Facebook’s Ugly Sisters: Anonymity and Abuse on Formspring and Ask.fm

New question and answer websites Ask.fm and Formspring have brought highly specific and personal abuse to a new level amongst young people by providing easy anonymity to users within a circle of offline friendship groups culled from Facebook. Relatively unknown due to their unattractiveness to adults, these sites are growing rapidly and have already been associated with at least eight suicides amongst teenagers. Media educators at school level encouraging self-awareness of social media use need to be aware of this new trend. At higher levels, these sites provide a fascinating current case-study of online disinhibition, and fit into ethical and legal debates on the responsibilities of platform providers, and of individuals as media producers. This paper is based on an anonymous online survey of 302 13- to 16-year-olds at a British state girls’ school. Results showed abuse levels were significantly higher than on Facebook or Twitter. The girls felt using the Q&A sites with their real names felt more real than when asking questions anonymously, but receiving anonymous abuse felt significantly more real than either. Opinions as to the acceptability of “sending hate” were mixed, with some users feeling victims had no right to complain if they had entered the forum. Copyright Auteur Publishing Ltd

Youth and Unions

[Excerpt] Following a suggestion from the Cornell ILR Labor Advisory Counsel in early 2009 Cornell ILR began studying the relationships between young workers and unions. Marlena Fontes, a Cornell student, worked with Cornell Extension Faculty Ken Margolies and others during the summer of 2009 on the study. The study is based on a literature review, survey research, observations and focus groups. The report provides a glimpse into the issues that are facing young people and unions and how unions are seeking to organize and involve young workers and members. The table on page 9 summarizes the survey research conducted by Ms. Fontes and two other Cornell summer Fellows

The impact of technology: value-added classroom practice: final report

This report extends Becta’s enquiries into the ways in which digital technologies are supporting learning. It looks in detail at the learning practices mediated by ICT in nine secondary schools in which ICT for learning is well embedded. The project proposes a broader perspective on the notion of ‘impact’ that is rather different from a number of previous studies investigating impact. Previous studies have been limited in that they have either focused on a single innovation or have reported on institutional level factors. However, in both cases this pays insufficient attention to the contexts of learning. In this project, the focus has been on the learning practices of the classroom and the contexts of ICT-supported learning. The study reports an analysis of 85 lesson logs, in which teachers recorded their use of space, digital technology and student outcomes in relation to student engagement and learning. The teachers who filled in the logs, as well as their schools’ senior managers, were interviewed as part of a ‘deep audit’ of ICT provision conducted over two days. One-hour follow-up interviews with the teachers were carried out after the teachers’ log activity. The aim of this was to obtain a broader contextualisation of their teaching

An evaluation of the workbook for health trainers in prisons and the wider community: based on the Royal Institute of Public Health Level 2 award: understanding health improvement

Health trainers form part of a public policy initiative designed to tackle health inequalities. Health Trainers were first proposed in the White Paper ‘Choosing Health’ (2004) and initially some 1200 NHS accredited Health Trainers were placed in post, providing support in key Primary Care Trust areas with the most challenging health and deprivation indicators. The North West and East Midlands Health Trainer Hubs have developed initiative further within the Prison and National Probation Services with the production of a workbook to support prisoners in their attainment of the award. A team from Sheffield Hallam University were commissioned to conduct a brief consultation exercise to ensure that prison staff delivering the initiative, and prisoners who have completed the training in custody were given the opportunity to contribute to the design and content of the workbook

Information Outlook, May 1997

Volume 1, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_1997/1004/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, September 11, 2003

Volume 121, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9876/thumbnail.jp