Internet @ Schools
Developed to foster the growing community of netTrekker Search users, the Navigator program empowers educators to work collaboratively with colleagues to leverage the power of digital resources and netTrekker Search to create engaging 21st century learning environments.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Dec 2012
The guide, "Mobile Devices for Learning: What You Need to Know," recommends taking advantage of mobile devices to engage students and help them develop digital media and technology skills, and suggests specific tools that educators can begin using today.
News/Free Resources - Posted 26 Sep 2012
The latest in a series of mini-reports that explore emerging technologies and trends, this new report examines today's advancing Bring Your Own (BYO) initiatives and related safety and security risks facing school districts nationwide.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Sep 2012
Web Wise Kids provides fun and educational games to help E-Rate schools comply.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Jul 2012
This is the first internet safety education program designed to increase Hispanic parent awareness of cyber safety issues, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Jun 2012
The new ratings assess learning potential of apps, games, and websites to guide parents to great choices and spur development of quality products.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Apr 2012
Symantec Endpoint Protection combines Symantec AntiVirus with advanced threat prevention. It integrates security technologies in a single agent and management console.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 Mar 2012 - Mar/Apr 2012 Issue
By
Sally Finley
Educational facilities serving K-12 students need to provide safe access to Web 2.0 resources for students and staff, while also complying with laws such as the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and data retention and retrieval requirements. Another challenge faced is savvy students attempting to circumvent acceptable use policies. Websense security solutions help K-12 schools address these challenges, enabling productive use of the web; protecting against inbound threats such as spam, malware, and blended threats; and helping to ensure compliance.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 Mar 2012 - Mar/Apr 2012 Issue
By
Charles G. Doe
SonicWALL NSA 3500 is an integrated security appliance used to provide the user with online security on the internet.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 Mar 2012 - Mar/Apr 2012 Issue
By
Sally Finley
Gaggle online tools are used by K-12 students to communicate safely using Web 2.0 technologies, providing a secure online social learning environment made specifically for schools. Gaggle Apps are tightly integrated into the complete Gaggle system.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 Mar 2012 - Mar/Apr 2012 Issue
By
Charles G. Doe
As the founder of Gaggle.Net, Jeff Patterson has led the company's technology team for the past 9 years and is well- versed in the intersection of media literacy and web security. In this interview, Victor talks tech with Jeff for Internet@Schools.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Mar 2012 - Mar/Apr 2012 Issue
By
Victor Rivero
"Kids these days. They're in the zone," says Victor Rivero. It's a media-saturation zone he's talking about, owing to the device-saturation that's keeping kids perpetually connected. Educators must offer guidance so kids can navigate through this zone, for reasons of safety, security, and efficacy. Victor proffers the tools that can help.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Mar 2012 - Mar/Apr 2012 Issue
By
Victor Rivero
According to the announcement, the new entity reflects a transformation of the company's strategic growth plan and ongoing endeavor to create breakthrough digital content solutions for K-12 education that remove the barriers to learning and address the unique needs of students, teachers, parents and educational administrators.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Feb 2012
In collaboration with The Wireless Foundation and Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids & Families, the new "BeSeen" educational app helps teach kids how to use social networks safely and wisely.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Jan 2012
There are huge opportunities to improve the learning experience with elearning. As elearning environments improve and evolve, we're discovering more and more about how to implement them at all levels of education. That said, there are some critical questions librarians need to ask about our role in the elearning space. Stephen posits a few he feels are essential to be concerned about.
Column/The Pipeline - Posted 01 Jan 2012 - Jan/Feb 2012 Issue
By
Stephen Abram
At Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, an iPad pilot initiative is exploring how a new portable technology, in the hands of teachers and students, can affect teaching and learning. Librarian Carolyn Foote describes how they are proceeding, keeping a close eye on what is working and what the impacts of the project are.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Jan 2012 - Jan/Feb 2012 Issue
By
Carolyn Foote
Mary Ann's topic this month is backing up your important files. Are you faithful about this? She used to be. But, she says, recently she has grown careless. So this article is in the vein of, "Do as I say and not as I do," … or did.
Column/Belltones - Posted 01 Nov 2011 - Nov/Dec 2011 Issue
By
Mary Ann Bell
The BeSeen app is designed to teach kids how to responsibly use social networks.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Oct 2011
ePals LearningSpace is a web-based communication and collaboration tool for district and school use.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 May 2011 - May/Jun 2011 Issue
By
Sally Finley
Kidblog's simple tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs including giving final approval before student blogs are posted.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 May 2011 - May/Jun 2011 Issue
By
Charles G. Doe
Edublogs is for creating and managing student and teacher blogs with customizable designs. Blogs can be created and managed by individual teachers or school districts for as many students as needed, all in a secure environment. Edublogs also hosts the blogs, which can be public or private, as well. Its site features a "community" with more than 688,000 public blogs on educational topics.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 May 2011 - May/Jun 2011 Issue
By
Charles G. Doe
"As fast as a trending Twitterstorm and as powerful as a flood of Facebook fans, there's a curious phenomenon moving through our schools these days: social media." Read all about the phenomenon … and the tools that comprise it … in Victor's feature.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 May 2011 - May/Jun 2011 Issue
By
Victor Rivero
M86 VuSafe provides a means to show pre-approved streaming media content without the peripherals (i.e. banner ads, comments, etc.) found on the source sites, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Mar 2011
Victor Rivero reviews Cognite from Follett Software Co., a digital learning environment that integrates discovery and organization tools, collaboration, and communication.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 Sep 2010 - Sep/Oct 2010 Issue
By
Victor Rivero
Gaggle's online learning tools bring students' and teachers' most wanted Web 2.0 abilities to their classrooms in a safe and secure online social learning environment made specifically for K-12, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Jul 2010
Susan Finley reviews the Student Bullying and Violence Prevention Program, which provides online training and resources teachers can use to communicate with students about bullying and violence-related issues.
Editorial/Product Reviews - Posted 01 Jul 2010 - Jul/Aug 2010 Issue
By
Sally Finley
Part 1 of this article, which appeared in the May/June issue, looked at a range of safety and security issues affecting educators as we all strive to attain the vision enunciated at the beginning of that feature. Part 2 addresses universal digital media safety and literacy education as well as targeted youth risk online prevention.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Jul 2010 - Jul/Aug 2010 Issue
By
Nancy Willard
Cognite integrates discovery tools, retrieval, collaboration and communication with the goal of creating a vibrant experience where K-12 students excel, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jun 2010
The downloadable ebook by cybersafety authority Nancy Willard focuses on three critical issues for schools: creating change in technology adoption; effective internet use management; and Web 2.0 in schools—legal issues.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Jun 2010
SafetyWeb.com is designed to help parents protect their children online by monitoring the web for red flags in their kids' and teens' online activity.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 May 2010
In this age of technology-enabled openness, how much protecting is too much? And, going further, if our students are completely isolated from the benefits of the information age, will they ever learn? In this month's Tools for Learning feature, Victor Rivero examines some products, services, and solutions that address the question "How can our students stay safe and secure while simultaneously getting access to rich learning resources—and continue to fall in love with learning?"
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 May 2010 - May/Jun 2010 Issue
By
Victor Rivero
It's clear that concerns about internet risk and the ineffective way in which schools are now trying to manage internet use are a major barrier to moving schools forward to embrace 21st-century learning environments. Nancy Willard says it's time for schools to address these issues in a more comprehensive manner. In this two-part article (Part 2 will appear in the next issue), she outlines how cyber-savvy schools can embrace the future.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 May 2010 - May/Jun 2010 Issue
By
Nancy Willard
Changes to the learning management platform include enhanced administrative functionality, integrated synchronous chat and presentation tools, and advanced forum features.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Mar 2010
Net Cetera is a booklet and bookmark about social networking, cyberbullying, sexting, and more, and AdMongo is new website/game about teaching advertising literacy to kids.
News/Free Resources - Posted 15 Mar 2010
The competition gives educators an opportunity to win one of two $1,500 scholarships to attend this year's ISTE 2010 conference in Denver in June.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Feb 2010
Safe and encrypted, GigaTribe.com’s peer-to-peer private online network now lets schools share classroom videos privately online with teachers. Another “Back to School” feature is the ability to share class documents as well as share course materials among teachers.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Aug 2009
"It's Your Call" is a game for schools, law enforcement, and community organizations to educate teens about "sexting," cyberbullying, academic cheating, and related issues.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Mar 2009
Mary Ann is still on the warpath! Her purpose in this article is to enumerate some of the most common “reasons” that are used to support the overly restrictive filtering that is prevalent in all too many schools and districts. “I put the word reasons in quotations because it is my opinion that, very frequently, these are excuses rather than reasons,” she notes. Here are some arguments, and her responses.
Column/Belltones - Posted 01 Mar 2009 - Mar/Apr 2009 Issue
By
Mary Ann Bell
The Get Game Smart aims to help parents and kids establish healthy habits for playing video games, watching TV, and browsing the Web. The campaign is designed to inspire families to take simple steps to help ensure that young people are using media in ways that are safer, healthier, and more balanced.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Feb 2009
“My Portfolio” allows educators to collaborate and share digital resources at school and district levels.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Jan 2009
Chancery SMS 6.7 includes several key enhancements to five major functional areas including permanent records; health immunizations; elementary school attendance; security; and its customization framework.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Jan 2009
Mary Ann is on a mission to spread the word that Draconian filtering at schools is a practice that produces negative outcomes. So in this issue’s Belltones, she lays out more reasons for saying this is so ... and she challenges readers to make a New Year’s resolution to work for gaining more internet access for students and faculty members in K–12 schools.
Column/Belltones - Posted 01 Jan 2009 - Jan/Feb 2009 Issue
By
Mary Ann Bell
The new unified message archive is now available to the ePals Global Community.
News/Breaking News - Posted 31 Dec 2008
Via the internet, PlumChoice’s technicians take temporary control of the troubled computer while the user watches – even at 3 am or on holidays – eliminating the delays associated with repair shop visits, technician house calls, or do-it-yourself fixes with instructions from a call center, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Oct 2008
The series of brief family-oriented lessons provides parents, educators, and others with advice on how to protect children from predators, cyber bullies, inappropriate material, and other online threats.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Oct 2008
The update to the Children's Internet Protection Act requires schools participating in the E-Rate program to educate students regarding appropriate behavior on social networking and chat room sites and about cyberbullying—an approach ISTE and CoSN have advocated for many years.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 Oct 2008
The new campaign will direct families and educators to the NetSmartz Back-2-School Kit, a free resource designed to help instill everyday safety values in children between the ages 5-12.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Sep 2008
Mary Ann Bell is mad about the internet filtering going on today in so many schools. She believes it is past time to stop letting paranoia, combined with laziness, block teachers, counselors, administrators, and students from the internet resources they deserve to access at school. So … herewith she’s starting to speak out!
Column/Belltones - Posted 01 Sep 2008 - Sep/Oct 2008 Issue
By
Mary Ann Bell
While many schools are blocking access to social networking applications on the internet, school library automation OPACs are beginning to provide such applications to students and staff. Barbara Fiehn talked with some library automation vendors and others about this emerging trend to see what they're up to, and with some school library media specialists to gain some insight to their hesitations and acceptance. Read on to see what she learned.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Sep 2008 - Sep/Oct 2008 Issue
By
Barbara Fiehn
The tool encourages schools to rate their security against national benchmarks.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Jul 2008
In this article, cybersafety education promoter Art Wolinsky offers some historical perspective and context on internet safety and technology integration, with, ultimately, an optimistic view and a plan for success in both areas.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Jul 2008 - Jul/Aug 2008 Issue
By
Art Wolinsky
Just when you thought you understood how to fully integrate internet learning into your curriculum, along comes Web 2.0, the “social side” of the internet where people can communicate with others and contribute their own content. As a librarian you should be able to communicate with students, parents, and teachers the issues that they face when placing materials on Web 2.0 social networks, and one of the big ones is copyright. This article looks at several situations in which library users may use popular social networking sites and confront copyright laws.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 May 2008 - May/Jun 2008 Issue
By
Kathryn Metzinger Miller
The Video Professor online safety program features content from Net Crimes and Misdemeanors: Outmaneuvering Spammers, Stalkers, and Con Artists—a book by cybercrime expert Jayne A. Hitchcock published by Information Today, Inc.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Jan 2008
The solution is highlighted by new partnerships with key educational technology companies, including Futurekids, Inc., 8e6 Technologies, Promethean, and RM Educational Software, that broaden CDW-G’s offerings.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jan 2008
The new Pokémon Learning League program provides lessons on internet safety and media literacy for lower and upper elementary level students and includes teacher and parent resources.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jan 2008
Online viewing and voting for best student-submitted videos is open through January 31, on the World Book site.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Jan 2008
Read how AskEraser works, what exceptions obtain, why it's important, and, in general, what's the current state of web search privacy in Greg Notess's January 3, 2008 NewsBreak. (From Information Today, Inc.'s NewsBreaks.)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 03 Jan 2008
When enabled by the user, AskEraser deletes all future search queries and associated cookie information from Ask.com servers, including IP address, User ID, Session ID, and the complete text of their queries.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Dec 2007
The company will now customize configuration of OME-kids.com with its corporate solution MX-Defender to create a comprehensive filtering and email security service for school systems and classrooms.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Oct 2007
The new tool based on CDW-G's School Safety Index helps schools evaluate their security programs against the national average.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Aug 2007
The research project benchmarking the current status of public school district safety shows that safety barriers loom large and students often hinder security efforts.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Jul 2007
New software tool helps extend school safety to computer and online activity.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jun 2007
Three new GenevaLogic Vision Kits provide individual classrooms and entire schools with classroom management tools for effective computer teaching.
Archives/In the Spotlight - Posted 01 Mar 2007 - Mar/Apr 2007 Issue
In the world of education, writes Stephen Abram in this month's Pipeline, "the best path is to start by asking ourselves a simple question: ‘What will [our students'] world look like?'" Walling tools and components of the Internet—which will be a part of their world—out of our schools doesn't sound to Stephen like following the best path. So, being an affirmative fellow, he offer a turnaround policy!
Column/The Pipeline - Posted 01 Mar 2007 - Mar/Apr 2007 Issue
By
Stephen Abram
For February 15, 2007: Sponsored by the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, the Cyberbullying site provides the Educator's Guide to Cyberbullying, Parent's Guide to Cyberbullying, and links to real life stories.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 Feb 2007
By
Linda C. Joseph
GenevaLogic now offers three new education kits designed to provide individual classrooms and entire schools with classroom management tools for effective computer teaching.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Feb 2007
According to the report, 55 percent of online teens use social networks and 55 percent have created online profiles; older girls predominate.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Jan 2007
For January 1, 2007: NetSmartz is an educational resource for children, parents, and teachers on how to stay safe on the Internet.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 02 Jan 2007
By
Linda C. Joseph
Mindful of the safety and security issues surrounding social networking, Stephen Abram nontheless has plenty of good to say about the popular phenomenon. In this month's Pipeline, he talks about, and guides readers to resources about, positiveeducational uses of social networking.
Column/The Pipeline - Posted 01 Jan 2007 - Jan/Feb 2007 Issue
By
Stephen Abram
The Internet has changed the way students learn and communicate. With the click of a mouse, they can instant message one another, work together on projects, download all kinds of multimedia files, and post to blogs, Web sites, and RSS feeds. Access to people and information enhances instruction, but what happens when the "dark side of the Internet" sneaks around the corner and into the classroom or home? In this column, Cyberbee points to lots of resources that can help.
Column/CyberBee - Posted 01 Jan 2007 - Jan/Feb 2007 Issue
By
Linda C. Joseph
Helping school colleagues keep up with technology trends is a function library media specialists are well-placed to fulfill. It's also a function that can further underscore the importance of the LMS at school. With that in mind, we've turned to Nancy Willard, prominent—perhaps even ubiquitous—spokesperson on the subject of online safety in the face of new Internet technologies. Nancy's feature gives you in-depth ammunition, understanding, and resources to press into service to help your staff and entire school community cope with all aspects of this important new technology trend.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 Jul 2006 - July/Aug 2006 Issue
By
Nancy Willard
NetSupport Protect provides a secure, reliable, and productive computer environment for shared-use systems and the classroom, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Jun 2006
Imbee.com is a blogging site for children ages 8 to 14. What!!??? you're saying. Not safe!! Well, with all the concern over kids posting and publishing to the Web, it's worth reading the EContent article by Jared Bernstein to see how the imbee.com folks create an environment they say is safe even for kids that young. (From Information Today, Inc.’s EContent magazine)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 13 Jun 2006
Another article on filtering? Well, Mary Ann Bell writes, "Truth is, I did not go looking for this topic. It reached out and grabbed me while I was looking for information about something else. While researching general computer use in schools and libraries, I noticed the topic of filtering to be a continuing issue." There are lots of stories and further "troubling trends" she writes about in this round of Belltones.
Column/Belltones - Posted 01 May 2006 - May/June 2006 Issue
By
Mary Ann Bell
Student usage of social networking sites sites has become one of the hottest tech issues for schools this year. Clearly, social networking presents challenges for schools, and Joanne Barrett's article will help you understand the phenomenon--what it is; what it means for kids, parents, and teachers; what the benefits can be, what dangers it poses, and more.
Editorial/Features - Posted 01 May 2006 - May/June 2006 Issue
By
Joanne Barrett
We now have some pretty good track records on some new technologies that make access to information—both physical and intellectual access—simpler and, therefore, we hope, better. Hurdles to that access exist in both the physical and virtual worlds. Requiring a PC or specific browser to access information sets a hurdle in place in the virtual environment. Requiring information to be used within a library during specific hours is a hurdle of sorts too. Here are five key technologies that improve access in one way or another, or both.
Column/The Pipeline - Posted 01 Jan 2005 - Jan/Feb 2005 Issue
By
Stephen Abram
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