Levinson

=__**Matt Levinson**__ =  [|From Fear to Facebook] Website [|Kidapps] Blog [|@Feartofacebook] Twitter

Biography
An educator for over 17 years, Matt Levinson is a is a writer and blogger most known for his authorship of //[|From Fear to Facebook: One School’s Journey]//. With a focus on educating students to creatively use technology and media resources, Levinson writes about how schools and parents can get on the same page to help their students rise to our expectations of creative and effective use of technology in today’s society.

Website, Blogs, and Twitter
Levinson’s website fromfeartofacebook.com serves the primary purpose of promoting his book of the same title. As well, it is a central loation from him to keep up his thoughts by blogging about current relevant topics relating to his views regarding technology, media, and education. Many of the links posted on Levinson’s website lead to dead ends or inaccessible websites requiring subscriptions. As well, Levinson’s blog on family friendly iPhone and iPad apps has not been updated in over fourteen months. Regardless, whether using current events as teaching [|moments],or reacting to [|cyberbullying], Levinson emphasizes his message that our students today are farther along socially in regards to media than we realize, and that we need to reign them in.

Reaction
A proponent of one-to-one laptop-to-student ratios in schools, Levinson feels that it is more important than ever to truly listen to what students have to say about technology. The [|setting]for his popular book //From Fear to Facebook,// Levinson has found himself working with students in California’s famed Silicon Valley. Levinson states that these students are often time the children of parents who have made their careers working with technology for a living, and are therefore more adapt at and comfortable working with technology. Though Levinson’s students are probably more at ease, I feel that students today have access to most of the same technology that often times leaves parents in the dark concerning the online activities of their children.

Students today are much more advanced in the social aspects of today’s technology, and thusly see technology as means to social interaction, and not as devices which lead to creative and educational potential. Gone are the days of computers being located in a communal, public room in the home. With usage of portable devices (iPads, laptops, etc.) being commonplace, adults need to be aware of student usage and establish clear guidelines as to what it and what is not considered acceptable use of technology and media.

Levinson discusses his past successes in terms of working with students and technology by hosting classes such as “boot-up camp,” and having speakers such as Allan November come to speak with his students regarding appropriate uses of technology. An area of particular interest regarded his school’s policies over access to student information accessed through use of the school’s laptops. However, the school often found itself in tricky spots when addressing concerns such as monitoring student usage and violating students’ privacy. This [|interview]with Levinson, presented by ISTE (International Society for Technology in Eduation), provides more insight into the matter. ~ACW

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The above video was linked from Matt Levinson's website.