Spotlight MacArthur Foundation

From Users to Citizens: Anne Collier at Net Family News discusses how digital citizenship might be made more relevant to youth—and why it’s so essential, particularly in the context of online safety.

“In a participatory media environment, focusing on citizenship helps everybody understand that: 1) they’re stakeholders in their own well-being online, 2) they’re stakeholders in their community’s well-being as well as that of fellow participants (because in a user-driven environment safety can’t logically be the sole responsibility of the community’s host), and 3) they have rights and responsibilities online,” writes Collier.

Also read Collier’s thoughts on a set of online rights for children.

Libraries Excel at National Gaming Day: School Library Journal reports that 1,365 libraries across the country registered to participate in this year’s National Gaming Day (Nov. 14), sponsored by the American Library Association. That’s more than double the 617 libraries that signed on for the first NGD in 2008.

In this its second year, NGD had 1,364 libraries registered to participate, according to the event’s Twitter feed, while 617 signed on for the 2008 event.

“I have been excited to see how many libraries registered for NGD this year, and it was great to follow the wonderful reports of successful programs unfolding on Twitter and elsewhere,” says Liz Danforth, gaming expert and Library Journal blogger. “People of all ages came into libraries around the country to play on the Wii or to play Rock Band, they played board games and chess and roleplaying games. Eli Neuberger’s GT System saw over 40 libraries competing head to head in a Brawl tournament, and win or lose, that means libraries coast to coast were doing something awesome with their customers and patrons!”

21st-Century Educators Don’t Say, “Hand It In.” They say, “Publish It!”: So says Lisa Nielsen, who blogs at The Innovative Educator. Nielsen provides six examples of how educators in various disciplines can move to a “publish it” culture.

Will Students Use iPods for Reading Books?: Mark Milian, writing at the L.A. Times Technology blog, poses the question after learning about Questia, an online research portal that recently released an app for reading books, articles and periodicals on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The cost is 99 cents for 5,000 public-domain books and a week of unlimited access. Then a two-week subscription costs $9.99.

Citing price and limited appeal of reading substantial amounts of text on a tiny screen, Milian doesn’t see the app as a viable option.

Texting While Driving: In case you missed this news—one in four American teens of driving age say they’ve texted while driving, and half of all teens age 12 to 17 say they’ve been a passenger while the driver has texted behind the wheel, according to a new report, “Teens and Distracted Driving,” by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

“Many teens understand the risks of texting behind the wheel,” said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at the Internet & American Life Project and co-author of the report, “but the desire to stay connected is so strong for teens and their parents that safety sometimes takes a backseat to staying in touch with friends and family.”

The study found no gender difference between the behavior of boys and girls; they are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel and riding with texting drivers.

Photo by: readabook.today

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