We see so much coverage of social Web abuse that it was a nice surprise to see a story about what it's great at: finding long-lost friends, relatives, classmates ... and teachers! The New York Times tells of how people out of school 20+ years use Facebook to find their favorite high school teachers and thank them: "At a time when public school teachers are being blamed for everything from poor … [Read more...] about Finding & honoring teachers on Facebook
Social Media
The goal for digital citizenship: Turn it into a verb!
Readers, this is turning out to be a series on digital citizenship, because the "Jessi Slaughter" story powerfully illustrated why and how much this baseline online-safety education is needed. Yesterday in Part 1, I looked at the kind of online behavior that citizenship lessons need to address and how we can help our children avoid it. Today: the goal of citizenship instruction, which hopefully … [Read more...] about The goal for digital citizenship: Turn it into a verb!
A child’s self-destructive behavior: Test for ‘digital citizenship’
The story of "Jessi Slaughter" last week is a textbook example of what digital-citizenship instruction* needs to address: digital-age self-destructive behavior. Harassing and threatening others (whether or not in retaliation, as was part of Jessi's story) is self-destructive because, as the research shows, aggressive behavior online is very likely to lead to victimization online (see Archives of … [Read more...] about A child’s self-destructive behavior: Test for ‘digital citizenship’
Mobile Net use not just kid stuff: Study
Every day, it seems, the social, media-sharing Web is more mobile and cellphones are used more as full-blown computers – and not just by people under 18! The latest Pew/Internet study , released today, found that adults 30-49 are fast catching up with 18-to-29-year-olds in using their mobile devices "to send text messages, access the internet, take pictures, record videos, use email or instant … [Read more...] about Mobile Net use not just kid stuff: Study
Social media in school more – yes!
"Just a few years ago, social networking meant little more to educators than the headache of determining whether to penalize students for inappropriate activities captured on Facebook or MySpace. Now," Education Week reports, "teachers and students have a vast array of social-networking sites and tools – from Ning to VoiceThread and Second Life – to draw on for such serious uses as professional … [Read more...] about Social media in school more – yes!