Disclosure

Perspective and Reliability

• Opinions expressed in Media! Tech! Parenting! postings are mine.
• I will not write, in any identifiable way, about a specific situation at a school where I thought, though I may describe teaching experiences and address questions and  that parents have asked over the years.
• Posts that explore a subject will link, whenever possible, to reliable and authoritative references (newspapers, publications, research results, government as well as academic, and institutional web sites, etc.).
• Some posts may describe family memories or reminiscences or those of others who have shared stories or incidents.
• Thoughtful comments, clarifications, ideas, suggestions, and corrections are welcome.
• I will acknowledge guest authors and include background information.

Confidentiality

• The confidential relationship between students, their parents, and their teachers will always be respected.
• Media! Tech! Parenting! assumes believes in the sacred relationships between parents and children and families and teachers. Parents inspire, support, model important values, and of course, set limits for their children. Teachers dedicate themselves and their careers to helping others, and especially children, learn how to learn.
• If content refers to an experience of other people, family or non-family, I either ask for permission, wait for time to elapse before describing the scenario, or a write a post is a way that precludes identification.
• Media! Tech! Parenting! holds teachers, especially those who make teaching a career rather than a quick professional stopover to another career, in high regard.
• The sole purpose of any post is to help parents and educators gain insight and accumulate information that can assist them as they model and teach digitally native children how to be savvy consumers of media.
• If a post comes from a public resources such as a web site, newspaper, or other media outlet,  Media! Tech! Parenting! will attribute sources but also assume that all information is public.

Commercial Disclosure

• At this time there is no advertising on Media! Tech! Parenting! and I have paid the extra fee to avoid the extra advertising that WordPress usually adds to free blogs.
• Every day this blog receives requests to link up or be sponsored by companies or vendors in the education, online safety, or educational technology fields asking me to incorporate paid links or post guest posts that sell a certain product. So far I have not followed up on any of these requests.
• See the About page to learn about me, Marti Weston, the blog’s author.

My Inspiration

• Students and parents with whom I’ve been working during 33 years of teaching.
• Amazing colleagues with whom I have taught or collaborated over the years — teachers who do everything possible to help their students become confident and competent learners.
• Terrific parents who ask questions, request resources, suggest topics, and always want to learn more. Many of their suggested topics fall into a “things we wished we’d known about before becoming digital-era parents” category.
• Various newspapers and web sites that are regularly filled with information that relates to the media, technology and digital parenting experience. I am sharing my discoveries on this blog, and I also try to locate good, but hard-to-find resources buried in unusual places on the web.

Courtesy

• We all know how important it is, but as our interactions become more public in the virtual world, courtesy seems to be demoted to an afterthought.
• Please see the Media! Tech! Parenting! Comment page for a broad discussion of blog participation and decorum.

Gratitude

• To my husband who often, but not always, reads and edits my posts and who always keeps on the lookout for potential topics and timely research.
• To my many, many 21st learning colleagues all over the country.
• To you, my readers.
•  If you have not read the studies that relate gratitude to the increased quality in a person’s life, I encourage you to take time to do so. To get started read A Serving of Gratitude Saves the Day from the November 21, 2011 New York Times.  Also read this journal article, Gratitude and Pro-social Behavior: Helping When it Costs You.