my vedana

Canada 2007 008
It’s usually pretty grim getting back to your emails after you’ve been away, but this time I’ve had good fun. There’s an invitation to the Capita conference, Child Protection in the Digital Environment - here’s some of the blurb “As children are spending more time online it has become increasingly important for parents, carers and teachers to engage with children’s online activity and encourage positive use of the technologies that are available to them, whilst also avoiding the dangers. Keeping children and young people safe online today not only includes preventing grooming by paedophiles, but also protection from ‘cyberbullying’ by peers and encouraging responsible use of popular social networking sites.” Of course it’s important – it’s hard to argue against, but it just plays on all those well-rehearsed moral panics. Academics are panicing too, judging by the number of comments on this site. The initial emailer was “shocked to come across this site”, seeing it as a "cynical degradation of education". Oh no, everything is falling apart! Panic! So to Schome, the “education system for the information age” that takes sanctuary in Second Life. This presentation (in comic form) is great, that’s better – it’s so good to be back!

Labels: education, social issues, virtual worlds