Category Archives: eStupidity

Cover Slide for "If You Tweet in the Woods, Can You Be Fired?" [2018-06-01]

If You Tweet in the Woods, Can You Be Fired? [Lecture]

2018-06-01 If You Tweet in the Woods, Can You Be Fired? from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered on June 1, 2018, at the Ontario College of Teachers “Inspiring Public Confidence” conference in Toronto, Canada. If you are interested in scheduling a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me…

Five Things Senator Ted Cruz and His Staff Can Teach Your Kids

Is it just me or has the news cycle accelerated to the point of near-incomprehensability? Events which once would have been a topic of conversation for a week (if not longer) are now rapidly buried under an uending onslaught of newly-shocking developments. While that is challenge for anyone who writes a blog (or frankly, for…

Selfie-Absorbed: Body Image, Narcissism, and Empathy in the Smartphone Era [Lecture]

2017-02-20 Selfie-Absorbed: Body Image, Narcissism, and Empathy in the Smartphone Era from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered twice at the Alaska Society for Technology in Education 2017 Annual Conference on February 19 and February 20, 2017. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please…

Your Digital Footprint [Lecture]

2016-02-17 Your Digital Footprint from Frederick Lane A 60-minute presentation delivered to grades 5-12 at the Cordova School District, Cordova, AK on February 17, 2016. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and availability.

An N-Word to the Wise: Digital Stupidity Threatens College Acceptances, Scholarships, and Much More

Senior picture days are a well-established right of passage in American high schools. They are a great opportunity for students to demonstrate school spirit, to capture memories to be laughed over at reunions decades hence, and generally to celebrate the impending transition from childhood to quasi-independent adulthood. The photo at the top of this post,…

10 Years of Detention? TX Middle Schooler Faces Felony Charge for Online Threat

A 13-year-old girl in Dallas, TX is facing a third-degree felony charge for posting a shooting threat on Instagram. Officials at the T.W. Browne School in southwest Dallas were told last Monday night that someone had posted a photo to Instagram of man pointing a gun straight at a camera, with the following grim caption:…

Operation Lifesaver Releases New Video to Promote Track Safety

Sadly, five people have died during 2015 while taking photos or selfies on active railroad tracks. Those deaths are a disturbing sliver of a growing phenomenon known as “death by selfie.” This has become a large enough issue to merit its own Wikipedia page; the debate over whether more people have died in 2015 from…

“What Was She Thinking?” Australia Teacher Gives Student USB with Explicit Selfies

Over the last couple of years, I’ve dived deeply into the topic of teacher misconduct. The cases I’ve studied and summarized have ranged widely, from the merely sad to the reprehensible to the truly horrifying. One thing is abundantly clear: we need to improve teacher candidate education and professional development to better instruct educators about…

Operation Lifesaver Offers Free Webinar on Risks of Train Track Photography

In mid-September, a young couple in Boyds, MD spent part of a sunny fall afternoon posing for photos. Like dozens of other teens and even some professional photographers, they decide to use the railroad tracks running through town as an attractive backdrop. While 16-year-old Natalie Crim and her twin sister Sarah flipped through the photos…

That’s Not Funny! Teen Arrested for Posting School Shooting ‘Joke’ on Snapchat

Joke or threat? That’s the question raised by an Arizona high school student’s ill-advised, reckless, fooolish Snapchat post showing a crowded hallway in the Sierra Linda High School in Phoenix. The male student captioned his photo “Planning the school shooting,” followed by three smiley faces. A 16-year-old student in Northglenn High School in Colorado named…