technology with intention
Digital Identity
Online personas, digital awareness, social networking, and the interaction of digital and real-world identity.
Facebook messages service: the social inbox
445 days
8th grade students today had a conversation about Facebook’s revamp of their messaging service – an idea to funnel all of your communication through their website and let the company decide what you want to look at.
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.
Hacking the Hurt Square
460 days
Hacking in its truest sense is essential to innovation and creativity. To hack something is to re-engineer something, to give it new purpose beyond what it is designed to do. To hack something is to understand it, find its limitations and push against those boundaries.
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.
Positive power of social networking
472 days
In an example of the positive power of social networking, some Billings students were among the 1.7+ million people who wore purple today in honor of the many people who have committed suicide in recent months because of homophobic abuse and bullying. A few student government officers spoke out against bullying at an all school meeting today, and shared a message of togetherness and community while providing examples of ways to treat each other respectfully while recognizing differences.
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.
October is cybersecurity awareness month
481 days
The folks at StaySafeOnline.org are back with a bunch of tips to help keep you and your home computer safe. Their website has a bunch of information about how to get involved and protect yourself. Copied below are some of their social networking tips, originally from this download-able file.
- 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.
The Hurt Square
487 days
While Jac is in Central Washington with the 7th grade, 8th grade students are delving deeper into the intersection between data permanence, social networks, friendship and privacy. The work they are doing is an adaptation of a lesson created by Common Sense Media, a non-profit focused on educating students, parents and teachers about the reality of digital identity.
Students examined a series of scenarios that happen everyday online between teens. They then rated the experiences based on the level of hurtfulness or embarrassment that would be caused and the level of intention behind the action.
You may be posting something that you think is funny or harmless, but others involved might not see your comments or media in the same light as you. Who gets to decide how painful something is – the insulter or the person feeling hurt?
You don’t always know how someone will take a joke or statement online. Don’t just think would this offend me? but consider could this hurt the person I’m referring to?
Students captured their responses in a ‘hurt square’, a graphing tool that illustrates the relative pain/intentionality of a situation:
Here is a list of the scenarios that students assessed:
#1: Your long-time buddy from 1st grade just posted a hilarious photo of the two of you when you were only 6 years old. You are both completely naked, running through a garden sprinkler with cowboy hats on.
#2: A classmate that you don’t talk to often just posted a list of “the 5 dumbest things you said today.”
#3: A friend from another school just posted a photo of you with the caption “Sooooo hot! I’d tap that.”
#4: A cabin mate from Camp Colman just posted a photo of you asleep with someone else’s underwear on your pillow.
#5: A buddy has a wall post about how cute you and your crush are. Problem is, they are online buddies with their Mom, who knows your Mom, and your Mom isn’t cool with you dating in 8th grade.
#6: You made a YouTube video for a school project. Someone anonymously commented “that’s so gay!”
#7: A bunch of teammates created a page called “you shouldn’t start for our team because you suck at sports” and then forwarded it to you.
#8: Someone took a photo of you from a school trip and drew boogers and a mustache on it, then posted it.
#9: A friend sent you a private message online that starts by calling you a racial slur for a different race than yours.
International Student Media Festival
550 days
by Jac de Haan
in Digital Identity
Jac is lucky enough to have been a judge for the International Student Media Festival for the second year. As always, some incredible uses of technology – and not just for the sake of technology. Students from around the world used websites and photography to enhance their understanding of whatever it is they are studying: from caves to minority scientists to mathematical concepts.
Congratulations to all of the entrants – your hard work is evident.
Last 6th grade tech of the year :(
610 days
The last tech class of the year ended as we began – out of the lab in a group discussion.
We started by using emoticons to share our feelings about our tech journey coming to an end. Some students felt 
and others 
or 
Students shared their favorite technology experiences this year:
- writing and executing programs with post-it notes
- independent projects
- visiting technologists
- revolution vs. evolution
They also offered suggestions for improvements next year, ranging from school-provided laptops to more time in the lab.
Finally, our conversation turned to summer plans. We talked about healthy screen time, concerns over cell phone over-usage and non-tech related summer activities. The 6th grade is planning on an amazing summer outdoors – some activities they’ll be engaged in include:
- parkour summer camp
- dog walking
- swimming
- playing checkers and other board games
- tennis
- ultimate frisbee camp
- writing letters
- learning a new language
- basketball
- cooking
Thanks everyone for a great year, 7th grade will be even more amazing!
Video game reflection
622 days
For the last month, 6th grade students have been chatting with professionals who use technology on a daily basis. Hopefully you’ve heard some stories about Michael’s (Google engineer) dog-friendly workplace or Emily’s (Cheezburger Network) love of music and reading when in middle school. If not, please ask your student, or visit the tech blog to get an overview (http://www.billingsmiddleschool.org/beta).
Our final guest speaker visited Friday and we had a presentation about how video games have shifted from text-based stories all the way to photo-realistic interactive movies. As always, students asked relevant questions and offered ideas for future products.
Towards the end of the class period our speaker showed off some amazing footage of their current video games. Part of these clips were graphically violent and may be on students’ minds. Some t-shirts and other give-aways were handed out, some of which depict these ads. Here are a few questions you might consider engaging your student with:
What makes video games so much fun to play?
Do you think video games can affect your mood?
Does your body and mind react differently to violence in a video game rather than in a movie?
Does your body and mind react differently to violence in a video game rather than in the real world?
How do you know if you’ve been looking at a computer or tv screen too long?
Our speaker also talked about the need for families to have clear rules about how much game-play is appropriate. His teen has a “1 hour per day” policy, but duration might be dependent on age, personality, exercise, school performance, chore completion, etc.
Does your family have guidelines about gaming systems?
Do you understand the video game rating system ( http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp)?
Are you familiar with signs of video game addiction ( http://www.video-game-addiction.org/symptoms-computer-addiction-teens.html)?
Do your gaming systems use the internet to connect players to others around the world?
Is gaming a social or private activity at your house? Where is the console or computer located?
Do you have a clear plan for this summer (camps, sleepovers, trips) that creates a balanced environment beyond gaming and/or computing?
