Canadian School Finds Texting Between Students and Teachers Keeps Students in Class

A school in Canada is using school-issued cellphones to allow students and teachers to communicate in and out of the classroom. The initiative is intended to engage students and curb absenteeism and low retention rates by allowing teachers and students to stay in contact via text messaging. While so many other schools are asking students to park their cell phone at the door, the success of this pilot group has officials discussing various ways to expand the cellphone program. Isn’t it time to really look at what cellphones can do at school?

Intellectual Property Law Still Alive and Well in the Social Media

Intellectual property law is still alive and well in the social media age despite the free-for-all attitude that many people have about what is available online. Experts at the recent South by Southwest Interactive Festival had a panel discussion about it and explained three important tips for anyone who uses media derived from online sources – even Twitter!

• Be careful with any picture, video or other media, even those that have been widely circulated through Twitter or Facebook.  If you use a photo, the best practice is to obtain express permission to use it, and at the very least do not use photos without proper attribution and links at a minimum. Items like this may be covered under Fair Use to be used in school assignments, but even they need to be attributed.
  
  
• Don’t just “scrape” content off of online sources. To claim a Fair Use exemption, even for a school assignment, you need to transform most content with your own unique creativity, and thereby avoid unfair competition or copyright violation claims.
  
  
• Social media has often been used as a vehicle to make fun of certain people or criticize them. The Fake Steve Jobs blog is a good example of this. Obvious parodies probably are still safe, within reason and good taste, BUT – and kids should know this as this is often a favorite way to get back at a teacher or school administrator – several states, and others have similar laws in the works that have made e-personation , or impersonating another person online, a crime. So, when dealing with criticism or parody of individuals online using the word “Fake” over and over again is one way to keep yourself from getting into trouble.

Beware of Poison Text Messages and Bad Apps

It seems that nearly one in five mobile phone users has had problems with some kind of security threat on their device according to a new survey by Cloudmark. And here is another term to add to your tech jargon – poison text messages. Those are the odd text messages you get on your phone offering you services or to take a survey to win something when all they are really doing is fishing for your payment  info. Bad apps, particularly on the Android platform, are also on the rise by a staggering 86%. Many of these are disguised as free apps to be downloaded from web sites and target stealing credentials from e-mail and mobile banking applications.

Multitasking Lowers IQ

According to researchers at Kings College of London “constant exposure to e-mail and other multitasking-friendly technology temporarily lowers IQ by 10 points–or about as much as skipping a night’s sleep and more than twice as much as smoking marijuana.” Hallowell’s book, CrazyBusy, suggests that multitasking with texting, emailing, tweeting, networking, and such is like “playing tennis with two balls.” Researchers at the University of California studied a group of professional people. It seemed that they could only remain on a task for about eleven minutes before they were “called” by some sort of digital messaging. After that, it took them twenty-five minutes to get back on task. Market research indicates that company workers waste 2.1 hours of work a day because of multitasking.  Dr. Hallowell says that with so much to do, so much information, so much “blabber” and multitasking, all of us look like we have ADD. Consider how all this relates to our kids, who are multitasking even more than most of us. The answer is not to unplug them and ourselves, since multitasking is a part of our world today, but instead to learn to use our tech tools wisely. It all starts with a conversation!

Addiction, Addiction, Addiction

A study done in Germany conducted by Chicago University using Blackberry technology found that Facebook and Twitter are harder to resist than alcohol and tobacco. Participants were checked in on 7 times a day and 75% of the responses indicated an urge to use social media. As the day wore on, willpower to avoid the temptation was even worse. Sound familiar?

Technology Solutions for Teen Driver Phone Distractions

USA Today recently ran an article on how parents are using a variety of technology solutions to keep teens from texting and talking while behind the wheel. Many of the solutions involve software or devices that detect when the vehicle is moving and then put a solution in place including jamming or shutting a device off.

Call Your Mother

While texting may be changing the way we parent, a new study says that there is nothing for stress like the power of Mom’s voice over the phone. The research comes from Evolution and Human Behavior. It finds that a phone call to mom provides significant stress relief while instant message conversations won’t quell the nerves.The conversations happened after research subjects took a stressful test. As subjects spoke (or typed) with their mothers, the researchers measured changes in levels of cortisol (generally linked to stress) and oxytocin (a hormone linked to pleasure). When subjects talked on the phone, cortisol levels dropped and oxytocin went up. But IMing with Mom looked the same as having no contact at all. Nice to have science on our side in this one!

TV or Texting : What’s Worse for Teens?

Texting, television, Facebook and video games are not inherently bad for kids say researchers, but research has shown that the more time kids spend in front of screens — whether it's TV or instant-messaging — the worse their school performance. Of course, that may not be true for all kids, but the whole texting craze is something parents are having trouble getting used to. Perhaps the biggest thing is the snub factor. If you are sitting watching something mindless on TV with your kids that’s at least somewhat social, but if they are texting or videochatting with a friend, it seems almost rude to most parents. But what are the experts saying about what fights you should have with your kids about technology? Getting kids to turn off their phones, iPods, and computers in order to concentrate on homework and reading. Multitasking is the key issue kids need to learn to avoid when studying.

About Textbooks: Another Viewpoint

Here are suggestions from a high school teacher in Maryland, a guest blogger in edutopia. Shelly Blake-Plock’s blog, teachpaperless.com, tells how he’s been shedding textbooks, although he realizes that textbooks “serve the teacher quite well.” He doesn’t, however, think most textbooks do the same for students. Blake-Plock’s methods include encouraging students to learn from primary sources, to keep daily blogs of questions and thoughts about their learning, and to engage in projects based on their individual learning. His students use resources such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Helibrunn Timeline of Art History and BBC History. He suggests that English departments use novels that are available through Project Gutenberg, Open Library and Google Books and that mathematics teachers use their own questions, not questions from textbooks. They can put their questions on a class blog and have students create questions as well. Blake-Plock believes that teachers and parents can take the lead in changing the way our students are taught.

Texting Gone Crazy

If you are a parent and you aren’t comfortable with texting, it is time to get with the program. A new report says that teens are averaging more than 3,000 texts per month. That's six an hour. So what’s a parent to do? First, if for some reason the texting revolution has passed you by, you might seriously consider jumping onboard. Most parents find it is the preferred way to talk to their kids and eliminates a lot of hassles on both sides. That doesn’t mean you have to give your kids a phone with texting privileges. Only you know whether they are ready or not, but it’s so much better for you to practice now. Second, it you do go the texting route, make sure you get an unlimited text plan, or you may have some surprise bills. Third, make some rules about when texting is appropriate and stick to them and set the consequences for breaking them– both for you and your kids. If the rule is there is no texting during dinner, than that applies to everyone. Four, make it clear from the beginning that if you suspect they are texting improperly in any way – that includes  sexting, cyberbullying , or just not being nice – that you reserve the right as a responsible parent to take a look at their messages. An appropriate punishment for texting infractions? Take their phone away for a week.