Sept. 24, 2015 As a partner organization in the first ever Digital Citizenship Summit October 3, 2015 bringing in thought leaders and stakeholders from the student, parent, educator and industry sphere I’ve been applying my own mental floss to see how the conference will translate challenging and divergent opinions into some “best practices” to “be the digital change.” As a … [Read more...]
#DigCitSummit Pt1: Debating The Facebook Dislike Button
A Social Media Helpline for Schools: I Can Helpline
May 19, 2015 Once upon a time, call-in centers were helpful first responders to direct levels of care, staffed with human specialists not robots, touch tone prompts, and layered redirected voicemails entangled like spaghetti.In a throwback to an era of personal, customized approaches to dilemmas, the newly proposed social media hotline for schools, called I Can Helpline.org, … [Read more...]
I Am Elemental: Superheroes Strike A Pitch Perfect Toy Tenor
May 11, 2015 With superheroes crushing box office numbers with Hulk style force and toy merchandisers frantically scrambling to address market demand for sheroes deleted from mass media like an invisibly evil comic book spell, hashtags like #IncludeTheGirls are trumpeting a Herculean reminder that the new era of girls dubbed “Generation K” for Katniss will NOT be dissed and … [Read more...]
Selma March: The Power of Empathy, Storytelling
Mar. 7, 2015 Selma March, 50 years later, commemoration of Bloody Sunday. #Selma50Anyone who has seen the movie "Selma" knows the split second power of media storytelling to jolt viewers into a visceral, emotional sidewinder.The teens on either side of me were wide-eyed, visibly shaken, and riveted as the dialogue shifted from children playfully bantering about hairstyles to … [Read more...]
50 Shades of Disempowerment: Teach Your Children Well
Feb. 12, 2015 “What people do in private is their own business.” But what happens when Hollywood makes a movie glorifying, promoting and normalizing violence against women and coerced sex? It becomes the business of everyone to examine the message our kids are receiving from it.Couldn't have said it better myself.Those are the words of Educate Empower Kids.org's Amanda … [Read more...]