Not so much in school. But I'll get to that in a minute. In its fourth report on the future of the First Amendment since 2004, the Knight Foundation found that "social media are good for the [US] Constitution." The study, which surveyed more than 12,000 high school students and 900 teachers, found that 91% of students who use social networking to get news and information on a daily basis believe … [Read more...] about Where students are learning about free speech: Study
Social Media
Cyberbullying’s offline roots: Research
The research evidence is growing that cyberbullying on cellphones and in social sites is more symptomatic of what's going on at school than a separate problem on the Internet. The US Department of Education's report for the 2008-'09 school year shows a high correlation between cyberbullying and physical bullying at school: "A higher percentage of students ages 12 through 18 who reported being … [Read more...] about Cyberbullying’s offline roots: Research
Social-media-powered neighbors in New York & Nairobi
As I watch the definition of "citizen" evolve during our planet's social media shift, I'm also noticing a social media-fueled expanding sense of what it is to be a neighbor, to identify with a place, and to belong. Here are two examples, one in Nairobi, the other in New York City: 1. MapKibera.org => community awareness, identity, voice Nairobi's Kibera, Africa's largest slum, has 1 … [Read more...] about Social-media-powered neighbors in New York & Nairobi
To bring learning back into school
This is a mashup of a blog post and a retweet. I'm basically retweeting (Twitter users' term for reposting someone else's tweet because you think it's worth your own followers' attention) educator and author Will Richardson's March 2011 TEDxNYED talk in case you missed it. At about 1:30 into Will's 14-min. talk, he mentions 17-year-old professional cinematographer Mark Klassen in Ontario. Here's … [Read more...] about To bring learning back into school
What Facebook’s ‘Subscribe’ signifies
In social media, the only constant is change. Remember those commentaries about how social networking was "trivializing" friendship by throwing all levels of acquaintanceship under the big digital umbrella labeled "friends"? Well, I always felt the commentators were taking what they saw in social sites a bit too literally and failing to understand how much "real life" socializing rules its online … [Read more...] about What Facebook’s ‘Subscribe’ signifies