Technopanic

= Stop the Technopanic: There is No Need to be Afraid of Technology in the Classroom =

Innovations for Learning Conference Dr. Justin Bathon June 4, 2013

Story - Police On School Internet Safety

=** 1. Worst Case Stories **= >>
 * CyberBullying
 * Cheating
 * Sexting
 * Facebook Sharing
 * 5 Minutes of Teachers & Social Media
 * Massive Digital Failure
 * Kentucky goes back to paper and pencil.
 * ** A LOT can go wrong. **

=**2. Some real data:**=
 * Myth: "1 in 7 children are solicited online for sex. Sexual Predators are exploiting the Internet to victimize children."
 * Reality:
 * "Unwanted communications of a sexual nature" ... not online sex.
 * 40% from teens, 30% young adults, 8% older adults.
 * 66% were not upset or frightened. Many teens handle the messages effectively.
 * Reality
 * 2006 online sexual predation with real teen victims = 1% of all arrests for sexual abuse of minors.
 * Myth: "22 percent of girls posed nude or seminude for photos"
 * Reality ... this data was obtained via an opt in web survey ... i.e. = statistically useless.
 * Myth: Cyberbullying is an epidemic.
 * Reality ... larger scale studies consistently find around 20-25% of teens report being cyberbullied in their lifetimes and 10% within the last month.
 * The degree of distress from these incidents also ranges and not all events cause great distress.
 * Myth: More young people are killing themselves because of the Internet.
 * Reality ... teen suicide has actually be dropping since the 1990's and has consistently been substantially lower than adult suicide. The latest data has the rate at 7.21 suicides per 100,000 teenagers ... or 0.00721%.

Nancy Willard:
 * == "The widespread fear about young people online is not supported by the research data." ==

Exaggeration (from source) can actually be making this worse:

> It may seem counterintuitive but research has shown that exaggeration and scare tactics can actually increase risk ( [|see this brief slideshow] ). Exaggerating bullying makes it like like it's normal: "Everyone's does it so it must be OK." [|Norms research] from Professors H. Wesley Perkins and David Craig has shown that emphasizing that most kids don't bully actually decreases bullying. As Cyberbullying Research Center co-director Justin Patchin said in my CBS News/CNET [|podcast], kids have a tendency to way overestimate the percentage of kids who bully (for more on why that's a problem, see [|this] from my ConnectSafely.org co-director, Anne Collier). When reporting on suicide risk, it's important for media to study [|guidelines] and be sensitive to risk of copycat suicides. ||
 * || **Exaggeration** **can increase risk**

=3. A Finger in the Dam=

>>
 * The Law of Accelerating Returns-
 * An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).
 * Pew Statistics (source) (source 2)
 * 95% of teens use the Internet.
 * 93% have computer access at home (often shared).
 * 27% of teens uploaded a video.
 * 78% of teens have a cellphone, of those, 47% are a smartphone (37% of all teens).
 * 23% of teens have a tablet computer.
 * More than 1/2 of Americans use social networking.


 * Internet usage for teens (95%) has not changed substantially over the past decade, the only major change is that the percentage of older people (65+) using the Internet has doubled.


 * Education Week: Technology In Education Statistics


 * Big Shifts (from Will Richardson).
 * 1) Analog >>> Digital
 * 2) Tethered >>> Mobile
 * 3) Isolated >>> Connected
 * 4) Generic >>> Personal
 * 5) Consumption >>> Creation
 * 6) Closed >>>Open


 * This is not going to slow down or go away.


 * Perhaps our panic is misplaced:


 * Task: ** Ladder of Activity for Users of Online Social Media
 * 1) Look at this chart. (image here)
 * 2) Take this survey.

=4. What about the Law?=

Lots of technology issues with school law:
 * Students
 * Expression
 * Search - Cellphones
 * Discipline
 * Bullying
 * Special Education
 * Employees
 * Expression
 * Privacy/Lifestyle
 * Governance
 * Copyright
 * Contracts
 * Electronic Records
 * Open Meetings
 * Acceptable Use Policies
 * Virtual Schooling


 * Big Takeaways:**
 * 1) ** Courts are very friendly to schools and provide a lot of administrative deference. **
 * 2) ** Federal policies (such as FCC e-rate policy) have been over-interpreted at the state and local level. **
 * 3) ** There is very little legally standing in the way further technology integration. **

=4. Teach them to Swim=
 * Much of the following section borrowed from Nancy Willard, CyberSavvy

Teaching Digital Safety:
 * Teach them to swim (p.4):
 * "Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim."
 * Integrate Digital Safety Into Instruction
 * Common Sense Media
 * Digital Drivers License


 * School Staff As an Example


 * Parents as Partners


 * Law Enforcement
 * DARE ... and Fear as a tactic = doesn't work (GAO, Surgeon General, National Academy of Sciences, US DOE).
 * Current Internet Safety Trainings reflect DARE type thinking. Scare the kids straight.


 * Things you can help teach students (2nd half of Willard book):
 * Information Credibility
 * Addictive Use
 * Protect Reputation & Personal Information
 * Posers, Trolls, Creeps, and other online idiots.
 * Online Shopping
 * Passwords
 * Backups and Security
 * Terms of Use and Legal Compliance
 * Garbage (i.e. Porn)
 * Social Media Privacy
 * Online dating
 * Digital Citizenship generally (lots of other stuff).


 * Task: ** In small groups, design a way to help kids learn about one of the topics listed above (things that cause us technopanic). Use the whitepaper to sketch and present your concept. The design constraints for the task are that:
 * 1) Must address an issue of Internet Safety relevant to kids.
 * 2) Must be capable of being delivered at a school (function within filter and device constraints).
 * 3) Must be a resource bank of some kind that kids can return to.
 * 4) Must NOT be just a different spin on something that already generally exists for one of your teammates.
 * 5) Must be ready to present your concept within 5 minutes.
 * 6) Must present your concept in less than 1 minute (elevator speech style).

= 5. Embrace Technology =

McLeod - Rethinking Technology Restrictions in Schools

Does your school block:
 * 1) YouTube?
 * 2) Blogs?
 * 3) Pinterest?
 * 4) Google Tools (like Gmail)

Futureshock - (1972)

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