Thousands of years of human social evolution have seen the human race evolve complex linguistic and physical systems to enable communication with each other: vocabulary; intonation; body language; facial expression; gestures; eye contact; skin flushing. And they differentiate across the planet according to culture, belief, experience and custom. These evolved, sometimes innate, finely tuned behaviours[…]
The old argument goes: “Technology changes so fast that we can’t keep pace with it enough to successfully influence children’s online behaviour. They know so much more about it than us and we have a lot to learn. “ Well whilst it’s true that technology rapidly shape shifts in front of our very eyes, human[…]
Introduction Since the release of the Byron Report in 2008 and the subsequent Government action plan that saw the creation of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), online safety has been a significant area that remains at the heart of child protection within the UK. It is becoming increasingly apparent that technology[…]
The following blog is long; it needed to be. It is an article written for “Every Child Journal” a subscription educational publication part of the Imaginative Minds Group. I have attempted to explore self-harm in the context of online behaviour; what research currently tells us; current expert opinion from those who support children and young people with self-harm and[…]
Sexting? Pornography? Revenge porn? Cyberbullying? Trolling? Self-harm? Stalking? Young people’s use of online technology may look as though it is a new and unprecedented challenge, but one thing history teaches us is “ever has it been thus”. Around 400 BC, Socrates wrote: “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they[…]
The world is a big place and a first dive into the internet and in particular social media like Facebook or Twitter, puts the world and its inhabitants at your fingertips. It’s a very powerful feeling and there are great opportunities to be creative, funny, clever, interesting and likeable. With these new opportunities comes responsibility[…]
“A picture is worth a thousand words” as the saying goes, so it is no accident that image search services like Google Images and Bing Image search are so popular amongst schools: an unlimited library of content that adds meaning and impact to publications and presentations. And there lies the dilemma. By dipping randomly into[…]
Brand? Reputation? Footprint? Klout? As online social spaces accelerate almost exponentially across a whole range of environments, the concept of “brand” could very well be the driving force that shapes online culture as 2014 unfolds. Almost exclusively the territory of commerce and advertising in previous years, and very often linked to commodity and corporate identity,[…]
It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, it wasn’t. It was a cold, empty windswept Plymouth railway station platform just before midnight in October. Seated on a hard and spartan bench waiting for the Riviera Sleeper to Paddington. Now I know that sounds so Orient Express; very ornate, cosmopolitan and the height of chic;[…]
It may be worth mentioning from the start that the development of a new Technology National Curriculum fit for the 21st Century was never going to be easy. Nor was the outcome going to please everyone who had a particular vested interest in any part of the whole. There is an argument that suggests that[…]