Facebook. OnGuard Online. Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen. Browse. Staying Safe Online (2-3) Warm-up (5 minutes) ASK: What does it mean to be safe? Students’ answers will vary. DEFINE the Key Vocabulary term safe. ASK: When you walk down the street or play in your neighborhood without a trusted adult there, how do you stay safe? Gather all responses from students, but highlight these points: Don’t go to places you don’t knowDon’t talk to strangersStay out of troubleFollow the rules TELL students that just as they should stay safe in the real world, they should stay safe when they go into the online world (visiting websites).
EXPLAIN to students that one way they can keep safe online is by using the website traffic light. Introduce the Website Traffic Light (10 minutes) DRAW a website traffic light on the white board using the illustration from the Website Traffic Light Student Handout. DEFINE the Key Vocabulary term right. EXPLAIN to students the meaning of the green, yellow, and red traffic lights. Green – GOOD! DEFINE the Key Vocabulary term caution. Yellow – CAUTION! Red – STOP! Social networking helps students perform better, professor says.
Ed Yourdon/Flickr Can spending time on sites like Facebook actually help kids in school? That’s what new research from the University of Maryland suggests. Professor Christine Greenhow has found that students build important bonds when they connect with school friends on social networking sites. “When kids feel connected and have a strong sense of belonging to the school community, they do better in school,” said Greenhow, an education professor. “They persist in school at higher rates and achieve at higher rates. ... Greenhow surveyed about 600 low-income high school students and concluded that in addition to deepening friendships, some students use the sites to get tips about college and career options. There is still considerable debate over whether teachers should use social-networking sites in the classroom.
Greenhow acknowledges there are potential pitfalls, but says it’s shortsighted to ignore the positive aspects. An Open Letter to Teens re: Social Media. Teens-Only Incubator Announces First Startup Class. Teens in Tech and Appcelerator have announced the first crop of startups accepted into the Teens in Tech Incubator.
The incubator was announced at the beginning of 2011 as a way for aspiring teen entrepreneurs to get hands-on instruction and mentorship to bring their ideas to life. Each team includes up to three members, all of whom are 18 or younger. The teams began their work with Teens in Tech and Appcelerator June 22. The incubator program will run for six weeks at Appcelerator's Mountain View headquarters. The young hackers and entrepreneurs have been given advice and tutelage from an all-star lineup of mentors and advisors during "office hours" events and workshops.
The teams have been schooled in design by Jesse Thomas of JESS3 fame and designer Joey Primiani. They have received coaching from investors such as Silicon Beach scion Paige Craig. In a few weeks, the budding startups will present at a Demo Day during the annual Teens in Tech Conference at Palo Alto Research Center. If technology is making us stupid, it's not technology’s fault. There has been growing concern that computers have failed to live up to the promise of improving learning for school kids.
The New York Times, The Washington Post, and PBS have all done stories recently calling into question the benefits of computers in schools. When computers fail kids, it’s too easy to blame the technology. And it’s disingenuous simply to cast aspersions on the kids. Those are responses that do little if anything to account for what is a much more layered set of conditions. Recent empirical research has shown decreased reading and math skills for middle school children after adoption of computers at home and school. Blaming the computer and the Internet In a five-year study of North Carolina middle school kids, Vigdor and Ladd found that introduction of computers in homes led to children spending less time on homework and more time on recreational games, resulting in somewhat deflated reading and math skills as conventionally tested.
Deconstructing false dilemmas.
Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults. By Amanda Lenhart, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith and Kathryn Zickuhr Overview Since 2006, blogging has dropped among teens and young adults while simultaneously rising among older adults. As the tools and technology embedded in social networking sites change, and use of the sites continues to grow, youth may be exchanging ‘macro-blogging’ for microblogging with status updates. Blogging has declined in popularity among both teens and young adults since 2006. 14% of online teens now say they blog, down from 28% of teen internet users in 2006.This decline is also reflected in the lower incidence of teen commenting on blogs within social networking websites; 52% of teen social network users report commenting on friends’ blogs, down from the 76% who did so in 2006.By comparison, the prevalence of blogging within the overall adult internet population has remained steady in recent years. 73% of wired American teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys.
Global Youth Action Network. TakingITGlobal - Inspire. Inform. Involve.