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?

Facebook is way too addictive. I have it because I’m becoming more of a social person and I enjoy talking to my friends.

-8th grade student

Someone friended my girlfriend and said mean things about me so she broke up with me.

-8th grade student

Social networks are a big part of my social life and have helped me in a lot of ways.

-8th grade student

I’ve thought about deleting my Facebook account – depending on my mood and what’s happened both on my account and in my life.

-8th grade student

I’m a different person on the internet than I am in real life.

-8th grade student

Two years ago I spent over 30 hours a week on electronics, and now I only spend about 20.

-8th grade student

I use a fake identity and then reveal another fake Identity to my close online friends as an extra measure.

-8th grade student

People are way too obsessed with Facebook!!!!

-8th grade student

I don’t want stalkers to look at my photos an videos and other information I have.

-7th grade student

I do say things in chat that I wouldn’t say otherwise.

-7th grade student

I am very careful online, and check and edit settings.

-7th grade student

I did “delete” my facebook once. But when I wanted to access it again, everything was there. So you can’t really delete it.

-7th grade student

I don’t usually watch tv.

-7th grade student

Facebook is quite pointless, and I don’t see what is so interesting about it.

-7th grade student

I generally think games alter teens’ personalities, but not a excessive amount.

-7th grade student

I spend many hours on the tv and computer a week.

-6th grade student

I am in denial about video games and how they affect your brain.

-6th grade student

I don’t use online stuff and do no social networking.

-6th grade student

COMPUTERS RULE!!!!!!! COMPUTERS RULE!!!!! COMPUTERS RULE!!!

-6th grade student

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.

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:

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.”

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.

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
source document

There were definitely some benefits to this approach to communication.  Abbey thought it would be nice to text someone who might get the message from their computer.  Kevin wondering if you have to use a Facebook.com email account or whether you can connect it to your own personal email.

There were also some concerns about Facebook having access to your entire life – every conversation with every person.  Sometimes you might have conversations that you would rather forget, but they will continue to exist in Facebook. Sometimes you don’t want a computer to decide what messages you see and what you don’t.  By making life easier, you may miss some important things.

Many 8th grade students use Facebook regularly, they’ll be reporting back on how these changes affect their digital lives.

8th grade students have been intensively exploring cyber-bullying in the month of October, the types of peer pressure that occurs online and possible solutions.  They’ve been candid in using personal experiences in confronting this topic.  We’ve also spent some time with the Hurt Square, a tool for plotting perceived intention and hurtfulness of an interaction – whether online or in the real-world.

Through the use of the Hurt Square, 8th graders felt that the tool had limitations and sought to modify (hack) it to suit their own needs.  In groups, students have taken a fresh approach to representing the emotion involved in interactions. Some teams added a 3rd dimension, some included rating systems or altered the purpose of axis.  Some felt that the emotional/physical aspect of an interaction was missing, others though that time was crucial in representing communication.

Rough drafts are complete, we’ll post modifications once they’ve been tuned.

This worldwide event was put together by GLAAD, Facebook, MTV and other organizations and was spread primarily through a Facebook page and other social networking tools.  Billings Middle School is a PACER partner for National Bullying Prevention Month and a large part of our technology curriculum centers around digital identity.

• Privacy and security settings exist for a reason: Learn about and use the privacy and security settings on social networks. They are there to help you control who sees what you post and manage your online experience in a positive way.
• Once posted, always posted: Protect your reputation on social networks. What you post online stays online. Think twice before posting pictures you wouldn’t want your parents or future employers to see. Recent research (http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx) found that 70% of job recruiters rejected candidates based on information they found online.
• Keep personal info personal: Be cautious about how much personal information you provide on social networking sites. The more information you post, the easier it may be for a hacker or someone else to use that information to steal your identity, access your data, or commit other crimes such as stalking.
• Know and manage your friends: Social networks can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of the fun is creating a large pool of friends from many aspects of your life. That doesn’t mean all friends are created equal. Use tools to manage the information you share with friends in different groups or even have multiple online pages. If you’re trying to create a public persona as a blogger or expert, create an open profile or a “fan” page that encourages broad participation and limits personal information. Use your personal profile to keep your real friends (the ones you know trust) more synced up with your daily life.
• Know what action to take: If someone is harassing or threatening you, remove them from your friends list, block them, and report them to the site administrator.
• Be cautious about messages you receive on social networking sites that contain links. Even links that look they come from friends can sometimes contain malware or be part of a phishing attack (attempts to collect personal information: log-on and password and other identifying information by pretending to be a message form a friend or a business). If you are suspicious, don’t click contact your friend or the business directly to verify the validity.