Users are their own worst enemy...

Here is the results of a survey by Consumer Reports:


• A projected 1.7 million online households had experienced online identity theft in the past year.
• An estimated 5.4 million online consumers submitted personal information to e-mail (phishing) scammers during the past two years.
• Among adult social network users, 38 percent had posted their full birth date, including year. Forty-five percent of those with children had posted their children's photos. And 8% had posted their own street address.
• An estimated 5.1 million online households had experienced some type of abuse on a social network in the past year, including malware infections, scams, and harassment.

Here is the opinion of the author:

"
Businesses should have policies in place to govern the use of social networking on company computers or network resources. I don't recommend a complete ban per se, but users should be given boundaries regarding which social networks they can or can't visit, or the amount of time spent conducting personal business on social networking sites.

More importantly, users should be educated to raise awareness that seemingly innocuous information shared on the Web can still compromise security. For example, if you post on Facebook that you're astrology sign is Virgo, then you send out a Tweet about how you were born the same year that JFK was assassinated, then share a comment online that 28 is your lucky number because it's the date of your birthday, it is possible to combine all of those tidbits and derive that your birth date is August 28, 1963.

Similar deductions can be made regarding business-related data. As secretive as Apple is about its product development and launch dates, rumors are circulating that the iPhone 4.0 will be launched in June based on the fact that AT&T employees have shared that all vacation and discretionary time off for that month has been banned.
There is also peripheral risk of compromising information through family and friends. A company vice president may have the common sense not to post any details of an upcoming merger prior to the official announcement, but if that executive's spouse posts a Facebook status update alluding to a huge windfall, or new management others can still put two and two together."

Link

Happiness Inventory

Podcasting

In my opinion, podcasting is the next generation of ham radio. It is audio used to relay a message on a topic of interest. The difference between Podcasting and Vodcasting is one is video (Video on Demand=vod) and one is audio.There are many advantages to using podcasting, including but not limitied to:

1. Preservation of content- Anything you make can be kept in perpetuity and redistributed as needed.
2. Proliferation of content- Once it is in a file format, a seemly infinite number of copies can be made and distributed to a wide audience.
3. Planning of content- Usually when something is recorded, there is more planning and thought given to production and thus some of the mistakes from spontaneity are reduced.


I am not sure to what extent I will be able to podcast in my room yet. Once I create a structured, standards-based curriculum, I would like to include podcasts to augment my curriculum.

Privacy is Not Dead, Just Evolving - PCWorld Business Center

Privacy is Not Dead, Just Evolving - PCWorld Business Center

This is an article about the changing definition of "privacy". We look at it as control over our information but the fact that we spread our information all over the web my indicate that we are giving up part of our rights to privacy. Read this and tell me what you think!

My Next Computer...

Bloom's Taxonomy- Revised

Blooms Digital Taxonomy

Old Taxonomy

AVID Web 2.0 Seminar

I went to seminar today about web 2.0. There were very interesting topics, much of which we have discussed in class. However, there were a few very interesting learning points:
1. Blooms Digital Taxonomy
2. PODcasting stands for- Personal On Demand broadcasting
3. Calaxy - Suite of tools free to schools

Webquest Taxonomy Assignment

Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel

Implications of Social Networking

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/03/georgetown_professor_tague_john_roberts_lesson.php

A professor at Georgetown started a maelstrom of controversy as he told his class that Chief Justice Roberts was retiring based on information from a "credible" source. Students lit up the blogosphere and newspapers with this "exclusive" announcement. Halfway into class, he told them it was a joke and that they needed to be more wary on their sources. He taught the students, blogosphere and newspapers to think before you print. I wonder what the implications are for people like myself in this?

Just Finished My EdTech Profile

Overall Proficiency Level Avg. Score
Proficient 2.94
Skills Inventory
Score Overall Proficiency Level
General computer knowledge and skills 3.0 Proficient
Internet skills 3.0 Proficient
Email skills 3.0 Proficient
Word processing skills 3.0 Proficient
Presentation software skills 3.0 Proficient
Spreadsheet software skills 3.0 Proficient
Database software skills 3.0 Proficient

21st Century Educational Technology

21st Century Skills: - http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/sept02/lambert1.htm
"Many districts are so overwhelmed and concerned about the NCLB requirements and potential financial repercussions of not complying, that for lots of them the safest route is the 'back-to-basics' approach-focusing entirely on 20th century skills at the expense of 21st century ones."

This is so tell tale of districts today. It seems that the easiest way to recapture American hegemony is to focus on what we do best: create. 21CT is what can take us there. For example, why do we focus on spelling past the 6th grade? It is an inefficient use of teacher time since our students have spell check. That is like asking someone to use a lug wrench when they have an air impact wrench. Like they also said in the article, it seems to me that test scores go up when we focus on core competencies via tech (students preferred mode of communication)  as opposed to using 20th century methods that are vastly outdated. \

21st Century Learners- http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/sept02/lambert1.htm

"Our 21^st century environment is one of rapid communication, action, mobility and change, of intricate social activity and a huge potential for new knowledge."

"As we move from teaching to learning-centred provision, the learner is more central to the higher education process, indeed to education as a whole (Winkley, 2000). The emphasis is shifting ‘from the activities of the teacher or trainer towards development of the student’ (Ball, 1996, p.2)."

This shows how indeed we are moving away from the model of teacher-disseminated information to purveyors of the skill necessary to access such knowledge. For example, we should not teach students about history from a lectern but instead should teach them via project based learning to access the knowledge they need. We must teach them to be discerning and critical. Like the article said, there is more information available to students via the web and intranets than can ever be taught in front of the class. Thus we need to develop students in their true form instead of creating receptacles for knowledge. 

A Teacher's Struggle

Thoughts on blogging

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6135OH20100204?type=technologyNews

This is an article that states that students are moving quickly away from blogging for texting and social networking. I can see that social networking provides a vast array of interpersonal interactions that allows us to connect our lives via the web. In a way, social networking is a form of blogging super-sized. Facebook allows us to post ourselves and our thoughts as well as connect blogs easily via pictures instead of links. It seems to me that this vast diversity is more enticing than a standard blog. Some would say that Twitter fits the need of quick and concise communication but what does twitter do that texting and Facebook cannot? It seems that we are in the middle of a cold format war much like blu-ray and hd-dvd but without the media coverage. It seems texting and Facebook will emerge as the winners. Even now I question if what I am devoting time to right now will be remembered or whether it will be condemned to oblivion. Even more, I see that historical data is being replaced by constant streaming of information. Soon, history will be irrelevant except to those who are eccentric. Tech is about to jet us into the future and we are only beginning the journey. How can we prepare students for a future when we are unaware of where this rocket ship to the future is taking us?