Internet-safety experts should talk with game designers. Last week was for me a three-day-long, powerful confirmation that we need to de-silo the public discussion about young people's well-being online and offline. I attended the GLS (for Games+Learning+Society) conference at the University of Wisconsin and absorbed a lot of wisdom about learning in digital games and worlds. One key lesson … [Read more...] about What Net safety can learn from digital game design
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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
So we’re all becoming cyborgs, Dr. Turkle?
"We want to customize our lives…," "It is as though we have all put ourselves on cable news…," "We seem willing to dispense with [other] people altogether…." All these dire, dour, disrespectful pronouncements about this undifferentiated mass called "we" from highly respected psychologist Sherry Turkle at MIT in the New York Times. Where is her acknowledgment that the way we use all the devices, … [Read more...] about So we’re all becoming cyborgs, Dr. Turkle?
Student bullying-prevention activists, leaders, mentors
Probably any number of things could inspire a student to become an activist, but in 16-year-old Ali's case, it was "an English homework assignment about marginalized groups in society," The Gazette, in Lisbon, Iowa, reported. "She realized they needed a voice," apparently thought about how kids can get marginalized in bullying types of situations, and emailed Lisbon Community Schools' dean of … [Read more...] about Student bullying-prevention activists, leaders, mentors
The 7 properties of safety in a digital age
In Part 1 of this series, I pointed you to a recent talk by John Seely Brown on the whitewater-kayaking kind of learning we need today and in Part 2, examples of that in Marianne Malmstrom's New Jersey classroom. Both touch on "safety" in and for the learning process. Here, Part 3: zooming in on how they and other wise educators have clarified my view of child safety today. What safety is … [Read more...] about The 7 properties of safety in a digital age