Archive for the ‘anne collier’ Category
Read reviews & watch ‘Digital Nation’
Monday, February 1st, 2010Scroll down to watch full program online.
Here is a link to my CNET review of PBS Frontline special Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier which airs on PBS stations Tuesday at 9:00 PM and now on the web.
But don’t just take my word that this is an important and provocative program. Two other respected Internet safety experts and youth advocates have weighed in with their thoughtful analysis of the show.
Read Anne Collier and Stephen Balkam’s reviews not just to help you decide whether to watch the film but for their own perspectives on the important issues that the film brings to light. Anne Collier’s NetFamilyNews post is titled “PBS Frontline’s ‘Digital Nation’: Presenting our generation with a crucial choice. FOSI CEO Stephen Balkam’ wrote Are We (Virtually) There yet? for the Huffington Post.
Anne picked up on one of the things the show taught us about how children learn by quoting the show’s interview with James Paul Gee who, in Anne’s words, “told of how, in virtual worlds and multiplayer games, young people function in teams in which “everybody is an expert in something but they know how to integrate their expertise with everybody else’s; they know how to understand the other person’s expertise so they can pull off an action together in a complicated world’”?
Balkam notes that “the real battle grounds fought over in this film include the future of education and how we raise our kids. The recent Kaiser Family Foundation research found that kids were consuming 7.5 hours of media per day. Add in multi-tasking — texting while watching TV while listening to music, for instance, and the figure reaches an amazing 11 hours.” My own analysis of the Kaiser study is here.
On a related topic, also see Are you an Internet Optimist or Pessimist? The Great Debate over Technology’s impact on Society by Adam Thierer. Thierer does an excellent job summarizing how different people view the social and technology changes over past three decades concluding “On balance, I believe the optimists generally have the better of the argument today. But pessimists make many fair points that deserve to be taken seriously; they just need a more reasonable articulation of (some of) those concerns.”
You now can watch the full program online.
Click to watch Digital Nation
Moderator wisdom: Virtual worlds’ youth-safety experts
Monday, January 18th, 2010by Anne Collier
This post originally appeared on NetFamilyNews.org
Virtual worlds are a red-hot topic these days, probably because of their rapid growth and the US Federal Trade Commission’s report on their content (see “Related links” below). I can think of two more reasons to add: ConnectSafely’s brand-new safety tips for parents (shameless plug, links below) and insights from master virtual-world moderators in a recent 3-part series on the subject at ShapingYouth.org and in a white paper, “How to Moderate Teens and Tweens,” at eModeration, London-based provider of community management in 31 languages.
Three points – one each about moderating kids, tweens, and teens – really leaped out at me as I read these contributions (just a sampler of the insights in them), and I think parents will find them helpful:
1. Two types of virtual-world moderators: In Part 3 of Shaping Youth’s series, eModeration describes how virtual worlds are evolving, as illustrated by moderation techniques: The more traditional silent moderator “stays in the background, blocking offensive material from participants, warning users, defusing confrontation and reacting to abusive or illegal behavior. The second and increasingly popular type is the in-game moderator, who actively participates as a character or avatar … encouraging children to explore and try new things and have as positive experience as possible, but stay safe and secure while doing so.” Gazillion Entertainment’s director of user engagement Izzy Neis describes the former as the “elephant in the corner”; eModeration compares the latter to the fun, engaging host of a kids’ birthday party.
2. Tween VW behavior is as dynamic as the real-world kind. Moderators are finding that, just as tweens move back and forth between children’s play and playing at being adults in the real world, they do the same in virtual worlds. EModeration’s Littleton quotes Neis as saying, “It’s not always one or the other – often tween users balances between the two, depending on how their day went, or what escapism they need, or what reinforcement/acknowledgement they crave. They’re taking the experiences they’ve had, applying imagination and exploring new territory (mainly adult situations).” She says virtual worlds see “the same playground problems kids have every day: bullying, heartache, betrayal, etc.” That’s why it’s just as important, as we say in our VW safety tips, for parents to talk with their kids about what’s going in their virtual worlds as what’s going on at school. But moderation in all things (no pun intended). Kids also need some space. Virtual worlds, Neis says, “provide an outlet and a chance to develop other aspects of their personalities [which] they feel unable to explore during real life for fear of rejection, or sometimes they’re just trying something to try it – an opportunity to fail without physical consequence.”
3. The delicate balance between over- and under-moderating teens: An experienced moderator in the UK, Amy Rountree, told Littleton that “moderating [youth] 16+ communities is about balance.” She says that, if virtual world rules and moderators are too heavy-handed, users go elsewhere. If the moderation’s too easygoing, both the company and its users are at risk. This echoes what we say at ConnectSafely.org about safety on the social Web: If parents are too controlling, kids – who have many workarounds and access points – tend to go “underground” to sites parents may’ve never heard of, to friends’ houses where rules are more lax, to establish alternate “stealth” profiles and accounts parents aren’t aware of, etc., etc., all of which spells even less parental input and guidance. Kids are safer when parents, like moderators, find the balance between “over- and under-moderating” and keep the communication lines open (see also “‘Soft power’ parenting works better“).
Note Tamara Littleton’s bottom line in her white paper: “Our view is that if you [a virtual world company] are inviting teens or tweens into your online space, you are in effect throwing a huge round-the-clock party for them. And what parent in their right mind would send out invitations worldwide, then leave the keys to the liquor cabinet with their 15-year-old and go away for the weekend?”
Related links
Advice for safe & compassionate social networking
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009Back to school time is an excellent time for kids, parents and teachers to think and talk about the safe and approprite use of the Internet and social networking tools.
My message to parents and teachers is simple. Embrace the technology that kids use, recognize that whatever you may lack in technology knowledge you make up in wisdom and remember that you, too, were once a kid. Your first reaction to kid activity that may be a bit disturbing shouldn’t be to freak out and shut down access but to take a deep breath, talk with (and listen to) the kids and do everything you can to encourage dialog.
And try to become familiar with the technology your kids use. That doesn’t mean you necessarily have to be their friend on Facebook or MySpace, but before you start trying to control how they use social networking technology, make sure you understand it.
Teachers should attempt to use social networking as part of the educational process. Whether they know it or not, kids are enaged in informal learning through their use of social networking so why not use the same technology for formal learning? And while you’re at it, incorporate digital citizenship and media literacy into your teaching.
As my ConnectSafely co-director Anne Collier pointed out in “Social media literacy: The new Internet safety,” media literacy and critical thinking “is protective against manipulation and harm.” Encouraging kids to practice good digital citizenship helps protect all young people, because “behaving aggressively online more than doubles the risk of being victimized.”
As per kids, Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer at News Corp and MySpace offers some Online Safety and Back to School advice especially suited to youth who use social networking services like MySpace and Facebook (MySpace is one of several companies that provide financial support for ConnectSafely). He starts off with the usual internet safety advice: “don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to know” and “don’t get together with someone you ‘meet’ online unless you’re certain of their identity.” Then, perhaps a bit uncharacteristic of his background as a former federal prosecutor, Nigam also provides advice about the compassionate and kind use of social networking
- Post with respect: photos are a great way to share wonderful experiences. If you’re posting a photo of you and your friends, put yourself in your friends’ shoes and ask would your friends want that photo to be public to everyone. If yes, then you’re uploading photos with respect.
- Comment with kindness: compliments are like smiles, they’re contagious. When you comment on a profile, share a kind word, others will too.
- Update with empathy: sharing updates lets us tell people what we think. When you give an opinion on your status updates, show empathy towards your friends and help them see the world with understanding eyes.
ConnectSafely.org, the non-profit website I co-direct, has lots of other advice on the safe and productive use of social media and technology.