Currituck County Schools Media and Tech

CES Video Announcements 005, originally uploaded by pgobriant.

Under the leadership and guidance of Ms. Becky Leousis, Media Specialist, fifth grade students at Central Elementary School have begun broadcasting live video announcements each morning. The students make general announcements, recognize birthdays, report the weather, and lead the school in the Pledge of Allegiance.

On the day I visited, Courtney, Carrie, Nicole, and Tigh, were the news team. The anchors interviewed Constance about her art entry for the school calendar contest.

I was very impressed with the students and the great job they are doing.

I ran across a very interesting report this week on Internet safety. The report is a transcription of Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Forum called “Just the Facts about Online Youth Victimization.” The Congressional Internet Caucus brought together several experts on issues of Internet safety. They discuss some recent research that calls into question many of the thoughts and ideas we have been teaching for years. This quote summarizes one of the studies.

“Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it’s not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It’s not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil.”

This research has much to inform our discussions of Internet safety. I encourage you to read the transcript.