Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Last year in our statewide Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital storytelling project, we had a “teachable moment” arise concerning student profile pictures and avatars. According to Wiktionary, an avatar in a computing context is:

A digital representation of a person or being.

The situation in our COV project last spring involved a high school student who joined our learning community at the invitation of her librarian as well as our project coordinators, and chose to use a photo of herself on her Ning personal profile page which was not appropriate for the context of our project. I contacted her librarian about this, she had a conversation with the student, and the student changed her photo to an uncontroversial avatar image. This situation was not a bad one– I think it was good, in fact, because it provided an opportunity for an important discussion relating to digital citizenship to take place. It also pointed to the fact that we needed social networking guidelines for our project. The student in question along a friend of hers were apparently viewing our COV learning community as they would a MySpace or Facebook personal page. That was not the right “frame” to use in this situation. As a result of these conversations, our project coordinators decided that students needed to use an avatar rather than a photograph on their personal profile pages. Adult educators could use either one. At the time project coordinators posted the following clarification in our learning community forum as “Guidelines for using this social networking site:”

Student Members:
All members under the age of 18 will be categorized as students and should use a computer generated avatar as their member image. We strongly encourage students to remove their date of birth and location from their profile. This can be accomplished by going to the My Settings link on the site. Please make sure you have parental permission to join this social networking site.

All Members:
Blog postings, submitted videos and all content should be related to digital storytelling. Please keep your dialog and discussion appropriate for all audience members. We encourage everyone to join ALL appropriate learning communities realted to your profile. This can be accomplished using the icons on the right hand side of the site.
Thank you for participating.

This situation highlights the importance of discussing what constitutes an appropriate avatar or other profile image, both in a collaborative project space as well as on personal social networking websites. When visiting the Wordpress.org support forums recently, I found the website Gravatar. It explains:

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?

After I setup my own free account on gravatar, I was asked to “rate” my avatar on the following scale, similar to the Motion Picture rating system for commercially published movies.

“Hard drug use?” Are the gravatar creators talking about “illegal drug use” with that phrase? I would argue that all student avatars should be “G” rated, particularly if the student is participating in an online learning community or collaborative project for school.

This is an important discussion to have with students of all ages who are participating in social networking activities at school and away from school. Because students already have background knowledge / schema for motion picture ratings, it could be good to use the ratings framework to discuss appropriate profile pictures and avatars. It might be good to explore the question:

Would it EVER be appropriate to use an avatar or profile picture which is not rated “G?” What are some possible consequences of using a “non-G-rated” avatar on a website which is tied / affiliated / linked to you and your online identity?

The PBS special from January 2008, “Growing Up Online” (individual chapters of the show are viewable online) is a good resource to utilize in a discussion like this with students. I have additional links and resources related to social networking available, as well as Internet Safety resources for parents. The Digital Dialog Ning is a learning community for educators, parents, and others interested in exploring and discussing issues like these.

Technorati Tags:
avatar, profile, picture, internet, safety, technology, parenting

I’m not sure when a blog comment should become a post, but the length and ideas discussed in the following response to Gary Stager and Steve Ransom in last week’s post, “Webcam and PSP Porn: More reasons for ongoing digital dialog” seemed to justify a separate post today. Please join in the conversation here or on the original post.

Gary: I think it is overly glib to ask, “Who cares?” A lot of people pay attention to Oprah and the stories she chooses to amplify on her program, and a lot of folks utilize the information she provides to shape their own perceptions of technology and its potential value. I am very concerned about helping encourage balanced approaches to discussing issues like Internet safety and social networking. I agree with Steve’s point, that we all have to be wary of generalizing based on our own experiences. That is the lens through which we each view the world, but certainly there are a host of different factors which play into parenting and these sorts of discussions / issues. To one of your points, I agree many parents should trust their kids more, but essential to that trust is the regular opportunity to engage in dialog. That is a missing element in many households and families, today. For support on this I’d again reference back to Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelson’s work.

While I agree all parents should be aware of this story and the danger / potential for abuse which exists with webcams, I also think it is misleading to portray (as Oprah did on this program as well as the NYT writer who broke this story in his article and video interviews) that this can EASILY happen to ANYONE. When you listen to Justin tell his story (particularly in the NYT video interviews) it becomes clear he was “at risk” before any technology entered the picture. Here are some red flags:

1. He didn’t have any friends at school.
2. He was hospitalized after he was allegedly beaten by his father, and received seven stitches in his head.
3. His own father hired prostitutes for Justin so he could expand his activities on his website.
4. His mother claimed she had no idea anything was wrong.
5. Another student at Justin’s school found his website and circulated the videos around his school, embarrassing Justin and causing him to want to leave school. Yet no one apparently talked to Justin’s mother about this.

As I’ve shared in presentations and blog posts previously, it is my contention that “kids most at risk online” are also “at risk in the face to face world sans technology.” It is true that technology and Internet connections now provide direct access to children (as well as older folks) for people with harmful intentions (like pedophiles) and those types of DIRECT, personal and potentially private connections were not possible in earlier eras.

One of the most important things for people of all ages to realize is that the #1 behavior which puts them at risk online is TALKING ABOUT SEX. In Justin’s case, he registered himself on a webcam site with his picture and age, and immediately got contacted by strangers who eventually groomed him to talk about sex and do sexually related things. Talking about sex with strangers was the #1 tipping point here. Was his mom talking to him about sex? Was his mom talking to him at all? How could she let him go to Las Vegas to meet people she didn’t know, where he was molested and abused? This is a tragic story, and certainly the sexual predators who victimized Justin bear a huge amount of blame that should have severe consequences, but Justin’s parents also shoulder a great deal of this responsibility as does Justin at some point. Oprah and Kurt Eichenwald both shied away from this issue of “free will” and choices in their discussion of Justin’s case, but I don’t think we should ignore it. Yes I agree Justin was a victim, but he was also making choices and was not entirely a pawn at the complete mercy of his environment. Thank GOODNESS at last an adult (Kurt Eichenwald) helped him climb out of his pit of self-destructive behaviors. One lesson from that side of this story is that as individuals, OUR WORDS AND ACTIONS MATTER. Whether we are the biological parent of a young person or not, what we say and do can have an important impact on others.

Given those perspectives, perhaps you can better understand why I strongly take issue with the sentiment “Who cares?” We should care and must care. Yes, this is a sensationalized case, but as Steve points out in his comment these issues are “in our face” more and more in our digitally connected landscape, and we’ve got to do a better job being proactive about addressing them. Simply banning tools and technologies is not a viable answer, and neither is wishfully hoping that kids will be responsible and we just need to encourage parents to be more trusting. As I said before, what we all need are relationships of accountability and frequent opportunities for dialog with others.

Steve, I WILL write more about this down the road… I agree these ideas need to be further elaborated.

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internet, safety, webcam, oprah, justin, berry, kurt, eichenwald, isafety, socialnetworking, myspace, facebook, youtube, pedophile, parent, parenting

This summer Oprah Winfrey re-aired her shocking program from February 2006, “The Young Boy Lured into Becoming an Internet Porn Star.” My wife recently recorded this show on our home DVR and showed it to me this weekend. Neither of us had seen this show previously or heard about this specific case. For detailed and up-to date information on the primary person the show focused on, Justin Berry, refer to the WikiPedia article for him. External links at the bottom of the article provide additional background, most notably Kurt Eichenwald’s December 19, 2005 article for the NY Times which broke the story, “Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World.” Active discussions on Oprah’s message boards reveal this program continues to strike many nerves and raise many issues. These issues are not limited to the question of whether kids should be allowed to have webcams at all, or specifically webcams in their bedrooms. As kids gain access to more digital devices capable of accessing the Internet, like handheld PSP game systems, some parents are realizing the devices can be and are (in many cases) being used to access pornographic web content. These topics are important and worth discussing at length. For the sake of brevity as well as attempted organization, I’ll summarize my main thoughts under several headings.

1. ONGOING DIGITAL DIALOG IS THE KEY

There are many issues here, but technology is neither the complete culprit nor can it offer a complete “solution” or answer. We have always, and continue to have as human beings, important needs for ongoing dialog between adults and young people. Dr. Stephen Glenn defined dialog as “a meaningful exchange of perceptions in a non-threatening environment.” All too often in our fast-paced, multi-tasking and overcommitted lives, we fail to provide adequate opportunities for adults and young people to engage in dialog. In addition to dialog, we also ALL need to have ongoing, supportive relationships of accountability with others. Without dialog and real accountability, everyone can fall into trouble of some kind. BEING ALONE is the worst condition under which anyone can face serious challenges in life. When we try to stand alone, sadly we often fall alone. We all need dialog and accountability, and those two things do not come “naturally” in our day-to-day routines. We must intentionally shape our schedules and our lives to provide for these things, otherwise they will not / do not become regular parts of our daily routines.

2. DRAWING ATTENTION TO A PROBLEM IS EASY, OFFERING REAL SOLUTIONS IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT

I frequently address Internet safety and online social networking issues in presentations for teachers, students, and parents. Just as it is relatively easy to “scare parents off the Internet,” it is also easy to identify problems without offering practical ideas for constructively addressing the issues which have been raised. The main “solution” or action step which Oprah offers to resounding applause in this February 2006 episode for parents was to prohibit all webcams in children’s bedrooms. That suggestion is not novel, of course, virtually every website focused on Internet safety issues for families includes the suggestion that computers at home be located in family spaces (like the living room) rather than in bedrooms. NetSmartz, SafeKids, and the FBI’s Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety are three example sites which include this recommendation. Yet what about wireless, handheld gaming devices like the PSP which can be used to get online? What about laptops when your child attends a progressive school implementing a 1:1 laptop learning initiative? What about your child’s cell phone, which may already permit web access and almost certainly includes text messaging and media messaging? Telecommunications convergence means many things, but one of the most tangible implications in this context is that parents and other adults have far less control today than they/we did in the past to limit the access young people have to ideas and media.

The issues raised in this Oprah episode about Justin Berry ARE very important and worth discussing. I was disappointed to see that in that program from 2006, at least, Oprah and others speaking on the program did not seem to suggest much with respect to addressing this issue other than suggesting parents everywhere ban webcams from children’s bedrooms.

3. WEBCAMS HAVE VIABLE AND BENEFICIAL USES BESIDES PORNOGRAPHY

Episodes like this one from Oprah tend to be sensationalist in nature. These are REAL issues, of course, but we should be wary to not overgeneralize based on the statements and opinions of the show guests. Both Justin Berry and Kurt Eichenwald make the argument that webcams have no viable place in anyone’s home or on anyone’s computer. Their opinion seems to have been (during this 2006 show) that the only reason someone would need a webcam is to engage in Internet pornography. This position is both extreme and false. It is not baseless: Certainly Justin provides a disturbingly vivid example of how some Internet users DO choose to use webcams to engage in pornography. It is misleading and harmful, however, to generalize and state that ALL webcams are used for nothing other than porn.

Do terrorists around the world use cell phones to plan and coordinate violent attacks? Are students around the world using cell phones to cyberbully? Sadly, the answer to both questions is yes. Should we therefore assume that all cell phones are evil and should be banned from the planet? That would be ridiculous. Yet the audience in Oprah’s show in February 2006 seemed to accept this same argument about webcams.

I may be in the minority with this view, but I contend every K-12 and university classroom in the United States should be equipped with a webcam and microphone in addition to an Internet-connected computer. The reason for this is simple: We live in a global society with an interdependent global economy. As Andrew Churches wrote last week in his outstanding post “21st Century Assessment:”

Collaboration is not a 21st century skill it is a 21st century essential.

As teachers we should be using audio and videoconferencing technologies REGULARLY when we participate in and lead professional development workshops. Our students should be utilizing audio and videoconferencing technologies EVERY WEEK as regular elements of their classwork. Encouraging this type of regular digital collaboration is not a repetition of history, it is a tangible way to recognize the dramatically different economic landscape in which we live and make appropriate behavioral modifications in response to that new understanding. Without a webcam and a microphone, how will learners in our classrooms make these regular, critical connections? On their own cell phones when they get outside the school building? We shouldn’t limit student and teacher opportunities for collaboration to their own free time and their own personal telecommunications devices.

Videoconferencing has been limited in the past by access to costly hardware equipment, but those days are clearly over. In addition to $20 webcams, videoconferencing has already moved onto cellular phones in parts of Europe and the far east. In the United States, cell phone services like Video Share from AT&T are but a small preview of the videoconferencing technologies which are literally on our doorstep. Should we accept the view presented by this Oprah show from 2006 that “nothing good can be done with a webcam?” Certainly not. We should heed the advice of many when it comes to the issue of Internet safety, and take multiple steps to address the issues which are raised here. Just as an informed organization today approaches network security with a “defense in depth” approach, families, school groups, and communities should also approach Internet safety in a similar way.

4. CULTIVATING DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP SKILLS SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS

Some “Internet safety experts” like Parry Aftab suggest banning your child from having any access to social networking websites like MySpace, or sitting by/with your child every moment s/he is using a social networking website. This is completely unrealistic, in my view. Parry writes:

Professionals recommend either denying your children access to MySpace, or sitting there with them as they use it. This mom agrees. Of course kids go to other friend’s houses and use MySpace, but that requires increased supervision by the friend’s parents. MySpace damage must be discussed and taken seriously.

I spoke with an Edmond parent earlier this summer whose 8th grade daughter spends 2.5 hours EACH NIGHT on Facebook. The daughter does not talk with friends on the phone, she does not use IM or email, she uses Facebook. How many kids are “out there” like this? A lot. As parents, are we going to try and ban our children from EVER being on a social networking website of ANY kind, regardless of their age? I certainly agree that depending on the age of a child, social networking sites like MySpace are NOT appropriate. Like other issues which come up in parenting, decisions have to be made based on a variety of factors including the age and maturity of the child. Like it or not, however, we DO live in a media-centric society in which the Internet is playing an ever more important role. Google HAS and continues to create an electronic porfolio about every single one of us. The question should NOT be whether or not, as a parent, you are going to allow your child at some point to establish an online presence, instead it should be WHEN are you going to start encouraging your child to proactively and responsibly manage their online identity which will likely be one of the most important factors future employers take into consideration both before and after formal job interviews?

We must cultivate digital ethics as digital citizens. No, that is likely NOT one of your assigned state standards, but it is imperative to address with your own students as well as your own children in the months ahead none-the-less.

There are many more issues which this episode from Oprah raised and continues to raise, but I think I will close here. It was very worthwhile to watch this segment with my wife and discuss it at length. I wish, like the PBS Frontline special “Growing Up Online,” Oprah would choose to make the full-length video of that episode viewable for free online. While I still maintain we need to focus on constructive ways to address these issues and not merely point out the problems, there IS great value in catalyzing conversations about these issues– and Oprah certainly does that well in this case as well as others. The key is the ongoing CONVERSATION and dialog about these issues. Our need for “digital dialog” is the reason I started the Digital Dialog Ning many months ago. In the months ahead, I hope conversations will continue there and elsewhere about these issues and the ways we can address them as parents, educators, and community members. From these conversations can come actions, which can and will change the world in tangible ways for those we are able to influence in our own lives and contexts.

Technorati Tags:
webcam, porn, pornography, oprah, dialog, parent, parenting, education, school, myspace, safety, internetsafety, isafety, ethics, social, networking, socialnetworking, facebook

The Webkinz display area at a local JC Penny’s store in Oklahoma City today looked pretty impressive at first glance.

As my own children explored and examined the Webkinz pets available for sale, however, they discovered the following LARGE number of pets had been pillaged.

Their unique Internet access codes had been removed from the plastic pouches attached to the animals, or cut/ripped off entirely. The codeless animals which had been identified by sales staff as missing their code had been marked down half price. Hopefully well-intentioned adults wanting to purchase a Webkinz pet for a child will realize that without an Internet code, a Webkinz pet is no different from a “plain” stuffed animal. No Internet code, no Webkinz web access.

On a related note, thanks to Maria Knee’s suggestion in a podcast posted by Bob Sprankle last year, I used the Webkinz website several times last year in talks I shared with students about Internet safety and online social networking. Many students are learning about online safety issues contextually through Webkinz and other tween social networking websites. In several cases, students I asked to share their experiences on Webkinz (particularly with accounts they had lost control of because of simple or shared passwords) provided the most potent and memorable moments during these presentations.

It’s sad to see prolific evidence of Webkinz thefts like we did today at the mall. My kids all understood we were seeing the evidence of crimes committed at the store, which were just like shoplifting.

Technorati Tags:
webkinz, theft, steal, ethics, shoplift, jcpenny, mall

This podcast features interviews with 14 year old Solana and 8 year old Jack who share their perceptions and ideas relating to reading, writing, literacy, technology use, gaming and publishing on the global stage of the Internet. Solana has had her own computer since she was eight, and with the help of her father found the website KidPub to publish and share her own stories, poems, and other creative writing projects. KidPub requires that parents pay a small fee (about $12) per year for kids to participate and have an account. This prevents people from creating free accounts and commenting on others’ work without accountability and attribution. Solana discusses how motivational she has found KidPub and the opportunity to share her voice with others on the Internet, problems encountered with plagiarism and the ways the KidPub community self-polices itself, and the exciting connection she had made with other students who have taken one of her published novels (with permission) and started to create a movie based on the story on YouTube. Solana also discusses what she has learned about computers and technology at school compared to what she has learned at home, including her experiences using Diigo and trying to collaborate with other kids. She discusses things she would change (if she could) about technology use and Internet access at school so she could extend and further develop her technology skills there. She also discusses her experiences with online safety, accessing websites like YouTube and extending her searches beyond engines like AskJeeves to Google, and her experiences with inappropriate content which she has accidentally stumbled upon when doing Internet searches. She also discusses issues related to social networking and directly contacting other kids online. In addition to Solana’s comments, 8 year old Jack discusses the ways he uses computers at home primarily to play strategic games. (Note: The names Solana and Jack are aliases used at the request of the parents.)

 

 Podcast261: Student Perspectives on Reading, Writing, Literacy, Technology Use, Gaming and Publishing on the Global Stage of the Internet [43:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (770)

Show Notes:

1. KidPub - a website used by young authors to publish and share their stories, poems, and other writing on the global stage of the Internet
2. Scholastic 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report
3. Alone in the Middle Chapter 1 (original story written and published by Solana on KidPub)
4. Alone in the middle (behind the scenes) part 1 (YouTube video - Tells the story of using MS Paint, MovieMaker, and YouTube to publish a film version of Solana’s story from KidPub)
5. Alone in the Middle (Paragraph 1) - 1st Paragraph of “Alone in the Middle” in film / video version on YouTube
6. The Sims2 (official website)
7. Savannah Outen Official Goodbyes Video - Songwriter and Singer who brokeout from YouTube to Radio Disney
8. GIMP - Open Source Photo Editing Software
9. SeaShore - Macintosh port of GIMP which does not require X11
10. ASUS - Eee PC
11. Intel Classmate PC
12. Dawn of War game
13. Command and Conquer 3 game
14. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) game (WikiPedia article)
15. Cheat Codes WikiPedia definition

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Technorati Tags: technology, publishing, writing, reading, kid, kids, student, students, youth, literacy, publication, kidpub, games

I participated in an extremely positive and energizing panel discussion today at NECC 2008 organized by Pearson Education. Participants included Jo McLeay, Cheryl Oakes, Joyce Valenza, Chris Lehmann, Lucy Gray, Julie Lindsey, and Vicki Davis. Elaine Roberts of Pearson told us we would be able to have an audio copy of our discussion, and I hope to share that here as a podcast in upcoming weeks. I was truly inspired and motivated to continue immersing myself in the work of helping learners of all ages create, collaborate, share, and grow together.

I took some scattered notes during the session, and I will attempt to summarize and reflect many of the points made by participants in this post. One of the most important takeaways for me from this panel discussion, however, was something that’s been on my mind for many weeks. Self-directed professional development is one of the keys to helping both teachers and students THRIVE in the 21st century. Kevin Honeycutt talked a bit about differentiation and self-directed professional development in the leadership session at EduBloggerCon on Friday, captured in this video:

I shared a presentation with some Oklahoma educators studying to be librarians on the Friday right after Christmas last year. Vicki Davis’ exhortation in our panel today that we STOP “binge professional development” reminded me of those days in December. After those sessions, in January, I was contacted by one of the teachers who wanted me to come present at her school on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I already had another presentation commitment so I was not able to come. Her response floored me, however. She said:

That’s really too bad you can’t come. This day [Jan 20, 2008] is the last day of professional development our teachers will have all year.

What?! How crazy is that? As educators we need to be engaging in professional development (both formally and informally) every week of the school year. I know all teachers are overloaded and have far too much on their plates already, but having NO professional development scheduled for the last four months of the school year? That struck me as sad and tragic.

Two of the most important things offered by the FREE K-12 Online Conference, in my view, are:

1. The opportunity to engage in self-directed professional development.
2. The opportunity to enlarge one’s personal learning network and community.

A big part of “the learning revolution” is the ability we now have, as educators, to engage in self-directed professional development at almost any time. We no longer have to wait for our school district or campus leader to schedule a formal day of PD to learn new knowledge and skills. Of course good teachers have never waited for those “formal” opportunities to learn and grow as an educator and learner, but the opportunities we have to be self-directed in our professional development are certainly better than ever today. That was one of my primary takeaways from our panel discussion today. Here are some other thought-provoking ideas I jotted down during our conversations.

Vicki: Don’t do clandestine web 2.0 activities in your classroom. Be in constant, open communication with your campus administrator, as well as with parents.

Chris: What would happen if you invited the world to your school?
- you hear lots of fear, uncertainly and doubt all around us
- at SLA, all our web content is hosted off the main district network to the relief of the IT department
- by banning all the technology tools from our students at school, we deny ourselves the opportunity and right to be in the conversations with our kids

Joyce: Many of these [tools and websites] are animals no one has ever seen before!
- Like it or not, Facebook has gone viral
- In discussing WikiPedia, we should discuss what tools are most appropriate for the information tasks before us. The example of the London Bombings and WikiPedia is powerful: Right after the bombings, WikiPedia was a better source of information than the BBC.
- What is the best place for information at the time we need it?
- WikiPedia is a better source for “American Idol” than other resources in your library
- WikiPedia provides a good jumping-off point for different topics (with external links at the bottom of each article)
- many information decisions are “fuzzier” than they might have been in the past, but helping students navigate and make these fuzzy decisions is an essential part of our role as 21st century educators
- Key question: How do you judge the information?
- Conservapedia is a wiki-based encyclopedia written from a conservative viewpoint [I HAD NOT HEARD OF THIS BEFORE. I FIND THE WEBSITE'S ASSERTION IT IS "THE TRUSTWORTHY ENCYCLOPEDIA" TO BE VERY INTERESTING.]

We must keep moving forward in our learning and growth

Chris: We ALL need to be scholars, thinkers, and activists
- Why not what?
- Why is this an either / or question? Couldn’t this be either / and?

Vicki: I see the worldview of my students changing
- As a teacher, we need to play before we produce [WITH TECHNOLOGY TOOLS]

Some teachers think putting homework assignments online is enabling kids to be lazy

Joyce:
- We are teaching kids how to use iGoogle to create their calendars and use digital tools to be responsible

Cheryl is a collaborative content coach at her school

Cheryl: How do kids coach each other with games? With “cheats”

Vicki: First steps to a flatter classroom:
1- Connect yourself
2- Connect to your administration
3- Connect your classroom

MY THOUGHT: WE ALL NEED TO GET ON THE “GLOBAL EDUCATION” MARDI GRAS FLOAT

Joyce: We use wikis to create pathfinders for students [HERE'S A LINK TO JOYCE'S VIRTUAL LIBRARY WEBSITE]

Jo: Clarence Fisher had taught his students to speak of “First Nation” peoples, there was a misunderstanding on student blogs with her Australian students who wrote about “Indians” but were speaking of people in India
- Clarence also teaches his students to comment on other student blogs with questions, leading to more dialog

Chris: What is the worst consequence of your best idea?
- NY Post Syndrome: If something bad happens, it will be a headline tomorrow

Joyce: The Wiki is “the killer app”
Chris: a blog is a tool for reading content over time

Vicki: The reason DNA was unlocked so quickly was because scientists collaborated
- our kids need to use collaboration tools and learn these skills today

Lucy: How do we help schools be more brave? [SCHOOL LEADERS: TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS]

Joyce: The key characteristic of a wiki which is transformative is that it makes everyone a publisher

My definition of transparent technology: Using digital technology tools like pencils, the chalkboard, and the overhead are used today

Vicki: Techno-personal skills are vital
- dehumanization of other people happens all the time now online

Chris: As Postman noted, some technology is truly transformative, not merely additive

Vicki credits her husband using the term: “touch every page teaching” [THIS REMINDS ME OF WHAT IAN JUKES CALLS A CURRICULUM THAT IS A MILE WIDE AND AN INCH DEEP]

Chris: President Johnson’s Secretary of Education in 1964 was asked about a national curriculum, and said he thought it should be kept as broad as possible

My thought: Today in the United States we place faith in standards, not faith in teachers. This must change.

My comment quoting Kevin Honeycutt: We need a “do” curriculum in all content areas, not just music, art, and shop class

Vicki: The “Schools of Excellence” movement is not accommodating children with special needs
- students need help delineating social versus professional online behavior

My thought: Hyperlinked writing is the most powerful form of writing, and provides one of the most important aspects of complexity in writing for a global audience. There is great power as well as responsibility when you link to the ideas of another. Like my 4 year old learning to swim, we need to actually get in the water and SWIM when it comes to online social networking. It is dangerous, but we need to learn together. We can’t learn authentically if we are not getting wet.

Technorati Tags:
necc2008, necc, necc08, literacy, pearson, panel, learning, education, research, reform

This podcast is a recording of the keynote address shared by Kevin Honeycutt at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008. The TTT conference is hosted by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas located in Hutchinson. Kevin is one of the most innovative and passionate educators I know, and is a compelling storyteller. He is able to masterfully focus educators not only on issues related to learning and educational technology integration, but even more importantly on the vital role teachers play each day forming and strengthening relationships with students. Kevin reminds me about what matters most in the classroom and in education, and that is students. Many thanks to Kevin for sharing permissiosn to podcast this session, as well as the entire ESSDACK staff for hosting a fantastic conference last week in Wichita. Be sure to also check out the Ning social network which Kevin facilitates, titled Art Snacks. (Links are available in the podcast shownotes.)

 

 Podcast258: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning by Kevin Honeycutt [44:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (969)

Show Notes:

1. Kevin Honeycutt (website, blog and podcast)
2. Art Snacks (Ning Social Network facilitated by Kevin)
3. Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning Conference
4. Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK)
5. My Flickr photos of the infamous Honeycutt treehouse in Inman, Kansas

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Technorati Tags: school, education, reform, schoolreform, school2, leadership, learning, vision, ESSDACK, ttt08, ttt2008, essdack, kansas, literacy

These are my notes from Kevin Honeycutt’s breakout session titled “” at the TTT conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008. Kevin’s online safety website is mysafesurf.org. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I’m recording this session to share as a podcast later. My notes from Kevin’s keynote this morning are also available. Kevin’s main website is kevinhoneycutt.org.

How I got into talking about online safety
- listening to Terry Aftab?

Even good kids will do bad things when they think no one is watching
- even adults
- people shouldn’t have a secret life, it doesn’t lead to good things
- we’ve
- parents treat the computer like a child’s diary and that is a mistake

do you ever become your own parent?

Had an experience with my son where he quickly closed the lid on his laptop when interrupted, and said it was “none of my business” what he was looking at
- we started the conversation that we should have had before we got online

the world has changed more in our generation than in any other generation in human history
- where is the curriculum for online behavior in schools?

we have to get to the playground whether we understand it or not, and identify the rusty edges

there is no lazy way to do this
- you have to ask questions
- who are you chatting with online?

lazy parents raised kids with television in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s
- TV is a push technology
- computer technologies are push/pull
- they are amazingly sticky

book: Made to stick (about sticky learning) - Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath

For a long time I made the mistake of teaching the tool rather than teaching WITH the tool
- there is not curricula around “pencils”
- we need to stay experts with our tools

web 1.0: I have a website, 1 way delivery

web 2.0: asking for your opinion, join my social learning network
- asking for your input, it becomes a conversation

ever watched your kid playing a game and you have trouble staying up/ keeping up/ understanding
- kids have no fear of software
- we are slowed down by legacy code and experiences: blue screen of death

wired kid research indicates some kids can make 110 decisions per minute (not necessarily good decisions tho)
- our kids don’t necessarily think before they click

video: Panasonic Ideas for Life video

classrooms were designed by people who have the most keys in the school
- space between desks is there because you can fit a broom between the desks
- that has nothing to do with learning or what is best for kids or teachers

kids in the middle of the room are policymakers
- kids in middle can go either way
- kids in the back are disengaged

did you learn proximity in teacher education
- assertive discipline: hand on your shoulder
- workshops actually taught repetition in commands to students

there should never be worse than a second row seat in any classroom in education
- do theater in the round

how do we take kids from the back of our rooms and get them to participate, get a front row seat

now showing “Introducing the Book”

have a room full of tense teachers
- love on them first
- then help them have fun (if you don’t have them laughing soon, you’ve failed)

Game skills translate to real world skills
Ever since our kids have been, there have been computers

Dan Pink: the rise of the creative economy
- people buying a designer plunger

Outsourcing and the death of education

are we teaching our kids to build creative, experience-based products in our schools
- are our schools promoting creativity?
- in the majority of schools, adults are dictating what students are expected to do

we all think creative is fun, but do we have time for it?

idea of “consolidation”
- when your dream consolidates the new things you learn, new things are looking for places to attach
- how much unstructured time do we have in schools today?
- adults concerned about wasting too much time letting kids play

divorcing learning from play

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
- I am on my 7th time reading through the book
- this book has changed my life
- key: NOVELTY

creating uncertainty in the classroom creates great opportunities for learning

Friedman talking about fungible and non-fungible jobs
- what jobs can be outsourced?

is teaching and learning fungible?
- depends on your vision?

If your brother is in Iraq, Skype matters

How many of you using Google Docs?

We need balance in our lives
- lost children, whose parents don’t come to parent conferences
- just like you shouldn’t eat all pudding
- the web puts out a buffet of options, but our kids are eating the napkins
- they have the library of congress at their fingertips and they are reading about Britney Spears
- we’re not helping kids get a balanced diet

THESE ARE IMPORTANT ISSUES TO DISCUSS IN THE CONTEXT OF ONLINE SAFETY FOR SURE

Kevin’s ideals for PBL on his website

I THINK GARY STAGER SHOULD ARRANGE FOR KEVIN HONEYCUTT TO GET A SCHOLARSHIP TO STUDY AT MIT FOR HIS DOCTORATE…

We’ve got to start having these conversations with kids at an early age

cyber golden rule: don’t do anything online you wouldn’t do face to face

My mom is hooked on the Internet because of geneology and research

If the web is going to define
- take control of your virtual image
- why do these pictures keep showing up

what kids call a “hottie” picture we used to call slutty

story of a grandparent whose grandchild shared a compromising photo and ruined her local reputation…

Cyberbullying
- kids reaction to bullying has never been good
- now for many reasons people are saying it is worse: no escape, not a safe haven

Teenagers: the quest for a frontal lobe… (What were they thinking?)
- by 18 girls are developing executive function (frontal coretex)
- boys marry one (develop that ability slower)
- kids are making takeoffs and landings and their is no one in the air traffic control tower!
- we’ve got to be up in their grill

Technorati Tags:
ttt08, ttt2008, safety, online, internet, students, honeycutt, kevinhoneycutt

This podcast is a recording of a presentation shared with approximately 300 eighth grade students in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, on March 26, 2008. Our topics were Internet safety and safe online social networking. I was the final speaker in Kingfisher for a day of presentations focusing on health and safety issues organized by the school counselors in Kingfisher and nearby school districts. It is quite challenging to address 300 eighth graders for almost an hour right after lunch, at the end of their learning day! (Note that in the introduction, the speaker erroneously stated I taught courses at Texas Tech University. That was incorrect. My only higher education teaching experience (to date) was for Wayland Baptist University in Lubbock, Texas.)

 

 Podcast256: Internet Safety and Safe Social Networking Presentation for Kingfisher 8th Graders [55:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (872)

Show Notes:

1. Safe Digital Social Networking (my wiki resources)
2. Internet Safety for Parents (my wiki resources)
3. Videos related to Internet safety and social networking (scroll down the page)
4. School Confiscates Cell Phones After Nude Photos of Junior High Girls Circulate (21 May 2008 - Galveston County, Texas)
5. Kingfisher Public Schools (Oklahoma)

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Technorati Tags: internet, safety, internetsafety, social, networking, socialnetworking, students, health, school, myspace, youtube

Does anyone know of a FREE, good, Windows-based software program than can burn AVI video files into DVDs? The program needs to both convert the AVI files and burn them to DVD. (If two programs are needed to do these tasks separately that is OK, but it would be nice if these could be done by the same program.) I know people who use Nero for their DVD video burning on the Windows side but it is commercial. There are open source Linux-based programs for this, but I do not know of a Windows-based software option that others I know have used and can vouch for as malware-free. (A very important issue when looking for downloadable Windows-based software.)

I have done all my DVD authoring to date with iDVD, and plan to continue doing so, but I have a friend who is looking for a free Windows-based solution to convert and burn some AVI files he’s created with a camcorder to DVD. I posted this awhile back to our COV forum but didn’t get a response.

In hunting for a possible software solution for this, I turned to del.icio.us and with a “dvd software avi free” search found the program Avi2Dvd. (752 folks have saved this page to date in del.icio.us.) The homepage includes multiple award links at the bottom, including one from softpedia.com (a reputable site I have used before, recognize and trust) which certifies the software is malware free.

This process of locating software and then trying to verify if it is indeed malware free is VERY important, and something which is worth discussing with both teachers and students. In many cases today in U.S. public schools, computers are locked down to prevent users (non-administrators) from installing new programs. Malware dangers are one of the primary reasons for this. At home, however, teachers and students are generally free to download and install new programs on their own. P2P software is notorious for including various types of malware, but programs claiming to be video and DVD burning software also often include malware. In striving to help equip ourselves and others to be saavy and responsible digital citizens, it is important to discuss these issues and help others get comfortable with the process of verifying the SAFETY of a particular software program to install on their computer system.

In using friends’ computers running Windows Vista lately (I know, friends shouldn’t let friends use Windows Vista, and I do what I can…) I’ve noticed that Microsoft has integrated more warnings about installing software which has not been officially certified by Microsoft. Mac OS X 10.5.2 now also integrates a warning when a user tries to open an executable file / installer which was downloaded from the Internet:

These operating system features are good and needed, but the bottom line is that users need to make decisions and choices about what to install or avoid when it comes to software applications. In K12 schools, the focus of IT departments is often to limit trouble tickets by locking down systems and limiting the installation and configuration options available to users. This is understandable, but that context is not universal. In addition to home computers, many more students and teachers/instructors (especially in higher education) are bringing laptops to class on which they have administrative installation rights. As educators, discussing malware and software installation issues with students is important if we want to help students become SAFE lifelong, digital learners.

If you have a recommendation for AVI to DVD burning software that fits the above requirements (and you are NOT a vendor of said program) please let me know by commenting here.

Technorati Tags:
safety, software, windows, avi, dvd, burning, free, freeware, malware, citizenship, digitalcitizenship

This evening after I removed wireless encryption from our home network to accommodate our new XO laptop, I started reviewing the wireless router logs on our Airport Express router and access point to see if any previously unknown or unwelcome visitors were attached to and using our wireless network. Using the Airport Utility application on my Macbook (which is also available for Windows computers, incidentally) I was surprised to see three devices attached to our wireless network with assigned IP addresses. We should have just had TWO devices attached: my laptop and my son’s. The following image shows the current DHCP leases for our router, which are set to expire after 4 hours. An entry can remain in this list after a device is turned off, but the middle tab on this menu shows the currently attached wireless clients (by MAC address only, not IP address as in this menu) and it also showed three currently connected devices:

Before I detail this situation further, I would like to address the reasonable question “Why should I care if my neighbors are on my wifi connection?” Most likely, if your neighbor accesses the Internet through your connection nothing bad is going to happen. HOWEVER, in the event that person chooses to do something illegal and their web activity is traced back to your home IP address, law enforcement officials could reasonably come knocking on your door. That was one of many messages shared by Larry Boggess of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) last week at a workshop on Internet Safety hosted by the Oklahoma Library Association. Protecting yourself from being blamed for the illegal online activities of others is one big reason to have secure encryption on your home wifi connection. Another reason is to prevent a hacker attack: If someone is able to attach their computer to your home wifi network, they can use software to “sniff” all the packets passing through your router to and from the Internet, and even intercept your usernames and passwords for websites that do not use SSL encryption (passwords sent in the clear.) Identity theft is a real issue and a growing problem everywhere. According to Oklahoma policeman Kenneth Tidwell, there were over 17,000 cases of identity theft in Oklahoma alone last year and that number is growing fast. Companies like LifeLock are NOT emulating “Chicken Little:” Identity theft is a REAL problem that is only getting worse as more and more transactions take place via the web.

When I saw what appeared to be an unknown device attached to our network, I suspected that a neighbor might have attached his/her computer to our wifi network. To get more information, I accessed the router logs in our Airport Express. I was distressed to see repeated attempts (apparently) to gain administrative access to either the router itself or a computer on our home network:

After I saw this abnormality, I restored the WPA2 password to our router/access point and restarted it. I was very surprised, however, to see the same three MAC addresses of wireless devices again appear in the status window.

As a result, I changed the SSID (network name) of our wifi network and made it a CLOSED network, which means it is hidden from most casual surfers looking for available wireless networks. I also changed the password. After making these changes, the unknown MAC address / wireless computer did NOT successfully reconnect to our network and obtain an IP address, but the mysterious “access denied” messages continued. Several Google searches for the words in the router log turned up this discussion page, which included users suggesting that by turning off the IPv6 configuration in the network system preference (control panel) this error message could be stopped. I turned off IPv6 on my computer, and this mysterious error log message did NOT recur. So…

I’m inclined to think this was a false alarm, in terms of thinking a neighbor had gained access to our home wifi network and was trying to hack into either our router or a computer on our network. It is strange, however, that a device with a different MAC address and its own IP address showed up in our router’s status page. I wish there was a GUI installation for MRTG, or a similar free application which does not require terminal commands to configure with an Airport Express on a network supporting all Mac clients. Router logs need to get MUCH easier to understand and use, IMHO. It’s important for home users to be able to utilize and interpret these, especially when it comes to monitoring the authorized and unauthorized use of a home Internet connection. Unfortunately OpenDNS (which we use at home) does not log information about MAC addresses and IP addresses connected to and utilizing your network. Perhaps this is functionality they could add as additional available statistics.

Do you utilize software or hardware tools to monitor access to your home wireless network? If there are simpler and better ways to do this, I’d love to know about them. It is still a mystery to me why a third wireless device was apparently attached to our network this evening. When I “pinged” the mysterious IP address, it returned packets like a “normal” computer would… I think:

Perhaps the IPv6 configuration setting on my computer caused another IP address to be assigned to my Macbook by the DHCP router? I don’t think this was the case, but it would be fairly amazing if one of our neighbors just happened to jump on our wifi network a few hours after I disabled encryption on it for the first time in over a year.

The big relief is that it doesn’t appear someone was trying to “hack” into our network from the outside– these log entries were apparently a result of a misconfiguration or glitch in the router software as it interacts with IPv6 packets.

Technorati Tags:
wifi, wireless, security, home, access, apple, airport, express, mrtg, intrusion

I continue to be a vocal advocate of web-based digital storytelling tools which primarily use still images and audio narration, like VoiceThread, but the growing availability of web-based video editing and animation creation environments may entice me to begin experimenting with web-based digital stories which go beyond narrated slideshows. One difficulty with all these websites is categorizing them to understand what functionalities they provide. Obviously a lot of these sites have been created primarily for entertainment, but there are lots of potential educational possibilities for some of these tools as well. In this post, I’ll attempt to categorize video websites which provide different types of remixing and editing in addition to “plain” hosting.

Before I examine different video editing and remixing website options, I’d like to reflect briefly on the importance of educational leaders modeling the use web video for their communities. YouTube may be blocked in your own local school district, but there are a few signs that user-created, web-based video is becoming more accepted in some educational environments. An example is the video page for the new president of Oklahoma State University, V. Burns Hargis, which he has used this past spring semester to directly communicate with students, parents, faculty, staff, and other college community constituents. This type of leadership and example from a university President is both refreshing and wonderful, since it provides tangible examples of the constructive ways web video can be used for learning, communication, and outreach. There may be a wealth of web video options available online, but if all of them are blocked from teacher and student access in our K-12 schools, their existence means very little during the school day. Hopefully we’ll see even more educational leaders here in Oklahoma and elsewhere follow the lead of President Hargis in demonstrating the positive ways these tools can be used for learning and constructive communication.

YouTube is currently the best-known video hosting website, but is just one of many. YouTube permits users to rate videos and comment on them, and contributors can add videos directly with their webcam or by uploading a previously created and edited video. To my knowledge, YouTube does not (yet anyway) permit online video editing. Users can reply or respond to videos submitted by others or videos they’ve previously submitted themselves, leading to hyperlinked, asynchronous, multi-node video conversations. Those are a lot of adjectives to get your head around when it comes to web videos! It’s amazing to realize these sorts of multimedia interactions have just become mainstream in the past couple of years. The wide adoption of the Flash plugin into web browsers has accelerated the dynamic growth of web video. Competing formats like QuickTime and Windows Media are still strong, but flash-based videos dominate the current marketplace for user-created and shared web videos.

Flickr has started to support video, but limits uploads to just 90 seconds and only Pro (paying) users can contribute videos. I love posting images to Flickr, and use it almost every day, but I have not yet added any videos to my account. VoiceThread has been supporting video comments for awhile now, but I haven’t tried using it yet either. YET. In our joint presentation Thursday in Richardson, Texas, titled “Web 2.0 Tools Which Can Be Used For Assessing Student Learning” (available as an archived video on Ustream) Vicki Allen shared the VoiceThread example “What Will Grow?” At the start of this VoiceThread, the teacher (Wm Chamberlain) created a video comment with his webcam to provide instructions for a student assignment. This is the first example of a webcam being used in this way for a classroom assignment that I’ve seen on VoiceThread.

A more limited number of websites currently permit actual video editing. The three of which I am aware that provide this functionality are JumpCut, EyeSpot, and Motionbox. I should probably volunteer to teach a workshop or offer a presentation on these tools in the fall so I’ll be forced by a deadline to play with and learn about these sites. To date, however, I haven’t attempted to edit video online.

In addition to permitting online video editing, a growing number of video sharing sites permit tagging and bookmarked commenting within videos. Viddler is one example of a site which permits this.

Jason Kincaid shared a post recently about some other web-based video sites which provide still another type of functionality. I’ve seen JibJab previously, which lets users insert a cropped image of their head or someone else to make amusing (potentially amusing, anyway) flash-based animations. (Remember the dancing elf card someone sent you last Christmas? They probably made it with JibJab.) Jason mentioned some other websites in his post, however, which go beyond the simple greeting card or online joke creativity threshold of JibJab. Fuzzwich’s animator looks like an intriguing environment to merge images and videos to create original web-based animations. This preview screeencast gives a good overview:

Shapeshifter by Aniboom permits users to create web-based animations using simple shapes– all in an online web environment. If you’ve ever tried to create even a simple animation with Adobe Flash you’ll likely be amazed (as I am) about how easy websites like Aniboom and Fuzzwich are making this process!

Animoto is another video creation website I’ve used a bit, but so far it seems to be in a class by itself. Animoto allows users to submit images and music to have a short video created automatically with some impressive special effects. I wrote about Animoto in my September post, “No time to make a video? No problem with Animoto!” While the results of a few mouse clicks with Animoto can be entertaining and even amazing, as is the case with all multimedia in schools and learning environments, we should remain wary to not be awed by bells and whistles. “Lots of bells and whistles do not a critical thinker make.”

For better or for worse, the availability of webcams, video editing software and websites, and video sharing sites will continue to invite the creation and sharing of inappropriate as well as appropriate content on the global stage of the Internet. I’ve recently amended my now-standard Internet safety / safe online social networking discussions during presentations to move beyond “pencils and pens” and the choices we can make with them. Instead of just having audience members brainstorm (for about 30 seconds) the good and bad choices we could make with a pencil, I have started recording a short, live video using QuickTime Pro and then challenged folks to think of all the good and bad choices I could choose to make with a webcam. We don’t need to ask for many volunteers to get the idea out in the open that people certainly can (and are) using webcams and web videos for destructive, offensive purposes. Yet those negative examples should not entirely color and define our perceptions of web video.

Websites like Ustream.tv and justin.tv not only permit live and archived sharing of formal presentations at conferences (like mine from ESC10 this past week) but also permit “lifecasting.” The English WikiPedia currently defines “lifecasting” as:

a continual broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media. Typically, lifecasting is transmitted through the medium of the Internet and can involve wearable technology. Lifecasting reverses the concept of surveillance, giving rise to sousveillance through portability, personal experience capture, daily routines and interactive communication with viewers.

In our media-drenched society, which grows ever more replete with digitally interactive environments and opportunities, it is absolutely essential that we focus our attention on the critical goal of helping students develop their own capacities for ethical decision making. Digital citizenship may not be on your state’s list of formal curriculum standards, but it is none-the-less an essential topic of discussion and debate for learners of all ages in the 21st century.

Alan Levine’s amazing wiki project “50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story” lists even more sites than those I’ve referenced here for creating online digital stories. He categorizes tools in the following groups:

1. Slideshow Tools
2. Timeline Tools
3. Mixer Tools
4. Comic Tools
5. Map Tools
6. Flickr Tools / Ideas
7. Audio Tools
8. Video Tools
9. Presentation Tools
10. New Tools

This is an amazing list and a helpful taxonomy to use when considering the different tools available for digital storytelling. If you are organizing a professional development event this summer (in the northern hemisphere) or winter (in the southern hemisphere) consider an activity in which teachers use some of these tools to create and share their own stories.

Experience is generally a much more persuasive and valuable teacher than bulleted lists in a PowerPoint presentation. To help other educators learn the value and practical “step by step” procedures for using tools like those mentioned in this post for digital storytelling, we can’t just talk the talk. We have to walk the walk, and provide opportunities for teachers to USE these tools AS STUDENTS in learning environments which closely mirror the sorts of interactive, project-based environments we HOPEFULLY want teachers to create in our classrooms with students.

Technorati Tags:
education, video, learning, storytelling, digitalstorytelling, youtube, voicethread, jumpcut, eyespot

The following ideas were brainstormed results from our Oklahoma Library Association sponsored workshop on Internet Safety issues today in Midwest City. I primarily referenced my wiki curriculum “Internet Safety and Social Networking for Parents”, but also referenced resources from “Safe Digital Social Networking (DSN) -or- Proactive Approaches to Address Cyberbullying and Digital Social Networking.” My text notes from Larry Boggess of OSBI’s presentation “Internet Crimes” are available and I will subsequently post the audio recording from his preso here as a podcast. I was thrilled to meet Joel Gabel of Google from their new Pryor/Tulsa office today, and my text notes from his presentation “Internet Safety Issues” are also available.

Top Issues, Concerns and Questions:
1.In a public school teachers have a captive space, in a library kids are not captive - you have to get creative to get kids to participate!
2.How do you keep up?
3.I want kids to be safe online as a parent and librarian, but I am not sure I know how to do that, or my role?
4.balancing safety and access
5.our constituents are our staff, the public, patrons, legislators: educating all about the role of a public library
6.how do we get seasoned professionals to see the value? (we referenced the diffusion of innovations graph)
7.Internet is ever changing / dynamic, how can we monitor the changes without becoming obsolete?
8.how do we fit this in with how we spend our time at work? (what is appropriate and not appropriate )
9.Classrooms are different: captive audience, year long relationship – librarians are in a different situation, how do we make an impact in our role?
10.Chat rooms and filtering are big issues: want to close down chats in some cases
11.People watching out for the children: it is not part of library policy but is a moral or social issue
12.No cheese with the whine
13.electronic gaming: hard to keep up, kids taking over the computer room
14.people have moved their role (CIPA) from protecting from objectionable content to keeping kids productive / on task
15.importance of boundaries and communication, texting, gaming
16.considering having teens make a social networking account (We discussed how a moderated and managed/controlled social networking environment like ning.com could be preferable to just having kids setup a MySpace page. We also discussed the importance of parent permission and getting signed forms for participation from them as well as kids.)
17.we may have to break bad habits
18.boundaries are so important: cell phone example, parents wanting that contact

Internet Safety Education & Outreach Options (menu choices):
1.make it a cause
2.virtual worlds in our summer teens program, could sneak it in!
3.more specific teen programming, giving teens a reason to come (getting teens to teach)
4.setting up a ning or other social network for librarians (celebrateoklahoma.ning.com)
5.workshop for parents on iSafety (maybe PSAs created by the kids and published on YouTube)
6.to help participants in workshops process information and ideas: updates that are needed to their computer system (reaching out to seniors)
7.workshop idea: aimed at parents, get knowledgeable speakers, have people give the dark side and scare people, but also look at the good and the positive (don’t just hear 1 side)
8.low tech: provide bookmarks and flyers
9.netiquette class about digital citizenship
10.oral history project idea
11.demand for adult computer classes
12.voicethread.com
13.Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project
14.Genealogy project workshops in the library!

Additional items:
- The online timer we used
- VoiceThread

Technorati Tags:
safety, internet, oklahoma, library, librarian, outreach, parent, education, kids, schools