His screenname is Gracenotes and, “after his homework is done,” he works on cleaning up breaking news stories on Wikipedia for six hours at a shot, the New York Times reports. We all know how popular Wikipedia has become as a source for term-paper research (the Times article takes you behind the scenes at Wikipedia so you can see how viable this actually is, as long as other sources are in the … [Read more...] about Teen news editor
Literacy & Citizenship
96% social networking
That’s 96% of US teens and tweens, participating in a social-networking site at least once a week, according to a study by teen market researcher Alloy Media & Marketing. “Youngsters are now spending nearly as much time online as they are watching television, and many multitask,” Alloy found. “However, they’re four times more likely to be concentrating on what they’re doing online than on what’s … [Read more...] about 96% social networking
Real charity in virtual world
The virtual world of Second Life has a population of about 7 million (one-third Americans), and the populace is about to be exposed to a discussion about philanthropy. The MacArthur Foundation has given the Center on Public Diplomacy of the University of Southern California $550,000 to stage events in Second Life, including discussions of how foundations can address issues like migration and … [Read more...] about Real charity in virtual world
Be smart about cybercafes
If your family is traveling this summer and wants to blog or check email in Internet cafes, you’ll need to be careful about logging into your Web accounts like Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail. Public computers can easily have malicious keylogger software on them that logs your every keystroke (such as passwords and other account info). The workaround is simple, though. Take a great tip the … [Read more...] about Be smart about cybercafes
Stalking: New fact of life?
“Stalking” isn’t necessarily as bad as it sounds. Say you’re single and someone lines up a blind date for you. You’d want to find out a little about him, right? So you “stalk him,” as the digital natives put it. To many social networkers, it’s a fun, innocuous sort of “background check,” to see who a person’s friends are, where her tastes lie, what she talks about, etc., and definitely what she … [Read more...] about Stalking: New fact of life?