Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Weekly Wrap: Social Media, TV & Michael Jackson, Captain EO, Video Game Tips for Parents, Teens Leaving Facebook, Bruno & MySpace, Adam Lambert on Michael Jackson

Social Media, TV, Michael Jackson & Saying Goodbye to the 'King of Pop': Michael Jackson's  memorial service garnered huge numbers on TV, but so did the social web. Facebook and CNN teamed up again to provide a live stream of Jackson's memorial and allow viewer to simultaneously share their thoughts on Facebook. Also worth a read is John Morton's post on 'The Passing of Michael Jackson & Mass Media.'

Over on Ypulse.com, Meredith Sires explains who 'Michael Jackson was to Today's Teens.' In other related news, Disney may re-release the 3D Jackson space fantasy multimedia experience/film 'Captain Eo' and American Idol alum Adam Lambert shares his thoughts on Michael Jackson. [TechCrunch] [eWeek] [SuperGeekery.com] [Ypulse.com] [Examiner] [YouTube] [Rolling Stone]

Declaration of Independence from Social Media (For One Day): "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the digital bands which have connected them with all of their friends they haven’t seen since preschool, and to assume a life away from the computer for one day, a respect for other Internet users requires that the person should declare the causes which cause them to separate from social media for that day." (Very clever and worth reading!) [Examiner]

Bing Now Bigger Than Digg, Twitter & CNN: According to Compete.com, Bing was able to amass 49.57 million unique visitors in its first month as Microsoft’s official search engine. Bing’s traffic trumps that of Digg 38.96 million) Twitter (23 million), and CNN (28.54 million). We want to note that this focuses on U.S. visitors, since Compete does not track international visits. [Mashable]

Tweet of the Week: "If Google bought Twitter, it wouldn't get a new feature for 3 years. If Apple bought it, tweets would be .99 but you'd get a 10 char preview." [@DanielFlorien]

Raising a Healthy Gamer: Parenting is always a tough job, and video games are a tricky subject in today's families. Ars offers a no-BS guide to dealing with gaming and your children, and their advice is simple: you know your children better than anyone else.

Also be sure to check out video game parenting tips from the folks over at Microsoft & XBox 360 along with safety tips from Yahoo!, Disney and AOL. Just keep in mind that your kid is probably smart enough to hack your parental controls. [ARS Technica] [Yahoo! Safely] [AOL Parental Controls]
[ARS Technica]

How to connect to Today's Millenials: Shop-Eat-Surf has a recap of a presentation given by Michael Wood, the Senior VP of Syndicated Research at Teen Research Unlimited (TRU), at the SIMA Boot Camp on understanding today's millennials. Hat tip to Group Y Sports for the heads up! [Shop Eat Surf]

Kids, Video Games, Learning & Health: The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) has a good analysis of the Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children's learning and health report released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. [CMCH]

One Last Thing: Check out this mashup of the Michael Jackson classic 'Billie Jean' by Soulwax (great, great stuff!), Julia Fallon offers advice for educators Lost in Web 2.0 Cyberspace (pdf), a must-read article with fantastic ideas for teaching kids about media literacy & body image, as grandpa & grandma join Facebook--teens begin to bail, according to new research from BabyCenter 39% of moms report that they make 'net time' their quiet time, Crain's New York Business wonders if Bruno can save MySpace, and finally...don't tell Al Gore, but the environment is not the number one social cause among college students (pdf). [YouTube] [Princial Leadership] [MyHighPlains.com] [Read Write Web] [Crain's New York Business] [SurveyU]

Study: TV Linked to Kids' Bullying

A new study shows that the more television children watch, the more likely they are to become bullies. Dr. Joseph Wright of the American Academy of Pediatrics explained on The Early Show.

Related Links

• Texas Lawmakers Crack Down on Cyberbullies
• The Power of Play: Cyberbullying Solution?
• Ypulse > Cyberbullying

Texas Lawmakers Crack Down on Cyberbullies

In an attempt to crack down on cyberbullying and online harassment, Texas lawmakers have passed legislation that would "make it a felony to create phony profiles on social networking sites with the intent to "harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten" others."

According to MediaPost, the new law "defines commercial social networking sites broadly, saying they include any sites that allow people to register to communicate with others or create Web pages or profiles. Email programs and message boards are excluded from the definition."

The legislation, which may or not be challenged in court on the basis that it limits free speech, is on the Governors desk and awaiting his signature.

Related Links

• Fake User Profiles: Free Speech or Defamation?
• Yahoo! Safely
  
• Fake Online Profiles Trigger Suit
  

ContactPoint: Database of UK Children Launched

As part of the Every Child Matters initiative and in effort to protect children the government has launched ContactPoint, a database containing the personal data of every child under the age of 18 in England. Here's the official program description:

"ContactPoint is an online directory, available to authorised staff who need it to do their jobs, enabling the delivery of coordinated support for children and young people. It is also vital to help safeguard children; and to ensure that the right agencies are involved at the right times, so children do not slip through the net.  The programme's goal is to improve the health, well-being and safety of all children."

While I applaud the efforts of the government to act in a proactive manner to protect children, I feel that a database containing sensitive information--including the address, date of birth, parents work info and social services history---of minor children is somewhat misguided and ripe for abuse.

Schools, teachers, parents, non-profits and other children advocacy groups have spent a great deal of time and energy working with children and developing digital literacy and safety programs designed to teach children not to give strangers their personal information.

A skilled hacker can bypass trying to cull information out of children over the web and go directly to the mother lode of personal information. What's even worse is that parents do not have control over what information about their children is in the database and are unable to remove content that they feel is inappropriate or too personal. Moreover, don't have the right to remove their children from the database.

Sadly, in many ways the damage has been done. Even if the government, under pressure from parents and other child safety advocacy groups were to scrap ConnectPoint, the information has already been collected and is floating around in the ether of the Internet.

Much like Pandora's Box, once the information has been released, it will be nearly impossible to get it back, especially when already over 390,000 people already have access to the database.

Related Links

• Digizen
• UK Teens Say Violence Doesn't Have to Happen
• Social Safety
• Wikipedia > ContactPoint

Weekly Wrap: Billabong Moves Beyond Surfing, Boston for Kids, Public Media 2.0, Youth Work Online, Oprah Joins Twitter

Billabong is a Media Company, Not Just a Surf Brand: Great post by youth guru Dan Pankraz. "Billabong really get it. They create content, not ads. 40hrs of it a week actually, distributed via Fuel TV, mobile phones and the web." Dan's blog focused on youth culture is a must read.

Cool Stuff for Kids in Beantown: This is a super site full of fun and educational activities for parents and kids in Boston.

Kids Motivated By TV to Visit Web: "According to MRI's 2008 American Kids Study, children ages 6-11 are increasingly using the Internet  to check out products they see in advertisements. 46.3% of kids visited a Web site that they saw or heard about in a commercial or advertisement." (AdAge)

Support the Brothers Flannery: The Flannery Brothers, a kid's band from Maine, are finalists in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Competition in the children’s music category.

How to Weather a Twitterstorm: "Motrin Moms. "Dove Onslaught(er)." Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, all sorts of new critics and activists are finding their voices amplified online. So what's a marketer to do when an online firestorm erupts?" (AdAge)

Bullied 11-year Old Commits Suicide: An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday after being bullied at school despite his mother’s pleas to the school to address the problem. So, so sad. Check my blog post from earlier this week for tips and resources on bullying. (TakePart)

The Center for Social Media at American University has published a new white paper titled Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics. Wanna get a quick synopsis? Check out this five minute clip on YouTube or this powerpoint on Slideshare.

2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award: The Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award (sponsored by Dell) will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of technology, mobile technology, social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom.

Youth Work Online: This is an online community dedicated to exploring how youth work and informal education professionals can support young people in a digital world. The site was launched and continues to be moderated by the brilliant Tim Davies.

I'm Just Not That Into You Facebooking With My Kid: Author and parenting guru Sharon Cindrich blogs about Parental Faux Pas on Facebook – "written by a real parent (me) of a real teen (my 14 year old daughter) as I watch my real friends (without teens) send my child friend requests on Facebook (weird)." Hey Sharon--I agree. Weird.

Twitter Gets Mad Props: Oprah, yes *that* Oprah is joining the Tweetosphere. @oprah welcome!

Scholastic Launches Virtual World: Scholastic has partnered with SC Johnson to create a "green" virtual world for kids. The Virtual Forest Challenge is tied into the product launch of SC Johnson's new line of green cleaning supplies, Nature's Source. The site also includes some very lightweight "lesson plans" and other edutainment learning materials.

Anti-Bullying Resources for Parents, Teachers & Students

 Last week my friend Dominic Campbell, one of the leading voices in the U.K. Gov 2.0 community, pointed me to Bullying U.K.--a top destination for parents, students and teachers looking for bullying advice on the internet.

The organization was founded by journalist Liz Carnell and her son John, as a direct result of their experience of dealing with school bullying, which included taking successful legal action against an education authority.
 
Whether it's mobile phones, social sites or school bus teasing--Bullying UK has a vast treasure load of content for just about any type of bullying situation. They've also partnered with the (always fantastic) Teachers.tv folks and produced a series of videos on student-student bullying, as well as teacher-teacher bullying as well.

All in all a really wonderful resource for anyone involved in working with youth. I strongly urge you to drop by Bullying UK and take a look at all the wonderful resources they have curated on their site.

Thanks Dom!

Back here in the states, celebrities Lance Bass, Taylor Swift and Hillary Duff have added their voice of support for the 2009 Day of Silence on April 17th. The goal of The National Day of Silence goal is to bring awareness to the anti-LGBT bullying in schools.

As part of the program, members of the Twitter community are being encouraged to "Tweet the Silence" and encourage people to take a stand against bullying of LGBT students.

Related Resources

• ADL Students & Cyberbullying Forum
• Social Safety
• Yahoo! Safely
• Ypulse > Tag > Cyberbullies
• Yahoo! Kids > Online Safety Tips for Parents
• Microsoft Video Game Anti-Bullying Tips

Weekly Wrap: Experts Want TV Banned, Ypulse Uncovers What Teens Want, Chris Brown Gets Dissed, Aussie Youth Love Their Mobile Phones, AllyKatzz Announces the National Tween Summit & the Mobile Boom in India

Experts Say Ban TV from Children's Bedrooms: Is TV responsible for the "breakdown" of the family unit? UK Gen Y parenting expert Sarah Newton says "No" and adds, "...Please, stop criticising the TV. I am getting quite annoyed with academics telling us how to parent. I mean, have they really tried to remove a TV from a 15-year-old’s bedroom?"

Youth Guru Josh Shipp is hosting a youth speaker seminar in California (July 18 & 19) for folks serious about a full time career getting their message out to teens. Click here to learn more.

Boston Teens Say Rhianna is Responsible: A survey conducted in Boston finds that "many teens say teen idol Rihanna was “responsible” for what happened between her and boyfriend." Blaming the victim of domestic abuse? Uh, no. Clearly this is a teachable moment for parents and Redbook and Liz Claiborne have put together some resources to help get the conversation started. Another great resource is the National Teen Dating Abuse Hotline. In other news, Chris Brown gets dissed by music industry peers in a rap song.

Youths go for mobiles; drop landlines: Australian youth moving out of the nest aren't signing up for landlines---they're choosing to use their mobile phone as their primary phone service.

Congrats! Anne Collier, the force behind NetFamilyNews, has been has just been appointed to the NTIA's (Commerce Dept.'s) Online Safety and Technology Working Group.

What Teens Want in a Website: Great recap from Anastasia Goodstein, founder of Ypulse, on her YPulse Youth Panel at the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival. Speaking of Ypulse, the 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup is just around the corner. Readers of this blog can get 10% off registration by using the discount code "BAIRD." Be sure to follow Ypulse and Anastasia on Twitter!

Stop Killing Students with PowerPoint: This is an excellent SlideShare presentation on the do's and don'ts of using the ubiquitous (and mostly dreaded) PowerPoint preso. Speaking of presentations: Prezi, a new presentation tool that allows you to easily create an interactive presentation slides, has launched!

Mobile Wars in India: Graham Brown, co-founder of mobileYouth, tweeted an interesting article about the explosion of mobile phones in India and how youth are at the center of the wireless telcos battle to win the hearts and rupee's of subscribers. Thanks Graham! By the way, Graham will be speaking at the 2009 Ypulse Mashup in San Francisco!

2009 National Tween Summit: AllyKatzz, the popular online community for tween girls, has announced that they will host the Inaugural National Tween Summit, "Can't Vote, Can Change" to be held October 2009 in Washington, D.C. No word yet whether the First Tweens, Sasha and Malia, will make an appearance! Follow AllyKatzz on Twitter!

Lifecasting: Real or Fiction?

I ran across this video on Current TV the other day and it really got me thinking about the social web. I don't want to give too much away until you've had a chance to watch the video, but I think it drives home an important issue: how do you know what your "friends" are tweeting/blogging/vlogging is actually true?

As I was mulling this over in my noggin, I ran across a great post on David Armano's blog (side note: Dave is one of my fave Tweeps. His Tweet Stream is always full of great insight, observations & links, you can follow him @armano) that did a brilliant job of analyzing and explaining some of the pitfalls of the social web phenomenon.

Here's a snippet from David's post, Do You:

"Imagine someone comes up to you at a cocktail party. And they're wearing a mask—while everyone else isn't. You don't know much about that person because they're not really telling you a great deal about themselves.

How much would you tell them about yourself in return? How much would you trust them? How much do you really know about them?  Yet online, we can be anyone we want to be. A fictional character, a caricature or invented identity. We can be anonymous—say whatever we want about virtually anyone. We're empowered to be whoever we want whenever we want to.

The digital pen is indeed mightier than the sword."

We all know about Lonely Girl 15 and the countless other number of web-based hoaxes. We know that we didn't inherit money from a rich uncle in Nigeria. We know that Bill Gates isn't going to pay us to use his software. And the list goes on and on.

But when it comes to lifecasting, I think we tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. We forget. As more and more people join social networks, and no it's not just kids, this is going to be an increasingly important issue.

Related Resources

• Dave Armano > Logic + Emotion
• Google Warns of Privacy Issues on Social Web
• Gen Y: Growing Up and Sharing Way Too Much

Teens In Tech 2009

Today I'm attending the Teens in Tech 2009 conference at the Microsoft HQ here in San Francisco. I'll be live blogging here, so feel free to check in and see what's going on at the conference!

You can also catch the live stream via UstreamTV by clicking here.

Update: So my plan was to live blog the 2009 Teens in Tech Conference, but the technology gods had a different plan. Turns out that so many people were trying to connect with so many devices that the wifi connection crashed. What's that they say about the best laid plans?

Anyhow, I'm working on a wrap up blog post! So stay tuned....

Related Resources

• Teens in Tech 09
• Twitter > Teens in Tech 09
• Tatango CEO to Speak at The Teens in Tech Conference

Congressman Introduces Camera Phone Predator Alert Act

Looks like history is getting ready to repeat itself. After spending the last couple years scaring parents and kids about predators on the web, a threat which has been widely debunked, it looks like camera phones are the next on the radar.

This tidbit just in courtesy of The Guardian:

Cameraphone perverts of the world beware: the American government is after you.

Well, not the entire government - yet, anyway. According to the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act - a piece of legislation submitted to Congress by New York Republican Peter King - all camphones could be required by law to make a clicking sound when a picture is taken.

Sigh.

The bill, if passed, would require all mobile phones to make an audible "clicking" or "camera shutter" sound. The theory being that this audible cue would alert people in close proximity that someone was taking a picture.

After months of media coverage on sexting, this was inevitable. Let's hope that rational minds will prevail and that Congress and the public take a calm, rational and measured approach to this issue.

Related Resources

• Gen Y: Sharing Way Too Much
• mobileYouth
• French Government Moves to Restrict Mobile Phones for Kids
• Utah House Oks Bill to Reduce Nude Photo Penalties
• Your Facebook Privacy is An Illusion

Social Networking Safety Tips for Parents & Educators

One of the things I enjoy most about my work is having the opportunity to talk with parents and educators and dispel some of the myths or fears around their kids' use of social media.  No matter the audience, my message is pretty consistent: Don't panic!

Time and time again, I urge parents and educators to arm themselves with knowledge and understand that blocking content and web pages isn't the answer. Here are some other tips:

• Talk to your kids/students about what is appropriate and not appropriate information to release on the Internet. Take an active role in their digital life.
  

• Protect your kids digital identity by creating news alerts for their name on Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

• Talk about the implications “lifecasting” can and will have on their future.

• Remind kids that the web is that "permanent record" we were all warned about. Even though you go back and change that blog entry or delete that embarrassing photo, the information is archived on the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine.

• Whether it's Club Penguin, MyYearbook or MySpace--make sure your kids learn how and why they should use privacy filters--and then double check to make sure they are using them.

• Visit the sites your kids use and read the TOS (Terms of Service) and/or Community Guidelines. Learn how to report abuse and share the information with your kids. And while you're at it, learn more about COPPA.

• Social networks are self-policing, if you find objectionable content, bullying or other abuse—report it! Think of it as a 21^st Century Neighborhood Watch program.

There are lots of great resources out there to empower parents and educators on social media safety & cyberbullying. The ADL, Yahoo!, Media Awareness Network, myYearbook and MySpace (to name a few) all provide free web safety guides for parents and teachers on web safety, digital literacy & social media.

Related Resources

• NetFamily News
• Texting Tips for Parents & Educators
• Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths
• Microsoft Wants to Help Families Get Game Smart

2009 National Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup

The 2009 National Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup, organized by Ypulse.com founder Anastasia Goodstein and Modern Media, is where today's top brand, corporate and social marketers, media professionals, educators and non-profit organizations gather to share best practices, research and latest strategies on marketing to youth with technology.

This is a fantastic event and a great opportunity to learn more about the youth marketing space as well as connect with other youth marketing professionals. The 2009 Mashup will feature a keynote address by Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital.  In addition, Guy Kawasaki will moderate the Totally Wired Youth Entrepreneur panel.

I've attended several Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup events and I can honestly say it's one of the best conferences out there. Many times going to a conference is a good excuse to get out of the office and hang out in the halls.

The YPulse Mashup is NOT that conference. You will leave the Ypulse Mashup with a lot of new information, insight and contacts. So, don't wait--register now and be sure to use the discount code "Baird" to get 10% off the registration fee!

Related Resources

• YPulse.com
• 2008 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East > Millennial Myths
• Upcoming > 09' National Ypulse Mashup

Truth and Consequences: Teens, Naked Photos & Mobile Phones

Anyone involved with Gen Y knows three things: they love their mobile phones, they are hyper-connected and they have no reservations about broadcasting their life across the social web. Very often they are lifestreaming without thinking about the consequences of their actions.

Take, for example, the mobile phone. They text, play games, take photos and oh yeah--they also occasionally use them to make a phone call. However, a recent investigative report by Emmett Miller and KTLA News found "a growing number of teens are messaging naked photos of themselves to their friends. Not only could it ruin their reputation, but it could land them in legal trouble."

One girl talked about how a guy at her school had a fight with his girlfriend and, in an act of revenge, blasted out nude photos he had taken of her to their classmates. The photos were forwarded on to more and more students, effectively making life at the high school unbearable to the point that she had to change schools.

Another student, commenting on the trend, said:

“I know in my high school that there was a a girl who took naked photos of herself and it went all through our school and it ruined her, 'cause everyone looks at her like a slut.”

But there are serious consequences beyond just being embarrassed or having to change schools. In his report, Miller interviews Detective Dan Morgan from the LA County Sheriff's Department who talked about the LEGAL implications:

"The detective says anytime a photograph is taken of a minor, a person under the age of eighteen, of their genital area involved in a simulated or an actual sex act, it is against the law, and considered child pornography. Detective Morgan says pictures and video clips of teens involved in sexual situations are becoming more and more frequent.

He believes the cases are under-reported, but has still dealt with quite a few of them. Sometimes the cases involve teens who have sent pictures or video to other teens, but other times it's adults who are enticing teens to take photos of sexual situations. And that is where the law is clear. "

Most teens interviewed for this report had no idea that there were legal implications for sending or forwarding nude photos via mobile phone or the Internet. In fact, while most told Emmett that they "would only send nude photo's to their friends," they were completely oblivious that their friends might pass these photos along to other people. 

This is an important topic that both parents and school officials should be talking about with teens. The stakes are even higher for a high school student who turns 18 and forwards a nude photograph of a boyfriend/girlfriend who is still a minor.

By doing so, they risk being charged for distribution of child pornography. Not to mention, if they are convicted, they face the loss of attending college, scholarships, and employment opportunities.

The important thing is for parents and school officials not to overreact. Banning mobile phones won't make these types of incidents go away. Teens will simply use another phone. Or have a friend take the pictures for them. The best approach is to sit down with your kids and calmly discuss the appropriate ways to use technology.

Think about it. You don't hand your kids the keys to the car without having them first go through a drivers education program where they learn the rules of the road. So why do we just hand them a mobile phone, computer or, for that matter, a social networking site and expect them to understand what behavior is and isn't acceptable?

As adults we need to also sit them down and outline how their so-called "personal information" can be sold to data brokers or passed around school by friends. We need to educate them on the consequences of lifestreaming and sharing too much information may have on their future.

Most importantly, we need to educate them that just because they delete that photo on their mobile phone doesn't mean that it isn't archived somewhere. Forever. After all, when it comes to the social web, your privacy is an illusion.

You can watch a video of Emmett Miller's entire report, The Naked Truth of a New Cell Phone Trend, by clicking here.

Related Resources

• Generation Text: New Research on Gen Y & Mobile Phones
• Book >Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online
• Stanford Study Looks at the Psychology of Facebook
• The Children Are Our Pornographic Future (thanks Anastasia)
  

CyberSurvey: What Kids, Parents and Teachers Are Doing Online

In the spring of 2007 The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative (CSEI) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) initiated the world’s largest cyber research project, which by January of 2008 involved surveying 40,000+ K-12th grade students along with hundreds of parents and teachers.

Here are some of the key findings among students, parents and educators:

Key student findings:

• Children have unsupervised access to a computer and the internet at home as early as age 5, and that by age 7, 15% report that someone was mean to them online, while 7% admit they have been mean to someone online;

• Contrary to public perception, the majority of cyber offenses involving children, t/weens, teens and young adults are perpetuated by their peers, not strangers;

• The onset of cyber bullying beginning in the second grade and it’s not always the adult predator. Reports show that 45% of the cases are friends victimizing friends.

• 23.2% admit to lying about their age online;

• 1 in 4 children between the ages 9-18 report that they have been victimized online by one or more forms of abuse within the past school year that was not reported to a grown up.

Key parent survey findings:

• 90% of surveyed parents report supervising the home computing activities of their children;

• 14% report they have caught their children visiting inappropriate websites;

• 61% parents report that their children access the web from a private place in the home;

• A majority of parents report that their children use the web to do research for school (78%), play video games (61%) and listening to music or watching movies (50%);

Key Teacher Survey Findings:

• Teachers report that they feel confident that their schools are well prepared to use technology to facilitate student learning;

• However, few teachers feel prepared or feel they are prepared to teach students about Internet safety, social computing ethics or digital literacy;

• Teachers report that there is a lack of or inconsistent professional development and/or training on information security, social computing and web safety;

• Educators are divided on the issue of using technology in the classroom and whether or not students know more about information technology than they do.

Overall, it looks like parents are doing a good job of keeping an eye on their kids and what they are doing on the Internet. That said, most safety experts recommend that kids use the computer and surf the web from public areas of their home.

While the good news is that the stereotype of the Dateline NBC-esque sexual predator is far from reality, the bad news is that students are being bullied online by their peers. This is a topic that should be addressed both at school by teachers and at home by parents.

In summer 2008, as part of the Yahoo! Teachers Tour, I had the opportunity with my colleague Karon Weber to lead workshops across the country and teach educators how to use web and social computing  technologies in their classroom. Time and time again we heard from teachers that this was exactly the type of professional development that was sorely needed.

Moreover, they reported that they were lacking hands-on, practical training on how web and social computing can be used in the classroom to prepare educators for the influx of digital learners filling their classrooms.

You can review the entire findings of the RIT CyberSafety report, including results broken down by grade level, by clicking here (pdf).

Related Resources

• Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
• Secret Lives of Teens
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths
• Yahoo! Safely
• Cyberbully Pledge for Teachers
• Parents Guide to Social Networks

Safetyclicks: AOL Launches Social Safety Site for Parents

AOL's popular parenting site ParentDish has added a new blog called Safetyclicks that is focused on helping parents teach their kids how to use the web safely and wisely.

SafetyClicks will feature articles, videos, and topical blog posts designed to support and inform parents as they teach their kids to navigate the social web.

There are lots of great resources out there to empower parents and educators on social media safety & cyberbullying. The ADL, Yahoo!, Media Awareness Network, and MySpace (to name a few) all provide free web safety guides for parents and teachers on social safety, digital literacy & social media. It's great to see AOL adding their voice to the discussion.

Related Resources

• Yahoo! Safely
• SafetyClicks
• The Secret Online Lives of Teens
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths