Fifty-nine percent of American teens have been bullied or harassed online, according to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center. Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks among teenagers and a likely place for teens to be bullied.
In a recent study, conducted by the investment bank Piper Jaffray, Instagram is the second most popular social media platform among teenagers. Thirty-five percent of teens surveyed said that Instagram is their favorite social media platform, compared with 41% who preferred Snapchat.
Just as in the 1970s, when antidrug campaigns were scoffed at by the very people they were targeting, anti-bullying campaigns are also losing their effectiveness. I got a taste of this firsthand last year when I spoke about sexting, online safety and cyberbullying at an all-school assembly. When a student blurted out an obscenity during the sexting portion, the students went wild and didn’t listen to a thing I said. I was frustrated and discouraged. Later, I offered an iPad mini to the student who produced the best video and poster. Even that got little response.
The fact is, anti-bullying clichés have become a shut-off switch. What we really need to be doing is giving students actual skills to prevent bullying. To get that conversation going, I pose this question to students: “Will you accept the identity that others give you?”
The study also found that girls were more likely to experience verbal and cyberbullying while boys were more likely to experience physical bullying. my note: No news here.
“School-based interventions need to address the differences in perpetrator and victim experiences,” she said. “The key is to use individualized specific interventions for bullying, not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Bullying is still a prevalent issue, although it has taken a new form by moving online. The two kinds of bullying are different in many ways. However, interventions can often be difficult, since many think cyberbullying is less harmful than traditional bullying, and therefore don’t report it.
The event requires no registration, and is virtual only, free, and open to the public. Platform access is required, so please install one of the above platforms to attend the International Summit. You may attend in 2D on a desktop or laptop computer with a headphone and microphone (USB gaming headphone recommended), or with a virtual device such as the Oculus Go, Quest, and Rift, Vive, and other mobile and tethered devices. Please note the specifications and requirements of each platform.
Charlie Fink, author, columnist for Forbes magazine, and Adjunct Faculty member of Chapman University, will be presenting “Setting the Table for the Next Decade in XR,” discussing the future of this innovative and immersive technology, at the 2020 Educators in VR International Summit. He will be speaking in AltspaceVR on Tuesday, February 18 at 1:00 PM EST /
This workshop with Dr. Sarah Jones will focus on developing a relevant and new literacy for virtual reality, including the core competencies and skills needed to develop and understand how to become an engaged user of the technology in a meaningful way. The workshop will develop into research for a forthcoming book on Uncovering a Literacy for VR due to be published in 2020.
Sarah is listed as one of the top 15 global influencers within virtual reality. After nearly a decade in television news, Sarah began working in universities focusing on future media, future technology and future education. Sarah holds a PhD in Immersive Storytelling and has published extensively on virtual and augmented reality, whilst continuing to make and create immersive experiences. She has advised the UK Government on Immersive Technologies and delivers keynotes and speaks at conferences across the world on imagining future technology. Sarah is committed to diversifying the media and technology industries and regularly champions initiatives to support this agenda.
Currently there are limited ways to connect 3D VR environments to physical objects in the real-world whilst simultaneously conducting communication and collaboration between remote users. Within the context of a solar power plant, the performance metrics of the site are invaluable for environmental engineers who are remotely located. Often two or more remotely located engineers need to communicate and collaborate on solving a problem. If a solar panel component is damaged, the repair often needs to be undertaken on-site thereby incurring additional expenses. This triage of communication is known as inter-cognitive communication and intra-cognitive communication: inter-cognitive communication where information transfer occurs between two cognitive entities with different cognitive capabilities (e.g., between a human and an artificially cognitive system); intra-cognitive communication where information transfer occurs between two cognitive entities with equivalent cognitive capabilities (e.g., between two humans) [Baranyi and Csapo, 2010]. Currently, non-VR solutions offer a comprehensive analysis of solar plant data. A regular PC with a monitor currently have advantages over 3D VR. For example, sensors can be monitored using dedicated software such as EPEVER or via a web browser; as exemplified by the comprehensive service provided by Elseta. But when multiple users are able to collaborate remotely within a three-dimensional virtual simulation, the opportunities for communication, training and academic education will be profound.
Michael Vallance Ed.D. is a researcher in the Department of Media Architecture, Future University Hakodate, Japan. He has been involved in educational technology design, implementation, research and consultancy for over twenty years, working closely with Higher Education Institutes, schools and media companies in UK, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. His 3D virtual world design and tele-robotics research has been recognized and funded by the UK Prime Minister’s Initiative (PMI2) and the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). He has been awarded by the United States Army for his research in collaborating the programming of robots in a 3D Virtual World.
Augmented Reality Lens is popular among young people thanks to Snapchat’s invention. Business is losing money without fully using of social media targeting young people (14-25). In my presentation, Dominique Wu will show how businesses can generate more leads through Spark AR (Facebook AR/Instagram AR) & Snapchat AR Lens, and how to create a strategic Snapchat & Instagram AR campaigns.
Domnique Wu is an XR social media strategist and expert in UX/UI design.She has her own YouTube and Apple Podcast show called “XReality: Digital Transformation,” covering the technology and techniques of incorporating XR and AR into social media, marketing, and integration into enterprise solutions.
Mark Christian, EVP, Strategy and Corporate Development, GIGXR
Mixed Reality devices like the HoloLens are transforming education now. Mark Christian will discuss how the technology is not about edge use cases or POCs, but real usable products that are at Universities transforming the way we teach and learn. Christian will talk about the products of GIGXR, the story of how they were developed and what the research is saying about their efficacy. It is time to move to adoption of XR technology in education. Learn how one team has made this a reality.
As CEO of forward-thinking virtual reality and software companies, Mark Christian employs asymmetric approaches to rapid, global market adoption, hiring, diversity and revenue. He prides himself on unconventional approaches to building technology companies.
Virtual Reality is an effective medium to impart education to the student only if it is done right.The way VR is considered gimmick or not is by the way the software application are designed/developed by the developers not the hardware limitation.I will be giving insight about the VR development for educational content specifically designed for students of lower secondary school.I will also provide insights about the development of game in unity3D game engine.
Game Developer and VR developer with over 3 years of experience in Game Development.Developer of Zombie Shooter, winner of various national awards in the gaming and entertainment category, Avinash Gyawali is the developer of EDVR, an immersive voice controlled VR experience specially designed for children of age 10-18 years.
Virtual Reality Technologies for Learning Designers
Margherita Berti
Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated experience that simulates presence in real or imagined environments (Kerrebrock, Brengman, & Willems, 2017). VR promotes contextualized learning, authentic experiences, critical thinking, and problem-solving opportunities. Despite the great potential and popularity of this technology, the latest two installations of the Educause Horizon Report (2018, 2019) have argued that VR remains “elusive” in terms of mainstream adoption. The reasons are varied, including the expense and the lack of empirical evidence for its effectiveness in education. More importantly, examples of successful VR implementations for those instructors who lack technical skills are still scarce. Margherita Berti will discuss a range of easy-to-use educational VR tools and examples of VR-based activity examples and the learning theories and instructional design principles utilized for their development.
Margherita Berti is a doctoral candidate in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) and Educational Technology at the University of Arizona. Her research specialization resides at the intersection of virtual reality, the teaching of culture, and curriculum and content development for foreign language education.
Amanda Fox, Creative Director of STEAMPunks/MetaInk Publishing, MetaInk Publishing
There is a barrier between an author and readers of his/her books. The author’s journey ends, and the reader’s begins. But what if as an author/trainer, you could use gamification and augmented reality(AR) to interact and coach your readers as part of their learning journey? Attend this session with Amanda Fox to learn how the book Teachingland leverages augmented reality tools such as Metaverse to connect with readers beyond the text.
Amanda Fox, Creative Director of STEAMPunksEdu, and author of Teachingland: A Teacher’s Survival Guide to the Classroom Apolcalypse and Zom-Be A Design Thinker. Check her out on the Virtual Reality Podcast, or connect with her on twitter @AmandaFoxSTEM.
Christian Jonathan Angel Rueda specializaes in didactic activity of the use of virtual reality/virtual worlds to learn the fundamentals of design. He shares the development of a course including recreating in the three-dimensional environment using the fundamentals learned in class, a demonstration of all the works developed throughout the semester using the knowledge of design foundation to show them creatively, and a final project class scenario that connected with the scenes of the students who showed their work throughout the semester.
Christian Jonathan Angel Rueda is a research professor at the Autonomous University of Queretaro in Mexico. With a PhD in educational technology, Christian has published several papers on the intersection of education, pedagogy, and three-dimensional immersive digital environments. He is also an edtech, virtual reality, and social media consultant at Eco Onis.
How we can bridge the gap between eLearning and XR. Richard Van Tilborg discusses combining brain insights enabled with new technologies. Training and education cases realised with the CoVince platform: journeys which start on you mobile and continue in VR. The possibilities to earn from your creations and have a central distribution place for learning and data.
Richard Van Tilborg works with the CoVince platform, a VR platform offering training and educational programs for central distribution of learning and data. He is an author and speaker focusing on computers and education in virtual reality-based tasks for delivering feedback.
Report: Florida, Ohio called ‘advanced leaders’ in K-12 media literacy efforts
Advocacy group Media Literacy Now says 14 states have laws with “some media-literacy language” and others will consider bills this year, but some say progress “is too slow.”
Media Literacy Now considers digital citizenship as part of media literacy — not the other way around
nine states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Utah — are identified as “emerging leaders” for “beginning the conversation” and consulting with experts and others.
Calls for increased attention to media literacy skills and demand from educators for training in this area increased following an outbreak of “fake news” reports associated with the 2016 presidential election. Studies and assessments showing students are easily misled by digital information have also contributed to a sense of urgency.
because the topic can fit into multiple content areas, it can also be overlooked because of other pressures on teachers. Media literacy, the group notes, also “encompasses the foundational skills of digital citizenship and internet safety including the norms of appropriate, responsible, ethical, and healthy behavior, and cyberbullying prevention.”
Lawmakers in Missouri and South Carolina have also pre-filed versions of Media Literacy Now’s model bill, the report noted, and legislation is expected in Hawaii and Arizona.
CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS Proposal Submission Deadline: February 12, 2019 Leveraging Technology for the Improvement of School Safety and Student Wellbeing
A book edited by Dr. Stephanie Huffman, Dr. Stacey Loyless, Dr. Shelly Allbritton, and Dr. Charlotte Green (University of Central Arkansas)
Introduction
Technology permeates all aspects of today’s school systems. An Internet search on technology in schools can generate millions of website results. The vast majority of these websites (well over 8,000,000 results for one simple search) focuses on advice, activities, and uses of technology in the classroom. Clearly teaching and learning with technology dominates the literature and conversations on how technology should or could be used in classroom settings. A search on school safety and technology can produce more than 3,000,000 results with many addressing technological tools such as video cameras, entry control devices, weapon detectors, and other such hardware. However, in recent times, cyberbullying appears to dominate the Internet conversations in references to school safety. With an increase in school violence in the past two decades, school safety is a fundamental concern in our nation’s schools. Policy makers, educators, parents, and students are seeking answers in how best to protect the physical, emotional, and social well-being of all children.
Objective of the Book
The proposed edited book covers the primary topic of P-12 school safety and the use of technology and technology used for fostering an environment in which all students can be academically successful and thrive as global citizens. School safety is defined as the physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. The book will comprise empirical, conceptual and case based (practical application) research that craft an overall understanding of the issues in creating a “safe” learning environment and the role technology can and should play; where a student’s well-being is valued and protected from external and internal entities, equitable access is treasured as a means for facilitating the growth of the whole student, and policy, practices, and procedures are implemented to build a foundation to transform the culture and climate of the school into an inclusive nurturing environment.
Target Audience
The target audience is leadership and education scholars, leadership practitioners, and technology coordinators. This book will be used as a collective body of work for the improvement of K-12 schools and as a tool for improving leadership and teacher preparation programs. School safety is a major concern for educators. Technology has played a role in creating unsafe environments for children; however it also is an avenue for addressing the challenges of school safety
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Section I – Digital Leadership
Technology as a Climate and Cultural Transformation Tool
School Leadership in the Digital Age: Building a Shared Vision for all Aspects of Learning and Teaching
Ensuring Equity within a “One to One” Technology Framework
Infrastructure within Communities
Accessible WiFi for Low SES Students
Developing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Professional Development for School Leaders
Section II – Well Being
Social Media and School Safety: Inputs and Outputs
Tip lines: Crime, Bullying, Threats
Communication and Transparency
Platform for Social Justice
Teaching Strategies to Promote Healthy Student Interactions in Cyberspace (Digital Citizenship?)
Building Capacity and Efficacy, Platform to lower incidence of Cyber-Bullying, Boosting Instructional Engagement
Literacy and Preparedness for the Influence and Consequence of Digital Media Marketing Campaigns directed toward Children, Adolescents, and Teens.
Pioneering Innovative Technology Program in Curriculum: Fostering “Belonging” beyond Athletics & Arts.
Competence in the Blended/Hybrid/Flipped Classroom
Technology to enhance learning for all
Assistive Technology
Accessibility issues
Internet access for Low SES Students in the Blended/Hybrid/Flipped Classroom
Personal Learning Design
Differentiation for Student Efficacy
Strategies for Increasing Depth of Knowledge
Design Qualities for Enhanced Engagement
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before February 12, 2019, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the purpose, methodology, and a brief summary findings of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by March 12, 2019 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by June 12, 2019, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at http://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. See Edited Chapter Template. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Leveraging Technology for the Improvement of School Safety and Student Wellbeing. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), an international academic publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. IGI Global specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit http://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2020.
Important Dates February 12, 2019: Proposal Submission Deadline March 12, 2019: Notification of Acceptance June 12, 2019: Full Chapter Submission August 10, 2019: Review Results Returned August 10, 2019: Final Acceptance Notification September 7, 2019: Final Chapter Submission
Inquiries can be forwarded to
Dr. Stephanie Huffman
University of Central Arkansas steph@uca.edu or 501-450-5430
Under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), any US school that receives federal funding is required to have an internet-safety policy. As school-issued tablets and Chromebook laptops become more commonplace, schools must install technological guardrails to keep their students safe. For some, this simply means blocking inappropriate websites. Others, however, have turned to software companies like Gaggle, Securly, and GoGuardian to surface potentially worrisome communications to school administrators
In an age of mass school-shootings and increased student suicides, SMPs Safety Management Platforms can play a vital role in preventing harm before it happens. Each of these companies has casestudies where an intercepted message helped save lives.
Over 50% of teachers say their schools are one-to-one (the industry term for assigning every student a device of their own), according to a 2017 survey from Freckle Education
But even in an age of student suicides and school shootings, when do security precautions start to infringe on students’ freedoms?
When the Gaggle algorithm surfaces a word or phrase that may be of concern—like a mention of drugs or signs of cyberbullying—the “incident” gets sent to human reviewers before being passed on to the school. Using AI, the software is able to process thousands of student tweets, posts, and status updates to look for signs of harm.
SMPs help normalize surveillance from a young age. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal at Facebook and other recent data breaches from companies like Equifax, we have the opportunity to teach kids the importance of protecting their online data
in an age of increased school violence, bullying, and depression, schools have an obligation to protect their students. But the protection of kids’ personal information is also a matter of their safety
Recent research and clinical psychologists now suggest that some adolescents are engaging in a newer form of self-aggression — digital self-harm. They’re anonymously posting mean and derogatory comments about themselves on social media.
According to a survey published late last year in the Journal of Adolescent Health, teens are bullying themselves online as a way to manage feelings of sadness and self-hatred and to gain attention from their friends.
“We were alarmed to learn that 6 percent of the youth who participated in our study engaged in some form of digital self-harm,” says Sameer Hinduja, co-author of the study and a professor of criminology at Florida Atlantic University. He is also the co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.
“Because teens’ online and offline worlds overlap, digital self-harm is a concern for some youth, making online self-harm an emerging area of research,” says, Susan Swearer, a professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Because the advent of social media has changed the way many teens form and experience relationships, normal adolescent feelings of insecurity, anxiety and loneliness can become magnified as they scroll through their peers’ social media reels. Hinduja says some teens cope with that distress by turning their angst on themselves online.
the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education – CASTLE
Vision
If a school’s reputation and pride are built on decades or centuries of “this is how we’ve always done things here,” resistance from staff, parents, and alumni to significant changes may be fierce. In such institutions, heads of school may have to steer carefully between deeply ingrained habits and the need to modernize the information tools with which students and faculty work
Too often, when navigating faculty or parental resistance, school leaders and technology staff make reassurances that things will not have to change much in the classroom or that slow baby steps are OK. Unfortunately, this results in a different problem, which is that schools have now invested significant money, time, and energy into digital technologies but are using them sparingly and seeing little impact. In such schools, replicative uses of technology are quite common, but transformative uses that leverage the unique affordances of technology are quite rare.
many schools fail to proceed further because they don’t have a collective vision of what more transformative uses of technology might look like, nor do they have a shared understanding of and commitment to what it will take to get to such a place. As a result, faculty instruction and the learning experiences of students change little or not at all.
These schools have taken the time to involve all stakeholders—including students—in substantive conversations about what digital tools will allow them to do differently compared with previous analog practices. Their visions promote the potential of computing devices to facilitate all of those elements we now think of as essential 21st-century capacities: confidence, curiosity, enthusiasm, passion, critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-direction. Technology doesn’t simply support traditional teaching—it transforms it for deeper thinking and gives students more agency over their own learning.
Fear
Another prevalent issue preventing technology change in schools is fear—fear of change, of the unknown, of letting go of what we know best, of being learners again. But it’s also a fear of letting kids have wide access to the Internet with the possibility of cyberbullying, access to inappropriate material, and exposure to online predators or even excessive advertising. Fears, of course, need to be surfaced and addressed.
The fear drives some schools to ban cellphones, disallow students and faculty from using Facebook, and lock down Internet filters so tightly that useful websites are inaccessible. They prohibit the use of Twitter and YouTube, and they block blogs. Some educators see these types of responses as principled stands against the shortcomings and hassles of digital technologies. Others see them as rejections of the dehumanization of the education process by soulless machines. Often, however, it’s just schools clinging to the past and elevating what is comfortable or familiar over the potential of technology to help them better deliver on their school missions.
Heads of school don’t have to be skilled users themselves to be effective technology leaders, but they do have to exercise appropriate oversight and convey the message—repeatedly—that frequent, meaningful technology use in school is both important and expected. Nostalgia aside, there is no foreseeable future in which the primacy of printed text is not superseded by electronic text and multimedia. When nearly all information is digital or online, multi-modal and multimedia, accessed by mobile devices that fit in our pockets, the question should not be whether schools prepare students for a digital learning landscape, but rather how.
Control
Many educators aren’t necessarily afraid of technology, but they are so accustomed to heavily teacher-directed classrooms that they are leery about giving up control—and can’t see the value in doing so.
Although most of us recognize that mobile computers connected to the Internet may be the most powerful learning devices yet invented—and that youth are learning in powerful ways at home with these technologies—allowing students to have greater autonomy and ownership of the learning process can still seem daunting and questionable.
The “beyond” is particularly important. When we give students some voice in and choice about what and how they learn, we honor basic human needs for autonomy, we enhance students’ interest and engagement, and we truly actualize our missions of preparing lifelong learners.
The goal of instructional transformation is to empower students, not to disempower teachers. While instructor unfamiliarity with digital technologies, inquiry- or problem-based teaching techniques, or deeper learning strategies may result in some initial discomfort, these challenges can be overcome with robust support.
Support
A few workshops here and there rarely result in large-scale changes in implementation.
teacher-driven “unconferences” or “edcamps,” at which educators propose and facilitate discussion topics, can be powerful mechanisms for fostering professional dialogue and learning. Similarly, some schools offer voluntary “Tech Tuesdays” or “appy hours” to foster digital learning among interested faculty.
In addition to existing IT support, technology integration staff, or librarians/media specialists, some schools have student technology teams that are on call for assistance when needed.
A few middle schools and high schools go even further and assign teachers their own individual student technology mentors. These student-teacher pairings last all school year and comprise the first line of support for educators’ technology questions.
As teachers, heads of school, counselors, coaches, and librarians, we all now have the ability to participate in ongoing, virtual, global communities of practice.
Whether formal or informal, the focus of technology-related professional learning should be on student learning, not on the tools or devices. Independent school educators should always ask, “Technology for the purpose of what?” when considering the inclusion of digital technologies into learning activities. Technology never should be implemented just for technology’s sake.