What does cyberbullying look like?

• Cyberbullying can involve varying forms of technology: 
  • Mobile phone calls
  • Text messages
  • Picture/video clips
  • E-mail
  • Instant messaging
  • Chat rooms
  • Websites
  • Gaming
• In a recent study, cyberbullying most commonly involved phone calls, texts and instant messages¹
  
• The nature of electronic bullying or cyberbullying often includes:
  • Sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images online or via text
  • Posting sensitive, private information or pictures about another person
  • Intentionally excluding someone from an online group
  • Pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad²
  • Spreading lies and rumors about victims
  • Tricking someone into revealing personal information
• The nature of gaming as a place where cyberbullying occurs, can happen through gaming websites or PC and console games with online components (e.g. Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3).
  • Cyberbullying in gaming is usually referred to as "griefing" and is fairly common among young gamers who use IM, chat, and voice chat features to tease and taunt other players.³

Cyber Education: Improving Education for Children Around the Globe

Online learning isn't just for working adults. In the Philippines, the Department of Education is encouraging critics to adopt an open mind towards cyber education in the public school classroom. Supporters of cyber education contend that it will save the government money, improve public school administration, and deliver quality education to children.

Cyber Education Goes Global

The Philippine project, officially named Cyber Ed, is set to be implemented in 2008. It follows in the footsteps of other countries that have already embraced cyber education, including the U.S., Canada, Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and China.

Project Cyber Ed

The cyber education project in the Philippines plans to connect the country's schools to a nationwide network. The network will provide schools with 12 video channels and wireless Internet connectivity. Children will have access to live broadcasts that feature lectures from master teachers. The country's 400,000 public school teachers will also use the system for improved teacher training.
Overall, the Department of Education expects cyber education to save billions for the government. Supporters are approaching the forthcoming project with optimism and strong hope for the nation's children.

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Advantages of the Internet in Education

There are numerous advantages of the Internet in education like gaining information, news, historical data and communication. This article will give you more detailed information on the various pros or benefits of the Internet in education and learning. Read on...

The Internet is the largest set of computer networks that use the Internet Protocol. The invention and development of the Internet was the biggest discovery by mankind in the 20th century that lead to a revolution. Today, the Internet is used by more than 50% of the world population as its applications are found in nearly every fields of life: be it communication, knowledge, news, shopping, marketing, entertainment, education, etc. Here we will see more on the importance or advantages of the Internet in education. So how exactly does the Internet technology benefit students for education? Let us take a look at it in detail.

Use of Internet in Education

The fast and relatively low cost access is one of the major benefits of Internet to people and students all over the world as getting an Internet connection is easy. Communication and information are the two most important advantages of the Internet in education. Secondly, information can be updated or modified at any time and for any number of times, which helps in learning and better understanding. Let us take a look at the role of computers in education.

Easy Contact
As mentioned above, communication is one of the biggest advantages of the Internet in education. Students can contact other students or their teachers via the E-mail if they have queries about any information. Sharing of information, discussions on a particular subject, etc. can be easily carried out using the Internet. At the same time, teachers can also contact the parents and guardians easily using Internet.

School / College Projects
The Internet can be most useful for completing projects in schools and colleges. As the Internet is an ocean of information, covering nearly all subjects known to man, one can literally find information, research work, etc. required for one's projects. Going through the information on the Internet is definitely faster than reading an entire book on the subject. Homework is also made easier with the help of the Internet which is also one of the important uses of computers in education.

Encyclopedia
Sometimes, encyclopedia may not always be available to students and they may have difficulty in gaining access to the books in the library. In that case, the encyclopedia of different subjects available on the Internet can be helpful. This is more useful for students who belong to communities not having English as their mother tongue. Kids and younger children can also be benefited by the Internet by using the pictures, videos, etc. which is one of the major advantages, when comparing of textbooks versus computer teaching.

News
All the latest news are constantly updated on the Internet on different news sites which is one of the major advantages of the Internet in education. Students, learning politics, can have an access to all the current affairs through the Internet in the school campus, at home, or at any other place. Historical accounts like speeches, biographies, etc. are also easily available on the Internet in detailed and accurate versions. This is one of the biggest use of Internet in education.

Online Learning
Another positive effects of Internet in education is the onset of distance education or online learning. With this facility, you can take up short term courses with the course material available online, learn and give exams. One of the benefits of online learning is that people from any part of the world can gain knowledge on different subjects, complete courses, etc. with the help of online learning.

With these points, we find that the importance of Internet in education cannot be denied and hence, every student should be given access to the Internet for deeper understanding and knowledge of a subject. However, lots and lots of information can be termed as both, advantages and disadvantages of the Internet as students can also have an access to unwanted or unethical information and sites. Therefore, it is only wise for parents to make students understand what is good and what not for them or keep a watch on their surfing.

These were some of the advantages of the Internet in education. Lastly, although the Internet cannot replace books or classroom education, it is one of the best substitute for those who wish to gain deeper knowledge on literally every subject. Good luck!

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HEADLINES

Another face of Internet Islam

by: From the Newspaper | Ayesha Shahid | 15 hours ago

From the hotness of the new mehram in a girl’s life to saying no to a potential date, online chat rooms and blogs deal with religion and twenty-first century issues in an appealing manner

What is the newly-wed woman of today to think about her new family – should she dread her in-laws or dream of eternal happiness with the husband? For Malo, an active blogger, the answer is heavily inspired by Islam as she writes in her post “The hot new Mehram”:

“Stop thinking of the in-laws as a re-run of ‘Something wicked this way comes’. Yes your husband is hot, and he’s your garment and all, and yes insha’Allah it will be love forever literally (with pious spouses being together in Jannah also) but he’s also someone’s son/brother and in all honesty he was their son/brother first. Really, why the insecurity?”

And there are many other such cheeky tidbits to be found on Malonama.com, a blog run by two bloggers based in Islamabad and Canada. Malonama is one of many Asian and Middle-Eastern blogs and websites that have popped up in the last few years and have given a new voice to what had forever been regaled as the territory of stringent ulema in local newspapers.

Proselytizing and advising on religious matters is no more about fiery sermons or even the dark sombre tones of the local aunty-brigade led dars (lectures) – these online ventures from the region show that the East has finally clambered on to the westernised rhetoric of Islam with all its wit and relaxed humour.

For the educated youth of the country who have adopted internet as an integral part of their life, these websites take orthodox Islam and present it in a contemporary and easily digestible manner.Western sites like yasminmogahed.com, suhaibwebb.com and muslimmatters.org can be frequently seen making rounds on Facebook profiles showing that they are fast entering the Pakistani consciousness.

Yasmin Mogahed, an Islamic scholar based in America, is oft-quoted for her articles on very personal topics like love, marriage and relationship with Allah while MuslimMatters.org provides Islam based views on everything from the Muslim ways to reject prom dates to Halal mortgages.

This is not the only face of internet Islam. A much older and longer existing face is of forums and websites being maintained by local madrassahs. A popular site with locals as well as Pakistani diaspora is that of Madrassa Jamia Binoria of Karachi, with people posing questions on marriage to end-of-life care. Women form a considerable chunk of this traffic as they
are bound at home and have freedom with the anonymity that comes with online chat rooms.

One visitor to such websites is Sidra Tariq, whose parents would not agree to any marriage proposal from outside the family. In late night hours and under stress, the easiest thing for her was to get on the internet and search what Islam suggests in such testing circumstances.

“When I feel helpless and do not know what to do or how to find a solution, I go search online. There are all these people who post similar questions on different forums and other sources of guidance and that helps,” she says.

Unlike her, Ayza Karim started going to specific chat rooms for discussions on religious issues and clear other people’s misconceptions about Islam after 9/11. But when confronted with questions from other faiths, she said she started watching online video lectures of Zakir Naik and Ahmad Deedat.

“When I started learning more about Islam, internet was my friend. I found any and all information I wanted about any issue on it. And really all sorts of information is out there, you just have to go on two or three different kinds of websites and you’ll realise which one is making the most sense,” she explained.

“But if someone quotes a Hadith or an Ayah, I always go back to the primary source at the end of the day because an unaccounted internet website cannot be trusted,” she added.

And then there are those blogs that discuss serious issues in Islam and get trolled. On Saudiwoman’s Weblog – a blog by a Saudi woman – a post on Misyar marriages (travel marriages, often the second for the man, where the wife is kept separate and gives up many of her basic rights) and their validity in Islam was bound to generate a heated discussion. However, in
the comments section, almost half the commenting men dropped their numbers or emails expressing their interest in getting a Misyar marriage – needless to say they were mostly from Pakistan.

For people like Ayza and Sidra – and the visitors of Saudiwoman’s Weblog – perhaps the new blogs that present a very soft, personalised image of Islam are still unknown. But for
others, they have managed to grab a substantial amount of interest.

Raina Ijaz, another urban 20-something who describes herself as moderately religious, says that she reads these softer blogs not because of Islam necessarily, but because they are
interesting:

“I don’t really read them to learn about Islam, it’s just interesting to see the Western world from their perspective,” said Raina who has spent her share of time surfing such blogs.

At randomnightsandinsights.tumblr.com, a frank post about the author’s struggles with prayer touched many hearts. The author writes: “First prayer used to be all about fulfilling one
of the pillars of Islam, but now it’s different. Now I want to talk to Allah, I want to thank Him for all the clothes I have, for all the beautiful people He blessed me with, for His love, for making me a Muslim.”

And in a frank comment, another blogger responds: “You’re so lucky to reach the stage of such a connection with your namaz. I wish I could have that too.”

And in this quite space, a camaraderie in Islam seems to have developed among people who will likely never meet.

All the names in this story have been changed to allow frank conversations on the issue.

Cyber Education: Achieving Obama’s Vision

• cyber education

This Op-Ed by NCSA Executive Director Michael Kaiser was originally published in Education Week – May 21, 2010

President Barack Obama has said that America faces “few more urgent challenges than preparing our children to compete in a global economy.” Being able to understand and make use of the world’s vast telecommunications infrastructure is certainly part of that preparation. So it was no surprise when the White House issued its Cyberspace Policy Review last May that the document contained a call for the nation to “initiate a K-12 cybersecurity education program for digital safety, ethics, and security; expand university curricula; and set the conditions to create a competent workforce for the digital age.”

This month marks the one-year anniversary of the president’s cyber education pronouncement. Given recent media attention on cyberbullying, inappropriate texting, and teenagers’ hacking into school computers to change grades, it would be reasonable to think that cybersecurity is a topic being widely discussed in schools. But that is not the case.

Today, fewer than 10 states have implemented a comprehensive cybersecurity curriculum in K-12 schools. A recent Zogby International study conducted for the National Cyber Security Alliance, and supported by Microsoft, further found that America’s young people are not receiving adequate instruction to use digital technology, and are ill-prepared to make decisions regarding online safety, security, and ethics.

The NCSA-Microsoft K-12 study, which surveyed more than 1,000 teachers, 400 school administrators, and 200 technology coordinators, found that cyber education and related professional development for teachers fell short across the United States. A third of teachers had not taught any topics related to cyber ethics and more than 40 percent had not taught cybersecurity and cybersafety in the past year.

Perhaps the lack of classroom instruction is not surprising, given how few teachers have received professional development in this area, and how few K-12 curricula mandate lessons related to cyber ethics, cybersafety, and cybersecurity. The study also found that three-quarters of teachers had spent little if any time taking relevant training classes or workshops. Further, more than half of all teachers reported that their districts do not require cyber education to be included in the curriculum.

But there is hope on the horizon for the White House’s vision for cyber education. The vast majority of teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators—on average, more than 97 percent—agreed that cyber ethics, cybersafety, and cybersecurity should be part of the required K-12 curriculum, according to our survey.
Young people today are part of the first generation to grow up entirely in the digital age. As adults, they will live, work, and play in a globally connected world. For some, their digital footprints emerged before birth, when their parents shared a sonogram photo with friends via the Web. Many will create and post a YouTube video before they can ride a bike. For these young people, the idea of instant and far-reaching communication is a natural extension of their everyday lives, not a revolutionary phenomenon.

Already, as a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released in January shows, kids are spending 7 ½ hours a day consuming “entertainment media,” with a large part of that spent online or on mobile phones. Perhaps most unsettling, only about three in 10 young people between the ages of 8 and 18 reported that their families had rules on the amount of time they could spend on computers (36 percent), video games (30 percent), and television-viewing (28 percent).

Yes, progress through technology is nothing short of remarkable; for young people, it can enable new, positive levels of social interaction and broaden the way they learn. But we must ensure that they have the foundational skills needed to thrive safely and securely in a digital economy. And those skills, taught through lessons on cyber ethics, cybersafety, and cybersecurity, must be part of K-12 curricula in all 50 states.

One year after President Obama’s Cyberspace Policy Review, it’s time for us to reach consensus on what young people need to learn and then move forward. We must recognize that cyber education is a shared responsibility. Government and the private sector, teachers and parents, school administrators and technology coordinators, and students themselves—we all must work together and make it a national commitment to educate all Americans to be safe and secure online.

DISTANCE EDUCATION..

Distance education of one sort or another has been around for a long time. Correspondence courses helped people learn trades on their own free time, while radio or taped television courses educated students in remote areas. Now, with the rapid expansion and evolution of the Internet, online education has become a reality. What began as a convenient means of offering internal training to employees via corporate intranets has now spread to the general public over the worldwide web.

Online-only colleges and career schools have flourished, and traditional ground-based universities are moving courses and degree programs onto the Internet. It’s now possible to earn a degree from an accredited college without ever setting foot on campus, and more people enroll every year.

Evidence of Growth

The Sloan Consortium, a non-profit foundation, conducts yearly surveys investigating online education. Their most recent report captured the online learning landscape as it stood in 2007-2008, revealing that

• 20% of all US college students were studying online at least part-time in 2007;
• 3.9 million students were taking at least one online course during Fall 2007, a growth rate of 12% on the previous year;
• This growth rate is much faster than the overall higher education growth rate of 1.2%.

Higher Education: Meeting The Need For A Skilled Workforce

Higher education in general has grown greatly. Census data shows that in 1980, only 32% of US adults under 25 had earned a degree or completed any college coursework. By 2000, this number had jumped to 52%. Prosperity has played a role in this growth: as median incomes have risen over the past several decades, more people have been able to afford to send their children to college. Political support for putting people into college education, via Federal funding such as Pell Grants and loans, has also helped increase access to higher education.

However, the main driver behind the increase in higher education is the huge change in the overall economy of the US over the last fifty years. Changes in technology and globalization of the economy means the once-large manufacturing base of the United States has dwindled. Those jobs accounted for 40% of workers in 1950, but by 2000 had shrunk to include only 18% of the workforce. Most workers are now employed by the service sector, where more specialized skills are often a necessary requirement for finding a job. As a result, some post-secondary education is now seen as critical for workplace viability by a majority of the population.

Online Education: Meeting The Needs of the Skilled Workforce

And a majority of the population is now online: in 1997, less than 20% of US households had Internet access. By 2007, that percentage had grown to 61.7%. Internet access took only 7 years to reach 25% of US households, compared with 35 years for the television and 46 for household electricity. As with music, television, and newspapers, higher education needs to move to where the people are if it wants to expand its user base. Also, traditional campuses are having trouble maintaining facilities that meet the growing college population’s needs. While the cost savings of running an online degree program aren’t tremendous (or at least aren’t a driving concern for university officials), it’s generally easier for colleges to move programs online than it is for them to build extensions to their campuses.

The sagging economy has also been good for online education. The Sloan Consortium’s findings revealed that many institutions expect more working adults to turn to continuing education to build new skills or enhance existing ones to better their chances in the job marketplace, and also to avoid paying higher fuel costs as commuter students.





This is probably a safe bet: nearly 90 million

This is probably a safe bet: nearly 90 million adults participate in some form of continuing education every year even during good times, according to Census data. The convenience of being able to complete a degree without giving up employment makes online education attractive to working adults. As those adults strive to continue earning, they’ll want to continue learning.

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This community has been created to celebrate and support the creativity and dedication of all those who participate in the education of young children. Teachers, parents, aides, and administrators are encouraged to explore these resources and share your ideas for working with young children. We will be updating these pages regularly in the months ahead.

Have you seen our regular Early Childhood features? Early Childhood Activity Bank New for the 2009-2010 school year, find 400+ activities perfect for the early childhood setting. These activities have been culled from previous issues of our Early Childhood Newsletter. Search by month for timely activities, or search the Activity Bank by subject. Poems for Early Childhood Sue LaBella, Education World's early childhood editor, has written fun rhymes to fit many themes. Scan her list of poems by month. Don't miss her "Poems for Anytime" too. Early Childhood Teaching Themes Our early childhood editor, Sue LaBella, offers hundreds of activities on dozens of classroom teaching themes. Check out our archive today. Since the archive is updated infrequently, we suggest you signup to receive our Early Childhood Newsletter [see sidebar]. That way, you will receive Sue's fresh ideas as they are published. Castaldo's Corner: Early Childhood Activities Educator Nancy Castaldo shares timely activities throughout the school year for engaging young children in discovery and learning. Each link will take you to a hands-on activity and ideas for extending that activity. Early Childhood Newsletter Visit our archive of past issues of the Education World Early Childhood Newsletter. This is a partial archive. Access to current issues is free. Simply follow this link to sign up. FROM OUR ARTICLE ARCHIVE Three Big Ideas for Addressing Preschool Language and Literacy Learning Focusing on oral language, reading aloud, and language play, instead of on structured sit-down lessons, flashcard drills, and worksheets, keeps young children on the right track to literacy. Rounding Up Pre-K Kids, Parents Inviting parents and pre-kindergartners to meet teachers and see their schools six months before school opens can noticeably reduce first-day jitters -- for everyone. Called kindergarten round-ups, these events also let teachers meet their incoming charges. Jumpstart Charges Kids Up for Learning! After Aaron Lieberman spent a summer break as a camp counselor, he returned to his studies at Yale University with a desire to provide individual attention for at-risk preschool students. With the help of others, he founded Jumpstart, an organization that matches college students and youngsters in one-to-one sessions that help the kids charge up for learning. The Jumpstart mission is "to engage young people in service to work toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed." Since its inception, Jumpstart has served more than 8,000 children.