Tag: digital parenting

Posted in 21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, parents and technology, social media, supervising digital kids

Play in the Social Media Sandbox? Decisions, Decisions!

Posted on by Marti Weston
socialmediarainbow
Found on Flickr.

Check out Nick Bilton’s New York Times article, Letting Your Kids Play in the Social Media Sandbox. The February 18, 2015 piece shares Bilton’s experience as he considers how much initial access his nephew should have to social media, after the boy asked about signing up for a YouTube account.

The best part of his decision-making process is the author’s metaphor describing the three doors that open to progressively more complicated social media and how each door leads to a more complicated social experience for a younger person. Bilton explains how each door opens to trickier types of social media that allow — or more likely promotes — certain types of negative behavior. He is not against social media access at all, but he has some specific recommendations about child supervision and parent responsibilities.

Continue reading “Play in the Social Media Sandbox? Decisions, Decisions!” →

Posted in 21st Century life, digital life, parents and technology, selfies

Collecting Information — Even From Selfies?

Posted on by Marti Weston

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 9.16.16 PMThere seems to be a way to collect information about — well — everything.

Nowadays that includes our images and more specifically the selfies that we informally snap and share. Parents of 21st Century digital kids need to know that data mining reaches ever farther into our lives, seeking information from our most spontaneous and casual digital image creating activities.

An October 10, 2014 article in AdWeek, How Marketers Are Mining Your Selfies for Data: Chances are, Without You Knowing, describes how data mining firms collect information on the millions of pictures that are casually uploaded and without privacy settings.                Continue reading “Collecting Information — Even From Selfies?” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, mobile media devices, parents and technology, risky behavior, sexting

Sexting Information for Concerned Parents from FOSI

Posted on by Marti Weston
Screen Shot 2015-01-05 at 8.27.02 PM
Click here to get the FOSI brief.

If you worry about sexting, your child, and even the friends of your children, take a few minutes to read a Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) digital parenting brief, Sexting: Felony or Flirting? This article fills in a lot of blanks for concerned parents who observe adolescents treating the sexting issues with almost casual regard.

The piece, by FOSI International Policy Manager, Emma Morris, offers broad information and excellent advice for the parents of digital kids, including overviews of recent news stories, research, and court cases.

Best Quote                         Continue reading “Sexting Information for Concerned Parents from FOSI” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, curating digital footprints, digital footprints, digital kids, parents and technology

Resolution 2015: Focus on Family Members’ Digital Footprints

Posted on by Marti Weston
Digital Footprint Venn Diagram Project
Student Digital Footprint Venn Diagram Project

Digital footprints — those small bits of digital information collected and compiled on each individual — can portray a person in all sorts of ways. Everything we do on the web or with when we interact with other connected sites is saved somewhere. We may think first of email, texts, social media, and web searches, but our information gets collected when we shop, travel, drive, make mobile phone calls, and even when we buy groceries.

Below are a few links that can help parents and educators think about managing and curating digital footprints. Everyone, child and adult, has a digital footprint profile.

Posted in 21st Century parenting, acceptable use, digital parenting, family conversations, gadget ownership, parents and technology

Needed: Digital Rules-of-the-Road for Kids’ New Smart Devices

Posted on by Marti Weston

made_at_www.txt2pic.comAfter the December holidays, lots of digital kids will begin using new handheld devices, but as these new gadgets come out of their boxes, parents need to update or introduce a family digital device action plan. A family’s plan is similar to the rules-of-the-road guide that is so critical to new drivers.

These days most flashy new smartphones, iPads, tablets, music players, computers, laptops, notebooks, and video games are connected to the exciting, but rough and tumble world of the Internet, and much of the time these devices are used in places where adults are not present. So sometime during the first week of gadget ownership – or better yet, as the devices come out of their boxes – parents and children need to sit together and review digital behavior and expectations.

To help come up with your expectations, check out a comprehensive list of Internet sites with information about family digital life contracts and agreements. Many parents include these agreements in the box so the conversation begins as soon as a child opens the gift.                               Continue reading “Needed: Digital Rules-of-the-Road for Kids’ New Smart Devices” →

Posted in 21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, digital citizenship, digital kids, educating digital natives, parents and technology

Family Online Safety Institute Conference 2014: Lots to Learn

Posted on by Marti Weston

A  year has passed and once again I’ve attended the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) annual conference — this time the 2014 edition. I was especially excited to be learning,  connecting, and enjoying the events with a bevy of edtech and teaching colleagues — 15 at last count — educators who are committed to supporting 21st Century learning and to guiding our students’ parents, grown-ups who must continually fine-tune their 21st Century parenting skills.

Screen Shot 2014-11-14 at 10.49.52 AMRead my FOSI 2013 posts.

Right at the beginning we learned about FOSI’s latest research, this time focused on parenting in the digital age. A presentation by researchers at Hart Associates gave us more insight into the excitement, the concerns, and the hope that parents have about their children’s connected world lives. The good news is that parents’ knowledge is increasing and so is the confidence that they bring to parenting digital natives. I’ll share lots more about that in a future post, but you can read the full report before I get to my review of the research.      Continue reading “Family Online Safety Institute Conference 2014: Lots to Learn” →

Posted in choosing reliable resources, curated resources, health information, parents and technology, Wikipedia

Wikipedia as a Trusted Source for Ebola? Yes!

Posted on by Marti Weston

Several weeks ago I wrote Why Wikipedia: The Questions that Parents Keep Asking, published over at the Platform for Good blog. I wrote about the challenges that adults face when children use the giant online encyclopedia, the activities that are occurring to make Wikipedia better, and the concerns that adults have with sourcing. Now I share a situation that illustrates Wikipedia at its best — an example that the parents of digital kids may want to point out to their children.

Screen Shot 2014-10-27 at 8.06.16 PMThe New York Time recently  published Wikipedia Emerges as Trusted Internet Source for Ebola Information, an October 26, 2014 article which describes the steps that medical professional are taking to edit and vet Ebola information on Wikipedia. Written by Noam Cohen, the Times’s piece says that Wikipedia’s Ebola article had more than 17 millions views last month and profiles some of the medical professionals who are writing and editing the information about this terrible epidemic.

Continue reading “Wikipedia as a Trusted Source for Ebola? Yes!” →