21st Century kids – Media! Tech! Parenting!

21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, digital kids, digital parenting strategies, parents and technology, personal data security, security questions

Should You Make Up Answers to Security Questions?

Posted on June 13, 2019June 13, 2019 by Marti Weston

Why You Should Lie When Setting Up Password Security Questions , over at the Techlicious site, makes me seriously consider whether the use of security questions — and the answers that we provide — should be re-evaluated. The 2018 article emphasizes the lack of security and privacy in our lives, and it notes that by giving responses that describe our personal lives we provide virtual keys that can open doors to potential identity theft problems.
Like a lot of people in the educational technology field, I spent a good deal of time helping 21st Century children understand the importance of not lying, especially about their ages. I encouraged them not to engage in anonymous activities, and I counseled them to avoid sharing made-up information, gossip or innuendo via social media. Continue reading “Should You Make Up Answers to Security Questions?” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century life, 21st Century teaching, children and civility, civility, data collecting, data sharing, democracy and civility, democracy and digital life, fraudulent news, parent child conversations, parents and technology

Two Pithy Quotes on Social Media & Democracy

Posted on November 3, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

How can worldwide social media companies ensure that their digital tools are not used to promote chaos?

Social media and the digital tools that we use every day have transported us into a strange new era. As we use these tools to work and play we tacitly allow them to collect incredible amounts of our personal information — content that documents our lives, likes, loves, and dislikes — and we become sitting ducks for sham news and fraudulent information. Those who possess our information, good guys or bad, can use impersonal algorithms to assess and use our data. Read my post about using Duck, Duck Go.

Fast Company’ article, Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt On Fake News, Russia, And Information Warfare describes how Google and social media companies were caught off guard by the manipulation of their systems and the prevalence of divisive news. The October 29, 2017, article by Austin Carr contains two interesting comments by titans of digital industry, though neither of them testified at the Capitol Hill hearings. Continue reading “Two Pithy Quotes on Social Media & Democracy” →

civility, digital kids, fake news, social media, social media content, social media friends

Some Kids May Wish That Social Media Had Never Been Invented…

Posted on October 5, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Children, at least some of them, may be getting tired of social lives dominated by social media.

An October 5, 2017, article in The Guardian, Growing Social Media Backlash Among Young People, Survey Shows, describes the results of a United Kingdom study about social networking. After surveying 5,000 students, researchers found that nearly 63 percent of young respondents are “…disillusioned with the negative aspects of the technology, such as online abuse and fake news.” This makes me wonder how children in other countries might respond to the same question. Continue reading “Some Kids May Wish That Social Media Had Never Been Invented…” →

21st Century parenting, collaboration, device-free times, digital health and wellness, digital kids, digital parenting, digital wellness, parents and technology, tech free time

Collaborative Family Digital Activities For Summer 2017

Posted on July 10, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Summer 2017 is here, and as we enjoy family fun, outdoor activities, trips to museums and historical sites, vacations, and all sorts of camps and special programs, it’s also important to discover activities that will help 21st Century children use screen time creatively and wisely.

So with less frenetic schedules and no school, use the summer months to collaborate — that’s parents and kids doing things together. Adults can learn more about the digital whirl that’s such a huge part of young people’s 21st Century lives, and kids can engage in meaningful, creative, and interesting projects — and even have fun working with their parents. The pay-off? Everyone will figure out more about digital life and add variety to the types of digital activities that they typically do.

Below are 12 family digital project summer suggestions — all work best if people work together — to consider for summer 2017.

Twelve Summer Digital Projects for Families Continue reading “Collaborative Family Digital Activities For Summer 2017” →

21st Century life, digital literacy, intention verses consequence, media literacy, privacy

Privacy: When Will They Ever Learn?

Posted on June 7, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Uploaded by Mancala at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

What will it take to make adolescents and teens understand that what they do just about anywhere is not private — even if it’s digital and feels like a limited number of others will know? Perhaps we are about to find out.

Harvard University recently rescinded acceptances from ten or more incoming students who formed a “private” Facebook page and traded sexually explicit and disgusting memes about kids, women, and people of color. Putting aside the loathsome behavior — just for a moment — why on earth would these young people consider any Facebook group or any other online group to be private, even if it has private in its name?

Crimson reporter Hannah Natanson writes:

In the group students sent each other memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children, according to screenshots of the chat obtained by The Crimson. Some of the messages joked that abusing children was sexually arousing, while others had punchlines directed at specific ethnic or racial groups…

Continue reading “Privacy: When Will They Ever Learn?” →

21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, cell phones, digital devices, digital devices and gadgets, digital parenting, digital wellness, digital-device-free times, first mobile phone, getting a first device, getting started with a kid’s new device, parents and technology

An Amusing but Pointed Welcome Poem for Kids With New Digital Devices

Posted on April 3, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

childing-typing1 — Click here to read my second poem about kids’ advice to parents.

Since it’s National Poetry Month, I decided to write a few amusing verses about digital kids and the connected world. You are welcome to attach this poem, with attribution, to any new device that a member of your family receives. Enjoy!

An Amusing but Pointed Welcome Poem PDF

Congrats on acquiring a new mobile device,
Have fun working and playing, but here’s some advice.
With your friends or relations who, like you, love the web
You’ll connect with so much, you’ll feel like a celeb!

But remember! When you work, play, or hangout online,
You must understand when you need to decline.
Kids often forget while using devices
That it’s easy to get caught in another kid’s vices.

It’s great fun to partake of apps, websites, and more,
Because you and your friends mostly do know the score.
You’re connected, you’re sharing – and that’s really great!
But please know that you’ll make more than one big mistake. Continue reading “An Amusing but Pointed Welcome Poem for Kids With New Digital Devices” →

21st Century life, cell phones, mobile phones, privacy

Your Phone Knows a Lot About You: Even When You Think You’ve Secured It

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Marti Weston

screen-shot-2017-03-06-at-10-49-13-am Those of us who want to maintain a modicum of privacy in our digital and mobile phone lives, not to mention our 21st Century kids’ lives, may be interested in a question answered by writer J.D. Biersdorfer, on his New York Times Personal Tech blog.

Answering the question, How Your Phone Knows Where You Have Been?, Biersdorfer explains lots more about the GPS function on a mobile phone, describes what’s collected, and tells how to fine out how Apple and Google use the information. He also describes, with screen shots, how to reset or disable the information collecting. It turns out that shutting off location services, or leaving them on and allowing just a few apps to use location data, is not enough. On the iPhone, more privacy settings, in a category called system services, are buried inside the location list.

Parents and teachers may want to learn a lots more about how a mobile phone keeps track of a user’s whereabouts and this column provides lots of information. Interestingly, some parents have told me that they like examining, from time-to-time, the map that the GPS leaves, especially on their kids phones.

Check it out.