Summit Slideshow Slideshow from the WiredSafety Community and Social Networking Summit in Westchester, NY

WiredSafety Summit Part 2

Podcast Version

I have to begin this blog with an apology. You will have to rely on the podcast audio version of this entry. Most of the text version was lost. After typing this out and recording it, I inadvertently closed the file without saving it. As a result most of the text was lost and my schedule prevents me from rewriting it. At least I can offer a few paragraphs.

On June 21st, the Westchester, NY Executive's Office hosted WiredSafety's First Annual Community and Social Networking Summit. The fist half of the day was a closed session with law enforcement and members of the industry including executives from Xanga, Bebo, Facebook, Piczo, and Tagged. The second half of the day included invited members of the public spanning all areas from regulators to parents and the media.

What made the summit unique was the participation of youth as equal partners in the process. During the morning session members of the WiredSafety Teenangels participated in discussions of what law enforcement needs to know when they go under cover. After all, no one knows how to be a 12 year old better than a 12 year old.

During the lunch break the teens circulated with guests were doing face to face social networking, that is until they stopped at the table where they got a peek at some things Disney will be launching soon. It was like a traffic jam on the Tapanzee Bridge.

At lunch, the group was addressed by FCC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour, who discussed regulations as they currently apply to the industry and offered tips to teens and parents about keeping save online.

After lunch Tiffany, one of the original Teenangels, officially introduced the group and launched the afternoon session, which included more than three dozen speakers on three panels who addressed the Facts, Fears, and Future of Social Networking.

...Lost text begins here.

Partial List of Presenters

THE FACTS

Robin Raskin - Advisor to Yahoo Tech.
Della Curtis - Coodinator of Library Media Services for Baltimore County.
Steve Parkis - Head of Premium Products for Disney.
Harry Valetk - Dir Online Privacy Online - Software Rating Board
Jeff Mandelbaum - Investment advisor
Rossell Thompson - Former FTC chairman & Tagged Chief Privacy Officer
Joselle Shea - National Crime Prevention Council
Paige Ralston - Recording Industry Association of America
Mark Ginsburg - President of Xanga
Margaret Sullivan - Technology teacher and Teenangel chapter leader

THE FEARS

Paul Gillespi - Det. Sgt Toronto Police
Steve Klein - NY Attorney General's Office
Mike Delohery- Chief of the cybercrimes unit at Westchester DA.
Andrew Donofrio- Head of Cybercrime unit in Bergen County.
Kim Kennedy - Producer of the CBS Early Show and CBS News
Dana Castelvecchi- Parent
Allan McCullough - Child Safety Research & Innovation Center
Allan Kush - Executive Director of WiredSafety
Tom Maurer - Warren County, Ohio Sheriff
Mary Ellen and Jenna - Teenangels

THE FUTURE

John Haynes - Korn Haynes Advertising
Andy Korn - Korn Haynes Advertising
Art Wolinsky - Director of Educational Technology - WiredSafety
Kelli Emerick - Principal, IT Policy Solutions
Catherine Bolton - Exec. Dir. PRSA
Joanne McNabb - Chief, CA Office of Privacy Protection Dept of Consumer Affairs
Lisa Rountree - Disney Mobile
Michael Birch - President of Bebo
Chris Kelly - General Counsel - Tagged.com
Kathy Zanonic - Chief Privacy Officer Verizon
Marty Schultz - CEO of Imbrella
Connie McCue - Principal - St. Elizabeth's School, Wyckoff

First Annual WiredSafety Social Networking Summit

Closing Video (6 Meg) Parry Aftab's Social Networking Summit - Part 1

Yesterday in WestChester, New York, the County Executive's Office hosted the First Annual Community and Social Networking Summit, organized by Parry Aftab of WiredSafety.org. Principals from Xanga, Facebook, Bebo, Piczo, Tagged and other social networks, along with law enforcement, software and recording industry representatives, regulators, venture capital and financial leaders, parents, educators, and teens came together to examine the Facts, Fears, and Future of Social Networking.

The video above, is a Public Service Announcement created at Southern Regional High School, in Manahawkin, NJ with music provided by student in Southern's Vocal Music classes. It was used as the closing piece for the summit and acceneted one of the recurring themes of the day. In my next podcast will provide a closer look at activities of the day.

The Net Use Generation Gap

Podcast Version

A few weeks ago I came across an interesting set of survey results from the PEW American Internet Project. They had compiled results from a variety of different surveys to paint a picture of daily internet activities of adults.

I thought is would be interesting to see the difference between adult use and teen use. The PEW report showed the results from fifty nine internet activities. I chose fifty of them and created an online survey for teens to take.

Even though the survey sample is currently small (c. 200), not scientifically accurate, or anywhere as controlled as the PEW surveys, the results are dramatic enough to show significant trend.

While there are no real surprises, there are a few results that do raise an eyebrow and the graphic representation of the the results paints a dramatic picture of the generation gap in internet use.

Interestingly, the PEW survey reported that 66% of adults reported using the internet daily and my survey indicated about 76% of students use it daily. However, teens participated in twice the number of activities as the adults.

Under obvious results we found that adults searched for political information and financial information way more than teens and teens listened to music, watched videos, and played games way more than adults.

The results also showed that teens are more technically active through downloads, creation of online content and other activities.

Of course social networking what a mainstay of teen life with forty-two percent visiting regularly, as opposed to three percent of the adults.

What was interesting and puzzling at first glance was that adults used email twice as much as the teen, but the fact that teens used IM and text messages five times more than adults and blog more than ten times more seemed to explain that figure.

One other obvious result was chatroom participation. It was obvious that teens visited chatrooms more, but the percentage was somewhat lower than I would have expected. Reports I have read in the past showed about 50-60% of teens age 9-18 frequented chatrooms. In this survey the figure was only nineteen percent. This is particularly interesting because so far I have given the survey only to 7th and 8th grader and chatroom use drops off in high school. This seems to indicate that IM and text messaging is surplanting chat.

(The picture below show the survey results at a glance.)

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the ability to communicate effeciently and effectively as a responsible netizen is a critical area of education and this is exactly where the WiredSafety online learning activities place their focus.

The URL will be officially published on June 21 at the First Annual Community and Social Networking Summit Westchester, NY, but in my next blog, I'll be pointing you to the URL.

You may not be able to get underway this school year, but you will have plenty of lead time to steal between trips to the beach or the park to get yourself up to speed so you can make your students Cyber Safe and Information Literate in 2006-2007.

Click on Image to Enlarge

The Over Reaction to Social Networking

Podcast Version

Before I start this podcast, please give me a few minutes to bandage the serious rectangular grooves in my forehead made by the bricks on the wall I've been banging my head against, andto finish zipping up my asbestos suit.

OK, there it's done. This little rant is about social networking and the media coverage and the resulting reaction of the adult world in general and education world in particular.

At the risk of stating the obvious, social networking is a part of our culture. It has been around
since the first cavemen met on the plains. The only thing that has changed since then is the way that networking takes place. Eventually schools evolved, and though it wasn't specifically labeled as such, social networking was actually a part of the core curriculum along with the three R's.

As time progressed, the social networking curriculum in schools was less formal and took place through proper role modeling and in loco parentis. However it was still there in the form of extra-curricular activities, dances, clubs and so on. This evolution took place because we were teaching our children based on what we had been taught and what we knew.

Now, all of a sudden, students are networking in ways that are unfamiliar to us. We are no longer the experts in the mechanics of social networking. But rather than learning about these new ways of networking and how we can best guide our students through the online world, we become reactionary. We forget that we are still the experts in the ways of life and rather than learn and teach, we filter, block, and punish that which has been a part of our culture since the dawn of time.

Are we so stupid as to believe that this will stop that which we fear? Are we so blind that we think this will make our students safe or change what they are doing? Are we so irresponsible that we will renege on our responsibility to prepare students for networking life in the 21st century? If so, then SHAME ON US!!!

It's high time we get back in the game. We can start by recognizing that there is a great deal we can learn from our children. If we start treating them as collaborative partners in the new century we might get somewhere. They know that they know more about the technology than most of us. But they don't know what they don't know, namely the dangers and complexities of human interaction. Maybe if we are willing to learn from them about their world, they will listen to what we have to say about the rest of the world and the things they don't know.

In the weeks to come, I'll be talking more about how we can begin to teach our children about the complexities of social networking while helping them develop critical thinking and problem solving skills that will provide them with tools for life both online and off.

That's all for now. Take care and be safe.