Web 3.0: How Our Kids Are Using the Internet in 2009

…and what parents can do about it!

presenter: Alecia Berman-DryTechnology Coordinator, St. John’s

Global Partnerships Director, World Leadership School

The World As It Was…

The World As It Is…

htt

p://

xkcd

.co

m/2

56

/

Which Are You?

The Ostrich?

The Benevolent Tyrant

http://www.doomlegends.com/maille/mac1.jpg

Zen Master

www.geocities.com/teddy1066/zen.html

Approach

• Ostriches: Ignorance is Bliss– Age is no excuse– Irresponsible

• Benevolent Tyrant: Total Restriction– Developmentally appropriate to push

boundaries. Choose battles wisely.

• Zen Master: Interested, Educated Partnership– The way of negotiation and renegotiation

Why Text? Why IM? Why Social Networks?

Stats

• 68%– Number of teens who

use IM

• 75%– Number of teens who

have a cell phone

• 55%– Number of teens who

use Wikipedia as a resource for information.

• 70%– Number of teens who

use social networking sites

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/Teens-and-the-internet.aspx

Remind them who they are… and

who you are.

Computers in Public Spaces… ALWAYS

Filter Your

Home Internet

What Does It Mean to Be Literate?

• Information is now– Networked– Digital– Overwhelming– Without containers

David Warlick, AIMS Technology Retreat 2007

Agenda

• Texting/Instant Messenger

• Social Networking

• Cyberbuylling

• Copy and Paste Technology/Copyright

It’s All About

the Settings!

Texting, Instant Messenger,

• “have a gr8 day! c u l8tr.”

• Text and image-based conversation

• Real-time

• Language-Specific

The Research

• University of Texas at Dallas

• NIH Funded Research

• 250 kids since 2003 (in third grade)

• In 2009, they’re now 14 years old

The News So Far…

• The average user sends and receives approximately 1,321 texts a month, or 43 texts a day.

• Parents and teens talk frequently — more interaction, in fact, than the researchers had expected.

Source: http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2009/05/06-001.php

What’s Great?

• Never say goodbye

• Relationships Redefined

Offers potential for more civic participation– 3 million people

received Obama admin’s announcement of Biden as VP via text

Efficiency in a Global Marketplace

Discretion

What’s Not So Great?

• Sexting – verb. sending sexually explicit messages electronically, primarily with cell phones via text, email, or instant messaging.

http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Guest_Columnist_710/Who_is_Raising_Our_Children_Social_Networks_or_Parents.shtml

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Sexting

Teens

Young Adults

http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/

Is this

really connectedness?

It’s All About

the Settings!

Sound off…• “I can’t believe everyone thinks this is o.k. I am so disturbed by this. I would

never do this to one of my children. It is very disturbing that David would be asking his son if he feels good. Don’t you feel GOOD? That is really sick. I don’t know what type of medicine this Dentist gave him. … I do have a sense of humor but not at the expense of a child. This is a serious issue. What type of father would think of doing this? Why not put down the camera and hold your son? Why not hug him when he is asking if this is real life? Why not console him? You are all mentally ill if you think this is funny. It isn’t about lightening up. It is about a responsibility of a parent to protect your children.”

• “Busy Bodies!!!! This is a fun video and wish I had something like this of my childhood or adulthood after a tooth removal. You Tube is unique in that individuals can share anything they want, from their personal lives, on video. Why does this mean everyone has to have an opinion? It is just like TV or Radio, there are personal choices out there. I want others to stop moralizing for me and if you don’t like content of something… Change the Channel, turn it off, watch something else. Don’t tell me what is good or bad for me.”

http://www.peoplesdirt.com/

Bullying Vs Cyberbullying• 24/7 and the invasion of home/personal space.

– Cyberbullying can take place at any time and can intrude into spaces that have previously been regarded as safe or personal.

• The audience can be very large and reached rapidly. – The difficulty in controlling electronically circulated messages means the scale and scope of

cyberbullying can be greater than for other forms of bullying. Electronically forwarded content is hard to control, and the worry of content resurfacing can make it difficult for targets to move on.

• People who cyberbully may attempt to remain anonymous. – This can be extremely distressing for those being bullied. The person cyberbullying may

never be in the same physical space as their target.• The profile of the bully and target.

– Cyberbullying can take place both between peers and across generations; teachers have also been targets. Age or size are not important. Bystanderscan also become accessories to the bullying; for example, by passing on a humiliating image.

• Some instances of cyberbullying are known to be unintentional. – It can be the result of not thinking (something sent as a joke may be deeply upsetting or

offensive to the recipient) or a lack of awareness of the consequences – for example saying something negative online about another pupil, or friend that they don’t expect to be forwarded or viewed outside their immediate group. 

• Many cyberbullying incidents can themselves act as evidence. – This is one of the reasons why it’s important to know how to respond!

http://www.techlearning.com/article/Blogs/20462

Implications

• Emotional Response to a Digital Experience– A new way to think about compassion

• Permanence– Once it’s posted it’s forever…

1969

58.3% of high school students let someone else copy their work.

Statistic: http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_facts.html

The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next (Free Press, July 1996)

1989

97.5% of students did so.

2009

• 54% of students admitted to plagiarizing from the internet

• 74% of students admitted that at least once during the past school year they had engaged in "serious" cheating

• 47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating.

Education Week

Copy and Paste World

• The Throwaway Slide

What Does It Mean to Be Literate?

• Information is now– Networked– Digital– Overwhelming– Without containers

David Warlick, AIMS Technology Retreat 2007

What Role for Schools?

• The most profound impact of the Internet, an impact that has yet to be fully realized, is its ability to support and expand the various aspects of social learning. What do we mean by “social learning”?

• Perhaps the simplest way to explain this concept is to note that social learning is based on the premise that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions.

• The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning….

• This perspective shifts the focus of our attention from the content of a subject to the learning activities and human interactions around which that content is situated.

What About Parents?

Action Items for Parents

• Where is the computer in your home? • What sites do your children visit often? • Do you have access to your child’s cell phone? • Who are your child’s friends online? • What is connectedness?• Does your child understand reputation? • Does your child know about a “digital footprint?”• Does your child’s school teach copyright?

•Source: http://connect2.edublogs.org/2008/01/30/january-parent-coffee-morning-recap-cyberbullying-101/

Photo Credits In Order1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gkweir/243781438/

2. http://www.unc.edu/awmc/awmcmap48.html

3. http://xkcd.com/256

4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectoralejandro/3439696303/

5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bass_nroll/2534055766/

6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lushpup/3321655795/

7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenilio/1509637652/

8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieterouwerkerk/698620325/sizes/l/

9. http://www.flickr.com/photos/visbeek/2313265752/sizes/m/

10. http://www.flickr.com/photos/minebilder/350687732/sizes/o/

11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/asv/2509441834/

12. http://www.flickr.com/photos/12861589@N03/2795302494/

13. http://www.flickr.com/photos/totalaldo/2400635097/sizes/m/

14. www.flickr.com/photos/88543347@N00/75078151

15. www.flickr.com/photos/99757245@N00/3543448689

16. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25930600@N05/2440398896/sizes/o/

17. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jliba/3496259672/sizes/l/

18. http://www.flickr.com/photos/flissphil/5191142/

19. http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727257@N00/494160608/

20. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gkweir/261858627/in/photostream/