Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

11.3.09 | MySpace Pics Lead to School Punishment, Lawsuit: Two high school sophomore girls are suing their school district after they were punished for posting sexually suggestive photos of themselves on MySpace. The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit on their behalf, “claiming that Churubusco High School violated the girls’ free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities for a joke that didn’t involve the school,” reports the AP.

“From the standpoint of young people, there’s no real distinction between online life and offline life,” said John Palfrey, a Harvard University law professor and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. “It’s just life.”

Media Literacy Week Goes Digital: Canada’s 4th annual Media Literacy Week kicked off yesterday. This year’s theme, Media Literacy in the Digital Age, emphasizes “the multiple literacy skills needed by today’s youth for accessing, evaluating, repurposing, creating and distributing media content to successfully navigate their digital media world.” Questions that will be explored include how kids make sense of online information, and how they can be “good digital citizens.”

Plus: The Calgary Board of Education is encouraging students to use their iPods. And in Spring Hill, Fla., an elementary school has 80 iPods available for students and more on the way.

Bridging the Divide: That’s the theme of this year’s K-12 Online Conference. This free conference is open to educators around the world interested in integrating Web 2.0 tools and technologies into classroom practice. Educator Kim Cofino of International School Bangkok will deliver the pre-conference keynote, “Going Global: Culture Shock, Convergence and the Future of Education.” Between Dec. 7 and Dec. 17, more than 50 presentations will be posted to the conference blog and conference Ning for participants to view, download and discuss.

School Library Journal has more information about the conference, now in its fourth year.

“Breakthrough” Coverage: Writing at Fortune magazine, Elizabeth Corcoran comments on the undercurrent of last week’s ‘’Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age’’ conference: “The Internet has changed most of the business world and lives—but for the most part, it hasn’t touched public education.”

A former Forbes editor who is now leading a start-up company devoted to sharing best practices for technology in education, Corcoran goes on to note that “as policymakers, educators and philanthropists debated the different approaches, a handful of speakers shared inspiring stories about individual projects that are working”—including Nichole Pinkard, founder of the Digital Youth Network in Chicago, and Geoff Canada, who runs the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City.

Internet Reaches Middle Age: The Internet turned 40 last week (happy birthday!). In this Duke University press release marking the occasion, Cathy Davidson, co-founder of HASTAC, an open network of individuals and institutions interested in technology and learning, reflects on how interactive technology has changed our behavior.

Photo by: Mehfuz Hossain