How - the importance of conduct

In Thomas Friedman's recent column, The Whole World is Watching, he reports on Dov Seidman's book How. Both writers talk about the transparency with which we are living our lives. Friedman writes that with blogs, video cameras and YouTube, "everyone else is a public figure...and each of us is so much more transparent."

And Seidman's book, he writes, is about how one's reputation in life is going "to get set in stone so much earlier." It's "a digital fingerprint that never gets erased" and that second chances will be harder to come by when your resume may play second fiddle to a Google search about you. That the only way to succeed is to get your how's right -  how you live your life and how you conduct your business. And do it early in life.

I first commented, I think, on the importance of character in the digital world in a column called Mischief and Mayhem ten years ago and have blogged about the topic. In "Rules for the Social Web," Threshold, Summer 2007, I suggested three areas of danger to students: those posed by strangers (predators), those posed by each other (cyberbullying) and those they pose to themselves (revealing illegal or embarrassing information on social networking sites). Of the three, the last - the stupid things kids do to themselves - is the most likely and have the greatest chances of harm come to a kid because of it..

When I was a little boy growing up on the prairie, we were taught in Sunday school to behave ourselves because God might be watching us. But now do we just assume there is a video recorder running all the time and act accordingly? Might this lead to a world full of people who are nicer - whether they want to be or not? There is definitely something not quite right about this picture.

But we do need to ask, ?How do we teach kids to get their how's right??

From http://faroutshirts.com

Engagement Filter

From exhibit booth 3516 (If I remember) at NECC:

NEW from RATFInc.
(Reasonably Accurate Technology Filtering Incorporated)

Tired of your students learning rather than paying attention to you, the teacher?

Then get your school to install the Engagement Filter, guaranteed to take enough enjoyment out of online activities that students will no longer be tempted to use the school's computers or network.

You can block categories by the "types" below:

Our company updates its black list on a daily basis, identifying those sites that are shown to be more interactive than the adults in your school.

Delay complete irrelevance now, before it is too late.

Act today and we'll throw in two tech categories guaranteed of student interest that have not yet been invented!

 I'm getting me one of these! I wonder if I install it at home, the LWW will pay more attention to me too?

My only concern is that some sites kids like will not be blocked. Any suggestion for things that need to be added to the filtered list?

Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive

I posted this once beforre and had a hard time finding it, so I am re-posting. One last NECC observation - the people I tend to respect the most are all  Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsives. Sorry, but you know the shoe fits.

Peter's Laws (The Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive)

1. If anything can go wrong, fix it! (To hell with Murphy!)
2. When given a choice, take both.
3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
4. Start at the top and work your way up.
5. Do it by the book... but be the author.
6. When forced to compromise, ask for more.
7. If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them.
8. If it's worth doing, it's got to be done now!
9. If you can't win, change the rules.
10. If you can't change the rules, then ignore them.
11. Perfection is not optional.
12. When faced without a challenge, make one.
13. "No" simply means begin again at one level higher.
14. Don't walk when you can run.
15. Bureaucracy is a challenge to be conquered with a righteous attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary.
16. When in doubt, THINK!
17. Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.
18. The squeaky wheel gets replaced.
19. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live!