Last night’s episode of PBS’ Frontline was all about kids and the Net.
In Growing Up Online, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood. "The Internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it’s something that really is the province of teenagers, " says C.J. Pascoe, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Berkeley’s Digital Youth Research project.
I’ve only watched excerpts so far but the whole program is available online on Frontline Web site. The best quote from the show I believe is "We have to look at our kids less like victims and more like participants."
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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2 Replies to “Growing Up Online”
Hi there Michael,
I was wondering if you might be able to help me with some questions about Wikipedia/traditional library catalogues for a Post Graduate research project?
I am a huge fan of Wikipedia, and am trying to build a case for cataloguers working with, rather than ignoring Wikipedia, highlighting the pros and cons of Wikipedia’s cataloguing system/entry points etc.
I am very interested in the various Wikipedia portals/projects relating to Libraries/Librarians, and things like Book source. However I am not hugely sure of the technical details!
Yours, Kathleen M (kmenzies@cis.strath.ac.uk)
p.s – very sorry to post here, but your contact php script didn’t work!
This show was great for a couple of reasons. 1) because, as a parent of a three year old I realize that I need to create a good, strong, stable and open-minded relationship with my son. 2) As a teen librarian, I feel its my duty to support teens and their use of myspace, as well as being there for them if they need me. So often in the show, it seemed that the adults couldn’t or didn’t want to understand teens and technology. So many adults were just completely in the dark about what was going on… Not only do we need to educate our teens about potential dangers, we need to educate adults about the benefits and positive outcomes. I think especially important is to let teens know that potential colleges and employers are going to start looking at these places to find out what kind of person you are… Needless to say, I am very glad that I watched the show.
Hi there Michael,
I was wondering if you might be able to help me with some questions about Wikipedia/traditional library catalogues for a Post Graduate research project?
I am a huge fan of Wikipedia, and am trying to build a case for cataloguers working with, rather than ignoring Wikipedia, highlighting the pros and cons of Wikipedia’s cataloguing system/entry points etc.
I am very interested in the various Wikipedia portals/projects relating to Libraries/Librarians, and things like Book source. However I am not hugely sure of the technical details!
Yours,
Kathleen M (kmenzies@cis.strath.ac.uk)
p.s – very sorry to post here, but your contact php script didn’t work!
This show was great for a couple of reasons. 1) because, as a parent of a three year old I realize that I need to create a good, strong, stable and open-minded relationship with my son. 2) As a teen librarian, I feel its my duty to support teens and their use of myspace, as well as being there for them if they need me.
So often in the show, it seemed that the adults couldn’t or didn’t want to understand teens and technology. So many adults were just completely in the dark about what was going on… Not only do we need to educate our teens about potential dangers, we need to educate adults about the benefits and positive outcomes. I think especially important is to let teens know that potential colleges and employers are going to start looking at these places to find out what kind of person you are…
Needless to say, I am very glad that I watched the show.