When MediaSmarts conducted its focus groups with young Canadians, it heard quite a bit about the important role the Internet plays in their "exploring and learning about sexuality and relationships," the Canadian digital literacy organization says. But the authors write that the survey itself – of 5,000+ students in grades 4-11 – suggests that that role may be smaller than you'd think, with only … [Read more...] about Youth sexuality, romance & digital media in Canada: Study
MediaSmarts
Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?
Digital literacy educator Diana Graber is crowdsourcing a media literacy curriculum for 8th-graders at Journey School in southern California. It's Year 3 of the school's CyberCivics program that Diana's building, she writes in the CyberWise blog. Reading her resource-rich post got me thinking about all I've learned about digital literacy, media literacy, and social literacy since I first heard … [Read more...] about Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?
Kids & teens not only ok, but smart!: Study
Now for the good news in the youth part of a report from Ottawa-based MediaSmarts's report "Talking to Youth and Parents about Life Online" (yesterday I highlighted the parents piece). Well, mostly good news. It sounds as if "Internet safety education" has made the youngest among the 11-to-17-year-olds MediaSmarts talked with pretty paranoid: "From [11- and 12-year-olds'] perspective, the Internet … [Read more...] about Kids & teens not only ok, but smart!: Study
WHAT has ‘online safety’ wrought (with parents)?!
Thankfully, the youth part of "Talking to Youth and Parents about Life Online" had a whole lot of good news in it, because my heart sank when I read this first paragraph on parents' views of online kids in this study from Canada's premier digital and media literacy organization: "The parents we spoke with were beleaguered by fear of danger and exhausted from the burden of constant vigilance. … [Read more...] about WHAT has ‘online safety’ wrought (with parents)?!