Music, Movies, Software—Digital Citizenship

It's a must that we integrate digital citizenship into school curricula today, but finding appropriate materials that fit into our classrooms is difficult. Microsoft has just launched its Digital Citizenship and Creative Content curriculum, which is free of charge. Targeted to students in Grades 8-10, the curriculum addresses real-world issues related to use of creative content in music, software, and movies. Included are lesson plans, reproducible materials, and classroom-based assessments. Students explore the meaning of intellectual property through the backdrop "Battle of the Bands". They dive into research as they learn about their own rights, rights of their peers, and rights of others who develop creative products. Using the site MYBYTES, students are able to publish original creative material and learn more about what professional writers and musicians have to say about this topic.

Its Mission IS to Help Grownups with Tech Selections

Since 1993, Children's Technology Review (formerly called Children's Software Revue) has been providing monthly reviews of tech products that are targeted to kids. For example, if you are not one who understands video games, the Review will help you decide whether a game might benefit kids at school and/or at home. In fact, this publication, which can be accessed online or in print, takes on all types of electronic media including Internet sites, computer software and DVDs, video games, and interactive toys. Subscribing means you'll get access to a database of over 8200 product reviews and each month will learn about new trends, great Internet sites, and products you might want to investigate for you classroom-or perhaps, recommend for home use. Just download a sample issue to see if the Children's Technology Review would be valuable to you. Be sure to note that the Review doesn't include any advertisements.

Free Internet Safety Newsletters for Teachers & Parents

At the iSafe site you can sign up for i-EDUCATOR Times, a free newsletter featuring the latest in information about Internet safety for your students. You'll find articles on ethics, useful tips, the iSafe curriculum, and information about what's going on that you need to know. iSafe also has an i-PARENT Times, which you may want to recommend to the parents of your students. Take a look at the iSafe pages. It's a great site not only for you and parents, but also for teens and kids. Articles on Internet safety are available in the i-Safe Newsroom.

Need a Security Fix?

Transcripts of live discussions about solutions to problems caused by viruses, hackers, spam, etc. are available from Security Fix at the Washington Post. Brian Krebs leads the discussions, which have included topics like what are the best anti-virus programs, Clipboard Data Theft in IE7, and FireFox security fixes. You can sign up for RSS feed from the site.

Free Common Sense Available

Struggling to keep up with the latest on what’s good and not so good for your kids ( and students) on television and at the movies now that school’s started again? One way to make sense of it all is a free subscription to Common Sense Media. A free electronic newsletter will appear in your email weekly, and if anything there seems of interest, you can jump directly to those articles online. Also check out their new Internet Survival Guide. It’s a quick overview of many of the current Internet safety issues.