MySpace, Attorneys General Tighten Internet Safety

An article written by Joan Oleck on the School Library Journal website on Monday says that MySpace and the attorney general of 49 states and the District of Columbia have a greed to some best practices, guidelines, and educator tools to help keep children safe from predators while they are on social networking sites.

Does this mean the willy-nilly, hi-ho silver, anything-goes days of the Internet are over? Well, probably not. MySpace according to the article has already put some of the practices into place. It now reviews every image uploaded to the site, automatically makes profiles of 14 and 15 year olds private, and will start enforcing its minimun sign-up age (which is 14). I am not saying this won’t help, what I am saying is that there is no regulation forcing MySpace to do these things… so what’s in it for them? Is MySpace really trying to be the good cop? We can hope so! According to their chief of security, MySpace’s cooperation with law enforcement is “a model” for Social Networking. Again what is in it for them? Well, lets look at it rationally, Facebook has been getting a lot of air play recently… what was MySpace to do? Becoming the child-safe social network may just be their way of getting their name out there and having parents say to their teens, you can join MySpace, they’re the safe network. It always comes down to the bottom line!

MacWorld... Yeah!

Ok, so you already know I am a Mac Fan. Today is MacWorld and I have not seen Steve Jobs keynote yet… what is wrong with me? I will patiently wait for my husband to get home so we can watch it together… all together now… awh! Anyway, it won’t be a difficult wait because I found this wonderful game to play while I am waiting… it is called SteveNote Expo- the game. You have to play it. It is so much like Pac Man only better. Help Steve get all of the neat gizmos he is introducing at MacWorld before a journalist captures all of your secrets and ends the game. You even have a special power to hypnotize the journalists. It is fun and since I am not at MacWorld, it will have to do!

Awesome Day for Mo Willems...

The American Library Association announced their 2008 award winners today and as he says on his blog it was an Awesome Day for Mo Willems. He walked away with a Caldecott Honor for his book "Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity." Mo both illustrated and wrote the book and it is a favorite of my students along with the first “Knuffle Bunny” book. But the big news was his walking away with the Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Award for the most distinguished book for beginning readers. He both wrote and illustrated the award winning book entitled “There’s a Bird on Your Head!” I cannot believe that I do not have this book in my library. I have been searching for a series for emergent readers and here is a Mo Willems book that is perfect for my students and I don’t have the book. It is part of the Elephant and Piggie series. I do have “Knuffle Bunny Too” but for some reason I did not hear about this series. Good thing there are awards like this to publicize good books. I am not sure about the Newbery Medal winners either, I have not heard of any of the books so I will have to check them out as well.
Tomorrow... MacWorld's Keynote! It's in the Air!

Where did you get your professional development today?

It is called eduwiki.us. I was checking out some of the workshops that will be available during the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE&C) coming up in February when I came across this little gem. It is a wiki but it is so much more than that, it is a gateway to finding and using technology in an education environment. It also has a book club, and lots of how to videos. I have spent about 2 hours on this wiki and I have only scratched the surface! There is an online virtual meeting on January 16th. I think I am hooked!