Still Putting It All Together

I’d love to have more time / energy to write these types of things.   Most of the Tumblr teachers I know are using facebook regularly, but I think a lot of us miss out on what an asset (in addition to Tumblr of course) that Twitter can be for educators.  Here’s a good little guide to look into if you have the time.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Newark on behalf of a parents group denied access to records requested under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act.

The initial April 1 request sought to review correspondence among Zuckerberg, Newark employees including Democratic Mayor Cory Booker, state officials and others involved in the deal.

“As parents, as taxpayers and as citizens, we have a need and right to know how the money pledged to Newark’s public schools will ultimately serve Newark’s public school students,” said Laura Baker, who filed the initial request and has a granddaughter in the school system.

The $100 million pledge was announced a year ago by Republican Gov. Chris Christie, Booker and Zuckerberg as they appeared together on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show.

Zuckerberg described the gift as a “challenge grant” to Booker, who’s trying to raise $100 million more to match what Zuckerberg has promised to contribute over five years.

The gift was presented as a way to try to improve the district, which has been plagued for years by low test scores, poor graduation rates and crumbling buildings. The district was taken over by the state in 1995 after instances of waste and mismanagement, including the spending of taxpayer money by school board members on cars and restaurant meals.

Mark Zuckerberg has it wrong. In a recent interview in CNN Money, he stated that Facebook was a good place for children under age 13 and it held great educational potential. Facebook as we know it today, is not a good place for children and has a long way to go before it has significant educational value. 

Today, children and young teens face numerous risks on Facebook including bullying, humiliation, identity theft, loss of privacy, threats from scammers, computer infections, phishing attacks that capture personal and financial information through fraudulent means, and over-posting of provocative or inappropriate material that could pose a risk to future employment or education. The privacy settings on Facebook demand a level of vigilance and cognitive understanding that children under age 13 may not be developmentally ready to handle. With major changes happening on Facebook every few months, safe use of Facebook demands constant checking of privacy settings. According to Facebook’s own statistics, 80-85% of current Facebook users NEVER check their privacy settings. This may favor Facebook marketers and advertisers, but can be very risky for young people who leave their information open to strangers, marketers who misuse information, software bots collecting data, potential future employers or vengeful “friends”. 

When I read this editorial I immediately thought of World-Shaker and also the question many of us received in our ask-box about kids under 13 using facebook.  I personally feel that no one under 16 should be allowed on. 

This law regulates what websites can collect about children under the age of 13.  It is why children under the age of 13 are not allowed on Facebook (although I’m sure Facebook would love to have this).  There are good reasons why this act is in place, and I really wish that more parents understood this.  A number of students at the school I just left had facebooks as young as 9, with their parents helping them set it up by lying about their birth date.

Facebook is announcing a new suite of tools to protect users from bullying, foster a stronger sense of community in the social network, and “create a culture of respect” among Facebook users. Facebook’s latest changes boil down to two main aspects: an improved safety center with more multimedia resources, and better, more social tools for reporting offensive or bullying content. In addition to reporting harassing or TOS-violating content directly to Facebook, users now have two new options that are more social and more community-centric. Within the reporting options interface, the targeted user can choose to privately message the user who posted the stressful or offensive content. If the user wishes to report the content to Facebook, he or she can also choose to include a trusted authority figure, such as a teacher or parent, as a contact in that incident report. 

I think this is a very positive step.  As someone who was bullied, pretty severely, I cannot fathom how bad it would have been if my peers had the internet.   I especially like the option of letting a trusted adult know what is happening.

I remember a while back reading some posts (on several tumblrs) about flickr losing many photos that one man had stored online.  People were amazed that they had no back up system.  Well, I present to you backupify which backs up / archives flickr, gmail, twitter, and facebook.

Thanks to Dianne’s Digital Discoveries for this link.