall, skinny lawyer from Illinois," after an inaugural ceremony that was all about diversity, unity, and the power of … [Read more...] about About 2 Presidents, an inauguration & youth rights