The US Federal Trade Commission's revisions to the COPPA Rule announced today (12/19/12), are aimed at syncing up a rule mandated by a 1998 law with today's technology and with "the way children use the Internet, mobile devices and social networking," the FTC says in its press release. For example, the personal information that services cannot collect from children under 13 without parental … [Read more...] about The new, revised COPPA
New Media
Teachers’ views on how tech’s changing students: Studies
For a new report, the Pew Internet Project surveyed and held focus groups with more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers in the Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) communities and found that 77% feel "the Internet and digital search tools have had a 'mostly positive' impact on their students’ research habits, but 87% say these technologies are creating an 'easily … [Read more...] about Teachers’ views on how tech’s changing students: Studies
12-year-old New Zealander’s mixed-media publishing business
I'm a long-time fan of Marie Forleo and other 21st-century media moguls and gurus, interested as I am in how people of all ages make (and make a living with) media in a digital age. So I've been following Marie's story and noticed an interesting plot twist this week. In her MarieTV video, she says she's been hearing from more and more parents who are sharing her messages of self-love and … [Read more...] about 12-year-old New Zealander’s mixed-media publishing business
So we’re all becoming cyborgs, Dr. Turkle?
"We want to customize our lives…," "It is as though we have all put ourselves on cable news…," "We seem willing to dispense with [other] people altogether…." All these dire, dour, disrespectful pronouncements about this undifferentiated mass called "we" from highly respected psychologist Sherry Turkle at MIT in the New York Times. Where is her acknowledgment that the way we use all the devices, … [Read more...] about So we’re all becoming cyborgs, Dr. Turkle?
Education’s job in a networked world
I can't presume to know education's main job in today's very different media environment, but I think Prof. Michael Wesch at Kansas State University is on to something. It goes beyond teaching media literacy in information-saturated lives, which itself is well past the 19th-century model of filling students' heads with information and having them "learn" it. It even goes beyond teaching the … [Read more...] about Education’s job in a networked world