Clipmarks | edtechnnorris's clips

Lithwick: Teens, Nude Photos and the Law

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:04:20 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Another article about the disturbing trend of sexting

The real problem with criminalizing teen sexting as a form of child pornography is that the great majority of these kids are not predators. They think they're being brash and sexy. And while some of the reaction to sexting reflects legitimate concerns about children as sex objects, some perpetuates legal stereotypes and fallacies.

sending of nude pictures, even if done voluntarily, constitutes "digital dating violence." But do we truly believe that one in five teens is participating in an act of violence? Experts insist the sexting trend hurts teen girls more than boys, fretting that they feel "pressured" to take and send naked photos. Paradoxically, the girls in the Pennsylvania case were charged with "manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography" while the boys were merely charged with possession. If the girls are the real victims, why are we treating them more harshly than the boys?

Student Fights Record of "Cyberbullying"

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:16:59 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Senior posted a complaint about a teacher on FB and was suspended. Free Speech does not apply when students post hate messages about a teacher on their website.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Katherine Evans said she was frustrated with her English teacher for ignoring her pleas for help with assignments and a brusque reproach when she missed class to attend a school blood drive.

So Ms. Evans, who was then a high school senior and honor student, logged onto the networking site Facebook and wrote a rant against the teacher, Sarah Phelps.

A few days later, Ms. Evans removed the post from her Facebook page and went about the business of preparing for graduation and studying journalism in the fall.

But two months after her online venting, Ms. Evans was called into the principal’s office and was told she was being suspended for “cyberbullying,” a blemish on her record that she said she feared could keep her from getting into graduate schools or landing her dream job.

You can express an opinion on whether someone is a good teacher,

“But when you start inviting people to say that they hate a teacher, that crosses the line.”

UWM Online psych students outperform those in lecture hall class

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:31:17 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.jsonline.com

But as the university faces pressure to improve success rates for underprepared college students, one professor's markedly different approach to the introductory psychology course is turning heads.

Professor Diane Reddy has replaced the traditional lecture format with an online version of Psych 101. Students learn at their own pace but also have to obtain mastery, demonstrated by passing a quiz on each unit, before they can move on to the next.

The online model, the study found, was particularly successful for disadvantaged or underprepared students - low-income students, racial and ethnic minorities, and those with low grades or ACT scores. And students in general do better in the class, too, earning a higher percentage of As and Bs than students earn in traditional Psych 101.

We're Friends - Until I Delete You

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:08:41 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: story about the Burger King promotion

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

It’s not just a fact of life, but also a policy on Facebook. While many trivial actions do prompt Facebook to post an alert to all your friends — adding a photo, changing your relationship status, using Fandango to buy tickets to “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” — striking someone off your list simply is not one of them.

The campaign, which boasted of ending 234,000 friendships, is history now — Burger King chose to end it rather than tweak it to fit Facebook’s policy — but the same can hardly be said of the emerging anxiety it tapped. As social networking becomes ubiquitous, people with an otherwise steady grip on social etiquette find themselves flummoxed by questions about “unfriending” people: how to do it, when to do it and how to get away with it quietly.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Nor does Facebook care to be a party to what might be called punitive unfriending, banishing someone from your network for violating one or more of your personal rules of conduct.

Challenging Assumptions About Online Predators

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:33:40 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The 278-page document cites studies showing that sexual solicitation of minors by adults via the Web appears to be on the decline. "The image presented by the media of an older male deceiving and preying on a young child does not paint an accurate picture," reads one of document's conclusions. "The risks minors face online are complex and multifaceted and are in most cases not significantly different than those they face offline."

"The vast majority of kids in this country have heard the messages about the risks online and are basically dealing with them as a nuisance, as a fact of life, and aren't particularly vulnerable," he said. "This report should not be read as saying there are not adults out there doing this."

Palfrey said he finds this criticism perverse, both as a researcher and as a father. "The research is consistent, every single study says the same thing," he said. "What possible agenda could I have to tell anything other than the truth?"

Greatest Internet threat to teens may be teens themselves

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:33:59 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Important report that says that cyberbullying is a bigger issue than Sexual Predators

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

In an authoritative report almost a year in the making, a Harvard University-led task force on Internet safety, ordered by the nation's attorneys general and meant to expose the full extent of the danger, found instead that kids trading gossip, photos and plans on social networking sites such as MySpace are relatively safe from adults cruising online for sex with minors.

Those findings come on the heels of several studies showing that online social networking appears to be a perfectly benign practice for the vast majority of kids, even for those most consumed by the pastime. After a steady diet of warnings that their children's growing Internet use is a likely cause of academic failure, attention disorders and obesity, a parent could be forgiven for welcoming the news with an audible sigh of relief.

How Google is Making Us Smarter

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:48:59 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Inside our heads, instead of making a perfect replica of the world, we focus our attention on tiny snippets, darting our eyes from point to point. We extract only the information we need for whatever task is at hand, whether we’re sorting the laundry or climbing a mountain.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

What’s even more remarkable about our brains is that they actually search for new things to make part of this feedback system.

The extended mind theory doesn’t just change the way we think about the mind. It also changes how we judge what’s good and bad about today’s mind-altering technologies. There’s nothing unnatural about relying on the Internet—Google and all—for information. After all, we are constantly consulting the world around us like a kind of visual Wikipedia. Nor is there anything bad about our brains’ being altered by these new technologies, any more than there is something bad about a monkey’s brain changing as it learns how to play with a rake.

Obama poised to be first "wired" president

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:35:49 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- As the first president-elect with a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, Barack Obama is poised to use the Internet to communicate directly with Americans in a way unknown to previous presidents.

Judging by Obama's savvy use of social-networking sites during his campaign and the interactive nature of his transition team's Web site, Americans can expect a president who bypasses the traditional media's filters while reaching out to citizens for input, observers say.

"Obama has invented an alternative media model," said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. "In the old model, the president talks to the people on television [and] the people talk back in polls. In the new model, communication is online, and two-way."

Report Finds Online Threats to Children Overblown

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:21:45 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Although a task force did an extensive study about threats to children, the old guys - attorney generals want to dismiss the report.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The panel, the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, was charged with examining the extent of the threats children face on social networks like MySpace and Facebook, amid widespread fears that adults were using these popular Web sites to deceive and prey on children.

The findings ran counter to popular perceptions of online dangers as reinforced by depictions in the news media like NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” series. One attorney general was quick to criticize the group’s report.

A task force created by 49 state attorneys general to look into the problem of sexual solicitation of children online has concluded that there really is not a significant problem.

Can teachers be students' Facebook friends?

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:03:49 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.chron.com

"Outside the classroom, in terms of connecting with students, there are some exciting possibilities," said Pierson, who also directs UH's teacher education program. "It's just, teachers need to keep their educator hats on."

"It's kind of addictive," she admits. "I'm interested in my students, and I like to hear from them. I have a couple of kids in college now who have sent messages thanking me for helping prepare them. I had a kid send me a message asking advice about picking a major."

Alberto Ramirez, a first-generation college student at the University of Texas in Austin, is a good example. The 2007 Lee graduate said he logs on to Facebook daily to keep in touch with his former classmates at Lee. They easily coordinated a road trip through the site, and when Lee Principal Steve Amstutz was coming to Austin for a conference, he reached out to former students via Facebook.

Rethinking Computers in the Classroom

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:53:24 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.businessweek.com

In many schools, PCs have failed to aid students' learning or improve test scores, or equip them with the analysis and communications skills that today's workplace demands, according to studies. The problems include a reliance on paper lesson plans that don't factor in technology, and inadequate teacher training and technical support. Also at fault, say educators, is American classrooms' occupation with teaching kids strategies for raising standardized test scores to meet provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

That often leaves little room for creative extras. Other times, school boards buy computers to prove their technical savvy to politicians and parents, without thinking through how kids will actually use the machines. "Any school that focuses on putting more computers in the classroom as their core goal will undermine the transformation that technology can provide,"

Study: College Success starts early

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:56:18 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

The ACT report tracked 216,000 teenagers nationwide who completed the college-entrance exam and its two precursor tests given in Grades 8 and 10. Those involved graduated in 2005 and 2006. The sample did not include teenagers who left high school, leading Schmeiser to call the findings a "best-case scenario."

Only students who scored high enough on the 8th-grade exam to reach academic targets set in reading, English, math and science t

Only students who scored high enough on the 8th-grade exam to reach academic targets set in reading, English, math and science typically went on to earn high enough marks on the ACT as juniors to be considered ready for college in all four areas.

My.BarackObama.com social network stays online after election

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:52:08 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Obama embraces social networking as a way to connect with the people of this country

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

December 1, 2008 (Computerworld) Like his campaign apparatus, President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is embracing what some have called a Google-enabled government by loosening copyright licensing on its Change.gov Web site and by launching a feature that allows citizens to contribute to policy discussions.

A Surprisingly Sensible 21st Century Report

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:52:52 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

I think the 21st-century skills movement is mostly a pipe dream, promoted by well-meaning people who embrace the idea of modernity but fail to consider how these allegedly new and important lessons can be taught by the usual victims of such schemes, classroom teachers.

Now I am forced to calm down, take a breath and consider the possibility that I was wrong about this, because a scholar whose work I admire has produced the first sensible report on 21st-century skills I have read. "Measuring Skills for the 21st Century" was written by Elena Silva, senior policy analyst at the Education Sector think tank in Washington. It is available at http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=716323. It suggests that this idea is vital, important and ought to be pursued, no matter what I say.

21st-century skills are: the ability to think creatively and to evaluate and analyze information.

Obama and Our Schools

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:20:14 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration. He ranked it fifth among his priorities, and if it is being downplayed, that’s a mistake.

The most effective anti-poverty program we could devise for the long run would have less to do with income redistribution than with ensuring that poor kids get a first-rate education, from preschool on. One recent study found that if American students did as well as those in several Asian countries in math and science, our economy would grow 20 percent faster.

end rigid requirements for teacher certification that impede hiring, make tenure more difficult to get so that ineffective teachers can be weeded out after three years on the job and award hefty bonuses to good teachers willing to teach in low-income areas. If we want outstanding, inspiring teachers in difficult classrooms, we’re going to have to pay much more