Infographic: Are You Revealing Too Much on Social Networks? Social-networking sites are a hacker's dream: a sometimes public online community where unsuspecting people post personal information. But what information can and should be posted on social networks? Cloud security firm Trend Micro examined popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Pinterest and found that most require identifying information like location, employment, birthday, and education. Tumblr is the only site that does not ask for any details, aside from username. According to Trend Micro, one in four Facebook users location-tag their posts each month, while 16 percent of Pinterest browsers offer their address. The two sites also carry the same average of 229 friends or followers. More than 20 million U.S. There are consequences to making information publicly available, Trend Micro said. Some people are already taking precautions. For more, check out the infographic below.
Teacher's Guide to Digital Citizenship The horror stories of young people not grasping the reach and influence of the content they put online are familiar to all of us. From the loss of job opportunities due to unprofessional pictures or comments on social media, to the more serious threats of abduction, and even the self-harm inspired by cyber bullying, the stakes are high. While students may often seem clueless to these dangers, some are starting to understand the risks. In a recent Rasmussen study on digital literacy, details of which you can see in the infographic below, 37% of millennials aged 18 – 34 said they consider the internet scary, which is more than any other demographic. Still, millennials know just as well as any other demographic just how important digital literacy is and will continue to be to their working lives. Image courtesy of Flickr and Thomas Galvez Why Digital Citizenship Matters Neither educators nor parents have the means to completely control how students use technology. Online Safety
Article: How Do Parents Honor the Benefits of Digital Devices While Limiting Kids’ Use? We live in a world of screens. And in this digital age — with so many devices and distraction — it’s one of the things parents worry about most: How much time should their kids spend staring at their phones and computers? What’s the right balance between privacy and self-discovery? Research continues to provide some answers on how parents are navigating this world. Just today, for example, there’s a new study out that looks at nearly 2,000 parents — who have kids ages 8 to 18. And despite spending a big chunk of their day with a device, most parents — 78 percent — told the researchers that they are modeling good media habits for their kids. The report’s biggest takeaway? “Media and technology are essential to family life and to childhood and adolescence, and therefore we have to get more on top of it, ” says Jim Steyer. In this blog’s 2 1/2 years running, some of our most popular posts have touched on parenting questions. Here are some of the highlights: Copyright 2016 NPR.
Online Safety: A Teacher’s Guide to Dealing with Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Student Privacy Social media and text messages have blurred the lines between students’ school lives and private lives. While most schools take clear steps to protect students at school, more schools are beginning to consider the need to set policies that apply to students’ activities outside of school. When it comes to questionable online activities like cyberbullying and sexting, kids sometimes feel pressured to follow the crowd. Teachers can play a crucial role in setting high expectations for online behavior. Image via Flickr by Brad Flickinger. Privacy Since the birth of the Internet, adults have been worried about kids sharing too much online. On the plus side, teens are becoming increasingly aware of the need to protect themselves online. What can you do? Have students commit to following school rules. Cyberbullying Social media and text messages are vital to many students’ social lives. Get students involved. Sexting Check whether your school or district has a policy on sexting. Now, Keep up
Teens, Technology and Friendships Video games, social media and mobile phones play an integral role in how teens meet and interact with friends This report explores the new contours of friendship in the digital age. It covers the results of a national survey of teens ages 13 to 17; throughout the report, the word “teens” refers to those in that age bracket, unless otherwise specified. For today’s teens, friendships can start digitally: 57% of teens have met a new friend online. For American teens, making friends isn’t just confined to the school yard, playing field or neighborhood – many are making new friends online. Boys are more likely than girls to make online friends: 61% of boys compared to 52% of girls have done so.Older teens are also more likely than younger teens to make online friends. The most common spots for meeting friends online are social media sites like Facebook or Instagram (64% of teens who have made a friend online met someone via social media), followed by playing networked video games (36%).
Digital Literacy: Unlocking Technology's Potential | edu@scholastic With 1:1 technology initiatives and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programs increasingly being implemented in schools across the globe, the need for digital literacy education has become more important than ever. Although technology enables students to access more information in much less time, it does not always foster learning. Teaching digital literacy helps to manage all of the benefits of technology while helping students understand how to safely weed through the vast amounts of information online. Technology in the classroom has the following advantages: Allows students to manipulate information and media to construct their own meaningsEnables students to share their ideas quickly and easilyEngages students of all cognitive levels and abilitiesPrepares students to be college and career ready These benefits, among others, are why technology has become a major part of the global curriculum. Educators need to embrace the creative and collaborative aspects of digital literacy.
Teens leading happy connected lives online Photo Where is the doom and gloom? A new report on “Teens, Technology and Friendships” from the Pew Foundation puts an unusually positive spotlight on the online lives of teenagers as they build friendships and connections in a digital world. Teenagers aged 13 to17 are finding ways to strengthen their relationships with real-world friends as well as making new friends through social media, video gaming, messaging apps and other virtual connectors. This is not the usual story of teenagers in the online realm. Where are the dire warnings about how the online world is depriving our teenagers of their opportunity to learn the skills needed to interact with people instead of screens while exposing them to all manner of bullying and cruelty, and tempting them to fritter away endless hours playing video games? Crucial, in part, because “hanging out” in the digital realm may be more accessible for many teenagers than hanging out in the real world. Where is the doom and gloom?
Why online harassment is still ruining lives -- and how we can stop it In 2010, Anthony Elonis threatened his estranged wife by writing rants on his Facebook page such as, "There's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts." For making these threats, a federal district court sentenced him to more than three years in prison. On June 1, the Supreme Court voided that conviction, explaining that the standard the court had used to judge whether Elonis's threats were "true threats" was not sufficient. The district court had asked jurors to consider only whether the threats would cause a reasonable person to be afraid. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that juries should also consider whether the defendant intended to make a true threat. If only everyone would follow that lead. And yet online harassment largely goes unchecked, and not only in the cases that make headlines. Local law enforcement doesn’t always know how to enforce online harassment laws.
Pros and Cons of Cell Phones Becoming a Major Part of Children's Lives Cell phones are becoming an extremely popular electronic for people to purchase and in some instances they are even replacing house phones. They are also becoming more technologically advanced; most can take and send pictures and videos and connect to the Internet for web surfing. Many children, even as young as kindergarten-age, are becoming cell phone owners. The potential of things that can be done with these phones is endless. Cell phones can be used to look up weather or answers to questions on search engines, but they can also expose a child to anything that anyone wishes to send him or her in a text or e-mail. Parents, teachers, and guardians need to be aware of both the positive and negative aspects of a child having his or her own cell phone before allowing them to use it at their own will. Pros Many cell phones allow access to the Internet, which can help a child obtain answers to questions very quickly and easily. Cons Additional Information
Social Media at School: Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground | Edutopia These days, social media gets a pretty bad rap. It seems like every other day there is a celebrity apology or a story about a teen who commits suicide due to cyberbullying. It's true, social media can breed some pretty awful stuff. And that awful stuff is great material for the digital citizenship unit that all of my school's incoming freshmen are expected to complete. Acceptable Use Our school is unique in Philadelphia in that it's one of the few public schools with a 1:1 program that allows students to take devices home. Let's face it -- teenagers are on social media in school and out of school, even if their parents have told them they can't be, and even if the school has rules about being on phones during school hours. In my class, we start the year with the book, lol. . .OMG by Matt Ivester. Always Learning It is through these discussions that I learn about how students use social media, what their experiences have been, and what their beliefs are.
Children must be taught to build a positive online presence Rather than just teaching children about internet safety and reducing their digital footprint, we should also encourage them to curate a positive digital footprint which will be an asset for them in their future. Today’s children are prolific users of the internet. Concern has been raised about the future impact of the digital footprints they are generating. While digital footprints are considered to be a liability, if managed well they can be an asset. The “Best Footprint Forward” project explored what children know about digital footprints. What children know and do about digital footprints The project found, while children use the internet for a variety of purposes (such as homework, gaming, watching videos), communicating with friends was the most popular online activity. The children knew what digital footprints were: what you put online stays online people could find you if you left identifying information, such as your address or full nameemployers would check your social media.
Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains iStock By NPR Staff Teens can’t control impulses and make rapid, smart decisions like adults can — but why? Research into how the human brain develops helps explain. “Teenagers are not as readily able to access their frontal lobe to say, ‘Oh, I better not do this,’ ” Dr. Jensen, who’s a neuroscientist and was a single mother of two boys who are now in their 20s, wrote The Teenage Brain to explore the science of how the brain grows — and why teenagers can be especially impulsive, moody and not very good at responsible decision-making. “We have a natural insulation … called myelin,” she says. This insulation process starts in the back of the brain and heads toward the front. “The last place to be connected — to be fully myelinated — is the front of your brain,” Jensen says. This research also explains why teenagers can be especially susceptible to addictions — including drugs, alcohol, smoking and digital devices. Interview Highlights On why teenagers are more prone to addiction Related
The Snapchat teachers: ‘They learn more this way than at school’ It’s difficult at the best of times to capture students’ attention – especially when they are forever checking their phones. So, as the saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. One app many teachers are embracing is Snapchat. It’s the one where you send a video or picture, and then it disappears 10 seconds after you open it. For some teachers it makes perfect sense. In Ireland some 85 per cent of 15- to 18-year-olds have a Snapchat account, and most of them use it on a daily basis. So Natasha Lynch thought, “Why not give it a go?” She has been building Snapchat videos into her classes, taking “snaps” of her lessons, posting to the app and building up a huge audience online in the process. She uses Snapchat’s drawing feature to add on colourful filters and oversized chin to complete the effect. “It can get a bit boring listing to me, so Madame Menton comes on and livens things up,” she says. Many teachers are sceptical. Carefully tailored There are some obvious drawbacks, though.
20 Basic Rules For Digital Citizenship The definition of digital citizenship has to do with the quality of behaviors that impact the quality of digital content and communities. To help clarify what that “quality” can look like, knowthenet.org.uk put together the following infographic framed around Dos and Don’ts. While seemingly written for a more general audience than students and educators, the thinking is sound, including “Treat others they way you want to be treated,” “Don’t forget the human behind the screen,” “Listen first, talk later,” and “Use proper grammar.” (Yes, please do.) Overall it’s a bit basic, but it does take the important step of moving beyond rhetoric to offer concrete tips to realize the idea. 20 Basic Rules For Digital Citizenship