Computer games and social networking sites are responsible for a generation of inarticulate children. So, says Britain's foremost neuroscientist, Dr Susan Greenfield, we must not let Twitter onto the school curriculum at the expense of traditional subjects

An interesting argument against the use of Twitter and other social networking tools. Check out the notes from other readers.

A national online survey on district use of Web 2.0 and Internet technologies conducted by an independent research firm suggests that teachers are the most important group driving adoption of these technologies in K-12 education. The survey was the first phase of the "Safe Schools in a Web 2.0 World" initiative, an ongoing effort by Lightspeed Systems and Thinkronize, developer of netTrekker, to help schools implement Web 2.0 technologies safely and effectively to address individual learning needs, engage students, and provide 21st century learning opportunities.

How often have you heard, “So what the heck is this Twitter thing, anyway?” or “Why the heck would anyone want to use Twitter?” To be honest, they’re not bad questions. Those of us who are Twitter geeks have to remember that the rest of the world may not be Tweeting with us. In particular, teachers and administrators in our schools are often far removed from social media and struggle to see it as anything more than a time drain or a legal liability.

For those people, I’m creating this Twitter primer. Lots of people have done a “how to Twitter” and I don’t need to redo it here. This is directed at the administrator or teacher in your school, district, university, etc., who is curious about Twitter, but either doesn’t see the value or doesn’t see how it can fit into a school setting. Here goes - feel free to add relevant points in the talkbacks if you’ve had luck in your own setting with social media tools (or if you are still unconvinced).

Gary Stager has written two really interesting practical articles on project based learning. One looks at what makes a good project whilst the second focusses on developing projects that endure. These are two practical and visually attractive documents that all teachers working with projects should read.

Zoho, the web office company that competes with Google's online tools (and does so quite well), has introduced a new feature to their online suite of productivity applications: Zoho Chat 2.0. Built atop the original Zoho Chat platform, this iteration now integrates all the major instant messaging networks. But a multi-protocol IM client is not the big news - it's the fact that Zoho Chat 2.0 is integrated within the majority of the company's applications to allow for real-time collaboration with colleagues.

This is really interesting news and indicates that the good folks at Zoho are really throwing our a challenge to Google Docs which is just what is needed.

How To Make twitter A Powerful Networking Tool

In these recessionary times every bit of energy that your company expends needs to transform into valuable results. Twitter has the potential to open the door to dozens, hundreds or thousands of valuable contacts depending on what your company has time to manage. We’ve looked at hundreds of comments from professionals and simplified practices they used that have turned them into power networkers rather than sideline observers on one of the fastest growing social networks on the internet.

A new CCRC study finds dramatic growth nationwide in arrests of online predators who solicited law enforcement investigators posing online as juveniles, the numbers nearly quintupling from 644 in 2000 to 3,100 in 2006.

During the same period, arrests of individuals for soliciting juveniles themselves grew a modest 21 percent, from an estimated 508 arrests in 2000 to an estimated 615 in 2006, at a time when use of the Internet by youth was growing from 73 percent to 93 percent.

Other results of this study include:

• During the same period that online predator arrests were increasing, overall sex offenses against children and adolescents were declining, as were overall arrests for such crimes.
• Arrests of online predators in 2006 constituted about 1 percent of all arrests for sex crimes committed against children and youth.
• Although arrests of online predators are increasing, especially arrests for soliciting undercover law enforcement, the facts do not suggest that the Internet is facilitating an epidemic of sex crimes against youth. Rather, increasing arrests for online predation probably reflect increasing rates of youth Internet use, a migration of crime from offline to online venues and the growth of law enforcement activity against online crimes.
• The nature of crimes in which online predators used the Internet to meet and victimize youth changed little between 2000 and 2006, despite the advent of social networking sites. Victims were adolescents, not younger children. Most offenders were open about their sexual motives in their online communications with youth. Few crimes (5 percent) involved violence.
• There was no evidence that online predators were stalking or abducting unsuspecting victims based on information they posted at social networking sites.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) will discontinue both its MSN Encarta reference Web sites as well as its Encarta software, which have both been surpassed by rising competitors, like Wikipedia. In a message posted on the MSN Encarta Web site, Microsoft says, “Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past.”

Ah perhaps it was always going to be thus or maybe the Global Financial crisis has claimed another victim, so who's next in the dominoes?

This week, I’ve been playing with Edmodo. If you’re not familiar with the site, it defines itself as ‘a private communication platform for teachers and students’. I’ve also heard it being labelled as ‘Twitter for Schools’. However, Twitter is a public system (with the ability to make individual messages private) whereas Edmodo is 100% private (unless you choose to make particular posts and events public).

Mark Warner has a close look at Edmodo and how it can work with students. He makes some excellent points about a really interesting tool for students.

Should the web be filtered in schools?

If yes then where is the line?

This is a really interesting wikispaces discussion by a group of Scottish teachers around the theme of school web filters. What do you think?