Apparently due to teachers' protests, a Missouri law banning them from using Web sites that all "exclusive access" to students has been repealed, KiwiCommons.com reports. State lawmakers, who had voted overwhelmingly to pass the law last spring, "voted with equal enthusiasm to repeal it." KiwiCommons adds that " Many teachers are relieved. The law, in their view, would have had unintended and very … [Read more...] about State law about teachers on Facebook repealed
Social Media
Kids lying to Facebook, not their parents: Study
A whole lot of us know that 13 is Facebook's minimum age, but fewer of us know that the reason for that is not kids' online safety but a law called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act designed to protect the privacy of kids' data – a law administered by the Federal Trade Commission, which right now has it under review. COPPA requires parental consent before sites can collect any data from … [Read more...] about Kids lying to Facebook, not their parents: Study
The latest on 0-to-8-year-olds’ media use
Passive consumption – watching TV and DVDs – is still by far the dominant form of media use among little children in these digitally charged times. US children 0-8 spend an average of 1:40 watching television or DVDs in a typical day, "compared to 29 minutes reading or being read to, 29 minutes listening to music, 17 minutes using a computer, 14 minutes using a console or handheld video game … [Read more...] about The latest on 0-to-8-year-olds’ media use
So what good is social media?
I hadn't seen this figure: Social media use is forbidden in 52% of US classrooms, writes writes Prof. Todd Finley at East Carolina University in Edutopia. He suggests that this prohibition is working about as well as did Britain's royal decree in 1763 that North American colonists were not to settle west of the Appalachians. Professor Finley doesn't stop with why today's containment effort is … [Read more...] about So what good is social media?
US phone-based social media use growing fast
Social networking is rapidly getting more mobile in the US too. I say "too," because one of my biggest takeaways from attending an international conference in Kenya this fall was that 3G cellphones (what we call "feature phones") are and will increasingly be the typical way most East Africans access Facebook, Skype, Twitter, etc. But even here with our ubiquitous computer use, mobile social media … [Read more...] about US phone-based social media use growing fast