Facebook has launched a new program that is designed to protect political campaigns from cyberthreats. Campaigns enrolled in the program will have access to security tools, and the social media network will provide proactive monitoring meant to identify patterns of malicious behavior and hate speech earlier so that Facebook can react more quickly.
A common theme proclaimed by anti-cyberbullying experts is how important it is for adults to act as role models and to monitor their own use of social media before expecting children to follow suit. One Texas school district superintendent, Lynn Redden is under review by the Onalaska Independent School District in Piney Woods, about 75 miles north of Houston, over an insensitive post he made on the local newspaper’s Facebook page. Redden says he regrets his comment about Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson and even tried to delete the comment, but not before others had taken screen shots of his words. This is yet another example of digital permanence and a good reminder for kids to think twice before posting anything.
Are your kids into playing video games competitively? eSports is becoming a trend that is making its way into the classroom. Schools are scrambling to keep up with eSports popularity, starting student clubs and offering college scholarships to young talent. Have children that might want to play along? Here’s what you as a parent need to know.
Nearly three-quarters of teens say they know social media companies are manipulating them into spending more time online—but they’re using apps like Snapchat and Instagram more than ever. According to a new survey, 70 percent of survey respondents say they check those apps multiple times a day, compared with just 34 percent six years ago. Despite their awareness, they don’t find it particularly harmful to their wellbeing. Check out what else the teens divulged about their digital lives.
College students in Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center have developed a free 30-minute video game called Prism that helps elementary-age students understand the experiences of their peers with autism. The game uses animal characters that demonstrate some of the challenges faced by individuals with autism. Prism is now available to play for free online, as well as in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The game takes about 30 minutes to play and comes with a downloadable discussion guide for teachers and parents.
Let’s say your child wants to use a technology tool for a homework project but the program or app is not approved by your school district. Where do you start in helping them get permission? Usually, as long as the technology is being used strictly outside the classroom and your child has their parents permission, there is no issue. But in this day and age of concern about data privacy, if your child suggests a tool that might good for the whole class to use, it is important for you to know about how schools think about these kinds of issues. The Educator’s Guide to Student Data Privacy on the Connect Safely site can give you the kind of insight on issues and concerns that might come up especially if you encounter a teacher who is less than excited about the use of technology in the classroom.
Scientific American online recently posted an article summarizing some of the latest research on how digital devices affect the brain. Although people who multitask online are ultimately less effective at navigating between tasks, findings also show that multitasking does not alter our brains. They also suggest that although video games and brain training influence aggression and cognitive performance, the extent of that influence is much less than many would think. What is the best way to counteract any negative influences of violent games? Go and do something that doesn’t involve digital devices. And here is something to consider for schools and parents: the risks of digital devices can be minimized by educating people on enhanced concentration techniques, self-control and critical-thinking skills.
Security experts are urging parents to reconsider posting photos of their children on the first day of school to their social networks. These photos can facilitate ill-intentioned people in gathering information about children, including name, age and where they attend school, says Raj Samani of McAfee.
Parents and educators alike are noticing the addiction kids are having with the popular online game Fortnite. Parents are joining Facebook support groups to trade tips about how to limit the time their preteens spend playing, according to NBC News . Teachers, on the other hand, are trying to take advantage of their students enthusiasm for the game by using it to teach math and English lessons.
It is uncertain why working on a computer all day long is so physically exhausting, although studies point to a couple of possibilities, writes Brian Resnick for Vox. One hypothesis is that the mental energy used sitting still in front of a computer has a draining effect on our bodies. Another theory suggests that tension caused by being drawn to the things we want to do (scrolling Instagram or reading blogs, for instance), rather than the things we have to do could is the cause of fatigue, and could very well explain the struggle of trying to get homework done!
Texting is often the communication method of choice for teens when communicating with peers and adults alike. But what about texting between teachers and students? In a recent article on the topic, Laura Zieger of the Department of Education Technology at New Jersey City University suggests schools should exercise caution about letting educators text with students, but should not prohibit the practice. Meghan DeCarlo, a high-school teacher and track coach who texts with student athletes, suggests the texts be for information purposes and always sent to a group. Is there a policy at your school for texting between teachers and students? Should there be?
About 70% of teenagers say they use social media multiple times per day (about twice as many as reported in 2012), according to a Common Sense Media survey revealed in USA Today. Teens also say social media can be distracting, with 57% saying it distracts them from doing homework, and 54% saying it distracts them from paying attention to other people.
Despite the distractions, the majority of teens still feel social media has a positive effect on their social lives. Vicky Rideout, founder of VJR Consulting in San Francisco and the author of the Common Sense report, says this is a valid discussion point, however she also adds “I do not think for a minute that the only metric we should use to measure what type of impact social media is having on teens is what they say they think it is having.”
The number of Americans who use Facebook will reach 169.5 million in 2018, making it the most popular social site among all ages, except for teenagers, who prefer Snapchat, eMarketer reports. Some 16.4 million Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 will use Snapchat this year, compared with 12.8 million who will use Instagram, and Snapchat will remain the most popular social site for teens.
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that while most parents don’t track the locations of their 13- to 17-year-olds, a full 16 percent do. Where do you stand on the issue? Before you make up your mind, you might want to read an article from The New York Times Family section entitled Should You Track Your Teen’s Location? that poses an interesting question: how do you learn to take care of yourself if you know someone else is always watching?
It seems that some members of Generation Z are abandoning some social media platforms or are considering doing so. Several teenagers interviewed for an article in The Guardian said they stopped using social media because they were tired of presenting a false persona on platforms such as Instagram or watching others being bullied online. Is this a trend or an aberration?
Despite having hundreds of "friends" on social media, people can effectively maintain only about 150 acquaintances, says Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Oxford in an article in the Scientific American magazine. Beyond that larger group, research shows people can maintain about five intimate relationships and 15 close friends.
YouTube is the latest of many digital platforms giving momentum to the industry-wide time well-spent movement, an initiative that aims to help people reduce the amount of time they spend looking at their phones and scrolling through their social media feeds. YouTube is rolling out more features designed to help users “take charge” of their digital well-being. The ‘Watch History’ screen within a YouTube profile’s account will show how much time the user has spent on the app that day, the previous day and over the past seven days. This latest feature comes after YouTube released the option for users to set a timer that would remind them to take a break from the app, a feature that was first introduced in the YouTube Kids app.
Similarly, Apple and Google both recently announced a range of functions designed to help users monitor the amount of time they spend on their iOS and Android devices, and Instagram just released a “You’re all caught up” message to notify users when they have seen every post in their feed from the last 48 hours. In August, Facebook announced it would be rolling out activity dashboards for both Facebook and Instagram where users could track the amount of time they spend on the apps.
As reported by Quartz, some schools are tracking, word for word, anything an individual student types on a school computer using safety management platforms (SMPs), such as Gaggle, Securly, and GoGuardian. These platforms use natural language to scan each document looking for words or phrases that might indicate bullying, violent or self-harm behavior, sending flagged documents to a team of humans to review. The practice, however, is raising questions about how to balance school safety and students' privacy. Critics say that this kind of surveillance, even if students understand this kind of scrutiny is in place, normalizes a “Big Brother” state depriving students of the chance to control their own data. How is your school handling this issue?
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a Wisconsin school district is seeking a village ordinance to issue citations to students who violate its cellphone policy a third time. Across the country, school districts have a mix of policies that include outright bans on campus to allowing phones in the classroom for schoolwork on a classroom by classroom basis. What policy does you school district follow? Do you and your kids think a policy like being given a ticket and facing a fine would be successful in curbing cellphones at school?
Looking for guides to the best apps for back to school? An article of interest that has a broad range of apps, is Best back to school mobile apps for Android, iOS on the Znet site. Scroll left and right to see a list of apps that help with studying, staying organized, avoiding procrastination and more.