Digital Smarts Blog

The Internet is full of stories about the risks and dangers of social media. While it is vital to know and explain those risks to your children, many parents are beginning to realize that there are actually positive ways that kids connect, share and learn online. After all, only a fraction of kids using social media are misusing it. According to recent research, friendship, belonging, support, freedom of expression and doing good are five positive aspects of social media, and are featured in an article entitled 5 Reasons You Don't Need to Worry About Kids and Social Media on the Common Sense Media site.

The Internet is full of stories about the risks and dangers of social media. While it is vital to know and explain those risks to your children, many parents are beginning to realize that there are actually positive ways that kids connect, share and learn online. After all, only a fraction of kids using social media are misusing it. According to recent research, friendship, belonging, support, freedom of expression and doing good are five positive aspects of social media, and are featured in an article entitled 5 Reasons You Don't Need to Worry About Kids and Social Media on the Common Sense Media site.

Ethan Czahor had always wanted to work in politics, but his dream job as chief technology officer collapsed 36 hours after getting a job with the Jeb Bush campaign because of what were deemed a series of offensive tweets and blog posts.  Now Czahor is introducing Clear, an app designed to keep what happened to him from happening to anyone else. The recently-released app scours a user’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram histories for potentially inflammatory or damaging posts, and makes their removal easy. It’s designed for the next generation in the workforce, who grew up sharing vast amounts of information online, some of which may become a liability in the college admissions process or their future careers. While Czahor says that people should be held accountable for racist and other offensive postings, he says he designed Clear for that universe of embarrassing messages that can simply be taken out of context. Of course it is important to remember that posts not marked as private may have been captured in public archives and would thus be out of the reach of the app’s delete feature. There are already plans for updates to expand the app’s reach to emails, personal blogs, and search results. As Czahor says “You as a person exist in a lot of places on the Internet, and I just feel that you have the right to at least know what’s out there, and to take care of it.”

Ethan Czahor had always wanted to work in politics, but his dream job as chief technology officer collapsed 36 hours after getting a job with the Jeb Bush campaign because of what were deemed a series of offensive tweets and blog posts.  Now Czahor is introducing Clear, an app designed to keep what happened to him from happening to anyone else. The recently-released app scours a user’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram histories for potentially inflammatory or damaging posts, and makes their removal easy. It’s designed for the next generation in the workforce, who grew up sharing vast amounts of information online, some of which may become a liability in the college admissions process or their future careers. While Czahor says that people should be held accountable for racist and other offensive postings, he says he designed Clear for that universe of embarrassing messages that can simply be taken out of context. Of course it is important to remember that posts not marked as private may have been captured in public archives and would thus be out of the reach of the app’s delete feature. There are already plans for updates to expand the app’s reach to emails, personal blogs, and search results. As Czahor says “You as a person exist in a lot of places on the Internet, and I just feel that you have the right to at least know what’s out there, and to take care of it.”

Cyber security professionals are predicting that the era of user name/ password credentials will soon be a thing of the past with all of the cyber-attacks that have been occurring. What will replace these credentials is up for debate, however. Some guess that biometrics may be the answer. The FIDO Alliance is a group of companies that are working together to create a strategy for stronger security using biometric authentication.  FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) will require you to use a finger or voice print to unlock information without having to deal with traditional encryption techniques. Anomaly detection is another possibility. The basis behind this technique is that the network knows enough about your online behavior and purchase history that it can tell if something is not quite right and will stop the transaction. Cyber security professionals say we need to be prepared for a more complicated system in order to ensure the ease of use we have now.

Cyber security professionals are predicting that the era of user name/ password credentials will soon be a thing of the past with all of the cyber-attacks that have been occurring. What will replace these credentials is up for debate, however. Some guess that biometrics may be the answer. The FIDO Alliance is a group of companies that are working together to create a strategy for stronger security using biometric authentication.  FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) will require you to use a finger or voice print to unlock information without having to deal with traditional encryption techniques. Anomaly detection is another possibility. The basis behind this technique is that the network knows enough about your online behavior and purchase history that it can tell if something is not quite right and will stop the transaction. Cyber security professionals say we need to be prepared for a more complicated system in order to ensure the ease of use we have now.

It is unfortunately a common occurrence for someone to post, tweet or share something negative or harmful that they later wish they could take back, and it happens to adults and children alike. When it comes to sharing, many people have taken a “devil may care” attitude, posting whatever they want and just hoping for the best. Sometimes, a controversial post will live without backlash but many times it can blow up and wreak havoc on the original poster. Excuses may arise such as “I thought it was funny,” “Can’t anyone take a joke anymore?” or “Who would ever see what I post?” The reality is, we are connected digitally to one another more than ever and we need to understand, and teach our kids, that if we post something negative there will likely be consequences.

Mike Ribble, an educator and author of several books on digital citizenship has come up with an acronym to think about every time we share something online– REP – which stands for respect, educate or protect. Here’s what he means by each of these factors:

• Respect: If we have respect for our selves and others then why would we say things about them or post images we might regret? Have empathy for others; think about how a post or Tweet might affect them. Use the rules of etiquette: they are there to protect you as well as the person you are corresponding with.
• Educate: Ignorance is no excuse for poor online behavior. Learn about the technologies you use; educate yourself and those around you how these tools work. A little bit of knowledge can go a long way when using technology.
• Protect: Guard yourself, your good name and the reputations of others. Do we have the right to speak out against others that we do not agree with? We do, but not at the expense of their reputation.

There is a thin line between being funny and hurting others. In the digital world it is hard to judge how someone might feel or react to what is said or posted, so remember that sometimes “delete” is a better choice than “send.”

It is unfortunately a common occurrence for someone to post, tweet or share something negative or harmful that they later wish they could take back, and it happens to adults and children alike. When it comes to sharing, many people have taken a “devil may care” attitude, posting whatever they want and just hoping for the best. Sometimes, a controversial post will live without backlash but many times it can blow up and wreak havoc on the original poster. Excuses may arise such as “I thought it was funny,” “Can’t anyone take a joke anymore?” or “Who would ever see what I post?” The reality is, we are connected digitally to one another more than ever and we need to understand, and teach our kids, that if we post something negative there will likely be consequences.

Mike Ribble, an educator and author of several books on digital citizenship has come up with an acronym to think about every time we share something online– REP – which stands for respect, educate or protect. Here’s what he means by each of these factors:

• Respect: If we have respect for our selves and others then why would we say things about them or post images we might regret? Have empathy for others; think about how a post or Tweet might affect them. Use the rules of etiquette: they are there to protect you as well as the person you are corresponding with.
• Educate: Ignorance is no excuse for poor online behavior. Learn about the technologies you use; educate yourself and those around you how these tools work. A little bit of knowledge can go a long way when using technology.
• Protect: Guard yourself, your good name and the reputations of others. Do we have the right to speak out against others that we do not agree with? We do, but not at the expense of their reputation.

There is a thin line between being funny and hurting others. In the digital world it is hard to judge how someone might feel or react to what is said or posted, so remember that sometimes “delete” is a better choice than “send.”

A new study has found that middle-school students in the U.S. are struggling to critically evaluate online information about science. University of Connecticut researcher Elena Forzani found that less than 4% of seventh-grade students who participated in the study could identify the author of an online source, evaluate that author's credibility, and determine whether the source was reliable. Girls tended to be better than boys at identifying and evaluating the author, and affluent students (identified as those who are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch) performed significantly better than their peers. This study is important to highlight because these are the kinds of skills that are critical for true digital literacy, especially with the emphasis of Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards.

A new study has found that middle-school students in the U.S. are struggling to critically evaluate online information about science. University of Connecticut researcher Elena Forzani found that less than 4% of seventh-grade students who participated in the study could identify the author of an online source, evaluate that author's credibility, and determine whether the source was reliable. Girls tended to be better than boys at identifying and evaluating the author, and affluent students (identified as those who are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch) performed significantly better than their peers. This study is important to highlight because these are the kinds of skills that are critical for true digital literacy, especially with the emphasis of Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards.

You may have noticed it already but Google is now skewing their search results for sites that have “mobile-friendly” (phone or tablet) versions, giving them higher priority results and pushing down those sites on the results list that aren’t optimized for mobile viewing. Lots of sites already have mobile versions, but an analysis of 25,000 top ranked sites and found that 10,000 failed the test—including the Department of Homeland Security. This could put smaller businesses that don’t have optimized mobile versions of their web sites at a disadvantage, because it means that their sites will be pushed even further down the list of search results. However, it should be noted that search engines also have methods to sorting your search results that are based on prior searches. To find better vetted answers to your questions you may need to go beyond the “first page” of results.

You may have noticed it already but Google is now skewing their search results for sites that have “mobile-friendly” (phone or tablet) versions, giving them higher priority results and pushing down those sites on the results list that aren’t optimized for mobile viewing. Lots of sites already have mobile versions, but an analysis of 25,000 top ranked sites and found that 10,000 failed the test—including the Department of Homeland Security. This could put smaller businesses that don’t have optimized mobile versions of their web sites at a disadvantage, because it means that their sites will be pushed even further down the list of search results. However, it should be noted that search engines also have methods to sorting your search results that are based on prior searches. To find better vetted answers to your questions you may need to go beyond the “first page” of results.

A recent post from USA Today columnist Steven Petrow discusses a few rules for business emails that could help give kids some tips for when they need to formally send or answer emails corresponding with teachers, college admissions staff, and employers for internship or job opportunities. The rules include items like using correct titles and remembering that spelling counts. There is also a suggestion to avoid composing these kinds of emails on your cellphone as it is easy to forget proper grammar, spelling and etiquette, or become victim of auto-correct adding words or spellings you didn’t mean.

A recent post from USA Today columnist Steven Petrow discusses a few rules for business emails that could help give kids some tips for when they need to formally send or answer emails corresponding with teachers, college admissions staff, and employers for internship or job opportunities. The rules include items like using correct titles and remembering that spelling counts. There is also a suggestion to avoid composing these kinds of emails on your cellphone as it is easy to forget proper grammar, spelling and etiquette, or become victim of auto-correct adding words or spellings you didn’t mean.

There is an abundance of disturbing videos on YouTube featuring fights at school, teachers bullying students, and students mocking and/or harassing teachers to a breaking point. Chances are that with the sheer number of these videos available and the fact that they often go viral, your children are going to see some of them, if not online then as part of the evening news. Want some ideas on how you can talk to your children about it? Take a look at the article The Most Disturbing YouTube Videos (and What to Do About Them) for tips such as helping your kids develop feelings of empathy and reminding them that school fighting is not a sport. It is noted that discussing the consequences of posting these kinds of videos themselves is also important, as once this kind of material is posted and begins to spread, the poster loses total control over it.

There is an abundance of disturbing videos on YouTube featuring fights at school, teachers bullying students, and students mocking and/or harassing teachers to a breaking point. Chances are that with the sheer number of these videos available and the fact that they often go viral, your children are going to see some of them, if not online then as part of the evening news. Want some ideas on how you can talk to your children about it? Take a look at the article The Most Disturbing YouTube Videos (and What to Do About Them) for tips such as helping your kids develop feelings of empathy and reminding them that school fighting is not a sport. It is noted that discussing the consequences of posting these kinds of videos themselves is also important, as once this kind of material is posted and begins to spread, the poster loses total control over it.

Common Sense Media is offering an animated, choose-your-own-adventure set of interactive experiences called the Digital Compass that is designed to raise the digital citizenship IQ of students. Targeted for grades 6-9, kids can explore digital dilemmas, make good (and not-so-good) decisions, and try out possible solutions through stories and mini-games – all without risking their real-world reputations. Parents and teachers can take advantage of these online materials as discussion starters. The same material will be available in app form in the coming months.

Common Sense Media is offering an animated, choose-your-own-adventure set of interactive experiences called the Digital Compass that is designed to raise the digital citizenship IQ of students. Targeted for grades 6-9, kids can explore digital dilemmas, make good (and not-so-good) decisions, and try out possible solutions through stories and mini-games – all without risking their real-world reputations. Parents and teachers can take advantage of these online materials as discussion starters. The same material will be available in app form in the coming months.

When it comes to digital safety, it is always good to run through a checklist of all the things you should be doing as a parent. Such an updated list is available online on StaySafeOnline.org’s Raising Digital Citizens page. One of the catch phrases they use  -“Keep a clean machine”- is a good reminder to make sure your computer is free from digital malware.  They also remind parents to be proactive when it comes to thwarting cyberbullying. Prevention methods include working with kids on strategies for when problems arise such as talking to a trusted adult, not retaliating, keeping records of written communications, blocking the bully, or filing a complaint. It is also a good idea to brainstorm steps to take with your children should these strategies fail.

When it comes to digital safety, it is always good to run through a checklist of all the things you should be doing as a parent. Such an updated list is available online on StaySafeOnline.org’s Raising Digital Citizens page. One of the catch phrases they use  -“Keep a clean machine”- is a good reminder to make sure your computer is free from digital malware.  They also remind parents to be proactive when it comes to thwarting cyberbullying. Prevention methods include working with kids on strategies for when problems arise such as talking to a trusted adult, not retaliating, keeping records of written communications, blocking the bully, or filing a complaint. It is also a good idea to brainstorm steps to take with your children should these strategies fail.