The American Revolution Center website has several educational resources including webinars for educators, research and reports and teaching materials. The site also offers a very nice timeline of the American Revolution. Check it out for some classroom instruction ideas on this topic.
We are all amazed by the power of those technologies that connect us together. The cell phone, the wirelessly connected laptop and the smart phone enable us to be in almost constant contact with similarly equipped people. We can send text, audio and pictures including movies to each other in an instant. And there lies the problem. On the positive side, each of these tools enables us to send and receive information as a matter of course. On the negative side, each of these tools enables us to send and receive information as a matter of course. Teenagers are using email and their cell phones to send sexually inappropriate pictures, messages and movies of themselves and others to each other causing serious legal and ethical problems for themselves and the ones they are taking pictures of as well as those to whom they are sending the pictures.
In a report called Sex and Tech sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy 20% of teens over all had sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves. In the same report 33% of young adults have done the same. The same report indicated that many of these people are sending the material even though they know that doing so can have serious consequences.
The impulsivity of adolescents and the need to belong often contributes to both bullying and sending sexually inappropriate messages and pictures. Both are complex causing states to review free speech, search and seizure issues, and child pornography laws. Is a 13 year old who takes a picture of him or herself nude and sends the picture to their 14-year-old friend guilty of distributing child pornography? Is the 14-year-old friend who received it also guilty? Should they be listed as sexual predators?
Does a student, using his or her own computer at home have the right to post on their blog belittling and offensive remarks about a fellow student, a teacher in the school or the principal? Using the school’s property is obvious, using his or her personal equipment away from school, is not.
Does a principal, collecting cell phones from students because they violated the schools cell phone policy have the right to look at or listen to the contents of the cell phones? As schools develop and enforce policy the issue of due process (the 14th Amendment) comes into question.
This is where one has to understand that an attorney is not writing this. The reader should review a report to the New York State School Board’s Association. “Sexting” – Code of Conduct Violation or More? Student use of Cell Phones and Other Electronic Devices: The Emerging Legal and Technological Issues. http://tinyurl.com/yf7tvxh
The report seemed to be saying the following:
1. Taking, possessing and transmitting pictures of a sexual nature of children under the age of consent is illegal and as a result should be reflected in school district policy.
2. While Schools have a right to set up policies that include taking cell phones from students, they do not have a right to search the phones (listen to voice mail, read text messages or view pictures) without probable cause. Just having the cell phones because there is a policy against them is not probable cause.
3. Students’ speech about, even it is generated away from the school using their own technology, can be deemed inappropriate and addressed by the schools code of conduct rules if it is threatening or disrupts the discipline of the school.
4. “The Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment assures, procedurally, notice and the opportunity to be heard before educational property rights may be suspended and, substantively, that only laws (student code of conduct infractions) which are rational will be enforceable.”
Item number one, the one about taking pictures of young children does not help the students who have impulsively taken inappropriate pictures of themselves and others and distributed them to their friends. Vermont, Ohio and Utah are a couple of the states that appear to be trying to write legislation that differentiates true child pornography from the adolescent that is impulsive or just wants to belong. Ellen Goodman writing in the truthdig blog (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/sexting_–_and_common_sense/) describes the rationale for making the difference in a post called Sexting – and Common Sense. There is a difference and it actually goes beyond the Sexting. Ellen points to the sexism in sexting.
Let’s not forget the sexism in the sexting. It’s mostly girls’ pictures that get passed around. It’s often boyfriends—or ex-boyfriends—who hold the trump photo. It’s girls who pay a social price in humiliation. It’s girls who get tagged in the mean-girl lingo as “sluts.”
Technologies are always going to change but the need for young people to be accepted and educators to protect the people who are under their charge will stay the same. The question is, as it always has been, what do we want our citizens to consider the norm? Understanding what it means to be a good “Digital Citizenship” should be our goal. Adolescence is a time of sexual exploration and development and it is irresponsible to not engage adolescents and their parents in a dialog on what is appropriate and respectful. Only changing policy is short sited. Digital Citizenship in Schools by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey reviews nine elements of Digital Citizenship:
1. Digital Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure.
2. Digital Communication: electronic exchange of information.
3. Digital Literacy: process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology.
4. Digital Access: full electronic participation in society.
5. Digital Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods.
6. Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
7. Digital Rights & Responsibilities: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world.
8. Digital Health & Wellness: physical and psychological well being in a digital technology world.
9. Digital Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety.
The conversation about Digital Citizenship needs to include parents. Raising a Digital Child, also by Mike Ribble contains much of the same information as Digital Citizenship in Schools but is meant to guide the parent as they work with their children through the issues of being responsible users of very powerful technologies.
In October 2008 the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act was passed requiring that schools receiving educational technology funds teach students Internet safety. The Schools and Libraries Division of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is currently waiting to hear from the Federal Communications Commission and that will not happen until after a process of rulemaking, which will include hearings. Hopefully any rules will go beyond “Internet Safety” and include Digital Citizenship, which includes elements 6 and 7:
• Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
• Digital Rights & Responsibilities: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world.
The MAME conference was held last Thursday and Friday in Traverse City (beautiful fall colors along with the rain and the dark). Sessions, keynotes, round tables and networking ensued! Some of the presentation materials from sessions and round tables are already up on the MAME website. Please check them out – you will find some great information.
On October 1st President Obama issued a proclamation designating October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month. In his statement he said “I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact.”
He went on to say, “Our Nation’s educators and institutions of learning must be aware of — and adjust to — these new realities. In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them. The ability to seek, find, and decipher information can be applied to countless life decisions…”
School library media specialists play a key role in helping students acquire, understand and evaluate information. National Information Literacy Month is an ideal time to highlight that role. The American Association of School Librarians suggests school library media specialists post the proclamation in their libraries and share it with students, staff, parents and school board members. It can be accessed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-National-Information-Literacy-Awareness-Month/ They also suggest sharing it with the local press along with information on how the school library media specialist delivers instruction in this area.
Other ideas for raising awareness of the school library media program’s involvement in teaching information literacy can be found on the American Association of School Librarian’s website. http://www.ala.org/aasl/toolkits
Googlelabs has a new site available called Fast Flip. Search a news topic and your article results appear as Web pages that you can “flip” through quickly. Try it out to see if you like this new search tool.
The U.S. Census Bureau has provided a “back to school” fact sheet on their website. Some of the data included are: enrollment, languages, personnel, graduation and the cost of college.
NASA’s new educational search engine will be a hit with science teachers. Thanks to Joyce Valenza at the NeverEndingSearch Blog for the heads-up about this new website. In the “Find Teacher Materials” search engine you can focus your search by grades, type of activity and topic.
If you read blogs to keep up with new websites and resources then you have probably heard of Wolfram|Alpha. This Web resource is brought to you by the folks who created Mathematica.
Wolfram|Alpha is a computational knowledge engine designed to make “all systematic knowledge computable and accessible.” Try it out. I entered my birthday and saw not only my age in years but with the added attraction of months, days and weeks. Click on “More Formats/Calendars” for additional information.
Enter a city and state and Wolfram|Alpha offers the population size, time, weather, etc. This computational knowledge engine is suitable for K-adult. In the FAQ it is indicated that “On the elementary end, Wolfram|Alpha can do arithmetic showing steps, make clocks, work with colors, and so on.”
Try this site out if you are datavore. Excellent site for student use too. Check it out and see how it can be used with your students. Wolfram|Alpha includes a FAQ, blog and downloads if you would like to add it to your website.
Joyce Valenza reports in her Never Ending Search blog that the Code of Fair Use Project at Stanford University has created a video, Remix Culture: Fair Use is Your Friend, on producing online video and how fair use applies.
The acronym Diigo stands for “Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff.” No matter what the letters stand for, Diigo is a popular and powerful social bookmarking site that gives you access to websites you save from any browser and any computer. After registering for an account you can save and tag websites as well as add a description. You can organize your bookmarks even further with the lists feature and share them with your students or workshop participants via a slideshow. Additionally, Diigo allows you to highlight any part of a webpage as well as attach sticky notes with comments to your highlights or to a whole web page. You can keep your comments private or share them with your Diigo groups.
Diigo now has educator accounts with some very nice features for teachers and their students. Teachers can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation). Students in the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and comments. Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.
You can get started with Diigo here: http://www.diigo.com/index
You can view video tutorials about Diigo’s features here: http://help.diigo.com/Getting_Started/Videos_Tutorials
If you sign up for an account and you’d like to collaborate with me, please let me know. I have lots of websites bookmarked and ready to share! I’m “cummingsl” on Diigo.
