Apologies to email subscribers, who already received this. It got lost in the transition from one Web hosting service to another. I hope to have all these bugs screened out in the first couple of weeks of 2016! [Happy New Year, BTW!] Here's what I first posted a couple of weeks ago.... As I read through the first 12 or so paragraphs of Sam Slaughter's article in the New York Times Style section, … [Read more...] about A gazillion ways to communicate, socialize, etc.: Fun!
empathy
From bystanders to ‘upstanders’ & leaders: How it’s done
This is one way it's done, anyway – the way #iCANHELP does it. And in more than a decade of writing about solutions to anti-social behavior online, I haven't seen one as effective, pro-social and pro-student as #iCANHELP. [Disclosure: I'm working with #iCANHELP to pilot a social media helpline for schools this year, so I'm biased, but this is why I'm working with them – besides the fact that 1) … [Read more...] about From bystanders to ‘upstanders’ & leaders: How it’s done
Social media & what our kids could be teaching us
Two years ago, when "selfie" was named "Word of the Year" and the spontaneous snapping of self-portraits on cellphones was being vilified as yet another example of youth's narcissism, author and educator Rachel Simmons posted a bit of healthy disruption. She wrote in Slate, "Consider this: The selfie is a tiny pulse of girl pride - a shout-out to the self." Simmons gets it. She adds, "Some girls … [Read more...] about Social media & what our kids could be teaching us
For kids’ sake, don’t ‘black box’ social media
For our children's sake, it's more important than ever that we not "black box" our media, whether as researchers or as parents and educators. An essay from psychologist and media professor Sonia Livingstone in the new scholarly journal Social Media + Society got me thinking about this. Dr. Livingstone observes that scholars in disciplines other than media and communications are doing that … [Read more...] about For kids’ sake, don’t ‘black box’ social media
Wise words on bullying from 11-year-old star of ‘Little Boy’
Remarkable actor Jakob Salvati is only 11 – and he was only 8 when he played the title role in the film Little Boy released today – but he already gets a core truth about bullying: "Usually the person bullying is someone who is hurting on the inside and hiding it," he wrote me via his publicist. Experts in juvenile justice get this too. At last summer's national bullying prevention … [Read more...] about Wise words on bullying from 11-year-old star of ‘Little Boy’