Posts filed under ‘Digital Citizenship’
Teens and Technology Predict a Better Future by 2015
It is no doubt that teens gravitate to technology, and as far as young Americans are concerned, a greener future is coming soon.
Powered by technology and fueled by creativity, fundamental change is about to emerge in the electronically connected world they inhabit. Gasoline-powered automobiles, compact discs, and desktop computers are headed toward the technology scrap heap according to a recent survey of American high school students. Their laptops, cell phones and I-pods are entry level tools that, combined with education and creativity, will lead to changes that improve the world.
Teens predict technology will create change by 2015, and these familiar objects will be replaced with newer, better, energy efficient cars and communications equipment. According to teens, developers of hydrogen and electric cars better get busy. The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which gauges Americans’ attitudes toward invention and innovation, found that a third (33 percent) of today’s technology educated young adults predict that gasoline-powered cars will be obsolete by the year 2015.
The tech savvy teens are used to toting phones that let them access the Web, text and download tunes. Laptops and a flash drive are their heavy duty home to dorm or classroom computing equipment. And it’s no surprise that more than one in four teens (26 percent) expect compact discs to be obsolete within the next decade. Another one in five (22 percent) of the teens predict desktop computers will be a thing of the past within the next ten years.
Teens Believe Global Issues Have Solutions
Using cell phones to download music, facebook to keep in touch and blogs to communicate ideas is fun, but these American teens are optimistic that the creativity unleashed by computers and other modern technology can help solve important global issues. Students need to learn to use techology in engaging ways to develop higher level thinking skills.
Accessing international communities via the Internet is second nature to these digital learners. The young adults who took the survey are confident that just about any crisis facing the world can be solved by working together to apply new technologies and innovative thinking to global concerns.
Their faith in innovation and invention is a hopeful sign. On clean water, 91 percent expect technology to step in and create a solution. A whopping 89 percent of the teens think that world hunger will end by 2015. Disease eradication (88 percent), pollution reduction (84 percent) and energy conservation (82 percent) are all within the realm of being history with the application of creative new applications that these electronically connected teens will help develop.
Technology and Change Is Their Comfort Zone
“Perhaps more than any preceding generation, today’s young people are completely comfortable with rapid technological change,” Lemelson-MIT Program Director Merton Flemings said.
“Teens’ belief that science and technology may hold the answers to our biggest societal challenges is encouraging,” Flemings added. Technology coupled with teen creativity creates a winning team. Who would have predicted that cell phones, I-pods and laptop computers would have such far reaching effects?
Will Education Be Able To Keep The Pace?
The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index found that these teens believe they have developed some of the critical skills that will be needed to address these issues. More than three out of four teens (77 percent) believe they have learned problem-solving skills well while in school.
They also feel prepared to work in teams (72 percent), think creatively (71 percent) and lead others (61 percent). However, they fall short when it comes to budgeting money. Only 32 percent of teens said they feel they learned that skill well while in school.
With teens like these working on solving the world’s environmental and conservation issues, you begin to believe that the 2015 predictions really have a chance to become reality.
Have Your Anti-Bullying Public Service Announcement Aired on Logo
We at OneSeventeen Media are joining the fight to prevent bullying and are so pleased to announce that MTV’s television network, Logo, is in search of some of the best anti-bullying public service announcements in what it’s calling “Logo’s Anti-Bullying PSA Contest”. The contest runs through November 28 and any U.S. resident can submit 25-second videos that convey messages of anti-bullying. The best part? They are looking for amateur filmmakers, everyday people like you and me to fulfill this order. Professional filmmakers are actually explicitly excluded from entering.
“Bullying is wrong. It needs to end. And you can help,” the tagline for the contest reads.
The hope is that, not only will people who may have not previously engaged with this topic enter into the discussion because they like the media aspect of it, but they will also discuss it with others, spreading the word about anti-bullying without overtly meaning to. The contest will generate buzz that extends beyond just those participating, not to mention the exposure that the actual aired PSA will get. People channel surfing with only the intention of being entertained will be hit with this all-important message. News stories and the “It Gets Better” campaign, among other recent coverage, has brought much-needed attention to the issue of anti-gay bullying, but people need to seek that out to some extent in order to learn about it. A television spot could be the most successful way to reach more passive consumers of media.
Registration in the 2010-2011 Young Minds Digital Times Competition is Open
The Third Annual Young Minds Digital Times Competition presented by KidThrive.org, encourages students in grades 6-12, for free, to create short films, documentaries, and public service announcements. Registration is now open!
“The competition is a way to honor the amazing work kids are generating in the digital creative arts,” says Jaclyn Bell, Competition Director, “This is the next wave of digital education; not just knowing the tools, but being able to use them well and manipulate their boundaries to produce something relevant, meaningful, and in our opinion, beautiful. Plus, we have some surprises and further opportunities coming up for students once registration is underway.”
The competition features two tracks: Young Filmmakers “Doing Good” and Young Filmmakers Freeform. In the “Doing Good” Track, students are invited to create public service announcements relating to social issues the public should be informed of, or relating to an organization that works towards social good. In the Freeform Track, students can enter films on any topic into six different categories: documentary, short film, animation, music video, non-moving movie, and comedic creation.
A Grand Prize Winner from each track receives a prize package to attend the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. First place winners in each category and age division (6-8 grades and 9-12 grades) take home $200 and Judges Choice honorees receive $100. The school with the most student film entries that make it pass the Public Voting Stage will also win $1000.
The chance for the public vote will end March 30th, and the films that make it to the second round will be viewed and critiqued by industry directors, actors, filmmakers and producers.
Competition registration runs from October 4th, 2010 to February 18, 2011, with films due by March, 19, 2011. Films enter a three tiered voting process, beginning with public voting March 22-30, 2010. Winner announcements will be posted May 20, 2011 on the Young Minds Digital Times website.
Teens Are Speechless When It Comes to Technology – But Is That Such A Bad Thing?
Not long ago, prattling away on the phone was as much a teenage rite as hanging out at the mall. Flopped on the bed, you yakked into your pink or football-shaped receiver until your parents hollered at you to get off. Today’s teens, however, prefer their Sidekicks and their Blackberries and their Razor phones, not to talk, but to text.
They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.
Daily text messaging among teens has increased from 38 percent of teens texting friends daily in 2008, to 54 percent of teens texting daily in 2009. The average teen sends and receives 50 or more messages per day, or 1,500 per month, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Boys typically send and receive 30 texts a day while girls send and receive 80 messages per day. Older girls are the most active texters, with 14-17 year old girls sending 100 or more messages a day or more than 3,000 texts a month.
All this texting is making employers and communications experts anxious: This generation may be technologically savvier than their bosses, but will they be able to have a professional discussion?
“We are losing very natural, human, instinctive skills that we used to be really good at,” says Sonya Hamlin, author of How to Talk So People Listen: Connecting in Today’s Workplace.
A couple of years ago, Hamlin was asked to teach a class of “very bright” California high school seniors about the college admissions interview. Their mock answers were “extremely short and not informational. Nothing came out, really, because it’s such an unused skill.”
So are today’s teens losing their verbal communication skills?
Part of the reason, Hamlin says, is because “they’re not listening. With IM, you can reread six times before deciding how to answer.” There’s no improvisation, she says, none of the spontaneity of phone banter or a face-to-face chat. “Talk is a euphemism. We do it now in quotes,” Hamlin says.
And when face-to-face chats do occur, there are other verbal kinks. Stefani Beser, a freshman at Villa Julie College near Baltimore, texts so much — 20-40 times a day “if there’s a lot going on” — that the shorthand creeps into her live conversation. “You’ll be talking and all of sudden you’ll say, ‘Oh, LOL or OMG,’ ” text-speak for “laughing out loud” and “Oh My Goodness”.
But has all this texting improved the amount of communication overall?
Back home, teens text their moms regularly telling them where they are. Teachers send reminders about class projects and homework. Boyfriends and girlfriends even court each other through Facebook and then IM to get to know each other better via a digital relationship:
The primacy of the keyboard has been, well, a lifeline to the kind of guys who, a generation ago, grasped the family room receiver with a sweaty palm and a pounding heart. IM “makes life easier, absolutely,” says Nick Kacher, 17, a junior from Waltham, Mass. “I’m not a big sit-around-and-chat-on-the-phone kind of person.” Friends, and girlfriends, would needle him about his phone phobia. Now, with IM, “I definitely do chat.”
In the meanwhile, phone companies are tapping into teens’ tapping tendencies. Virgin Mobile unveiled its Switch Back, a kind of junior BlackBerry with a qwerty keyboard and AOL IM built in. “We really think that text is the new talk,” the company’s Howard Handler says. A quarter of Virgin Mobile’s teen customers use their phones for texting more than talking. “We are living in a 160-character nation,” the maximum text message length, Handler declares. Today most cell phone plans include a Media Package focused on texting rather than phone minutes.
So is texting a helping teens socially, or limiting them? These two schools of thought will play out in this new generation of young texters while our daily lives and vocabulary picks up more SMS language, (Short Message Service text slang), on a regular basis.
Creating the Perfect PSA
What do you want the world to know? That’s the central question asked when you are creating a public service announcement (PSA), which is any message promoting programs, activities or services of federal, state or local governments or the programs, activities or services of non-profit organizations.
Often in the form of commercials and print ads, PSAs are created to persuade an audience to take a favorable action. PSAs can create awareness, show the importance of a problem or issue, convey information, or promote a behavioral change. Whether you have a cause of your own or you are an educator, PSAs create a forum for learners to actively participate in a project that allows them to become stewards of — and advocates for — social change.
PSAs came into being with the entry of the United States into World War II. Radio broadcasters and advertising agencies created a council that offered their skills and facilities to the war effort, creating messages such as, “Loose lips sink ships,” “Keep ‘em Rolling” and a variety of exhortations to buy War Bonds.
Today that same council, the Advertising Council, now serves as a facilitating agency and clearing house for nationwide campaigns that have become a familiar part of daily life. “Smokey the Bear” was invented by the Ad Council to personify its “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” campaign; “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste” raised millions for the United Negro College Fund; the American Cancer Society’s “Fight Cancer with a Checkup and a Check” raised public awareness as well as funds for research and patient services.
Yet the most recognized PSA consisted of only an egg, a frying pan and these 15 words: “This is your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”
This PSA, created in 1987, went on to be named one of the top one hundred television advertisements of all time. Its message could be seen printed on t-shirts, being parodied on television and in films, and it even spun a sequel nearly a decade later staring actress, Rachel Lee Cook. This only goes to show the massive impact PSAs have on our culture and our society. You can make an impact too!
Getting Started
- Choose your topic. Pick a subject that is important to you, as well as one you can visualize. Keep your focus narrow and to the point. More than one idea confuses your audience, so have one main idea per PSA.
- Time for some research – you need to know your stuff! Try to get the most current and up to date facts on your topic. Statistics and references can add to a PSA. You want to be convincing and accurate.
- Consider your audience. Are you targeting parents, teens, teachers or some other social group? Consider your target audience’s needs, preferences, as well as the things that might turn them off. They are the ones you want to rally to action. The action suggested by the PSA can be almost anything. It can be spelled out or implied in your PSA, just make sure that message is clear.
- Grab your audience’s attention. You might use visual effects, an emotional response, humor, or surprise to catch your target audience. Be careful, however, of using scare tactics. Attention getters are needed, but they must be carefully selected. For example, when filming a PSA about controlling anger, a glass-framed picture of a family can be shattered on camera. This was dramatic, but not melodramatic. Staging a scene between two angry people to convey the same idea is more difficult to do effectively.
- Create a script and keep your script to a few simple statements. A 30-second PSA will typically require about 5 to 7 concise assertions. Highlight the major and minor points that you want to make. Be sure the information presented in the PSA is based on up-to-date, accurate research, findings and/or data.
- Storyboard your script.
- Film your footage and edit your PSA.
- Find your audience and get their reaction. How do they respond and is it in the way you expected? Your goal is to call your audience to action. Are they inspired?
Through a Public Service Announcement you can bring your community together around a subject that is important to you. Will your PSA be on education, poverty, drunk driving, or maybe even Haiti disaster relief? For ideas and examples, check out the Ad Council and the Ad Council Gallery. Keep your message clear and simple, and target your intended audience. Take advantage of your interests, and practice important critical thinking and literacy skills because you will be spreading important social, economic, and political topics.
Create Your Own Documentaries
Documentary films differ from the typical Hollywood movies due to one clear reason.
While movies tend to be fictional stories that are acted, documentaries are non-fictional stories about real people and real events unfolding, often, in front of the camera. Your goal is not to develop a fictional story, but to essentially to tell a realistic and true story by presenting facts and interviews.
Types of Documentaries
First things first: You need to decide what kind of documentary you would like to pursue. There are many different kinds, the most common of which are expository, observational and participatory.
Expository documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceovers or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. This style of documentary is often biographical or historical in subject. Examples of expository documentaries are TV shows and films like “A&E Biography,” “America’s Most Wanted,” science and nature documentaries, or Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” (1990).
Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life. Becoming popular first in the 1960s, this mode of film focuses on individual human characters in ordinary life situations. Think of all the un-scripted “reality” television that is popular today. Shows like MTV’s “Made,” slice of life programs like “Little People Big World” and “Deadliest Catch” are all examples of this “fly-on-the-wall” type of documentary making. The filmmaker is the one who observes but tries not to influence or alter the events being captured on camera.
Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being captured. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, but the viewer also gets a sense of how 
situations in the film are affected or altered by the filmmaker’s presence. For example, Morgan Spurlock’s film “Super Size Me” put the filmmaker himself in front of the camera to tell the story about what could happen to the human body when it is sustaining itself on fast food alone. The filmmaker’s experiences are incorporated into the film, and the creator is the center of the story. The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film in order to find a “truth” through the encounter.
Researching
The key to documentaries is research and interviews. Ideally, you as the filmmaker will learn as much about your topic, or more, than your audience. This is why people like Ken Burns make documentaries about things they know absolutely nothing about: to educate themselves. Otherwise, you are not making a documentary, you are going to end up with a commercial for your beliefs.
Unlike the typical short film process, however, most documentary filmmakers come up with their narrative, point, structure and storyboard in the editing process, not pre-production. As a documentary filmmaker, you will need to change your approach to creating your film; otherwise you may end up influencing what you shoot with your own opinions.
Start by writing a proposal on what you want to do, how you go about doing it and what kind of research (library, living people, photos, etc.) to include in your documentary. Create a rough outline of the shots you think you will want to have in your documentary and send invitations to those experts you want to interview in advance.
Interviewing
When you are interviewing people, or gathering data, you have to ask questions that do not introduce personal bias/propaganda into the documentary. This can be very difficult. Keep the questions general and just let them talk. You never know what you might get. Select people who have knowledge of or are interested in your topic. If you get many interviews you will have a more diverse and interesting piece.
When filming, do not chat up the subjects off-camera. Off camera they might give you all their perfect, natural sound bites and you’ll wish you’d been rolling. The same bites will be forced or flat if you have your interviewer repeat them for the camera. Also, make sure they know that you are going to edit what you are shooting. They will get much more comfortable once they know you are going to edit.
Filming
Mix up your shots to keep things interesting. For example, if everything you film is a medium shot of people walking, your edits will be incredibly boring. Get wide shots to establish location and get tight shots if the situation allows. Extreme close ups of the subjects are excellent if they are discussing something with passion. Get cutaways like legs walking, hands writing, etc. These types of shots are called B-Roll footage. B-Roll footage helps back up your narration with visuals and helps tell the story.
Get lots of shots. Vary using the camera as a handheld and with a tripod. Plan on getting many more shots than you can imagine you will need. You will need them and may even wish you had more.
Editing
Once you get to post production, your job is to tell a story. Throw out any footage, no matter how lovely the shot, that doesn’t advance the story. Be sure to use your B-Roll footage effectively and add in captions and graphics as needed. Plus, remember to put the name of those you interviewed on the screen with the subject. Include their full name and their title, just like they do in news programs. Your end product should tie all the information and interviews, footage, etc. together in an interesting way.
Documentaries are a unique film genre that can persuade, educate, and entertain. Is there a story out there you want to document? Is there a moment in time you want to capture? Is there a message you want to convey to the masses? Decide on your purpose, research and grab a camera. Just be sure to keep it entertaining, informative and factual. Only then does it appear to be much more realistic and believable.
Kids Prefer Life Online, Choose Correct Behavior
ReadWriteWeb shares that in a study of 14-21 year-olds, MySpace found that, “Some 36% of the respondents said they found it easier to talk about themselves online than in the real world, leading them to share more about themselves using technology.” For their younger counterparts who’ve never known life without social networks and text messaging, I’d guess that the percentage preferring to share online would be even higher.
MySpace’s numbers make total sense to us. For nearly a decade, OneSeventeen Media’s team members have been creating interactive experiences for kids online; we see technology as an opportunity to connect with kids who don’t always feel comfortable reaching out for help or support in face-to-face interactions. This isn’t to say online interactions should replace real life ones, but often the right online tool can serve as the first step in improving offline relationships.
So often it’s the doom-and-gloom reports about kids online that catch mainstream media attention, and Anastasia Goodstein presents a fresh look at information and youth behavior online:
“- 63% of teens said they DO NOT USE social networks to make fun of other students
- 87% of teens said they HAVE NOT posted naked or semi-naked photos or videos of themselves.
- 76% of teens said they HAVE NOT signed on to someone else’s account without permission
- 72% of teens HAVE NOT posted personal information that they normally would not have revealed in publicI would say wow, most teens are using this technology pretty responsibly…”
While there’s still room for improvement and educating kids as digital citizens, I greatly appreciate Anastasia framing the numbers to give kids the benefit of the doubt. There’s a strong majority of kids choosing to do the right things online, and that’s encouraging news!
Leading Educational Innovation in 1:1 Classrooms
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Leading Innovation: Implementing Effective 1:1 Technology Programs at The Friday Institute at North Carolina State University. I was able to participate as both a vendor and attendee and gained fantastic insight from the experience. It’s inspiring to hear from leaders across North Carolina who are connecting with technology to do right by kids in school.
David Warlick keynoted the event, and it’s incredibly encouraging to see so many school leaders engaged in making flat classrooms a reality in their districts. There were valuable connections to make with the other attendees – superintendents, principals and classroom teachers. Educators I spoke with were particularly excited about participating in the Young Minds Digital Times Film Competition and pioneering PlumbBrain Micro-Communities in their classrooms. I’ve been in touch with many of my new acquaintances since the event ended on Friday.
The Friday Institute (FI) provided a paperless institute – the first I’ve been to! Not only is this a fantastic was to conserve paper and money, but they’ve also made all of the resources available to you! Both the institute wiki and Ning are “on-growing” communities where educators and laypeople alike are invited to join the conversation about 1:1 computing environments. You’ll also find all the handouts from the different presenters available through the wiki. Please check them out, enjoy, then invite any like-minds you know!
A large thanks to the FI for including KidThrive.org + OneSeventeen Media in the event!
(Pictured from top to bottom: teachers collaborating during an immersive project-based learning simulation and David Warlick looking on as one district makes their comprehensive plan for 1:1 connectivity in their schools. Photos by Amy Strecker)
Tweens Balance Online + Offline Life: Update
In early March I wrote about “Julie’s” choice to give MySpace up in recognition of the Lenten season, and as promised I followed up with Julie’s mom to see how things went. You’ll find her response below.
I was glad to hear an update on Julie’s experience giving up MySpace and sorry to learn about her family’s accident! The most fascinating piece of what Mom had to share was how Julie’s tween peers self mobilized to “do good” by supporting their friend in her time of need. Not only does this display a level of tech savvy and understanding about the viral capabilities of instantaneous communication, but it also demonstrates kids’ eagerness to rally around one another to help each other through some of their most difficult experiences. Again and again our teams sees and hears examples of young people doing the right thing, but these stories of compassion aren’t what make the evening news.
Thanks again to Julie’s mom for sharing her insight!
Online Dangers For Kids: More Hype Than Truth
“The notion that predators are using the Internet as an L.L. Bean catalog, that’s not what’s happening.” — David Finkelhor, Study Author
The man who first brought us the staggering statistic that 1 in 7 children would be solicited online, David Finkelhor, is now reaching out to explain his data in context. In his most recent study, Finkelhor explains that the online world is no more dangerous than the offline world, and that the largest threat of child abuse comes from individuals kids know in real life, not online.
The entire article by Lenore Skenazy is worth a read because it is packed with useful information put into valuable context. From Skenazy’s piece:
“Is letting your kids go online the same as dropping them off at the Vince Lombardi Rest Stop in fishnet stockings at 3 a.m.?
A lot of parents think it is. Or maybe worse. My husband and I took our time letting our oldest boy, who is 13, start his social networking, though that was because we were worried it was like dropping him off at the Vince Lombardi Rest Stop to do his homework—we figured it would never get done. But the towering fear that the second a kid goes online he or she becomes cyberjailbait turns out to be way off base. According to new research, the danger online is teeny-tiny unless your kids are running into chat rooms, typing, “Anyone here like ‘em young?” and posting photos of themselves licking lollipops. Naked.”
We don’t want to begin to belittle the value of teaching kids to be smart, digital citizens and continuously monitoring their online activities; however, some context around popularly quoted statics is useful in considering the big picture and helping parents and companies make decisions and polices that are proactive in keeping kids safe online, not rooted in fear of misunderstood threats. Kid safety is our top priority at OneSeventeen Media, and we diligently seek out the most accurate information to share with our community while proactively working to create safe online spaces.
(Image found here)
