technology with intention
Digital Identity
Online personas, digital awareness, social networking, and the interaction of digital and real-world identity.
Are YOU on Facebook?
78 days
Last week the 8th grade spent some time reading, thinking and writing about Facebook. We started off by taking a quick poll of who does and does not have a Facebook account. Roughly half the 8th grade class has a Facebook account. Opinions varied in terms of usage of Facebook. Some students said they use it to connect with friends who live in other cities and states, some said they use it to keep up with local and long distance friends and family, and others said they did not see the point in Facebook when it was easier just to pick up the phone and call. It was a fascinating discussion, especially when a common assumption by adults (and often other teens) is that everyone has a Facebook account.
What is “PLAY”?
187 days
What happens when you give 67 middle school students access to a camera, a question and no adult supervision?
Digital identity close to home
270 days
8th grade students examined two stories of digital identity occurring this week in Washington state:
Story 1: Two tweens charged with cyberstalking in Facebook incident
An 11-year old and 12-year old are accused of using an ex-friend’s Facebook account to post mean and sexual images and messages. This is a clear instance of posing, which we’ve previously studied as a form of cyberbullying. The 12-year-old student went before a judge today and pled not guilty.
Story 2: A superstar teen loses chance to be featured by the Seattle Times because of distateful tweets
A Seattle journalist was writing an article about a teen who is heading to college after beating the odds and moving to the US from a refugee camp. As part of his research, he took a look at the teen’s Twitter account, which contained lewd language and drug related posts. As a direct result of the tweets, the journalist has decided not to write the story.
8th graders spent time debating the conflict between the teen’s positive actions and negative digital identity. Which is a more accurate depiction of the teen? Do we all have negative aspects of our life that aren’t meant to be recorded forever? What are healthy ways to explore identity without putting everything online?
Texting frequency among middle school students
286 days
by Jac de Haan
in Digital Identity
Analysis of the 8th grade digital identity survey continues to yield interesting trends. This year we have 3x more power-texters than we did last year…we may need to change the high end of our response options next year to get a sense of how many texts these frequent folks send and receive in a month!
Digital identity quotes
287 days
The 8th grade recently deployed an annual digital identity survey of Billings Middle School students. We are still analyzing the data, but here are some interesting quotes that were submitted:
(more…)
300th blog post!
298 days
by Jac de Haan
in Digital Identity
This is officially the 300th blog post on Billings Beta!
What started in June 2007 as a way to document classroom lessons has evolved into an award-winning resource for students, teachers and families to understand the impacts of technology in real-world and digital communities.
Thanks so much to everyone: site visitors, educators that take the time to comment on stories, and the 270+ feed subscribers – your interest in our work keeps students motivated to share their experiences with the world.
Teen digital identity – Rebecca Black follow-up
318 days
7th grade students continue to follow the story of Rebecca Black, a 13-year-old singer who has recently risen to fame via YouTube.
Since our first introduction last Wednesday (6M views, like/dislike buttons disabled) to today (39M views, 1:10 ratio of like to dislike) she has been:
- interviewed on national news programs, including Good Morning America
- appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
- been the topic of an interview with Lady Gaga
- is rumored to have made $25,000 in iTunes downloads.
Today students wrestled with the question is this fame worth the criticism she is receiving?
We spent most of the class looking at her production company, Ark Music Factory. This group of producers, choreographers and marketers seem to have a specific musical and visual idea of what might be successful online. They’ve drawn a lot of criticism in the last few weeks for charging families to make music videos for their children.
Finally, we watched another video from one of Ark Music Factory’s artists. Student debated the quality of the music in comparison to Rebecca Black, noted the guest appearance of one of the producers in the video again, and looked at ratings and viewing history for Alana Lee:
Teen digital identity – case studies
320 days
7th grade students spend mid-year focused on the theme of identity. In Science they study genetics and evolution, in American History they look at the formation of the US through the Revolutionary War, and in Language Arts they read and write stories of personal growth and awareness.
In technology we take a deeper look at the idea of digital identity - who we are based on electronic information that exists in the cloud. One person’s DI can look quite different depending on what type of information a viewer finds: text messages, social networking profiles, search engine queries, gaming stats, etc.
We spent class looking at 2 young people who are intentionally shaping their digital identity with the help of adults. We also looked at the consequences of this process.
MattyB
Matty B is an 8-year-old rapper. He has a large YouTube presence (over 46 million channel views), a schwag store (do-it-yourself t-shirt print-on-demand storefront), and a Twitter handle. Matty B raps to popular songs and takes opportunities to interact with music and dance stars to gain attention and promote himself.
Students can’t find any proof that Matty B is making money off the project so far, but they theorize that as he grows up, his digital identity might turn into a recording contract.
Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black was a regular 13 year old until about 10 days ago when her music video was uploaded to YouTube. The next day a couple of comedians sent out links to the video along with disparaging remarks, and she is now up to over 30 million views!
Rebecca’s video has spurned tens of tributes/copycats, most of them mean-spirited. Is fame worth the price of people asking you to end your life? Students doubted the ability of themselves to stay strong under such overwhelming criticism. We also discussed her ability to turn this experience into a positive one – she has already been interviewed by Good Morning America and been labeled the “next Justin Bieber.”
Take control of your online you
359 days
8th grade students at Billings are always involved in helping younger students and each other keep digital identities protected. In the past they’ve conducted surveys, presented to our parent community, built a webpage and created video.
Staying up-to-date with Facebook’s changing privacy policies can be daunting. An 8th grade parent recently wrote in to let everyone know about the new https option for logging in. Mashable just published a new guide to staying in control with Facebook. Follow their advice to stay in tune with the latest Facebook settings, including the https change.
Egypt’s use of digital tools and social media
361 days
by Jac de Haan
in Digital Identity
The lesson of Egypt is that the tools themselves are not as significant as the changed role of the individual in society that they reflect.
إن الدرس المستفاد من أحداث مصر هو أن الأدوات نفسها ليست بنفس أهمية الدور المتغير للفرد في المجتمع الذي تعكسه هذه الأدوات.
It took the unbelievable act of closing an entire country’s access to knowledge and communication to teach us that the power of new media is not found in Google’s algorithm’s or Twitter’s feeds or Facebook’s walls – it is more fundamental than the platforms, more fundamental than the internet itself. The power of new media is ‘lower in the stack’- to invoke a geek metaphor- it is in the recognition that we the digital generation have come to regard society itself as a read/write medium. We are all authors now, and the privilege to collaborate and revise is not simply a web protocol, not simply a human right, rather, it has become a human attribute.
لقد تعلمنا من خلال انقطاع أجهزة التواصل والمعلومات عن البلاد أن قوة الإعلام الجديد لا تُستمد من الحلول الحسابية التابعة لجوجل أو التعليقات على موقع تويتر أو الرسائل على الفيسبوك، بل هي أكثر رسوخًا من هذه المنصات ومن شبكة المعلومات نفسها. إن قوة الإعلام الجديد تأتي من المستويات القاعدية، وتُستمد من الاعتراف بأن الجيل الرقمي بات ينظر إلى المجتمع على أنه وسط يستطيع من خلاله قراءة وكتابة الأحداث. كلنا كُتاَّب الآن، ولعلنا تعلمنا بأن شرف التعاون والمراجعة لا يقتصر على كونه بروتوكول لشبكة المعلومات أو حق إنساني، بل هو سمة إنسانية بامتياز.
author:Ed Bice
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