Here’s something I love about the Internet. Instant access to expertise, whether it’s Ted.com or Wikipedia, the sources are innumerable.

Here’s one I found recently, a drawing course by artist Bobby Chiu. He’ll have you drawing profiles in 7 minutes.

Check it out here.

It’s part of the Schoolism.com series, hopefully he’ll post some more free stuff.

The Globe and Mail has a good article ‘What to do when your kid is the bully’. It’s worth a read and has good Canadian statistics from researchers. It is missing one thing, however, which is why?

Why help the bully?

Bullying is still considered to be a school yard program, or at least, the link isn’t obvious between school yard bullying and office bullying, child abuse, and elder abuse. And that link exists. So, why stop your child from bullying? Because when your child goes on to abuse their child, their spouse, or even you, you’ll wonder if there was something you could have done to prevent it.

So, I’ve been waiting for this and can’t wait to try it.

IF:Book , aka, The Institute for the Future of the Book, has created a digital resource of 40 pieces of digital literature.

It’s in beta but you can try it out here.

It’s been piloted in three schools and shown to be effective in promoting reading in reluctant readers. (They also say boys, but frankly, I’d rather they just said reluctant readers.)

Here’s their plug:

HOTBOOK is a digital literature project for Years 8 and 9, designed to run over 6 weeks.

The HOTBOOK software contains 40 short pieces of digital literature (or ‘litch bits’) including poems, play scripts, extracts from novels and non-fiction. Each week you release a new batch of ‘litch bits’, which start with a message from the future by the mysterious Curator.

Danah Boyd wrote an interesting commentary on lying and safety.

It’s an older post, but one I came across in part because I was running along the same thread (but could never have voiced my concerns so well). It got me thinking. I wanted to come up with a better way for kids. A way that isn’t deceptive but actually could help them embrace their online identity while remaining safe.

The concept is an old one and it’s commercial. What would it be like if we taught kids to think of their online presence as their personal brand?

A brand could be something that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. It could also provide the anonymity central to safety. But more importantly it would never be a mask to stand behind, but rather something to polish and cherish. A brand is visual. A brand can elicit feelings and adjectives.

One could say that kids already have these, they’re called avatars. But how many students have considered it an extension of themselves? Part of them. Something that needed to be highly considered. If a student was given one chance to put their brand online and never change it, it would be a very different way of considering online presence. It might be one where people thought before they acted, posted, downloaded, trolled, bullied, etc. Because no one wants to tarnish their brand, and it’s a great alternative to putting up personal information.

A brand can grow to be as important as a name. This may be merely a subtle shift in thinking, but I have found that when I pause before I post, I tend to consider the various interpretations of what I’ve written. I try to protect my own brand.