But what did you learn? Did you catch that spark? Did you have an ah-ha moment? I’m out of the classroom and able to talk education experts. Here are my ah-ha moments:

1. How to tame out-of-control parent volunteers. I had a parent volunteer who tried to take over the school newspaper I was advising. She was a well intentioned person, but being the wife of an editor didn’t make her an editor. An election made her a school board member, though. You can imagine how difficult it was to manage her.
   Inside the School presenter Suzanne Tingley taught me that it’s best to have an idea of what you’d like the volunteer to do in the classroom and spell it out in writing. Include guidelines about privacy and safety. Ask the volunteer to sign the expectations sheet and commit to showing up at the same time every week. (How Can I Use My Classroom Volunteer Effectively?)
2. Don’t sugar coat bad news. Gavin disrupted class again today, so you held him after class to make a parent phone call. Tingley said in an online seminar that you might think you’re helping parents by sandwiching the bad news about his behavior between two not-so-bad things. You’re not. Mom has answered the phone at work and wants to end the painful phone call as soon as possible. Explain what Gavin did to merit the phone call and keep your words objective. Come to a solution with Mom and tell her how glad you are that the two of you can work together to help Gavin. End the call on a positive note, but also review the actions you’ll both take so both you and Mom are clear about what the problem was and how you’re going to solve it. (How to Give Feedback No One Wants to Hear, Dealing with Difficult Students, 2-part series)
3. Most students have used a cell phone to cheat. About one-in-three kids with a cell phone have used it to cheat, according to a Common Sense Media report. Two-thirds of students say they know other students who have used a cell phone to cheat. Many teens don’t understand that storing class notes on a cell phone and using the notes on a test is cheating. They think texting friends for an answer isn’t a serious offence and 20 percent say that’s not cheating at all. We’re never going to get rid of cell phones, so it’s clear that we need to educate students about cheating and its consequences.
4. Blended learning is coming. What’s blended learning? It’s blending the physical classroom with the virtual classroom. According to Inside the School presenter Curt Bonk, Ph.D., blended classes will have online resources, an online learning space, and an online ideas exchange among students and the teacher. Maybe your school is on the cutting edge of this and you’ve been using Moodle or Blackboard for years. If you haven’t, you will soon. (Prepare for Natural Disasters and Outbreaks with Blended Learning)
5. A little zaniness is O.K. The brain loves novelty; a little bit of zaniness will create a learning hook that your students won’t soon forget, Stanley Pogrow, Ed.D said in an Inside the School online seminar about Outrageous Teaching. As long as the outrageous part of the lesson meets an objective and involves the students in learning, it’s just fine. You don’t need to teach in a zany way every day, but a little bit benefits students. The bonus is that off-task behavior goes way down during an Outrageous Lesson. (Teaching Content Outrageously)
6. Good teaching is universal. Sandra Rief, author of How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD, visited our studio last fall to present three online seminars about teaching students with ADHD. Chunking up material, differentiated instruction, and providing opportunities for student interaction aren’t teaching strategies that just work with ADHD students; all students benefit from these strategies. It’s just good teaching. (ADHD and LD Training Series with Sandra Rief)
7. Front load. Prepare as much as you can in advance of everything. Make sure everyone is clear what the expectations are. Presenter Tingley said in her Dealing with Student Discipline online seminar that the best discipline plans are front loaded. The parents, students, teachers, and administration all understand the behavioral expectations up front, so there’s no question about what will happen if a student breaks a school rule. Front loading takes time to do, but saves time in the end. (Dealing with Student Discipline)
8. Teachers are important, too. Nathan Eklund, author of How Was Your Day at School? visited last winter to present online seminars about teacher morale. It’s common to hear teachers say they want to do What’s best for kids. Eklund says that we also need to consider the school as a workplace for teachers. How happy is the faculty? Are they burnt out? Teacher attitudes affect student performance. Ignoring the welfare of half of the learning equation isn’t smart policy. (Ways to Improve Staff Culture to Benefit Teaching and Learning)
9. Recognize accomplishments. In the latest Trends and Tudes newsletter from polling and research company Harris Interactive has information from the latest MetLife Survey of the American Teacher and the Scholastic/Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study.  What really caught my eye was an essay from a high school intern who had worked on the project. Amanda Welch of Rochester, NY, has noticed that the same 24 students receive academic awards in her school. Other students receive nothing. A student might be hardworking, really improving, or struggling to overcome learning disabilities, but Welch wrote that school doesn’t recognize their achievements.
   “When you try really hard and believe you are doing a good job, it is natural to want to be rewarded or recognized,” she wrote. “If schools begin recognizing underdogs who put forth their best effort, I think that there will be more students excelling because they will feel supported and satisfied. We want to walk across that stage at graduation (or even award ceremonies) with confidence, knowing that the people around us believe in us
10. Connections mean so much. Dr. Ivory Toldson of Howard University presented two online seminars for Inside the School based on his research about helping black males achieve. A recurring theme from his presentations, as well as Eklund’s, was that the personal connection is powerful. One teacher’s belief in a student can give that student belief in himself, Toldson said. Just one personal connection between a student and a teacher can help prevent behavior problems, too. Personal connections among teachers are also important, Eklund said. Those connections among colleagues keep teachers from feeling isolated in the classroom. (Breaking Barriers: Reducing Gang Violence, Improving Security and Creating a Culture of Learning in Schools)

Did you learn any teaching lessons this year? Maybe what you’ve learned is as simple as: keep track of the restroom pass. Whatever bits of wisdom you’ve garnered, share it in the comments!

Criminals are glad we feel that way. They enjoy sending us e-mail spam, and running phishing scams. Phishing (pronounced “fishing”) is a dishonest technique criminals use to trick computer users into giving out their passwords, bank account numbers, and other personal information. Phishers pose as institutions most users trust: banks, service providers like AOL, and even the IRS. Most users recognize a phishing attack and ignore it. I’m sure you know not to give your bank account numbers to a Nigerian prince who promises to split his fortune with you. If PayPal or the IRS sends you an e-mail without using your name or account number and misspells words, you know it’s a criminal phishing for your credit card number or password.

The phishers, like our digital technology, are evolving. Our school network security can alert us to suspicious sites or block them altogether. Our e-mail spam filters can catch suspicious e-mails and shady offers. However, a new kind of phishing has arrived: tabnapping.

Tabnapping. Aza Raskin wrote in his blog this week about tabnapping, which is a phishing technique that disguises your already open browser tabs to look like trustworthy sites. Here’s how it works: you have several browser tabs open and you’ve navigated away from an innocent-looking site to a different browser tab. The innocent-looking site is really a phishing site and its creators have programmed the site to recognize when you’re using another tab, but have left this innocent-looking tab open. With me so far?

While your attention is focused on CNN’s headlines or on Twitter, the phisher has poked around your CSS history and quietly changed its browser tab to a page you’d trust. The new phishing page might wear the disguise of your bank account login screen and pretend that you’ve been logged out. It could look like Gmail and invite you to login to check your messages. However, look closely. The favicon (icon next to the web address) might be that of your bank, but the URL is not. The browser tab might read Gmail, but the URL isn’t from Google. You’ve been tabnapped.

For a safe illustration of tabnapping, visit Raskin’s blog post and scroll down to the video. Watch the video and then click another browser tab. Watch Raskin’s browser tab for a few seconds and see it change to that of Gmail. Notice how the site’s heading and browser tab match Gmail’s. You might even see Gmail’s favicon. Look for the web address. It should be Raskin’s. If you click anywhere on the page, you’ll return to Raskin’s blog. He’s not phishing, he’s giving you a heads up.

What can you do? Eventually browsers and Internet security software will adapt to this new phishing technique. I plan to open a fresh browser tab every time I login to anything: the schools’ online grading software, my web-based e-mail, and my bank account. If a login screen is sitting innocently in a browser tab, I’m going to close it, even if I suspect I’d opened it earlier. Every time I log off a site like my electronic medical records or even my Facebook account, I plan to close the browser tab. It’s a pretty low-tech solution to a high-tech problem, but it’s better than giving out my school e-mail account to strangers or allowing phishers access to my bank account.

What do you think? What will you tell your students about this new online phishing tactic? How can you make sure that your information and that of your family, including your teen daughter, is protected? IT professionals: I invite you to weigh in on this topic, too!

Now as a parent, I race my daughter to the bathroom in the morning and I feel around her pillow at night for the contraband cell phone.

Cell phones. The fact is, kids are wired. I’m not talking junk food and Red Bull. In their dramatic teen way, 85 percent of our secondary students have a cell phone and they insist they’d just die without it. It’s their social outlet and nearly half of the kids in our school hallways say they their cell phone is the key to their social life.

And teens love to text and spend about 90 minutes a day doing it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation Study. They love it because it’s fast (42%), it’s stealthy (33%), and it’s fun (29%). (Harris Interactive, 2008) The problem is that over half of your students are doing it at school (65%). What’s worse is that a third of your class has used a cell phone at least once to cheat on a test (35%), yet they really don’t think it’s cheating (23%). (Common Sense Media, 2009)

Despite the trouble with cell phones, few recommend that students not have them. Teens report that they carry their phones everywhere with them not just to communicate, but for safety reasons (78%). They call someone for a ride (79%), call to help a friend who is in trouble (33%), and call for an emergency (18%). Cell phones are both a blessing and a curse. (Harris Interactive, 2008)

Social Networking. Social networking and cell phones are a closely tied. One-third of the nation’s secondary students have a smartphone that can browse the Web. When they’re on the ‘net, almost half of them are on a social networking site. (Harris Interactive, 2008)

When they’re on the computer, it’s likely they’re on a social media site, too. Ninety-two percent of kids socialize online and over half have made new friends online. Of those who have an online social life, just 1 in 4 are friending their parents. (Norton Online Living Report, 2009)

Despite friending their kids, parents have a tough time monitoring their children’s’ Internet use. Seven in 10 parents have Internet rules and their kids say they follow these rules 80 percent of the time. Most parents think it’s their responsibility to monitor their kids’ Internet use (90%) and 70 percent of them talk about online safety with their kids. But parents struggle with this (33%) because the Internet and other digital technologies weren’t around when they were kids.

We’ve all read the stories of cyberbullying and it is certainly a problem. About 30 percent of teens have reported being the victim of some kind of cyberbullying and about half have seen it online. Most of the cyberbullies knew their targets personally (84%), but just one in three victims knew who was bullying them. Over the course of a year, almost one in five secondary students were directly involved in cyberbullying. Of those kids, twelve percent were bullies, four percent were victims, and three percent were both. (Hinduja and Patchin, 2009)

Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, who run the Cyberbullying Research Center (http://www.cyberbullying.us), recently did a study and found that 1 out of 5 students reported contemplating suicide and about that many had actually attempted it. They write that their findings mesh with other suicide studies. When looking at bullying, they found both victims and aggressors were more likely to attempt suicide than their non-bullying peers. Victims of traditional bullying were 1.7 times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide and victims of cyberbullying were 1.9 times more likely to attempt it. Traditional bullies are 2.1 times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide and cyberbullies were 1.5 times more likely to attempt it. Although these numbers seem low and almost identical, the study authors write that any suicide attempt is one too many. (Hinduja and Patchin, 2010)

One principal’s response

In Ridgewood, N.J., middle school principal Anthony Orsini sent an e-mail to all of the students’ parents to encourage them to stop allowing their kids to be involved in social media. “It is time for every single member of the BF Community to take a stand!” Orsini wrote in the e-mail. “There is absolutely no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site.” (Brody and Coutros, 2010)

Orsini recommended that parents take action to make sure their children weren’t on social networking sites. Told parents to close out their kids’ social networking accounts, install Parental Control Software, and keep the computer in a place where parents can monitor online behavior. He said parents should monitor their teens’ text messages online and make sure that all wireless devices are left at a central docking station at bed time.

Orsini wrote that middle school students are not ready to cope with cyberbullying and its negative effects. It’s not enough, Orsini wrote, to teach a student to be responsible online. Social media is uncontrollable and unsafe.

“[…]it is not worth the risk to your child to allow them the independence at this age to manage these sites on their own, not because they are not good kids or responsible, but because you cannot control the poor actions of anonymous others,” Orsini wrote.

My opinion

Our students are digital natives, a term that means they depend on electronic devices for almost all parts of their lives. They’ve never known a world where the Internet didn’t exist. Their cell phones are always at an arm’s reach and they spend a good portion of their day online. To take away their technology is to isolate them from their friends.

And let’s face it: they can just go to a friend’s house to login. In fact, over 1 in 5 students do just that. (Norton Online Living Report, 2009)

Parents and students expect our schools to prepare kids for the 21st century. Like it or not, online social networking isn’t going away. We can either embrace it or have it run amok, unsupervised and unchecked behind our backs.

Instead of powering down, we need to empower our students. We need to have the conversation about what they should do if they witness or are the victim of online aggression. Encourage students to print out the Web page as evidence and tell an adult. Keep inviting them to tell an adult and assure them that they won’t be lose their digital access if they do. Hinduja and Patchin found that 60 percent of cyberbullying victims do not tell an adult because they’re worried they’ll lose their online access.

The just turn it off philosophy doesn’t equip students to deal with the very real consequences of their digital world. Instead of turning off the technology, we should create a contract with students and outline our expectations on the front end. We need to be having the conversation every time we take our classes into the computer lab: don’t reveal private information online; you can be legally held accountable for nasty images and text you post online; if you ever have trouble online, tell an adult you trust.

Schools have a responsibility to prepare students for the world beyond our double doors. If you’d like to teach an entire cyberbullying unit, you need some scenarios for a discussion, or you want some examples of parent letters, I recommend checking out the free, extensive curriculum that Seattle Public Schools has developed. You can view it here: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/prevention/cbms.html.

Not only do we need to educate our students about social networking and online safety, but we need to educate parents as well. Instead of just having them review and sign the Acceptable Use policy, dedicate part of the school’s open house night or parent-teacher conferences to online safety. We need them to partner with us to make their kids safe at school and at home.

Taking away the kids’ devices isn’t going to remove the problem; the problem will just go underground. I would rather have open, honest discussions about technology use than to have students find ways to circumvent adults. I would rather figure out ways to employ responsible social networking in the classroom as an engagement tool as well as a model for how the technology can be used. It’s difficult and time consuming to teach the kids about responsible social networking. However, I don’t think pulling the plug teaches anything at all.

What do you think? Is social networking interfering with your ability to teach? Are the kids so focused on texting that they can’t focus on their textbooks? Should we tell the kids to close their Facebook accounts or should we use it in the classroom?

References:
Brody, L. and Coutros, E. “Ridgewood principal to parents: Get your kids off Facebook.” NorthJersey.com, April 29, 2010 http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/042910_Ridgewood_principal_to_parents_Get_your_kids_off_Facebook.html, accessed 5-13-10.

Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. (2010) A Kaiser Family Foundation Study, January 2010. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

A Generation Unplugged (Research Report). Harris Interactive, September 12, 2008 http://files.ctia.org/pdf/HI_TeenMobileStudy_ResearchReport.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009) Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009) “Cyberbullying Research Summary: Cyberbullying and Suicide.” Cyberbullying Research Center. http://cyberbullying.us/cyberbullying_and_suicide_research_fact_sheet.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Hi-Tech Cheating: Cell Phones and Cheating in School. A National Poll. (2009) Beneson Strategy Group and Common Sense Media, June 18, 2009. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/Hi-Tech%20Cheating%20-%20Summary%20NO%20EMBARGO%20TAGS.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Norton Online Living Report. (2009) Symantec Corporation. http://www.nortononlineliving.com/documents/NOLR_Report_09.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

May is also project month. We have just weeks left of school; no one wants to lecture students who squirm in their seats and watch the clock. Better to keep them engaged with the content and let them direct their own learning with a project.

Many students rely on Google’s Image search to find photos for their PowerPoints, PhotoStories, or iMovies. However, better visuals exist for school projects and what’s more – most of these are copyright friendly.

Flickr.com’s Creative Commons. This site requires a Yahoo! login, but if you’re comfortable allowing your students to register with the site, it’s a great opportunity to find photos to illustrate presentations. The Flickr’s Creative Commons uses CreativeCommons.org’s guidelines for copyright. There are six categories of copyright and they’re all explained on the right-hand side of Flickr’s site. If your students give credit to the photographer, let the photographer know that they’re using the image in a school presentation, don’t alter the image, and don’t sell the photo on T-shirts, they should be within the copyright guidelines. However, it’s a great idea to discuss the copyright guidelines with them before they use the photos. You and I both know that our students will visit the site outside of class and we want them to respect the photographer’s rights. For the most part, the images are classroom appropriate. Occasionally I’ll find something objectionable, but then I flag the photo. When your students search, make sure they click on See More to the bottom right of each copyright collection. Do not use the search at the top of the page – those photos may or may not be a part of the Creative Commons. One of the best things about using Flickr.com’s Creative Commons is that students can download the photos in the size that will work best in their project. The photos also respond well to resizing and won’t become too blurry if a student increases the photo’s size.

MorgueFile.com The term Morgue File comes from the print world where editors put the paper to bed and then review the past issue in a postmortem meeting. After the review, someone files the old issue in the morgue file. Online, this is a spot where searchers can use any photo they find in any way they choose – without regard to altering, selling, or providing attribution for the image. MorgueFile.com doesn’t have the huge number of photos that Flickr.com’s Creative Commons does, but it’s a place where you know your students won’t be stomping on anyone’s copyrights. Despite the free nature of the site, having the copyright discussion and providing attribution and feedback for the photographer is just good manners. No one has officially culled these photos for inappropriate content, so occasionally I’ll find something objectionable. MorgueFile.com has a reporting link for objectionable images at the bottom right of each photo. Be sure your students are using the free photo search at the top of each web page, not the sponsored, paid photo search they’ll find at the bottom of the page. These photos respond well to resizing, so you don’t need to worry about blurry images in projects.

LoveVectorFree.com Students will find illustrations for use in projects on this site. Vector means that the images can be resized without blurry effects. Free means that your students can use the images without opening your wallet. LoveVectorFree.com’s legal page allows people to use any image on the site for any purpose, without attribution. However, a good discussion about attribution is never wrong. Encourage students to leave a comment for the artist, give them feedback about their work, and let them know they’re using the images in a school project. It’s good manners. LoveVectorFree.com is a new site, so the collection doesn’t have tons of illustrations, but new images come in all the time. Unlike the other sites in this post, LoveVectorFree.com doesn’t have a feature for guests to report inappropriate content. At the moment, the images on the site lean towards fluffy bunnies and brightly colored flowers, so I think sending students to the site would be safe.

The Big Picture. This site is part of The Boston Globe’s Boston.com site. A web editor chooses a timely topic like the anniversary of the Vietnam war, the oil spill in the Gulf, or Earth Day and gathers up the best photos from around the world about the topic. Of course, Boston.com has the right to post these photos, but your students shouldn’t use these in presentations. Rather, this site is for you and your lesson planning. The dramatic photos are a terrific way to bring up current topics in many disciplines or illustrate the impact of the world’s big events. I strongly recommend that you preview the photos first before class. It’s good practice anyway, but a few photos on the site are graphic. For example, some photos in the Vietnam war collection have been blacked out for graphic content. To access the photo, a user has to click on the screen to view the image. That’s great – it makes lesson planning easier for me. However, some of the photos in the Vietnam series haven’t been blacked out and they made me squirm. I wouldn’t want to show some of those images in my classroom, not just because they’re graphic, but I wouldn’t want to cement my reputation as a total wimp.

Do you have any online image resources where you send your students? Please share these in the comments and let us all know about the copyright restrictions and content. Even better: how do you make sure that students don’t spend their entire computer lab time hunting down images instead of creating content?

As teachers we know that the schoolhouse gate doesn’t serve as a barrier to information from the real world. The sexual text messages and instant messages (sexting) our teens send to one another during their online evenings can create a lot of trouble during the offline school day.

But these cyberbullying events take place off school grounds. Really, should teachers get involved in this sexting mess? What can we do about sexting, anyway?

The case for intervention. In their book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin make the case that teachers are in the best position to help students with cyberbullying issues. Many students spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents, the authors write. Teachers see students interact with one another every day and might pick up on unusual behavior or a subtle cue that something is wrong with a student.

Hinduja and Patchin write that adults who are aware of teen sexual harassment, but fail to respond, can be held liable for not assisting the teen, even if the event takes place off campus.

Students who circulate sexting messages or other forms of cyberbullying can’t limit their messages’ reach or timing. Teens who check their cell phones during a school break or lunch can find a surprise sexting video waiting for them in their InBox. If the video is of someone the teens know, the whole school day can be disrupted.

The important legal principal to guide teachers and other school officials, the authors write, is this: School officials cannot discipline students for off-campus speech or behavior with which they simply do not agree unless the school environment is significantly affected.

Media as sexual exploration. Teens are curious about their bodies. They’re curious about one another’s bodies, too. This generation of kids didn’t invent sexual exploration, but they have many more ways to explore and share.

That’s both a problem and a benefit of digital media, the authors of “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media” wrote. Among gay and lesbian youth, online media give the teens a safe outlet to explore their sexuality in a way that they can’t offline.

“On the Internet, GLBT youth discuss a variety of sexual identities and queer politics, as well as seek partners, navigate the coming out process, and frankly discuss sexual practices, including safer sex,” the authors wrote.

However, teens who post or send sexting messages can also give the wrong idea about sharing sexual content. The authors wrote that teens who see risky sexual behavior online with no consequences are more likely to experiment with the risky acts. Girls who send sexting photos practice self-objectification.

The biggest worry, the authors wrote, is that teens whose sexual images appear online or in text messages have an increased risk of victimization.

Health information and the Internet. Research shows that 44 percent of teens turn to the Internet for health information, and one-quarter or more of them research sexually transmitted diseases, sex, and pregnancy. One study found that 41 percent of teens who researched a health issue online changed their behavior because of the information they’d found. The Internet can be a great place to discover answers to life’s embarrassing or awkward questions.

The problem is that they’re not sophisticated Internet searchers. They judge a site not by the site’s authors, but how slick the design is. If the site looks professional, most teens think, then it’s credible.

Some teens also don’t have the vocabulary to search the Internet for credible sexual information. Instead of using anatomical names, they search with slang terms. Of course, these teens find sexually explicit sites, the “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd” authors wrote. Teens who are exposed to sexually explicit images are more likely to become sexually active at an earlier age than their peers.

What teachers can do. Kids are always going to be interested in their bodies. Cell phones and the Internet aren’t going away any time soon. Inappropriate photos have been around since the invention of the camera. So how can we prevent the spread of sexting messages?

• Educate students about how to assess the credibility of Web sites
• Offer teens appropriate Web sites and vocabulary in health classes
• Encourage students to visit their privacy settings on social network sites to make sure that their privacy is protected
• Review the district rules about cyberbullying with students and make sure they understand the consequences of their actions
• Invite students to come to you privately with questions or concerns about sexting or cyberbullying
• Give students guidelines about posting images online and over cellphones
• Hold parent meetings to discuss cyberbullying and sexting

MTV has a program called A Thin Line, which is trying to stop digital abuse, Amanda Paulson wrote in The Christian Science Monitor. Parry Aftab is the executive director of WiredSafety and an adviser to A Thin Line. Aftab says that teens rarely think about the consequences of their actions. They look at sexting as a safe alternative to sex.

Paulson quoted Aftab: I tell kids the five P’s. If you don’t want your parents, your principal, a predator, the police, or your potential coach, college recruiter, or boss to see it, don’t post it publicly.

References:

Brown, J., Keller, S., and Stern, S. (2009.) Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media. The Prevention Researcher. 16:4, 12-16.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009.) Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Lenhart, A. (2009) Teens and Sexting: How and why minor teens are sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images via text messaging. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/PIP_Teens_and_Sexting.pdf Accessed 2/1/10

Paulson, A. (2009.) Sexting: at least 15 percent of teens take part. Christian Science Monitor. 12/16/2009, p1.

According to the Norton Online Living Report 2009, parents believe their children spend 21 hours online. The reality is that students in twelve countries reported spending 39 hours online. Don’t tell me these kids don’t have time to finish their assignments or clean their rooms.

Multitasking. Researchers for the Kaiser Family Foundation’s report, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, found that our students aren’t just watching YouTube or downloading from iTunes. When they’re on the ’Net, they’re likely to be IM-ing, texting, watching TV, or listening to their music players.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s researchers found that rates of teen media use (TV, cell phones, computers, video games, audio, print, and movies) are up an hour and 17 minutes over teen media usage five years ago. A teen’s cell phone, smart phone, or gaming device is never out of arm’s reach.

“[…] cell phones and iPods have become true multi-media devices,” the study’s authors wrote. “In fact, young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33).”

The authors of the Norton Online Living Report found that, “[…] six in 10 adults worldwide say kids spend ‘too much’ time online, and what’s more 45% of kids agree.”

Students as digital trailblazers. In another study from the Speak Up National Research Project, researchers disagree with parents and kids: students aren’t spending too much time online; students are the early adopters and adapters of new technology. Our students are not wasting time, they’re innovating. The authors write that our students are the “digital advance team,” the people who will lead educators and other adults into the technology age.

“The findings illustrate how K-12 students are leading the way in re-thinking education delivery and career exploration,” the study’s authors wrote. “These insights can be used to inform our nation’s education leaders in communities all across the United States, as they plan on how to use the stimulus funds for education effectively.”

The researchers believe that our students are ready and able to show adults how to use technology in innovative and educational ways; it’s our responsibility to take notes and make the kids’ 21st century technology ideas happen.

Online use and academic success. The problem is that when kids are online, they’re not likely to be doing school work. The Generation M2 report’s researchers found that students from all races and from all family education backgrounds spent an average of just 16 minutes online working on classroom assignments. Most of the time (25%), they hang out on social network sites, play online games (19%), watch YouTube or other videos (16%), and IM one another (13%).

The good news from these studies is that all of this online time and short hand text message language isn’t rotting students’ brains as much as we might think. The Generation M2 report’s researchers did find that 8- to 18-year-olds are spending five fewer minutes reading hard copies of books, magazines, and newspapers for pleasure than they did in six years ago. However, they’ve made up about two minutes of that deficit with online magazine or newspaper reading.

They also found that the same number of students who read for pleasure six years ago is about the same number who do so today. It’s also an activity that prohibits a lot of multitasking. Students might glance at the TV or play music in the background, but for the most part, when they read print, they are focused on their reading.

The Generation M2 report’s researchers also found that the time students spend online doesn’t affect their reading time. Heavy screen media users (16 or more hours a day) and light screen media users (less than two hours a day) read about the same amount of time: about 41 minutes a day. Even kids who watch TV all night long read about as much as those who don’t tune in much at all.

Students who have a TV in their bedrooms or live in homes where the TV is always on read less than other students, by about 10 minutes. Ten minutes might not seem much, but it’s a significant number that correlates to classroom achievement.

“Contrary to what is found for other media,” the Generation M2 report’s researchers wrote, “young people who are heavy readers (those who spend an hour or more per day with print media) are substantially more likely to say they earn high grades than those who are light readers (those who report no print reading on a typical day): 72% of heavy readers report high grades, compared to 60% of those in the light-reading group.”

Media use and well being. Not only do the heavy media users earn lower grades, but they’re not as happy as the kids who are offline. Of the light media users (fewer than three hours per day), 22% reported that they have a “high level of personal contentment,” the Generation M2 researchers found. On the opposite side, 20% of the heavy media users (more than 16 hours per day) reported that they had a “low level of personal contentment.”

Twenty-one percent of 8- to 18-year-olds are heavy media users. The problem is that we need to teach these kids to channel their media use. According to the Norton Online Living Report’s authors, parents know that they’re responsible for their children’s media use, but just 7 in 10 kids have rules. Thirty-three percent of the parents in the survey said that it’s hard to make media rules because so much new technology wasn’t around when they were kids.

The Norton Online Living Report researchers found that one in five students admitted they did something online that their parents wouldn’t approve. One-in-five students reported that their parents caught them, too.

“Supervision is inherently difficult when it comes to the online world,” the study’s authors wrote. “Not only is the Web’s content available to anyone with a search engine, it’s easy for kids to bypass parents altogether by logging on from outside the household.”

Educators have the tough job of balancing the curriculum with the students’ digital obsession, of incorporating 21st century skills with 21st century safety, and encouraging academic success in a world of media excess. I think we’re up to the challenge, but our role will be more to guide the digital natives with their technology use while they lead the way.

References:

“Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year Olds.” (2010) Kaiser Family Foundation. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf Accessed January 26, 2010

“Norton Online Living Report.” (2009) Symantec Corporation. http://www.nortononlineliving.com/documents/NOLR_Report_09.pdf Accessed January 21, 2010.

“Selected National Findings: Speak Up 2008 for Students, Teachers, Parents and Administrators.” (2009.) Project Tomorrow. http://www.tomorrow.org Accessed December 8, 2009.

Listed below are 10 such ideas.

1. Incremental Change: Change is always complex and difficult. Shifts to online teaching and learning are no different. We recommend that those who might be nervous or more hesitant start with small steps or minor course adaptations. Perhaps a training program might begin by having these individuals find online resources that they can later use. During training, they might also select from an assortment of low cost, low risk, low time strategies. At the end of such a training or orientation program, participants might indicate where they presently are on a risk continuum or meter as well as where they would like to be in a few years.
2. Shared Success Stories and Best Practices: Another option is to show teachers examples of what actually works. These examples and models might be found in books, newsletters, email messages, CDs, Web portals, testimonials, or some other media delivery format. Consider having these stories developed by peers and colleagues whom they trust instead of by vendors or external consultants.
3. Training and Development: I have found that starting with a simple technology tool or resource that can be mastered and applied is more important than explaining the underlying instructional approach, philosophy, or pedagogy. Providing incentives for the completion of the training is also important (e.g., a stipend, certificate, iPod, laptop, tablet PC, etc.).
4. Just-in-Time Support: Support staff might be on call when needed for 1:1 help and advice. Technical support personnel and trainers should not dictate a single approach or instructional philosophy but rather they should listen to teacher needs and respond accordingly. Allow teachers to select the training topics that they are interested in, rather than preselecting the topic(s) for them. I have found that when working with practicing teachers in schools that training them in the technologies that they had on their machines or had access to was far superior to training them in software that I just happened to like or use myself.
5. An Atmosphere of Sharing: Fostering change in terms of technology integration and use will only come when there is an atmosphere of change. Such an atmosphere can definitely build up over time. For instance, the final 5-10 minutes of a department, program, or unit meeting might be saved for a live presentation of an emerging technology or discussion of ideas related to how one is using technology or the Web in instruction. I often see this sharing occurring at the school and university level with annual technology in teaching events or awards for technology integration and innovation. Many schools also sponsor such events as brown bag luncheons wherein a teacher or visitor will present some interesting technology or online activity. Colloquiums, institutes, videoconferences, Webinars, and other events can also be employed to cultivate this change in atmosphere.
6. Awards and Incentives: As indicated above, training programs might include incentives such as stipends, travel monies, awards, and technology. For example, those who are innovative might be the first in line for hardware or software upgrades and replacements. The School of Education at Indiana University, for instance, has been innovative in sponsoring laptop programs wherein enlisted faculty members receive a laptop for their instructional uses after completing a set number of hours – here 16 – of technology-related training. Other incentives might include assistance in writing grants for technology and money for conference travel. There might be competitions for interactivity in online course development, outstanding course awards, and annual events for innovation in online instruction. Such efforts are vital since part of creating a community of online educators is to support success and then to celebrate such success when it occurs.
7. Modeling: I have found that modeling the use of online technologies and courses by one’s colleagues and superiors is highly valuable. In effect, when one’s leaders or supervisors are doing it (e.g., the school principal or technology coordinator), so can you. And when the high school superintendent generates a podcast or receives her training from one, people throughout the school district tend to take notice. Modeling also creates opportunities for discussion and interaction to occur around the topic or content area being shown, resulting in a sense of community among those who are interested in the new ideas.
8. Mentoring and Coaching: While technology-oriented training increasingly relies on technology-based tutorials, opportunities for 1:1 advice and consultation are bound to have a lasting impact. When new teachers or staff members enter into an online environment or situation, it is vital to provide some form of cognitive apprenticeship. For instance, someone savvy with technology or knowledgeable about online teaching and learning might be asked to support one or more novice teachers or assistants. And such individuals might receive modest stipends for such efforts.
9. External Supports: Most of the above ideas relate to internal forms of support within an organization or institution. Naturally, given the expansiveness of the Web, some external supports might be provided such as access to online teaching examples, online instruction certificate programs, and even master’s degrees. In addition, an organization or institution might subscribe to an online newsletter or enter into online discussions on a community using Ning or some other collaborative technology. For those in the K-12 world, the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) provides many examples of innovative teaching approaches with and without technology.
10. Frameworks and Models: One of the more significant ways to learn to teach online and become less hesitant, reluctant, and resistant, is to use models, overviews, and other frameworks. Frameworks offer a means to reflect on what works and what is not working. They lend a macro lens to any online teaching and learning situation. And they can help one to categorize or make sense of the never-ending mounds of information or data each of us deals with each day. In effect, they reduce the apprehensions and angst professional educators might have related to teaching as well as learning in online environments. The R2D2 (i.e., Read, Reflect, Display, and Do) and TEC-VARIETY models that I have designed are pedagogically-focused examples of such frameworks. With tools such as R2D2 at one’s side, normally hesitant or resistant instructors often become models and advocates of online education.

Anyone involved in organizational change will readily admit that change is typically systemic in nature. Consequently, I recommend you consider how most or all of the above ten categories of ideas can support teacher and staff development or perhaps even transformation within your school or school district. With such support, they can feel more secure in their online decision making and related adventures. Good luck.

Curtis J. Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. He has a popular blog called TravelinEdMan and is the author of The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education as well as Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Ideas, for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing.

Students as technology guides. The latest research proves what you already know: our students are digital experts. Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up National Research Project has interviewed 281,000 K12 students in all 50 states for its latest report “Speak Up 2008 for Students, Teachers, Parents and Administrators.” The researchers call our students the Digital Advance Team. These students are an asset to adults, especially those whose job is to plan these kids’ education and prepare them for 21st century jobs.

Our students use technology for four purposes: communication, collaboration, creation, and contribution. The researchers write that educators need to rely on students demonstrate how to use technology and adapt it to educational purposes. Students are early adopters of new technology and they become the technology trendsetters for their peers, adults, and teachers.

Students feel unprepared for the future. In their survey of students in grades 6 – 12, the researchers found that only one-third of our students think teachers are preparing them for future jobs. However, 56 percent of principals think that their students are prepared for the technological world of work.

Why is there such a disconnect between what principals perceive and what students think? These trendsetters, our students, are frustrated with us and our schools. When they open up the double-doors and cross from the real world into the educational world, students know that they must power down their electronic devices and sit in classrooms more adapted for the 20th century than the 21st century.

Forty-three percent of the students surveyed reported that their school’s firewalls or content filters block their access to online materials and impede their learning. Over one-third of students report that teachers block their access to technology for learning. School rules frustrate one-quarter of our students and their access to technology. Outside of the school walls, students communicate freely with e-mail, text messages, and instant messages, but inside the school one-third of these students can’t communicate about learning with any electronic means.

Clear the way for technology. When the researchers asked students how schools could make it easier for them to work electronically, the number one response was: Let me use my own devices and tools during the school day.

As educators, we know that the problem with letting students use their own electronic devices during the school day is that not every student will have equal access to the learning tools. Some kids might have a smart phone that allows them to search for answers on the Internet, others might not have any electronic devices at all.

If given the chance, though, 53 percent of middle and high school students report that they would use their mobile devices to communicate with their peers about school work. Thirty-four percent would use e-mail, text messages, or instant messages to communicate with their teachers.

Both administrators and teachers believe that incorporating mobile electronic devices into the classroom would benefit students and increase student engagement, even beyond the school day.

Recommendations. The researchers recommend that schools find a way to allow students to use their own technology during the school day and to meet learners in the digital world where they live. Their research indicates that teachers should move more of their curriculum online and incorporate learning tools like simulations and games into their lesson plans. Students use Web 2.0 tools and collaborate with one another outside of the classroom; our lessons should take advantage of this and allow students to work with one another online to create new content. Schools need more digital resources available in the classroom so students can use the technology in a learning context. Teachers and students should take advantage of the instructional technology to connect with experts and bring their experiences into the classroom.

Above all, though, the researchers recommend that we let our students be our technological guides.

“We recommend that as policy makers move forward, we listen to the stakeholders with the most skin in the game – the students themselves,” the researchers wrote. “To listen, observe and learn about how they are approaching learning and living every day, their frustration points with their schools, the challenges they face in learning in the 21st century and their aspirations for how schools can be improved so all students will be successful.”

Reference:

“Selected National Findings: Speak Up 2008 for Students, Teachers, Parents and Administrators.” (2009.) Project Tomorrow. http://www.tomorrow.org Accessed December 8, 2009.

In other words, employers want creative thinkers who can work in groups and solve problems using technology.

If you’ve ever been in a computer lab, you know firsthand what the research says: our students are way beyond us when it comes to technology. Jerald writes in Defining a 21st Century Education that instead of teaching students how to operate the technology, we should focus on teaching how to employ technology in a responsible and effective manner to enhance learning.

Most of our students – 85 percent – use technology socially to communicate with their friends via text messages, e-mailing, or social networking. They’re not just using it to chat with their friends. Almost two-thirds of the active teen Internet users are creating content online in the form of blogs, personal Web pages, or video. These students are literate in the sense that they understand the mechanics of technology, but they’re not always literate about safety and responsibility issues. For them, often the technology medium eclipses any content message.

It’s our job as educators to reflect on how we’re preparing our students, these digital natives, not to point and click, but to make connections between these technological tools and our content areas. We need to encourage the critical thinking, collaboration, and innovation that employers are looking for on the digital platform where our students live.

Reference

Jerald, C. 2009. Defining a 21st Century Education. The Center for Public Education. http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lvIXIiN0JwE&b=5595853&content_id={5762DE8B-86E5-498E-9A90-60E7850085CE}&notoc=1

Ten Benefits and Audiences of Online Learning for K-12 Environments:

1. Homebound and Those with Special Needs: Some students have physical disabilities, medical, or psychological reasons which prevent them from attending a traditional classroom space or building. There are many reasons why online and correspondence courses may be the preferred delivery methods for those who are homebound or with special needs. Those with special needs such as dyslexia or significant visual impairments can work at their own pace in a non-competitive environment. As such accommodations and associated success stories expand, the general public will increasingly realize that learning is no longer the sole province of schools.
2. Gifted: Some students have an internal drive to learn more than their current school or community can provide. Gifted students and those with a high need for achievement often want to take more challenging and higher levels courses which can be found online. Other students might have a particular gift in music, art, theater, athletics, writing, or some other area which takes them away from a normal school day schedule. There are even special online schools for young people who compete on the pro circuit in golf or other sports.
3. Advanced Placement (AP): Some students take online courses for advanced placement course preparation or credit. Online learning becomes an additional option for students wishing to accelerate their learning while maneuvering through hectic lifestyles due to work, athletics, home chores and family responsibilities, or extensive volunteerism.
4. Home-Schooled: Often parents who are home-schooling their children welcome the additional supports that online course materials and resources offer. When their children enter high school, online courses might fill in the gaps where they lack expertise. In addition, degrees received from accredited high schools may prove beneficial in the college admissions process.
5. Rural Students: Some young people are in communities which are too small to offer advanced and specialized courses such as physics, calculus, Latin derivatives, third year Spanish, or ancient civilizations. Some schools simply do not have physics, humanities, or French teachers.
6. Drop-Outs, At-Risk Youth, and Students Slightly Behind: Catching up with one’s peers is sometimes valuable. The availability of online courses can address those who are just a course or two behind their peers as well as those who have dropped out or who are close to dropping out. Online options provide a way to keep them in school. In fact, often students find online options to be exciting or in tune with their preferred style of learning. In effect, there are multiple ways to achieve success and obtain a high school degree. Life does not end just because a young person did not find success attending a brick and mortar high school.
7. People Living Outside the United States: Online courses and programs work well for students when they travel with parents or caretakers who have found employment overseas or decide to take an extended vacation. Some might not have completed their high school degrees but are serving in a military setting or international outreach program. Online learning allows them to complete their degree while working in a foreign country or in a tour of duty overseas. For others, the completion of certain online courses that they did not take in high school might qualify them for a particular post or initiative in another country.
8. Natives of Foreign Countries: For various reasons, many people in South America, Africa, Asia, or the Middle East may prefer that their children take courses from virtual schools in North America or other English speaking countries. Some parents, keenly aware of the growing use of English around the world, want their children to practice or improve their English skills. At the same time, parents in North America might enroll their children in private schools in Europe, the Middle East, or Asia. Many parents simply want their children exposed to the more diverse world in which they will later work.
9. Bullied or Do Not Fit in: As we are all aware, some students do not have good experiences in schools. As a result, they might have significant social reasons for not wanting to attend school. We all can likely name students who have been bullied in schools. Now such students can stay home and learn without such daily fears.
10. Pregnant: Some girls withdraw from school because they are pregnant or have small children to care for at home. Taking courses online while caretaking enable many of them to complete their degrees and perhaps enroll in college since they can work on their own time.

The list that Bruce Colston provided is fascinating. A few days later, he told me of an additional category of students that virtual schools serve—adults who lack a high school diploma. While Colston admits that those with weak academic skills are better served by GED degrees and adult education programs, a high school diploma can result in higher future earnings than settling for a GED. As he puts it, “A thousand dollars spent to finish high school online can lead to many thousands of dollars in future earnings. Also the distance education format integrates well into the busy lives of adult.”

What Colston’s insights tell us is that online courses allow schools to extend their services beyond traditional students and far beyond its designated borders.

References:
Bonk, C. J. (2009, July). The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.

Bonk, C. J. (in preparation). The World Is More Open: An Extension of “The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education.”

Rebecca Robbins (2009, June 9), ‘”Distance Students are ‘a Varied and Interesting Lot,’’’ Herald Times Online, Available
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2009/06/08/schoolnews.qp-2930970.sto

Curtis J. Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. He has a popular blog called TravelinEdMan and is the author of The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education as well as Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Ideas, for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing.