Tech Advisory Committee Roundup 2.27.15

Welcome to the Tech Committee Round-Up where we publish links to articles, videos, and other resources that the members of the Tech Advisory Committee would like to share with our community.  

What Teens Really Think about Technology

This series of articles, all from Medium.com, provides a quick introduction to many popular websites and is a great segue into discussions of multiple perspectives.  The final article discusses what viewpoints are left out of the first two articles and why these voices are often ignored when discussing technology trends.

The original article, written by a 19 year old college student provides his perspective on various popular sites: "A Teenager's View on Social Media" 
https://medium.com/backchannel/a-teenagers-view-on-social-media-1df945c09ac6

The second part "What Teens Really Think about YouTube, Google+, Reddit and Other Social Media" discusses sites left out of the first:  https://medium.com/backchannel/what-teens-really-think-about-youtube-google-reddit-and-other-social-media-a7263924a506

Finally a counter point to the article discussing view points that were left out of the original: "An Old Fogey’s Analysis of a Teenager’s View on Social Media" https://medium.com/message/an-old-fogeys-analysis-of-a-teenagers-view-on-social-media-5be16981034d

Digital Citizenship Resources

http://www.edudemic.com/15-resources-digital-citizenship-2014/
This blog post over at Edudemic provides a curated list of resources to help parents and educators teach students about how to be a better digital citizen: "2014 Recap: 15 Top Resources on Digital Citizenship" 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-online-fact-finding-matt-levinson
The article "Sussing Out the Truth: Student Engagement and Online Fact Finding" by Matt Levinson explores ways in which students already seek out expert advice online and how teachers can encourage them to do so for academic subjects.  

http://www.studentreportinglabs.com/reports
The Student Reporting Labs at PBS partners with middle and high school students to produce student-generated video reports on a variety of issues.  In addition to educating students on a variety of topics chosen by their peers it has a curriculum on news and media literacy for teachers. 

Social Networks and Social Sciences

http://www.radiolab.org/story/darwins-stickers/
The most recent episode of Radiolab explores the intersection between social media and social sciences.  There are now more Facebook users than Catholics worldwide and this pool of data provides those in the social sciences with an enormous data set, but it also creates questions around the ethics of performing these tests on unknowing subjects.  This additional article by Andrew Zolli explores the universality and evolution of human expressions through online 'stickers' (think more detailed emoticons) and what we can learn from the popularity of different stickers across the globe.  

Gender Stereotypes

http://mediasmarts.ca/lessonplan/exposing-gender-stereotypes-lesson
This lesson from Media Smarts teaches students about gender stereotypes and how they can lead to violent behavior.