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.

Safer Sounds for iPods

A couple of parents, tired of telling their children to turn down the volume on their iPods and unable to find players or earbuds with a volume control, decided to come up with their own safer version of earbuds. Launched in 2006, Ingemi's iHearSafe earbuds may look like any standard pair, but there is a difference. A small volume-reducing circuit, placed in the length of the earbud wire prevents sounds from exceeding 85 decibels (about the level of city traffic) but still allows the rocking beat to rattle through. Selling for $20 on Amazon or at Ingemi.com the founders are hoping their product will be on store shelves for the holidays.

Facebook Plays Peek-A-Boo

Make sure your child has employed the privacy options that Facebook offers because it now is going to play a bit of peek-a-boo by allowing some information on users' profiles to be visible to major search engines like Yahoo and Google. The function is voluntary -- members can opt out if they want to keep their info accessible only to fellow Facebookers. However, the move has still raised privacy concerns and kids need to understand that this makes their information even more public. Remind them that they should never post anything they wouldn't want every one in the world to see. Need a discussion starter on social networking? See the case study: Social Networking: Don't Give Yourself Away.

Girls Gotta Have IT

The K-12 NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) Alliance (College Board, ISTE, American School Counselor Association, Girl Scouts, and other organizations) offers a free kit packed with materials for encouraging girls to consider careers in information technology (IT). The kit includes the following publications: Totally Amazing Careers in Engineering, Science Can Take Her Places!, Girls and Information Technology, Computing Degrees and Careers, IT is all about Me, and more. You can download the materials in pdf format from the site.

Monitoring Granny and Gramps

Tools for people who need to monitor elderly relatives are on the rise - sensors, Webcams, GPS devices, and pendants and bracelets with emergency buttons - are just some of the technologies being put to use to give seniors independence and caregivers piece of mind. Looking for a solution for your family? A good place to start is the article Taking your meds? Sensors will know on CNet.

CircleUp! To End eMail & IM Confusion

Here's a new product that looks like it will be useful to parents, sports teams, PTA groups and even kids doing group projects. CircleUp allows you to send emails or IMs to a group of people and receive one organized answer back. The answer includes a summary and details of each person's answer. The software is free and works using a "question writing widget" and an answer patterning system. Check out the demo, which shows how to compose the email and what the results look like. You'll really be organized with this!

Identity Theft Guardians – Are They Worth the Price?

If you are thinking about ponying up a $100 or more to have some company protect you from identity theft, you may want to first want to consider what you can do for yourself. Consumer groups point out that most identity theft remains low-tech -- more dependent on dumpster diving than Internet breaches. Consumers can protect themselves by being careful with personal information, shredding documents and watching what they carry in their wallets. While some companies do offer to watch your credit report or offer insurance if some one cleans out your bank account electronically, you may still want to consider all your risks. (The average bank account loss from identity theft is $600.) You also have to consider how much personal information you have to give these companies so they can "protect" your private information, too.

Serialized Books - One Email at a Time

The Web site DailyLit can provide you and your kids with classic books such as The Red Badge of Courage, War of the Worlds, Poems of William Blake, Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, Heart of Darkness, and lots more. They come to your email or through RSS feed in installments. They can even arrive on your cell phone. For example, House of Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne arrives in 121 parts-you decide how and when you want to receive the installments. The first two are free; most books are priced as $5 or less. It's a great way be introduced to or review the classics or to read classics you've never had time to tackle.  Maybe you have a reluctant reader whose fancy this might tickle?

I-Saw-It-On-The-Listserv - The New Neighborhood Grapevine

More and more adults are using listservs to communicate neighborhood know-how to large groups. Everything from info on the latest plumber to what teacher to ask for next year at the local elementary school is being shared. Of course, it's not all benign. Sometimes spats about noisy neighbors, feuds over kid's sports teams and much worse spill over into these neighborhood info machines. Are you plugged into a neighborhood listserve? How does it fit your needs? Note: This blog entry is linked to the Washington Post online. To view the article you will have to register for free.

New Anti-Cyberbullying Video

Cyberbullying is a bit like some dreaded disease. Kids know it exists but they never think it could happen to them. Statistics now are being circulated that only 10% of all kids who are cyberbullied tell their parents or other adults. That's a real shame because one of the best ways to stop cyberbullying is to shine a light on it by talking about it. Two discussion starters for talking about cyberbullying are the Internet Smarts interactive case study on this site called Cyberbullying: Not Just Name Calling.and a new video available on the Common Sense Media site.