This session explores the uses of social media by schools and school employees. The session will address the need for digital citizenship as well as the professional uses of social media and the unintended consequences for its use.

this and filtering are two of the most discussed topics in our schools today
- how many of you have a district that have Facebook open for staff? for students?

the purpose of this isn’t to make pronouncements about everyone and every school
- it’s to share what I found as I researched what was best for my district
- what you’ll see today may make you uncomfortable

Social media: a means of communication/social interaction featuring user-generated content (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Webshots, LinkedIn, etc)

Facts and stats:
- MySpace 19.7 M per day
- Twitter – 200 M users, 110 M tweets per day
- Flickr 5 billion images
- LinkedIn: 50 M users

MY COMMENT: NO CITATION FOR THESE STATS

Social Media facts and stats on Facebook:
- 350 M users in 2010, 640 M in 2011
- half login daily
- 65 M people login on mobile devices
- 700 M business accounts
- Users 55-64 increase 88% in 2010
- most users are 18-35
- 30 Billion pieces of content uploaded monthly
- Average person spent 20 min per day on Facebook in 2010, 1.5 M posts, 2.7 M pics uploaded
- 1 in 5 couples met online, 1 in 5 divorces are blamed at least in part on Facebook
- more than 70% of Internet users today are on Facebook
- would be the 3rd largest country in the world

Constructive Uses of social media
- communication
- friendship
- relationship building
- pictures, grandkids

Destructive Uses
- identity theft (friend in Edmond shared too much)
- invasion of privacy
- bullying
- professional liability
- professional consequence

I want to share info for you to consider and prepare

We tend to oversimplify that of which we don’t understand
- we want and need teachers, parents, kids and others to be protected

Social Media in the News
- article from Cohasset, Massachusetts, April 2010: “Teacher Loses Job After Commenting About Students, Parents on Facebook”
- I’m not saying the district was right to fire this teacher for this FB wall post, but it IS reality

“Jerry Buell, Florida High School Teacher, Suspended For Anti-Gay Facebook Posts” (Aug 2011)
- teacher was reinstated

“Court rules against Ashley Payne in Facebook case. But more to come.”
- this case still in court: teacher posted picture of herself of vacation in Europe at the Guiness Brewery, and district officials fired her

There can be unintended consequences to sharing Facebook images as a teacher…

Fox News Oct 2010: “Teachers Fired For Flirting on Facebook With Students”

Missouri passed law that teachers couldn’t friend students (“Missouri Law: Teachers and Students Can’t Be Facebook Friends“)
- this law was overturned on appeal

Case law is all over the place on these issues

if you are a friend with a student on Facebook and they post things about problems, you can be held liable for that
- if victim can prove “school environment had been altered for them, staff should have been aware, more…)

MY THOUGHT: THE MAIN THING THAT HAS BEEN COMMUNICATED SO FAR IS THAT LOTS OF PEOPLE AS WELL AS SCHOOLS HAVE ACTED CAPRICIOUSLY WHEN IT COMES TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Cyberbullying Research Center: www.cyberbullying.us
- Sameer Hunduja and Justin Patchin (2010)
- over 50% of kids are using Facebook

Cyberbullying Victimization statistics, cyberbullying by gender (girls are more likely to be victims than boys)

“Another ingredient in the stew we are cooking”
- depression and sexual activity: sexual active boys are much more likely to be depressed than girls
- stats for attempted suicide

What does this mean: Take sexually active, depressed kids….

Cyberbullying victims are twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to youth who had not experienced cyberbullying
- there is a lot of hurting going on out there that many adults are naive about

The cost
- Phoebe Prince, killed herself
- Jessica Logan forwarded a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend, she went on a crusade to try and stop others from repeating (hung herself at school)
- Ryan Halligan story (2003) become friends with a bully and spread photos around school that he was gay, he committed suicide

Of almost all the research I did on these issues, almost every case had a sexual aspect to it

Phoebe Prince’s lawsuite was settled for $225,000
- in Cincinnati the board and many others were

These parents and grandparents have holes in their heart which won’t heal
- lives changed forever
- photo of six kids charged with felonies from the yearbook, and then in court

“One wonders if these kids were taught anything about digital citizenship and how to be good people”

I want to play some video clips to lighten the mood now
- example of car fire video and story

Now story of “Social Media and Forever Consequences”
- showing photos of inappropriate photos posted on Facebook

MY COMMENT: I REALLY DON’T THINK IT IS APPROPRIATE OR NECESSARY TO SHOW THESE KINDS OF PHOTOS AT A PUBLIC CONFERENCE.

You want to see why I don’t release YouTube in my district, this is why:
- I searched on YouTube for “girlfriend dancing” and it’s the 2nd clip
- this is why I don’t let anyone (teachers or students) access YouTube in my school district

[Colin showed strip tease video from YouTube]

I know where you live and now I know if you’re home…. (geo-tagged photos)
- people can go rob your house when they see you’re not there

Now showing examples of business liability
- if you see people write “Ford lied” you could make a name for yourself suing that person for Ford

Digital citizenship is a must’
- we need to teach it and practice it ourselves
- this is the tip of the iceberg, I’ve looked at thousands of Facebook pages, I’m so tired of looking at Facebook pages

We need to teach this in such a way that we don’t give kids access to Facebook at school
- it’s not about where to point and click, it’s about decorum and teaching kids about right and wrong

poor decision making and naiveté are the biggest problems we have with kids when it comes to social media
- don’t take or let others take embarrassing photos
- don’t argue online

I didn’t coin “Social media access at school is like sponsoring a dance but not chaperoning”
- if you say it’s about supervising: try supervising kids who have access to labs everywhere… I don’t have the staff for that
- I can’t afford to pay someone to watch where kids go online and what they do all day long

We need to teach kids about images
(showed disrespectful photo about the U.S. President)

We need to teach kids to be careful about what they put online
- this is your digital footprint

1:1 and BYOD advice:
- control Internet access (we already have enough problems with kids being on Facebook on lab computers, in my wife’s school the superintendent had to issue an edict to tell teachers not to post to Facebook during school hours, because patrons)
- violations of acceptable use policy (district can be held liable, if you have Facebook open for kids you have huge liability)
- social media is not designed for instruction

We have a digital locker system at our school, our kids can get to their work from any computer on or off campus

Policy is what drives the bus
- do not ‘friend’ current students until they have graduated except family and church members
- consider unfriending students you’ve friended
- don’t establish academic Facebook pages
- established academic Facebook pages: set all security settings at maximum, provide login credentials to building administration

Some issues parents are upset about could be addressed when administrators can login and see what is happening
- if a parent chooses to come against you for an alleged offense

Do not associate your Academic Pages with the district
- don’t use your work email account to setup a Facebook page

Don’t lure the lines between teacher and student
Be cautious
Don’t post during work hours
Develop digital citizenship initiatives for students

“The intent of this is not to put the thumb on anyone”
- my superintendent asked me to do this, since sharing this presentation all teachers have stopped asking for access to Facebook

I told my staff I’m doing this to protect you, and encourage you to separate personal and professional pursuits

Be careful and watch out for the kids
- we want to protect you

Make decisions based on information from multiple perspectives

“I cannot have something on my network which I cannot control, because I have responsibility for this network”
- be careful using these free things in the cloud, don’t rely upon them as you main conduit for information and communication

Story about a nearby district: Parent called about their child who has created an adult personna online and must have done it at school… tech director produced a report of that child’s Internet activity for the past month and could prove she hadn’t created those pages at school
- “if that district had Facebook open, they wouldn’t be able to control that”

Email: cwebb [at] nobleps [dot] com

Comment from Jeff Herbel, Enid Public Schools
- Enid encourages teachers to use academic Facebook pages and set them up with their district email
- Enid uses a lot of curriculum materials from Common Sense Media for digital citizenship lessons

Technorati Tags: encyclomedia, otaem12, schools, facebook, safety, colin, webb, noble

Face the Facebook: Implications and Consequences for Educators Using Social Media by Colin Webb originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 8, 2012.

The definition of sexual abuse is broader than many people realize, it’s not just physical touching/abuse. The definition used in this series is: “Any tricked, forced, manipulated, or coerced sexual activity for the pleasure of the abuser. This can be physical, verbal or visual.”

Conservative studies show sexual abuse is at epidemic levels today
- there are 60 million sexual abuse survivors in the U.S. today
- we have 300 million people in the U.S. so that means 1 in 5 people alive today in our country are sexual abuse survivors
- 1 in 3 females are predicted to be sexual abuse victims before the age of 18
- 1 in 6 males are predicted to be sexual abuse victims before the age of 18
- 66% of sexual abuse victims won’t talk about it until they are adults
- this cuts across all economic, ethic, and racial lines

Less than 10% of sexual abusers will ever enter the criminal justice system
- so 90% of those who want to harm our children are not in the justice system for us to find them with a background check (we still do background checks in our organizations, but background checks alone are insufficient protection)

MY COMMENT: THIS REMINDS ME OF THE ‘DEFENSE IN DEPTH’ STRATEGY WHICH IS EMPLOYED FOR COMPUTER NETWORK SECURITY

Almost 90% of children are victimized by someone the child knows and is taught is “safe”
- “stranger danger” has its value, but is not sufficient awareness

It’s a myth that sexual abusers have a clear, identifiable visual profile
- many are educated, married, have jobs, look like productive members of society
- it’s also a myth that all sexual abusers are men: some are also females
- 85% of convicted sexual abusers are men, 15% are women (some point out cases against women are more difficult to prosecute, so that may contribute to these skewed numbers)
- there is NO VISUAL PROFILE to rely on

Children are not just victimized by adults, peer to peer sexual abuse is high and rising
- children are not only learning about sexual behaviors from adults, they are also learning from it through the Internet

The “abuser triangle” is used by counselors to treat sexual offenders, and it has 3 elements:
1- deviant sexual desire (adults who prefer children as sexual partners)
2- faulty thinking (ability to justify and rationalize deviant desire)
3- access (the offender having access to children)

Molesters intentionally groom both children and “gatekeepers”
- gatekeepers are the people who stand in the way of molesters to gain access to the child
- “molesters are looking for trusted time alone with a child they are grooming”

“edge of the herd” concept: the children most at risk for grooming by a molester / sexual predator / abuser:
- are often on the fringe, in need
- looking for someone to follow or trust
- from a broken family
- from a single parent home
- involved in alcohol or drugs
- interested in pornography

Every case the MinistrySafe law practice has handled involving boys and male sexual predators has involved the use of pornography during the grooming process
- predators use nudity and sexual touch for “barrier testing and erosion” with children
- often use sexual discussions and joking, playful touch and ‘accidental nudity”
- magazines and movies depicting nudity and sex

Keeping victims silent through secrecy, shame & embarrassment, and threats (subtle or direct) are also a critical part of the grooming process

Many people who have been sexually abused or assaulted report feeling some sense of guilt or responsibility for what happened to them, molesters use this psychology against victims

#1 reason kids don’t tell: No one will believe you
- often this is true, because of the way molesters groom the gatekeepers

Common grooming behaviors
- gift giving: single adult to single child
- kid-magnet activities (things children are attracted to)
- repeated time alone with the same child (unsupervised or not easily overseen)
- touchy with children, pushing physical boundaries
- sometimes using playful but inappropriate touch
- breaking the rules: providing alcohol, tobacco and/or pornography (can be other rules you have setup for your organization)

Peer abusers tend to be more opportunistic (they don’t create their own schedule and drive their own cars)
- this should be distinguished from natural sexual curiosity, and we do this by looking at power relationships between the peers involved
- power can be due to age, size, economic resources, social connections (popularity), or differing abilities

Children with different kids of disabilities are particularly at risk for peer abuse

risks are highest any place where clothes come off (swimming/bathing) and any place that is less easily seen

To reduce risks, we should always report any grooming behaviors we observe
- adequate supervisors for all activities are key (use programmatic ratios)
- avoid unmonitored, 1 on 1 interaction

MY COMMENT: THIS IS THE ‘TWO DEEP LEADERSHIP’ CONCEPT FROM SCOUTING / YOUTH PROTECTION PROGRAM

avoid individual gift giving, always better for the gift to come from a group rather than a single individual adult giving to a single individual child

Short term impacts of sexual abuse on children:
- poor self esteem
- shame/guilt
- anxiety / nervousness
- fears / phobias
- loss of trust
- disinterested in person or activity previously enjoyed (we need to ask questions to find out what has changed)
- anger
- self-mutilation
- bedwetting
- nightmares
- rebellion
- running away

Long term impacts:
- depression
- suicidal thoughts or acts
- substance abuse including self-medicating behaviors
- molesting other children (not a 1 to 1 scenario, some victims- especially boys who do not receive any kind of treatment
- drop in grades
- promiscuity / seductive behavior
- STDs
- excessive modesty or affection seeing behaviors
- prostitution (95% of prostitutes on the street were sexually abused as children)

If a child reports abuse:
- listen and respond calmly (don’t respond emotionally)
- be sensitive to vague and partial disclosures (children often test you with part of the story to see if you respond with anger or disbelief)
- it is ok to ask for more questions that simply ask for more information: “Do you to tell me more?”
- don’t ask shaming questions: What were you wearing? What were you doing in that location? These questions can make the child feel they were responsible for the abuse rather than the adult and clam up.
- report this to a supervisor immediately
- NO SECRETS

If the child asks you if you will keep it a secret, you need to respond with something like: “There are some things I can’t keep a secret: if someone is being abused, being hurt, etc.)

statutes by law vary, but generally all states not only require reporting of physical abuse but also emotional abuse and neglect. Many require reporting of “suspicion” of abuse and neglect. Entities we report to, how long we have to report, and what information we have to report varies. Generally we don’t have to investigate, but we do have to report.

Google “Child abuse reporting” for your state (example: Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Child Protective Services)

www.childwelfare.gov also has resources

We need to always create cultures of communication in our programs
- we need to open up lines of communication for policy violations that cause us discomfort also… not to create a witchhunt, but to create a culture where a supervisor can identify “red flag” information when grooming and barrier testing is taking place.

MY CLOSING THOUGHT: THIS IS OUTSTANDING TRAINING, IT’S EXCELLENT IT’S AVAILABLE ONLINE AND THERE’S A QUIZ FOR PEOPLE TO TAKE BEFORE RECEIVING A COMPLETION CERTIFICATE.

http://ministrysafe.com

Technorati Tags: online, training, video, ministry, safe, ministrysafe, youth, protection, sexual, predator, abuser, pedophile, suspicion, neglect, physical, emotion, emotional

MinistrySafe Online Video Training for Youth Protection from Sexual Abuse originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 27, 2012.

Thanks to David Warlick and the New York Times, Bob was one of the first educators I learned about back in 2005 who was using podcasting and media tools with students to not only improve literacy skills but also empower students to share their voices on “the global stage.”* The Room 208 podcast and blog captivated my imagination and opened my eyes to the possibilities thoughtfully used media could invite in the classroom.

I recorded five and a half minutes of observations in Bob’s computer lab on September 30th this year and shared them on YouTube, but in the craziness which was this past fall I never posted this to my blog… until this evening! If you work in an elementary school, you’ll want to check this out for lots of good ideas related to how computers are setup and utilized at school.

In this shorter video from December 2010, Bob explained how he uses computer covers in his lab and their purpose.

You also should take time to explore weskids.com, the website maintained by Bob for students, parents, and teachers at Wells Elementary. The lab lessons linked from the site (hosted on the district’s Moodle server, but openly shared for anyone to view), the “link of the week” area of the site, the phenomenal “Parent Tech Time” section… all of these resources are exemplary! I hope the administrators, parents and teachers in Wells know how INCREDIBLY lucky they are to have a teacher like Bob working in their school with kids and teachers. Many, many thanks to Bob for sharing so many fantastic resources and providing ‘an open door’ for us all to learn so much from him about helping elementary students develop the digital literacy skills they need for success in our dynamic times!

* “The global stage” is a phrase for the Internet’s world-wide web used by Marco Torres.

Technorati Tags: elementary, lab, learning, maine, wells, bob, sprankle, best, practice

An Exemplary Elementary Computer Lab Setup, Website and Lesson Plans originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 10, 2011.

Update 11/16: Note the original title of this article has been changed, my intent in writing this is not to personally attack the reporter who wrote the article, but rather call attention to these issues which desperately need clarifying in our communities.

Update 11/17: After reaching out to the newspaper reporter via phone and email I have learned her quotations in this article came from the district technology director at a school board meeting. I am in the process of contacting the Assistant to the Superintendent for Operations for Parkland Schools for additional clarification. To address the reporter’s concerns about this blog post I have changed the title again. The initial title was, “Newspaper Reporter Marion Callahan Misquotes CIPA.” The title was changed on 11/16 to “Pennsylvania Newspaper Article Misquotes CIPA.” I have now changed the title to “Pennsylvania Newspaper Article / School Tech Director Misrepresents CIPA” and also changed this blog post permalink. The current Google search results for the reporter’s name which include “misquotes” in the title is her concern.

Sunday’s article, “Parkland students may soon take laptops, Kindles to class” in the Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper “The Morning Call” shares an exciting story about BYOD (bring your own device) computing plans in a local school district. The reporter, Marion Callahan, interviewed a school administrator at a recent board meeting. Her interview quotations may give readers a misleading impression about the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Those statements give the false impression that school officials are mandated by federal law to ban student smartphone use at school. While districts are obligated to implement and enforce a Internet content filtering policy on their school networks, schools are not required to outlaw smartphones at school which can bypass school-provided Internet access. With respect to current policy in the Parkland School District, Callahan wrote:

Smartphones, however, are off-limits. Until the district can find a way for its network to limit access, students are not permitted access to the Internet with phones during school hours. The Children’s Internet Protection Act requires that schools have a content filter in place and make every effort to block objectionable sites.

Callahan’s statements in this paragraph misrepresent the requirements of CIPA for schools. Students as well as staff at U.S. schools receiving federal E-Rate funding are NOT prohibited by law or mandate from using their Internet-capable smartphones at school and accessing the Internet through their privately-paid / cellular company provided Internet access. Too many school leaders use CIPA and other legal requirements affecting computing to maintain draconian content filtering policies which make China’s firewall look like a benevolent Santa Claus. This must change, and change starts with the truth.

If wireless Internet access is provided by the school receiving E-Rate funds, that school-provided wifi access must have some kind of content filter in place. The school is not obligated to provide wifi access, however, and certainly is not obligated to ban student use of smartphones or ban students from accessing the Internet with their own carrier data plans. The project wiki, “Unmasking the Digital Truth” highlights the requirements for CIPA:

CIPA requires schools and libraries using E-Rate discounts to operate “a technology protection measure with respect to any of its computers with Internet access that protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors…”

See the May 2011 post on BalancedFiltering,org, “Do your school administrators REALLY understand CIPA?” for additional information including clarifications on CIPA requirements provided last spring by Karen Cator, the U.S. Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology.

Misunderstandings of CIPA like the one highlighted by Marion Callahan in this article might seem like a minor detail, but they are not. Widespread misconceptions about CIPA abound in in our schools today. The last thing we need mainstream media outlets to do is further confuse and obfuscate ‘the truth’ when it comes to content filtering in schools. This is the reason the “Unmasking the Digital Truth” project highlights the facts, laws, and court decisions behind eight primary reasons school leaders in too many U.S. schools today over block the web far beyond their legal mandate to do so. These reasons include:

• CIPA – The Child’s Internet Protection Act (mandates basic content filtering – U.S.)
• e-Discovery – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) requiring email archiving under some circumstances (U.S.)
• FERPA – The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (U.S.)
• COPPA – The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (U.S.)
• Bandwidth – Often a concern the school does not have enough to support a particular website/tool
• Control – Educational leaders sometimes want to limit potential user behavior
• Liability – Concern that website access will lead to lawsuits from and litigation with parents
• Fear – More generalized feelings that web 2.0 sites and technologies are bad / dangerous

I applaud the district leaders in Parkland School District in Pennysylvania for embracing a vision for digital learning which will support BYOD (bring your own device) computing for students and staff in the near future. I hope, however, local newspaper reporter Marion Callahan will clarify her misleading statements about CIPA so all community members in and around Allentown can gain a better rather than a murkier understanding of CIPA requirements. While the school district (which receives E-Rate funds) clearly has a legal obligation to provide a basic level of content filtering on its network when students, staff, and community members access the Internet through it, the district is NOT obligated by law to ban Internet-capable smartphones for students or anyone else or ban smartphone Internet use through commercial cellular providers.

All schools in our communities need policies which support balanced content filtering. All our schools need “smart networks” which can enable both flexible access as well as accountability for network users. It sounds like leaders in the Parkland School District are on the right road forward. Hopefully we’ll see more BYOD initiatives in our U.S. schools in the months ahead, as well as state-funded digital learning initiatives providing mobile computing devices for students who cannot afford to bring their own to school.

For additional guidance and information related to digital literacy and school leadership I recommend “What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media” by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann. (Steve Dembo and I co-authored chapter 3 on “Podcasts and Webinars.”)

Hat tip to John Maklary for sharing this article.

Technorati Tags: block, cipa, filter, filtering, internet, iphone, pennsylvania, school, smartphone, requirements, marion, callahan, allentown, parkland, ban

Pennsylvania Newspaper Article / School Tech Director Misrepresents CIPA originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 15, 2011.

Here are the things I think they got WRONG setting up and maintaining their website. Perhaps you can avoid these in a similar situation, and/or encourage others to avoid them.

Inexperienced Developer
The non-profit leaders found someone who literally said “I’ve setup a WordPress site once before” and asked them to setup the site for their organization. This was mistake number one. Just because someone has setup a website with WordPress ONCE, they are neither an expert nor the best choice for your website developer. While their ONE successful WordPress setup may make them an “expert” in WordPress relative to you, if you don’t have any WordPress skills, you still should NOT entrust the future of your organization’s digital footprint to an inexperienced developer. Ask to see a portfolio of work for the websites the person you’re considering as a developer has created, and find out how much they’ve worked with WordPress. This is a challenging thing: Attempting to discern “expert knowledge” when you are not an expert yourself. I’m not aware of formal “WordPress certifications” you can look for on a resume. You definitely don’t want to go with someone who says, “Oh yeah, I’ve done that before one time.”

Setup via Fantastico
Fantastico is a speedy but highly insecure way to setup various content management system installations on a web hosting account, generally using CPanel. CPanel is what most hosting accounts use for management after you login to your web host’s site. While Fantastico can make the process of installing WordPress fast, it also (I’ve read and been told) isn’t as secure as an installation performed from scratch. This takes a bit longer, but from a security perspective is worth it. Ask your web developer, “How are you going to install WordPress on my site? Will you use Fantastico?” If they say yes, ask why. Then go look for a different developer. I know the kid who setup the site which got hacked, and I cleaned up today, used Fantastico for the WordPress installation because I saw the residual files which were left in the web directory by Fantastico. I can’t be sure, but I strongly suspect the INSECURE installation via Fantastico was at least in-part to blame for the hack.

Use a Secure Password
Secure passwords are one of the best defenses against hacks on websites or on web accounts of any flavor. Ideally, secure passwords should also be changed periodically. People don’t like to use secure passwords. These are passwords which are impossible to guess because they use a combination of special keyboard characters along with upper and lowercase letters, AND numbers. No one likes these passwords, but they are the ones we should and must use if we want to keep our sites from being hacked. Don’t use the same password on multiple sites, either.

Keep WordPress Up to Date
Like other software programs, WordPress is regularly “patched” to fix security holes and vulnerabilities. If you don’t update your WordPress installation, you’re vulnerable to hacks. I know for a fact this WordPress installation was out of date. That’s another red flag: If you don’t keep WordPress up to date, you’re asking for trouble and it may come in the form of a hack. Ryan Collins learned this lesson the hard way just this week. Learn from his lessons! Heed the lessons!

Avoid Site Updates on Public Wifi Networks
This final piece of advice is definitely on the conservative side, but it’s relevant since it can open you up to hacks as well. When you use a wifi hotspot at a coffee shop or other location which is not secured, you potentially open yourself up for other people connected to the same network to “sniff” packets being sent from your computer and use the information contained in them to hack your web accounts. The Firesheep extension to FireFox last year dramatically demonstrated this. WordPress installations don’t typically use or require a secure (https://) connection, so cookies which are “set” for site access can be grabbed on a shared public wifi network and used. See my post from November 2010, “Firesheep should get your ATTENTION: Open Public Wifi Dangers are REAL” for additional background. WordPress site access isn’t your only risk: Standard, unsecured FTP connections to your hosting server can also open you up for hacks. Avoid these updates on a public wifi network, or use a VPN “tunneling” service like Astrill to securely and privately use these web applications and programs.

Sometimes your site can be hacked and you may not ever figure out why or how it happened. My site (this blog) was hacked briefly in September 2008. Alan November’s WordPress site (main website) was hacked in July 2010. These things can and do happen. Hopefully, however, we all learn from our mistakes and resolve to avoid “high risk behavior” when it comes to website hacks.

Go forth and behave in secure ways online! (It might save a friend or acquaintance a few hours of work cleaning up the mess made by a bunch of Turkish hackers if you do!)

What pieces of WordPress security advice have I missed here? I’d love to hear additional suggestions on this topic.

Technorati Tags: advice, safety, wordpress, hack, security, installation, cpanel, fantastico

A Case Study: How NOT to Set Up a WordPress Site originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 2, 2011.

eSchoolNews’ August 17, 2011 article, “ACLU sues Missouri school district over internet filtering,” provides details about a new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Camdenton R-III School District in central Missouri. The lawsuit is part of the ACLU’s “Don’t Filter Me” campaign. Camdenton Schools are accused in the lawsuit of prejudicially blocking students’ access to educational websites about gay, lesbian, and transgender issues, while providing access to anti-LGBT sites.

According to the ACLU’s August 15th press release:

The lawsuit argues it is discriminatory and unreasonable to require students to ask for permission every time they want to access a new LGBT website when students can freely access anti-LGBT websites.

The press release also reveals Camdenton Schools is using the URL Blacklist for content filtering. According to the ACLU, URL Blacklist:

…has a viewpoint-discriminatory category called “sexuality,” which blocks all LGBT-related information, including hundreds of materials that are not sexually explicit. The filter does, however, allow students to view anti-LGBT sites.

The April 11, 2011 article from the ACLU, “ACLU “Don’t Filter Me” Initiative Finds Schools In Four More States Unconstitutionally Censoring LGBT Websites,” provides more details about which LGBT-related websites are blocked and permitted in some U.S. school districts. The article links to the “Don’t Filter Me: Students, Check Your School’s Web Filter!” page. This campaign asks students at school to check for access to the following five LGBT websites:

1. Day of Silence: http://dayofsilence.org
2. It Gets Better Project: http://itgetsbetter.org/
3. The Trevor Project: http://thetrevorproject.org/
4. GSA Network: http://gsanetwork.org/
5. Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network: http://glsen.org/

The campaign also asks students to check if the following “anti-LGBT, ‘pray away the gay’ websites” are accessible or blocked:

1. National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality: http://narth.com/
2. People Can Change: http://peoplecanchange.com/
3. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays: http://pfox.org/

The following video provides an explanation, targeted at students, for how they can help in the “Don’t Filter Me” campaign.

As far as I know, this lawsuit by the ACLU against a school district for over blocking Internet websites is the first of its kind. The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires schools and libraries in the United States receiving federal Erate funding have a policy for blocking offensive Internet content and enforce that policy. Schools locally define filtering policies, however. According to the ACLU’s press release:

“School districts cannot use filtering software that discriminates against websites based on their viewpoint,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project. “This filter was designed to block more than just adult content and is not viewpoint-neutral. There are many other filtering systems available that do not arbitrarily group websites like PFLAG in the same category as adult-oriented websites.”

It is very important for school officials to understand the laws in the United States related to Internet content filtering as well as the importance of not “over blocking” web content. As I’ve written and noted previously, some of our U.S. schools filter Internet content more severely than China. This is a big problem, and should be addressed for a variety of reasons. I started the projects “Balanced Content Filtering in Schools” and “Unmasking the Digital Truth” to help address these issues. I also included an appendix in my July 2011 eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing” on “Balanced Content Filtering in Schools.” The issues here go beyond LGBT website access. In the United States, we ideologically support free expression and the marketplace of ideas. We recognize the need to censor certain kinds of content on the Internet in our schools and libraries, through the CIPA law, but that mandated censorship is still LIMITED. It will be interesting to follow this case and see how this develops. Hopefully one outcome will be more balanced approaches toward content filtering in Camdenton Schools and elsewhere.

For more background about this ACLU campaign, see the March 2011 article in the Yale Herald, “Yale Law goes online for LGBT rights.”

Technorati Tags:
content, education, filter, filtering, lawsuit, leadership, school, aclu

ACLU Sues Missouri School District for Overblocking Internet Websites originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 20, 2011.

My eleven year old daughter asked me this question a couple of weeks ago about the website Spark City, which is part of the larger website AllGirlsArcade.com. I told her I would check it out and decide if it was ok for her to create an account. Today, after a couple weeks of waiting, Sarah reminded me I still hadn’t told her if she could create an account. After doing some research I decided to let her create the account and use the site, but check in with her as she uses the site, especially the chat features. In this post I’ll briefly review the process I followed to make this decision.

My favorite website to use for Internet safety and website questions like this is Common Sense Media.

These are important conversations we need to have, so this website is going to provide opportunities to have them.

Have you used Spark City or AllGirlsArcade.com before? What’s your take?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Evaluating AllGirlArcade.com for my 11 Year Old Daughter originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 16, 2011.

Strategies to support a web-based learning environment such as filtering, infrastructure, bandwidth and safety issues. What are the considerations needed to write policy and acceptable use guidelines that support a web based – web 2.0 learning environment? Policy and recommendations for using handhelds and social networking in the k-12 learning environments from an administration perspective.

UPDATE: An audio podcast recording of this session is available.

Technorati Tags:
bandwidth, content, filter, leadership, network, copa

Smart Networks #wildtech originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 8, 2011.

Next, I updated the firmware to the latest 7.5.2 version. The Airport Utility prompted me to install this update.

In addition to specifying the wifi network name name and password I wanted, I also added an IP address in the Internet / NAT settings of Airport Utility. I’m hoping this will be the same thing as setting an IP address in the “DMZ” of my Netgear router. This is the local IP address I use for my Tandberg videoconferencing unit, and it needs to be “in the DMZ” so it can receive incoming videoconferencing requests from the public Internet.

If you can confirm whether or not this is the right setting on an Apple Airport Extreme Router for a videoconferencing unit in the DMZ, I’d be most appreciative.

The last thing I needed to do was configure content filtering for our home network. I’m an outspoken advocate for balanced Internet content filtering in homes as well as schools. My personal conviction is even though eRate / CIPA mandates or other requirements aren’t relevant in home settings, it’s always a good idea to provide at least a basic level of content filtering to block pornography as well as known malware/phishing sites. The best solution I’ve found for this is OpenDNS, which can be used free. At some point OpenDNS was charging for an “OpenDNS Deluxe” package for home users, but I can’t find any pricing on their site now. It appears everything is free for home users.

After creating a free account on OpenDNS, the first configuration step is to enter the DNS numbers used by OpenDNS into your home router. The OpenDNS website provides clear instructions on how to do this with different kinds of routers.

By entering these two numbers into my router and restarting it, ALL wireless devices used in our house (including laptops, iPhones, iPod Touches, console game systems, and iPads) are automatically content filtered the same. It is NOT necessary to make any client-side / device-specific changes on those devices to enable content filtering. This is GREAT.

What IS required, however, is configuring your free account on OpenDNS with the content filtering settings you want. I opt for the “low” filtering options, which block pornography and ‘tasteless’ sites that I don’t really want to know more about.

After about three minutes, once those settings are saved, the OpenDNS filtering is active.

No filtering or blocking scheme can provide a complete guarantee people on your network won’t access inappropriate or objectionable material, but in the three years our family has used OpenDNS on our network we’ve found it VERY helpful on multiple occasions. The network ‘logs’ OpenDNS keeps of blocked sites (including the date and time the sites were accessed) can be helpful to have conversations with others: If you see a spike in blocked sites, it’s probably time to have a talk with someone.

I’ve written about OpenDNS in the past and extolled its virtues. See the following past posts for more information:

• Home Internet Content filtering needs: Solved with OpenDNS (January 2008)
• The Value of OpenDNS (free) content filtering at home (March 2008)
• Reflections on home content filtering and OpenDNS after a year of use (January 2009)
• Setting up a basic content filter for free at granddaddy’s house (May 2009)
• Successful New Home Router Configuration for Videoconferencing, Dynamic DNS and OpenDNS Content Filtering

(June 2009)

Whatever type of wifi router you’re using at home, consider configuring it for FREE with OpenDNS. I’d encourage you NOT to get carried away selecting huge numbers of website categories to block on your network, as some IT administrators have in our public schools. Remember no technology solution can replace the importance of regular communication and conversations to promote a culture of digital accountability, both at home and elsewhere. That said, a basic level of content filtering can be a valuable ally as a parent in our digital age.

What are you doing regarding content filtering on your home network? Have you tried OpenDNS or other solutions? What are your opinions?

Technorati Tags:
airport, apple, extreme, filtering, internet, videoconference, videoconferencing, opendns, content, websites, safety, isafety, router

Configuring FREE Home Content Filtering with OpenDNS originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 4, 2011.

Consider sitting down with your own teenage child and running the report on their Facebook profile. The results may be surprising to you both. Run it on your profile and consider sharing this resource with students as well as parents. Be sure, however, to explain it is important to verify a site / source is trustworthy before granting a Facebook app access to your profile. The consequences of deciding poorly when it comes to granting access to your Facebook profile can also be high.

Hat tip to Mashable.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Image composites created with Diptic.

Socioclean Can Help Clean Up Your Digital Footprint originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 26, 2011.

Everyone with a smartphone or ANY type of camera which can record the location where a photograph was taken via geo-tagging should be aware of related privacy implications. Yesterday in my “Technology 4 Teachers” class with undergraduate pre-service students, I demonstrated the free iOS application “Cinch” on my iPad. After recording an audio message, the app prompts users with the option to “Tag current location.”

When I asked my students if it was a good idea to turn that on or off if we were recording an audio message at school, several students immediately responded, “OFF!” My response was, it’s fine to turn it off if you want, but if you’re posting from school and then sharing that audio recording on a school or class website… Anyone with half a brain is going to be able to figure out the location from which you’re sharing the media. The precision with which GPS-enabled geotagging of photos makes possible is eye opening, but it shouldn’t be reason for widespread panic. One of the news anchors in this NBC segment vehemently proclaims, “I’m immediately turning off that feature on my phone as soon as we finish this show.” It doesn’t harm anything if she takes that action, but it might be an over-reaction. Similarly, the reporter’s self-perceived heroic actions of visiting the home of a suburban mom to warn her that her children’s bedroom location was discoverable from her Facebook photos was over-the-top. Should moms and dads everywhere be warned IMMEDIATELY, by a strange reporter or other community do-gooder, that they need to change their smartphone photo privacy settings RIGHT NOW?! Probably not. This is an important capability and privacy issue to discuss, however, but hopefully more balanced approaches can be advocated rather than the one highlighted in this news spot.

When SHOULD geo-tagging be turned off? It might be a good idea to turn off geo-tagging when taking pictures from home. If someone is really intent on stalking someone, however, it’s unlikely a lack of geo-tagged photo information is going to stop that individual. If someone is involved in a hostile divorce relationship or other situation where it’s much more important than “normal” to keep current locations private, not only should geo-tagging be turned off smartphones in the family but photos should probably not be shared online at all. I personally don’t think geo-tagging photos and other recorded media at school should be a big deal, but that (like most things) will vary by location and school context. This is yet another issue which could be taken up by groups fostering conversations about social media guidelines in schools.

What do you think of photo geo-tagging and privacy risks? Are you finding ways in your school and community to promote conversations about these issues and others relating to social media use? What specific advice are you following personally when it comes to geo-tagging of photos and other media? What advice are you giving to others?

Hat tip to Bill Warner for sharing this video.

Technorati Tags:
facebook, geo, news, parent, photo, photography, privacy, share, youtube, geotag, risk, predator, nbc

Photo Geotagging Poses Privacy Risks, But Is NOT a Reason for Panic originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 17, 2011.

I’ve experimented with the free webservice Wirenode.com to create a “mobile friendly” website which I’ve used a few times during the introduction to screencasts I’ve recorded with Screenr. The problem I noticed this evening with the site is the ad displayed below my content: It is an ad to “Get Hot Pics” on a mobile website decidely NOT appropriate for sharing with students.

I’m not going to directly link to that ad website, since I don’t care to provide them with any additional Google pagerank karma thanks to my post, but you can see the address in my screenshot above. The content of that site and the ways in which people are (and will continue to) use mobile phones to share photos and videos should be the subject of another post entirely. Freedom has a dark side, and we unfortunately can see it in websites like these.

Be very careful and deliberate in selecting websites and web services for class blogs and learning portals. My top FREE website platform suggestions for teachers now (included on my new book and website project, TalkWithMedia.com) are ad-free WikiSpaces for Educators sites, Google Sites, KidBlog, Posterous, and Class Blogmeister. I will NOT include Wirenode in that shortlist. Do you have other ad-free website platforms you use educationally and would recommend to others, not on this list?

Technorati Tags:
blog, google, kidblog, posterous, ad, advertisements, wikispaces, wiki, sites, googlesites, blogmeister

Beware of Inappropriate Ads on Free Classroom Websites originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 13, 2011.

I’m going to share both of these during my keynote address tomorrow at the 2011 Mississippi Educational Computing Association’s annual conference, here in Jackson. You can follow the conversations surrounding the conference using the Twitter hash tag, #msmeca11. For more resources related to social media in schools, join (and contribute to) the Facebook group, “Social Media Guidelines for Educators.”

Have you ever made a “reply all” email mistake? Unfortunately I have. Those are stories we’re likely reluctant to make digital again!

Technorati Tags:
email, reply, all, replyall, bridgestone, superbowl, super, bowl, meca, msmeca11

“Reply All” Bridgestone Super Bowl Ad Highlights Important Social Media Issues #msmeca11 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 7, 2011.

The fascinating and troublesome thing about the valley [the space where online strangers meet via social networking platforms] is that the rules of engagement there are not clearly defined, and it’s likely that they will stay undefined. Some of us talk about our relationships online; some allude to them indirectly; some keep them behind a cone of silence. [Jeff] Jarvis was so eager to blog about his cancer diagnosis that he felt almost restricted when he had to wait for his son to return from camp so he didn’t find out via a tweet that his dad was sick… In our house, we have built a set of improvised rules about how much of family life to make public; I tweet or blog little anecdotes about the kids, but don’t mention them by name. We never post pictures of them, except to our inner circle of friends on Facebook. When they’re old enough for their own Facebook account, we’ll let them decide for themselves how public they want to be with their lives.

I don’t have the definitive answers on this topic, but I certainly have questions. It wasn’t that long ago that we NEVER published any photographs of our kids and family on the public web: All of them were “locked” up on my Mobile Me (then .Mac) website on pages which required a password to access. I emailed out updates to a list of friends and family, with a password they could use to see not only photos but also family videos. Over time, my disclosure of our family’s activities via media has undergone significant changes. Today, I publish most of our personal, family photos to Flickr and occasionally to Facebook. I can point to a specific moment in time when my personal behaviors about sharing family photos changed: It was the “Getting a New Haircut” VoiceThread digital story which I published about our then 3 year old, Rachel. I published that for the first time on August 15, 2007. Since then (at my encouragement and with my support) my kids have gone on to publish a series of cooking videos on YouTube and elsewhere, start their own “iCarly style” webshow, go on Twitter, start a 365 photo project, and present with me at technology conferences at least a few times a year.

One of the questions which Steven Johnson inspires me to ask, after reading his article, is the title of this post: Is it right for me (as a parent) to decide to make my children famous?

Now, “famous” is a relative word. What does it mean to be famous? I continue to be honored and humbled by the fact that lots of people read my blog and follow me on Twitter, but there is a difference between being “famous” on mainstream media and being digitally connected to a lot of people. I’m not a celebrity and neither are my children, and judging by what I’ve heard about “celebrity” (and the limitations it imposes upon your life) I’d say that’s a great thing. However, I’m very aware of the fact that any of us are just a breath away from mainstream media attention. The close-to-home example of 12 year old Greyson Chance provides a case in point. It’s a remarkable and unique situation, to be sure, but still one that happened last year in our hometown. What are the responsibilities of parents in our digital age when it comes to sharing images and/or video and potentially placing members of our families into the spotlight of media attention… Whether that attention is limited to the social media arena or “crosses-over” into the realm of mainstream media? There is not a class on this at our local community college or our church. The “rules” aren’t written. We’re figuring this out as we go along. And I’d like to get it right. I don’t want to mess up. These are important questions and issues, because these are our/my kids and our/my family. I could mess up a lot of things, but I don’t want to mess up on things that could dramatically affect their lives.

This world of “living online” can be crazy. Who would have thought the parent who posted the viral YouTube video “David After Dentist” would quit his job and rake in over $150,000 since January 2009? That father now has a website (www.davidafterdentist.com) and you can read his story on the site’s “about” page. Are many parents likely to have a YouTube ad revenue windfall come their way because of sharing online media about their kids? No, probably not. But are many parents even thinking or considering what online fame could mean for their family or their child / children? Probably not nearly long enough. (I wrote a bit more about this in April 2010.)

Among other things I shared with educators in Amarillo today, I asked them to write down the statement, “Do not share anything online when you are emotional.” There are so many stories today of people who overshare when they shouldn’t… When they are angry, frustrated, tired, inebriated, or simply not acting thoughtfully. The digital world is increasingly perilous for the impulsive.

photo © 2007 Victor Bezrukov | more info (via: Wylio)

What lines should we be drawing as parents when we choose to share (or not share) images and media of our own children online? Even sharing images on Facebook to a “relatively” small number of “friends” can result in widespread sharing and distribution of a media image.

Just when I question whether or not it’s wise to share and amplify the ideas and work of my own children online, I’m reminded (mainly thanks to Bob Sprankle) of the amazing work of students showcased at TEDxRedmond. It’s amazing to see and hear about what these young people are doing and have done to make the world a better place. Many of them are using social media to assist in that process. I want my own children to learn these lessons, and to have the best opportunities possible to “be all they can be” in this digitally connected world. I don’t want them to be hurt, I don’t want them to be exploited, but I also don’t think hiding them from the spotlight of online recognition is the best path forward.

This is messy and complicated. I don’t have the answers. I certainly do, however, have a lot of questions.

Technorati Tags:
facebook, parent, children, kids, public, privacy, responsible, responsibility

Is it right to decide to make your children famous? originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 17, 2011.

What do you think would be the best “discussion questions” to provide to our conference participants Monday, after watching this video scenario? One of the main thoughts I have is that if their school district and state goes the way of Virginia, a student in this scenario today could be dead.

Another weird, frustrating thing I ran into when editing this video in iMovie 11 was that initially, I couldn’t get iMovie to play or export the video with the opening and closing still image bumpers. I created the images in Keynote, exported them as JPGs, and then dragged them into the iMovie project. They appeared in the project window, but wouldn’t show in the preview window when the video played. When I imported the images into iPhoto and THEN added them to the project within iMovie, they worked fine. Strange.

This is the “script” I created using Xtranormal’s web-based moviemaking interface.

I created an Xtranormal account quite awhile ago but hadn’t ever created my own movie until today. As a result (I guess) my “free” 300 points on the site had expired. This one minute and forty second video “cost” me 111 Xtranormal points to create.

I opted to purchase the least expensive “bundle” of Xtranormal points on the site (1200) for $10 US.

I also opted to download what was touted as a HD version of the video. (It was just 640 x 320.) That cost 120 more points.

If I’m doing my math right, this means the monetary cost of this video tonight was about $2. I think it was worth it!

If you haven’t given Xtranormal a try and introduced it to your students, you should check it out. Chris Lehmann shared a sad but accurate video about “educational reformers” created with Xtranormal this past week that got me thinking again about using the tool. GoAnimate is a similar tool one of my cohort teams at the Learning.2010 conference in Shanghai used for their final visual literacy project. It’s quite amazing what can be done with some creative thinking, powerful tools like Xtranormal and GoAnimate, and a few digital dollars these days.

Technorati Tags:
education, facebook, school, video, youtube, myspace, suicide, prevention, xtranormal, goanimate, conference

First XtraNormal Video: MySpace Suicide Prevention originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 15, 2011.

(this is a self-nomination) I’m very passionate about working as a change agent in our schools to promote 21st century skills, blended learning, and transformative 1:1 environments for learning. Balanced content filtering is a key part of that conversation, and as parents as well as community members we need to understand the facts and stop acting based on ignorance and fear about Internet safety issues. I’m an experienced presenter and want to succinctly make this case for a wider audience. The “Balanced Filtering Online Gradebook” will be available / in use by TEDxOKC in April (outlined in the OpenBeta5 presentation video shared above as #1) and it will be good to share results to date as well as the tool with others.

http://balancedfiltering.org/openbeta5-and-ideas-for-the-balanced-filterin

I’m very enthused we’re going to have a TEDx event in Oklahoma City. Whether or not I have an opportunity to present there I’m going to do my best to attend. There’s a tremendous amount of synergy around these events, and I look forward to not only hearing the great ideas of others but also working with others to continue making our state even better as a result of TED sharing!

Technorati Tags:
education, filtering, okc, oklahoma, schools, ted, tedx, tedxokc, nomination, balanced

TEDxOKC Self-Nomination: Balanced Filtering Online Gradebook originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 18, 2010.

1. Jessi Slaughter (Jessica Leonhardt) (Aug 2010)
2. Willow Smith and her song/video, Whip My Hair (Oct 2010)
3. Greyson Chance and his Lady Gaga song remix (May 2010)
4. Sarah and her response video to President Obama (Sep 2009)

See our session wiki page for more links and background information about each of these situations. Of these, Willow Smith’s is the video I learned about most recently thanks to a participant (Erica I think) in my #cmtc10 workshop, “Share Your Ideas: Platforms for Publishing.” According to the 9 Sep 2010 MTV article, “Jay-Z Signs ‘Superstar’ Willow Smith To Roc Nation:”

Just two days after Willow Smith’s kid-friendly club banger “Whip My Hair” leaked online, Jay-Z and his petite protégé called in to “On-Air With Ryan Seacrest” to confirm that he had signed her to his Roc Nation label. Describing Willow’s debut as “a hit,” Jay-Z said on Thursday morning (September 9) that he first heard the track before he knew it had been recorded by a 9-year-old. “I was like, ‘Man, that record’s a smash.’ And then [Roc Nation partner] Jay Brown said, ‘She’s 9,’ and I was like, ‘Whoa!’ And [then] he was like, ‘She’s Will and Jada’s daughter,’ and I was like, ‘Whoa!’ and it just went from there.”

After being online a little more than a month, Willow’s video currently has over 22.1 million views on YouTube.

For more background about Willow’s rise to stardom boosted (in part) by YouTube visibility, see Ryan Seacrest’s 8.5 minute interview with Willow from September, “Jay-Z Compares Willow Smith to Young Michael Jackson.”

Are students, teachers, parents, and administrators having regular conversations about digital citizenship at your school? It’s certainly rare for a video to go viral on YouTube, but the fact is anyone today with access to a video-capable cell phone and an Internet-connected computer can be global media publisher. The level of professional quality in the four videos highlighted in our session yesterday varied widely, and the circumstances are unique in each case, but there are important lessons to learn from all four. One important thing everyone should know about, related to cyberbullying and YouTube publication, is video flagging on Youtube. This was highlighted by both Sarah’s experiences and the Jessica Leonhardt videos.

Yesterday as Sarah and I drove up to Farmington, Maine, in our rental car, we were amazed to hear BOTH Willow Smith and Greyson Chance sing their latest songs on Radio Disney. After just discussing their YouTube-powered rises to fame, that seemed like a big coincidence.

Technorati Tags:
chance, citizenship, digital, edtech, education, ethics, greyson, isafety, learning, music, safety, school, video, viral, youtube, willow, smith, jayz, jay-z, musicvideo, will, willsmith

YouTube video by Willow Smith goes viral, leads to recording contract #cmtc10 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 2, 2010.

Are you prepared for the digital citizen in your classroom? Many of our students are tech savvy and comfortable using a multitude of tools, but are they using them appropriately? Do students recognize the responsibility that comes with using technology? What kind of Digital Footprint do they leave behind? Join Alice to hear how one Maine Learning Technology (MLTI) school is working on appropriate technology use. Alice has participated in the one-to-one laptop (MLTI) Initiative for the past 5 years and brings many “lessons learned” to NH educators.

Webkins allow students to form relationships online
- kids have to login
- it is very obvious for them to know what to do after they login

We see kids move on from Lego to Club Penguin, eventually move to Facebook
- they are often pretty saavy user

Stat 2 years ago: “A quarter of 8-12 year olds have a social networking profile on Facebook, Bebo, or MySpace despite the sites having minimum age limit of 13.”

“The Children’s Media Literacy audit revealed….”

Many kids see their online and face to face worlds as interconnected

Pew 2 years ago: “Teens continue to be avid users of social networking websites, as of Sept 2009, 73% of online American teens ages 12 to 17 used an online social network website, a statistic that has continued to climb upwards from 55% in November 2006 and 65% in February 2008.”

“While more than 4 in 5 (82%) online teens ages 14-17 use online social networks, just a bit more than half of online teens ages 12-13 say they use the sites.”

danah boyd in “Impact of the Internet on Society | Antisocial Social Networking – disorder of the future generation?”

Social media has created an interesting rupture in the landscape. Youth turn to it to reclaim unstructured social encounters, to create a public space that allows them to simply hang out with their friends, peers, and cohort. The flirting, gossiping, and joking around that takes place is not proof that social media is useless, but proof that it’s extremely valuable. Without other spaces in which to gather, youth have developed their own. They want to be social, but we also need them to develop social skills. What’s fascinating is that they’re learning to do so in a mediated landscape, developing norms that will persist through adulthood. It’s not like all social encounters between adults are face-to-face; learning how to interpret a Facebook post is a great skill to have when entering an email-centric corporation.

Facebook would be the 5th largest country in the world if it was a country

World map of social networks

Gary’s Social Media Count (Oct 2010)
- available as a 99¢ iPad app now from iTunes

Our district goals are focused on student engagement and learning, not about technology
- we do much more project-based and inquiry-based assignments
- we have more assignments where the student chooses the tool

Example job: Social Media Director for IBM in Jericho, NY
- we have a student who graduated from our school, who is the social media director for “Teen Vogue” in New York

We do know kids will be collaborating globally, creating content with people living in other countries
- students need to understand how to

Our definition of digital citizenship: The first time a person signs up for an email account, signs up for an online account, purchases something online, or participates in some kind of digital activity that person is a digital citizen

Showing “Digital Dossier” video

This video is from John Palfrey’s group at the Harvard Law School

Born digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives By John Palfrey, Urs Gasser

What does the word “citizen” mean in your school?

We’ve realized we need to partner with parents
- we are doing a lot more parent education than we ever have before
- we run a Facebook class for parents, we share this presentation with parents, we meet in small groups and discuss it
- parents WANT help

I think of Maria Knee’s students Skyping with students in Australia as kindergardeners, 9 year olds can create VoiceThreads

Digital literacy is essential to be a citizen

- must have the skill and knowledge to interact safely with digital and electronic tools and media

Vicki Davis: Digital Citizenship has the student in the center, around: Literacy, Safety, Learning Strategies, and Etiquette

We are struggling the most now with pushing out student work: My collaborative inquiry project right now is around how are we going to organize, distribute and archive student work digitally online?

My seniors realize they need to figure out how they can stand out in the crowd
- it’s not enough to have just had a laptop
- they are focusing on learning, all the things they have done with and as a result of the technology access they’ve enjoyed

If Twitter or Facebook are too overwhelming at first, try Classroom 2.0 first

Alec Couros: Are You a Networked Teacher?

You need to have a very robust network. 2 years ago we had a disaster, and everyone stopped using most Internet tools. We’ve rebuilt our infrastructure

Our tech dept: 3 integrators, 1 webmaster, 1 repair manager
- no tech director
- we meet weekly as a team of 5
- we meet monthly with our superintendent

Our superintendent is very clear about what our roles

We took our core values, and focus on these in our conversations about digital citizenship: Honesty, citizenship, trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, integrity

We have a lot of visitors to our school, the students are teh tour guides
- they (students) do the rollout each September of the laptops
- the Student Senate is the group re-writing the laptop guidelines (old ones say “no videos,” but of course that is ridiculous now because all watch YouTube)
- games and cell phones are the big issues, students are wrestling with this now and how they will present this to faculty to change some of the rules

I always tell parents: We wouldn’t hand the keys to the car to our kids and tell them to go drive without a lot of advance conversations and preparation – The same should go for technology as digital citizens

Recommended Resources:

Digital Citizenship Resources from Common Sense Media

Net Cetera Chatting with Kids about Being Online: English Guidebook

Technorati Tags:
alicebarr, citizenship, cmtc10, digital, ethics, isafety, leadership, alice, barr

Digital Citizenship for our Schools @alicebarr #cmtc10 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 2, 2010.

This 2.5 minute video provides an overview of Google Dashboard.

Learn more about the Google Dashboard by reading Jacqui Cheng’s article for Ars Technica, “What Google knows about you and how to tweak it.” Google’s Privacy Center provides a wealth of information related to digital citizenship and Internet safety as well that’s worth checking out. The Google Privacy YouTube channel has 49 videos (as of this writing) focused specifically on privacy issues.

Technorati Tags:
digital, footprints, google, privacy

Privacy, Sharing and Your Google Dashboard #gct originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 18, 2010.

This may be the most important post you’ll read on my blog from a personal, digital security standpoint. If you use ANY website today which requires a login but does NOT use a “persistent https” secure connection thereafter, you’re at MAJOR risk of having your account(s) hacked if you use open, wifi hotspots in coffee shops or other locations. Yes, this means Facebook, at least for now until they FINALLY deploy persistent https. This danger is real, this is not a “Chicken Little” story, and in this post I’ll explain why. The bottom line for me is, I’m now using a commercial VPN service (Astrill) whenever I’m connecting my laptop on any type of network (a wired hotel connection or a public wifi connection) other than one I own at my house, or via my 3G AT&T network connection. I want to thank James Deaton (@jed on Twitter) for alerting me to this risk demonstration (Firesheep) at OpenBeta5 last week in Oklahoma City.

For a more in-depth, geeker explanation of the problem which Firesheep exploits and dramatically demonstrates, read Glenn Fleishman’s October 28, 2010, article for BoingBoing, “Liar, Liar, Sheep on Fire.” I’ll begin with a visual illustration. After installing the free FireFox extension FireSheep this evening at a local coffee shop, I was immediately able to gain access to the Facebook accounts, WordPress blog administrative dashboards, and other SUPPOSEDLY private, secure profiles of the following web users on different sites:

I am not a hacker, I’d classify myself as a “medio picante” geek… So how did I do this? The reason is Firesheep: A simple, easily installed FireFox extension which allows ANYONE to gain this kind of access on a shared Internet connection…. Not just black hats, white hats, or script kiddies. MANY websites, including Facebook today, do NOT use a “persistent https” connection after users login. This means the browser address changes to “https” and creates a secure “tunnel” during the login process, but thereafter users’ browsers return to a “http” unsecure connection while a “browser cookie” is set to maintain the login. When using a common router, as users do in most coffee shops and other locations where open, unsecured wireless connectivity is provided, those browser cookies are essentially “shouted out loud” for anyone to read / hear / copy / use. Eric Butler, a freelance web application and software developer in Seattle, Washington, released FireSheep on October 24, 2010, at the Toorcon12 conference in San Diego as a free, open source plug-in for the FireFox browser to demonstrate this security vulnerability and its seriousness. Eric got my attention, and he should get yours too.

I’ve read and heard about the dangers of open wifi connections for years, but until seeing FireSheep in action myself, I wasn’t a believer. Now I am. When I was in Shanghai, China, in September 2010, I utilized Astrill to bypass the Chinese content filters and gain access to sites like Twitter, Diigo, Google Sites, and other web destinations I regularly use for my work as an educational consultant. I’ve read about how hackers (and even script kiddies) can use software programs like Ethereal and “Winsock Packet Editor” to view userids and passwords sent “in the clear” over http connections. I didn’t realize the process could be so easy and straightforward as Firesheep makes it, however. The release of Firesheep onto the world stage means something very important for all of us: We should NOT assume our Internet “sessions” (website logins) are secure or private when we are using most public / shared wifi or wired Internet connections.

Glenn Fleishman includes a variety of suggestions in his article on Firesheep for what “we” should do to protect ourselves from this acknowledged and pervasive web vulnerability. I’ll highlight a few of these.

SUGGESTION #1: AVOID LOGINS ON UNSECURE NETWORKS

His first suggestion is one we all should implement immediately: “Engage in no unsecured Web logins when working on an untrusted network, public or otherwise.” This means we should log OUT of all websites for which we’ve “saved our passwords” in all the web browsers we use or have open on our computers, when we’re on an unsecured network connection, and NOT login to them unless we use a VPN.

Translated into plainer language, this means: Don’t use Facebook EVER at a coffee shop, unless you’re taking geeky precautions. (Using a VPN.)

SUGGESTION #2: USE HTTPS EVERYWHERE WITH FIREFOX

HTTPS Everywhere is another free plugin for FireFox, but it’s designed to keep you more secure online. For websites which permit https / secure connections, the plugin FORCES the website to use those https “tunnels” so your web traffic stays secure and confidential. I prefer using the Google Chrome browser over FireFox in most cases, so this suggestion isn’t one that will help me a great deal. I have installed it on my FireFox browser, however, so it will be an option for me if I forget or don’t renew my VPN.

SUGGESTION #3: USE A VPN SERVICE

A VPN is a “virtual private network,” and VPN connections are used frequently by business travelers to connect back to their home / small business / corporate office to securely access web applications. At one time, people who wanted to use a VPN connection had to purchase and configure hardware to which they connected their laptop(s) when away from the office. Today, however, a variety of commercial options are available which provide VPN services on a monthly or annual basis. I had very good experiences with Astrill in September when I was in China, connecting via my laptop, iPhone, and iPad, so I decided to activate a three month plan with them today for $20. I figure I’ll give this a try, and if something better comes along I’ll switch in three months.

Astrill does NOT require users to download anything on an iPhone or iPad to use the service. Instead, you simply configure your VPN connection with the server address and login credentials for your account.  On a laptop computer, however, Astrill provides a downloadable client application which you use to connect to the service when you want VPN tunneling.

CONCLUSIONS

I wrote the post “Wireless and hotel Internet security” back in December 2005, after listening to a Security Now podcast about hacking, packet sniffers and VPNs. I didn’t take the inconvenient steps at the time, or until today, of actually paying for and using a VPN connection on unsecured network connections. After seeing Firesheep in action before my eyes tonight, however, I’m a believer and am changing my web surfing ways on unsecured networks. I’d encourage you to do the same, and share this information with others.

Even though web services like GMail DO use persistent https connections, once you are logged into Google their “cookie” is set in your browser and allows other Google web services which do NOT (currently) use https to be accessed by others using methods like Firesheep. My best advice is: When you’re on an unsecured network, assume you’re being packet sniffed. It’s simply too easy for people to do it now, and the costs to your online digital footprint as well as relationships (face-to-face as well as virtual) could be very high if someone chooses to hack your cookies.

If you choose to give Astrill a try, please use this link which includes my “affiliate” code. It won’t make a difference in terms of your costs, but my account will receive some credit… and I’ll consider that a “thank you” for this very important security “heads up.”

Posted via email from wesley fryer’s posterous

Firesheep should get your ATTENTION: Open Public Wifi Dangers are REAL originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 1, 2010.

In its newest iteration, iMovie ’11 is gaining a few features, some lifted from past versions of iPhoto. Apple has added a face-identifying feature to iMovie, similar to iPhoto’s Faces capability. iMovie can now search clips based on the particular person you’re looking for, and can also sort clips based on criteria like whether the clip is a group or single shot.

Law enforcement agencies and the military in many countries have had access to this kind of facial recognition technology (and much more advanced iterations I’m sure) for years. The integration of this into iMovie is simultaneously exciting, amazing, and more than a little “big-brotherish.” Last summer, during our Oklahoma Creativity Institute, I was intrigued to learn Google’s Picassa program (similar to iPhoto, but available free for both Windows and Apple users) also supports face recognition. I’m eager to give iMovie ’11 a try and test this facial recognition feature particularly.

According to Mike Melanson writing for ReadWriteWeb in July 2010, at that time (so this statistic is now out of date) about 100 million photos were being uploaded to Facebook EACH DAY, and 24 hours of video were being uploaded to YouTube each MINUTE. Facial recognition was announced for Facebook in July as a way to help users identify faces when tagging people, but does not automatically suggest tags / people’s names. I think that is still true, but we’re likely moving to a situation where photos as well as video posted online WILL be auto-tagged with identities. I’m sure law enforcement / military facial recognition systems DO offer that functionality today. In both iPhoto and Picassa, as you identify / tag individuals in photos the program “learns” how to recognize those faces and then suggests photos (which you can then confirm) which may also include those identified folks. Facebook doesn’t do this. Yet.

Michael Zimmer predicted in August 2010 Google’s face recognition capabilities will continue improve with profound privacy implications. It remains to be seen WHEN these facial recognition technologies will come to YouTube, but Google researchers presented about this capability back in mid-2009. Google Images supports filtering by type:face now. YouTube (as far as I know) does not. Yet.

On the subject of facial recognition and social networking, it’s good to know Facebook DOES support “untagging” of photos other people post. This article on eHow explains the steps. After you do this, the photo still remains on the poster’s Facebook page, but the image will NOT show up in your photos or Facebook profile page. This is good to know when discussing digital footprints and digital citizenship with students as well as adults.

On September 30th, Facebook announced they are rolling out new “bulk tagging” features which make it easier to tag the same person in a group of photos you upload to the site in a batch. I’m betting (but can’t confirm) this new “feature” also leverages the facial recognition capabilities developed by DivvyShot, which was acquired by Facebook in April.

Like many technological advances, facial recognition offers both advantages and drawbacks. While it can make identifying members of your family for a digital holiday video card easier, it will also make the identification and aggregation of photos taken of you by others easier online. From a privacy standpoint, this means everyone should continue to carefully consider what they share and post. As I write this, I must acknowledge I’m not nearly as discriminating and conservative as I once was about sharing family photos online. Where I used to password-protect all our online family photos and videos, now I share lots of photos as well as videos publicly on Flickr and YouTube. I think a big part of this is because I’m understanding Internet safety risks in better perspective thanks to my study of the work done by scholars like danah boyd and researchers like Nancy Willard. Publication of personal photos DOES leave a person (as well as others included in those photos / videos) open to potentially harmful media-based harassment. People can be mean and hateful, and sharing media openly can provide people with malicious intent with “raw material” to construct hurtful media messages. I’m not offering a sugar-coated view of this, or hopefully an overly reactionary view either. Given the incredible upload rates of both photos and videos today online, it’s unlikely privacy concerns are going to significantly stem the tide (or perhaps tsunami) of personal media images being shared online. Sharing is a good thing, and as Dean Shareski argued last week starting the 2010 K-12 Online Conference, a moral imperative for educators. Technologies like facial recognition add another layer to sharing, however, making it easier to identify and aggregate media search results. What is shared today may be preserved digitally forever, and it may be indexed by websites beyond our individual control to “untag” or remove.

We live in interesting times to say the least.

Technorati Tags:
apple, face, imovie, recognition

Facial Recognition in Software Programs and Online originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on October 20, 2010.

…according to research from security firm AVN 82% of kids under two years old have some form of online presence.

Over 80% of Two Year Olds Have an Online Presence originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on October 8, 2010.

Have you taken away access to digital technology as a consequence for your own children’s misbehavior? Have you friended your own children or younger relatives on social networking sites like Facebook? Have you spoken up when you’ve observed inappropriate comments or photos, or remained silent?

These issues and ideas would be great ones to raise with parents in discussions about Internet safety and digital citizenship.

HT to my mom for sharing this article on her Posterous blog.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Digital Grounding and loss of Facebook Privileges originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 26, 2010.

I really like the balanced and practical ways these Google employees approach Internet safety with their own families. It’s wonderful for Google to share these kinds of video vignettes, I think they provide a good way to frame a balanced discussion with parents focused on Internet safety and digital citizenship issues.

I audio recorded our session and will post it soon, with all referenced resources, on the Eyes Right blog. Although some links are a bit out of date, I also shared my older PBworks / Teach Digital Internet Safety wiki site.

For a recent student-focused presentation on Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship, check out the following SlideShare Slidecast from September 12th in Alva, Oklahoma.

Technorati Tags:
church, edmond, ethics, family, google, internet, isafety, oklahoma, safety, video, youtube

Google UK Employees talk about Family Internet Safety originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 22, 2010.

The following is a SlideShare Slidecast (audio recording synchronized to presentation slides) for my first presentation of the day on “Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship” Friday to high school students in Alva. The recording is 43 minutes long. I apologize I did NOT remove the silence/quiet during the playback of the “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” video clip, but you CAN skip over that slide during Slideshare playback.

For a list of topics I recommend addressing in presentations like this for parents as well as students, see my August 20th post, “Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship Presentations for Students, Parents and Teachers.” I’d welcome any feedback, suggestions, or ideas related to this presentation you might have. These conversations are VERY important to have with students on an ongoing basis, and since 2008 have been required in United States schools receiving eRate funding.

The fourth video I shared in this presentation was linked on the excellent website thatsnotcool.com. The video is a two minute public service announcement (PSA) for the Ad Council in the United States on “Digital Privacy” by the three girls on YouTube’s Whateverhollywood channel. They make some important points on these topics, and hopefully got the attention of students in Alva on Friday.

If you would like more information about my presentations on Internet Safety or other topics, please check out the “speaking” page of my blog.

Technorati Tags:
digital, education, facebook, footprint, internet, oklahoma, online, parents, safety, sexting, students, erate, alva, tagging

Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship in Alva, Oklahoma (SlideShare Slidecast) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 12, 2010.

The best way to take control of your digital footprint is to post regularly on sites YOU own, control, and claim. You can’t take control of things other people post, but you certainly CAN and should ask them to take down (or at least “un-tag” you) in photos you don’t want online. By using a variety of sites to search for yourself and pages/sites which reference you, you can get a sense of what employers and others who Google/search for you are finding and can find. As you post more content AS yourself, using profiles on a blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. on which you use your REAL name, those posts should rise in pagerank. (That means they should come up higher in search results.) Commenting on other social networking sites, using your profile links, will also help to improve your pagerank for your OWN sites which you control and WANT people to see first, or at least primarily, when they are looking for you online.

What advice would you offer to Dea for taking control of her digital footprint?

photo credit: Stéphane Moussie

Technorati Tags:
facebook, footprint, media, online, safety, social

Take control of your digital footprint originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 28, 2010.

If you’re a teacher in Canyon ISD, Texas, and haven’t selected an eBook to read yet to complete part 1 of your “homework assignment” from last week, Henry’s ebook is a great option!

If you’re not following Henry Jenkins on Twitter and subscribed to his blog, “Confessions of an Aca-Fan“, remedy those lapses immediately. His latest post, “How New Media is Transforming Storytelling: A New Video Series” can (by itself) provide you with LOTS of outstanding content to share and discuss with both students and peers. I’m eager to watch each of the videos in that series, and share them with our Storychasers communities.

Storytelling Part 1: Change of Storytelling from ith storytelling on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags:
culture, ebook, education, media, storytelling, participatory, henry, jenkins

Free eBook: Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture and Media Education originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 24, 2010.

Find more videos like this on The Educator’s PLN

The May 2010 PEW Internet report, “Reputation Management and Social Media,” includes even more updated statistics related to digital footprints. These include the poll finding that a majority of adults now “Google themselves.” In my own presentations about Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship for students as well as adults, the importance of taking a PROACTIVE role in managing your digital footprint is one of multiple themes I emphasize.

I’ve added this video link to my “Videos for PD” page under the heading, “Cyberbullying Prevention, Internet Safety, Safe Online Social Networking.”

Thanks to Karen Schaeffer Brooks for sharing this link via a comment on one of my Twitter cross-posts to Facebook.

Technorati Tags:
digital, footprint, footprints, internet, isafety, management, safety, reputation

Reputation Management and Digital Footprints (video) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 23, 2010.

photo credit: cotaro70s

Using video clips, case studies from recent situations in the mainstream press involving social media, and discussion prompts, these interactive sessions focus on helping students as well as adults make good decisions with digital media while keeping communication channels open. Sessions are available geared toward primary age students (grades K-2), upper elementary (grades 3-5), secondary students, teacher groups, and parent groups. Some of the topics addressed include:

1. Facebook: Why should we have boundaries for sharing information on Facebook and what are my boundaries? Should I, my sibling or my child get a Facebook account before age 13?
2. Digital Ethics: What responsibilities go along with the use of cell phones and computers to share media as well as textual information?
3. Password Security: Why is it important to safeguard my login credentials?
4. Digital Footprints: How are people using websites like Google, Pipl.com, and other sites to search for information about prospective employees, and how can my digital footprints affect my future after high school?
5. Commenting Responsibly: How can comments left on YouTube, Facebook, and other sites affect my life today and tomorrow? Are my words powerful? Do my comments matter? How can I moderate comments others leave on my websites?
6. Cyberbullying: How can and should I respond if I witness cyberbullying, or am a victim?
7. Power in my Pocket: How can I constructively use my cell phone and online accounts to promote good in the world, instead of hurting others or myself?
8. Stranger Danger: Why is it RARELY a good idea to meet someone in person I only met online, especially when I’m a minor? (Many parents have met partners or spouses on sites like eHarmony, so it can be misleading to tell students “NEVER meet someone F2F you’ve met online.) How can you tell if someone you meet online REALLY is who they say they are, and if they are “safe?” Who should you talk to when you are faced with a situation online that makes you uncomfortable?
9. Texting While Driving: Why is texting while driving in the car VERY dangerous, and what can be done to encourage others to NOT do it?
10. Sexting (secondary and adults only): How can cell phone photo sharing have a devastating impact on my life or the lives of others? What can and should I do about this if it happens?

The following topics are specifically for parents and teachers attending sessions, which can be offered as “coffee chat” sessions during the school day (advertised via PTA groups) or after school / in the evening:

1. Open Communication Channels: How can we help our students and children develop perceptions of responsibility and accountability for their actions online as well as the face-to-face world? What tools and strategies are effective in promoting open communication about digital media use?
2. Balanced Filtering: What are the benefits and what is the rationale for adopting a balanced content filtering approach at school and at home? How can we utilize a layered “defense in depth” approach when it comes to content filtering and online accountability which can help keep students safe as well as prepare them to make responsible, independent decisions when they are online?
3. Professional and Personal Boundaries: Should I “friend” students on Facebook? How can I use Facebook groups to limit the things I share with students or others who I have friended? What kinds of “social media guidelines” are important for me and others in our school community to follow as we use social media tools with mobile phones as well as computers?
4. Screens Everywhere: What kinds of guidelines make sense for home Internet use, now that many people access the Internet on mobile devices like cell phones, iPods, and handheld game players? What free Internet filtering solutions for home Internet networks are available? What kinds of limits or boundaries are parents using to address safety, health, and media overexposure concerns for kids?
5. Friending Your Child: Should I “friend” my son or daughter on Facebook? What should I do if they don’t want me to “friend” them? How can I be a responsible parent and help my child live within behavior boundaries, but not invite rebellion or online behaviors my child keeps secret from me?

If you are interested in exploring the possibility of having me present sessions on Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship for your students and/or parent and teacher groups, please visit my “speaking” page and contact Karen Montgomery. With E-Rate requiring schools to address Internet safety issues with students, I’ve been receiving more requests from schools about presentations on these topics so I thought I’d share this information. My “Video for PD” page includes numerous video examples focused on “Cyberbullying Prevention, Internet Safety, and Safe Online Social Networking.” I’ll continue to update and add to that list in upcoming months.

I haven’t updated resources on my PBworks wiki page, “Proactive Approaches to Address Cyberbullying and Digital Social Networking” in awhile, since I’ve moved to a Google Site for my presentation/workshop resources. Many of the resources listed there are still relevant and good to use when speaking with others about these topics, however. The same goes for my older wiki resource page, “Internet Safety and Social Networking for Parents.”

Technorati Tags:
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Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship Presentations for Students, Parents and Teachers originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 20, 2010.

This is a remix of videos and images from several places, including the Ad Council’s “Out Of Your Hands” video. (60 seconds – embedding unfortunately disabled.) I think the Hoover, AL version is more powerful and thought provoking because of the way it sets up the scenario. You might recognize some of the kids on the couch in one of the closing images.

H/T to Jeff Richardson for sharing this video. Read Jeff’s post, “Educating Our Community in Digital Citizenship” for more background. He’s looking for other examples of similar parent education programs focused on digital citizenship.

Later this summer, Storychasers will be announcing a new 12 week Internet Safety / Digital Citizenship curriculum program for schools. This targets schools required to teach students about Internet safety as part of their E-Rate compliance. I’m glad to see Jeff and other leaders in his school system taking the approach of focusing on “digital citizenship” and not simply “Internet safety.” There’s a lot more to discuss here in addition to the typical “don’t do that” sort of lectures we see in popular online safety programs like iSafe. I much prefer the approach of groups like Common Sense Media, which offers a wealth of resources for educators, parents and students on topics including Internet Safety as well as Digital Citizenship. For more background about Common Sense Media, check out the great Seedlings webcast from April 15th with Emily Hunt of Common Sense. If you don’t already, I highly recommend subscribing to Common Sense’s YouTube channel. It’s full of tech tips for parents as well as movie reviews. Their 1.5 minute video, “Sexting: Time 2 Talk. Whats Sextings Real Message?” includes the most important Internet safety / digital citizenship strategy: Regular, open conversations between parents and kids. We’ve got to keep talking.

Although I’m not updating it weekly at this point, I am continuing to maintain the “Digital Dialog” learning community which I started on Ning several years ago, as a Buddypress-powered learning community hosted a subdomain of my blog. You’re welcome to join in conversations there about these issues!

For more related links, check out my social bookmarks for digital citizenship and Internet safety.

Technorati Tags:
citizenship, curriculum, digital, education, internet, online, parent, safety, school, youtube, sexting, awareness

Digital Citizenship video resources from Hoover, Alabama Schools and Common Sense Media originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 7, 2010.

SECURITY OF YOUR ACCESS AND USE

Due to the nature of wireless LAN and High Speed Internet Access networks, control of physical access to the network cannot be ensured. In the case of wireless networks, unlike a wired network where a physical connection is required, anyone within range of a wireless access point can conceivably send and receive frames as well as listen for other frames being sent, making eavesdropping and remote sniffing of wireless LAN frames very easy. In addition, under certain circumstances, third parties could access your computer without your permission while it is connected to the network.

What’s the answer to this quandary? Using a personal or organizational / corporate VPN is one reasonable response. WiTopia is an option Alec Couros recommended to me last month. I haven’t taken the plunge yet, but given my upcoming travel schedule I think it would certainly be a good idea. OpenVPN is an open source, cross-platform option as well.

Are you using a personal VPN when you connect online via public wifi access points? If so, have you had bad experiences with identity theft or other hacking intrusions, or are you just being proactively safe?

photo credit: jon gos

Technorati Tags:
hack, public, security, wifi, vpn, secure, hacker

Don’t assume your public wifi connection is secure originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 1, 2010.

Greyson’s video and personal fame received a huge boost yesterday on May 13th, when he appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” spoke to Lady Gaga over the phone on the air, and then performed his song again for a live television audience.

The first video I’ve linked above and embedded is from Greyson’s actual YouTube channel, but I hesitated to embed the second video. Numerous false “Greyson Chance” channels on YouTube and Twitter are proliferating, attempting to attract viewers and page clicks based his viral notoriety. [UPDATE: I CHANGED THE EMBED FOR THIS SECOND VIDEO TO BE THE ONE ON GREYSON'S ACTUAL CHANNEL, TO NOT FURTHER AMPLIFY UNAUTHORIZED UPLOADS OF THIS.]

Some sites, like the YouTube channel below, were apparently created to lure people into clicking phishing links which lead to Facebook applications or pages infected with outright malware.

Other “official Greyson” Twitter accounts have been created in an attempt to attract followers, I would guess for marketing purposes but maybe just for fun.

With the background of my own 9 year old daughter’s viral YouTube experiences last fall, I have several responses to this situation regarding fellow-Edmond resident Greyson Chance. I linked nine past posts about our experiences with Sarah’s YouTube response video to President Obama in last month’s post, “Lucrative rewards of viral videos encourage parents to put their children on YouTube.”

First, in case Greyson, his family members, or someone who knows Greyson reads this, here’s my advice for you:

1. Have one of your parents sign up for the YouTube Partner’s Program for your channel ASAP. Given your age you may not be able to do this personally, but if possible have one of your parents do it. There’s no reason you shouldn’t immediately start to monetize your global YouTube fame, and those ad-views and ad-clicks can add up. (I’m not saying that because of personal experiences, but because I’ve read articles like “5 Secrets of YouTube’s Success” from the April 2010 issue of Wired Magazine which confirm that contention.)
2. Consider moderating or turning off commenting on your videos. YouTube is like the wild west, and because of the nature of your videos you will hopefully not be the target of sexually-explicit attacks or hate speech. It’s common for people to use profanity in comments, and it is YOUR channel. It’s not hard to figure out and you may know already, but if not this post explains both why comment moderation can be a good idea for viral YouTube videos and how to turn it on. If you DO choose to moderate, bear in mind this can anger people. This post discusses why and how this can happen, and why (in some cases) turning OFF comments can be a better solution than moderating them.
3. If you’re watching the proliferation of videos, Twitter accounts, etc that are using your name and your Dad’s video content without your permission, you’re probably feeling like you’ve lost control over this situation. You have, but there are still some things you can do and YouTube provides you with tools to do them if you or your parents want to. My post “Addressing the R Word Proactively and Flagging YouTube Videos” gives some background and how-to advice. In short, you can use YouTube’s flagging feature to ask for take-downs of YOUR dad’s video and your copyrighted content. Given the scale of your visibility this might seem hopeless / fruitless and not worth the effort, and perhaps it’s not. Still, know that it’s an option. My experiences with my own daughter’s video showed that YouTube is VERY responsive to alleged hate speech, but slower to process claims of copyright infringement. They WILL respond, however, and obviously your video has a lot of people’s attention so they’re likely to respond to YOU in a more timely way I’d guess.
4. Protect your YouTube/Google account password. If you haven’t lately, change it now to something VERY secure. Make sure you don’t give it out. I’m sure YouTube has a good handle on security, but one thing you definitely do NOT want is someone taking control of your account and posting content there “as you” without your authorization. That may not be super likely, but it’s definitely less possible if you use a secure password on your account and change it every once in awhile.
5. Think about the positive, constructive, world-changing messages you’d like to share with others RIGHT NOW. You’ve literally got the attention of MILLIONS of people. Thousands of people are subscribing to your YouTube channel, and I’d bet you’re receiving a lot of direct messages / email within YouTube from people who are enamored with your talent as well as people who want you to view their videos / pay them attention. Carpe Diem, my fellow Oklahoman. Since you were sharing this video at a church talent show here in Oklahoma, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you’re a Christian. If you have a Christian testimony to share, now is the time. You may not get this moment in the global YouTube spotlight again. You literally have a chance to speak directly to millions of people through your YouTube channel. You’ve probably noticed the 3 million views your other two videos on YouTube have attracted together. That’s because after people see your first, most famous video, many people want to see more. You have great musical talent, and that is certainly the reason for this lightning bolt moment of global stardom. I’d encourage you to think seriously about what ELSE you want to share with others. What would you share with millions of other strangers around our planet, if you had just sixty seconds to do so? That is the opportunity you have NOW, and it’s a big one most people don’t have in their entire lives. Consider the possibilities, and your opportunity to not only share your musical talents but also messages from your heart.
6. Remember to protect your private and personal information, and if you have any of it online take it off immediately. Make sure your cell phone number is NOT on your Facebook account (if you have one) and neither is your email address. People are almost certain to try and contact you DIRECTLY because of your stardom. You likely have received and will receive hundreds of messages via YouTube mail, and I don’t think you can block that, but definitely make sure you’re not giving public access to your other personal information. This is a key lesson in virtually all “Internet safety” lectures which you’ve hopefully heard at school and at home, but I know lots of kids don’t take it seriously. You absolutely need to at this point.
7. The “stranger danger” risk in the world is real, and you need to be both aware of it and take reasonable precautions with your family. I’m not encouraging you or your parents to become paranoid or react in a way that’s over the top because of this incident, but be aware that LOTS of people you didn’t know two weeks ago now know who you are, what you look like, and what school you attend. There’s definitely an exciting and fun side to fame, but there are also real costs as well as dangers. If you haven’t already, you might consider contacting the Edmond police and having a conversation with them about things they recommend in terms of safety. It’s better to have this conversation SOONER when it may not even be needed, rather than later after a problem happens and you’re not sure how to respond. I don’t think we’ve had a YouTube viral video situation on the scale of yours in our community, so the law enforcement personnel with whom you and your family initially visit may not be completely prepared for the sort of advice you’re seeking. I’m sure (sad to say) the Edmond police DO deal with plenty of situations where people are stalked, harassed, etc, however, and what you’re looking for is advice about what legally CAN be done if you run into some weirdos as a result of your online stardom. You should find out what kinds of reasonable / common-sense safety precautions you should take now to make sure you don’t become a victim of someone with malicious intentions who learned about you because of this YouTube situation.

That just about exhausts my “advice column” for Greyson and his family tonight.

I’ll close by noting it’s quite ironic a remixed version of a Lady Gaga song was Greyson’s choice to share at a church talent show. It’s too bad it wasn’t a culture jammed version, since we could certainly use more counter-cultural messages both on YouTube and in the mainstream press to those espoused by Lady Gaga’s music. For several months now I’ve been wrestling with issues which this YouTube / Lady Gaga / Greyson Chance situation brings into further focus. These connect with some ideas I shared in my January 2009 post, “Iran, Sovereignty, Colonialism and the Values of the West.” In his interview with Ellen, Greyson shared that Lady Gaga is one of his greatest inspirations. That’s likely not an isolated sentiment among youth today. In March 2010, CNN (via Mashable) reported Lady Gaga is the first artist with over a BILLION views. Her cultural influence today is HUGE. And what, exactly, is her message? It takes about thirty seconds of watching one of her videos or just listening to one of her songs to figure that out.

Have you had any cognitive dissonance lately when it comes to Gaga? When Greyson talked “live” to Gaga on Ellen’s show yesterday, she encouraged him to “stay away from girls.” That was a surprise to me, but it falls in line with what People magazine reported last month, “Lady Gaga Tells Fans: ‘Don’t Have Sex.’” Interesting. That’s certainly not the message the over 204 million people who have watched Lady Gaga’s official YouTube video for “Bad Romance” received.

I’ll write more about these topics in a later post, but the main thing I want to point out here is that a CULTURE WAR is raging today for the hearts and minds of our young people and their values. Greyson Chance has fantastic musical ability, but he’s certainly not alone in idolizing Lady Gaga. I love the power and energy of many of her songs as well, but I absolutely reject the value system which these songs encourage people to embrace. This is a BIG deal. Words are powerful, and the words with which we program our brains using our iPods and YouTube viewing time make a big difference in shaping the people we ARE and the people we will become.

Social media is not a fad, and we’re all just a few potential clicks away from stardom on the global stage. Is this good or bad? It can be both. Hopefully in the case of Greyson Chance, it will be all roses. It’s not every day you get a chance to share your heart with millions of people on every continent of our planet.

photo credit: Tonp1

Technorati Tags:
culture, edmond, gaga, internet, lady, ladygaga, oklahoma, safety, video, war, youtube, ellen, greyson, chance, famous, wars, values, advice, isafety

From a church talent show to the Ellen DeGeneres Show: YouTube fame for an Edmond 6th grader originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 14, 2010.

If there’s one thing my children have lamented more than any other when it comes to iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad technologies, it’s the lack of support for Adobe’s Flash technology. Club Penguin and Webkinz continue to be some of their favorite websites, but both of them are built almost entirely with Flash. Steve Jobs made it clear last month Apple does not plan to support Flash (a proprietary Adobe format) and instead wants developers to embrace HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. While Apple may not support Flash at this point on the iPhone (and may never support it, despite possible lawsuits and FCC inquiries) VNC (virtual network computing) technologies DO make it possible to access flash-based websites on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad today. The screenshot below shows a scene from Webkinz running on my iPad, which I captured this morning when my six year old was playing on it.

Thanks to a tweet from Dean Shareski, a phone call from Karen Montgomery, and a recent post on iPhoneInCanada, I learned today about the free, Apple-approved / App Store downloadable program “Cloud Browse.” Cloud Browse (direct App Store link) uses VNC technology to let anyone run a full, desktop version of the FireFox web browser on their Apple mobile device.

After installing the free app, upon launching users are connected to a virtualized version of FireFox running somewhere else on planet earth. The company which makes Cloud Browse, AlwaysOn Technologies, is Boston-based, but in today’s networked world it’s anyone’s guess where their actual servers “live.” By default Cloud Browse users are connected via an anonymous account, and can immediately click the “web” button at the bottom of the window to enter a website address / URL.

The performance of Cloud Browse was pretty snappy for me today over home wifi. This VNC solution does support playing Club Penguin, as well as accessing flash-based websites like VoiceThread for playback purposes.

There is NOT virtual microphone support with Cloud Browse, however, so it is NOT possible to actually record audio for a new VoiceThread. You can leave text comments, however, which is certainly better than zero access to VoiceThread through mobile Safari currently.

Within the application, by clicking the information “i” in the lower right corner, a preferences window can be accessed. In addition to providing tutorials about touch-technology gestures which the application supports, users can provide an email address and password to “save sessions” for later logins.

This is probably a good idea, since connections can be lost unexpectedly. If session credentials are not used, everything which was opened and done in the previous session will be lost.

Cloud Browse only has an iPhone / iPod Touch version available currently, and while it DOES function fine on an iPad users have to double the screen size (2x) for full-screen viewing. It’s not perfect, it’s pretty pixelated, and it certainly doesn’t look as gorgeous as most iPad-native applications do running fullscreen. It’s the first application I’ve ever used which permits access to Flash-based websites on an Apple mobile device, however, and I think it’s a harbinger of things to come.

VNC technology running on iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches brings up a host of issues.

1. Will people be careful to verify the integrity of companies like AlwaysOn Technologies before entering secure login credentials into a VNC window? (Hopefully all VNC-approved apps like Cloud Browse are fully vetted by Apple and their owners can be trusted to NOT skim website userids/passwords, but that type of identity theft is rampant and always a possibility.)
2. Will virtualized browser and other application access like this provide scalable, secure ways for schools and other organizations to provide students with access to licensed / copyrighted materials? (Imagine having your own school iPad / iPod Touch application, which not only provides access to textual content but also to licensed, rich media libraries like Discovery Streaming after users login with their access credentials?)
3. Since this type of access provides anonymizing / proxy-based access to websites, what does this mean for online accountability? (Any websites visited/used with an application like this are not saved in a local browser history, or recorded on a local router log.)

What other implications for this type of VNC technology do you see for schools as well as individuals / families?

I know one for sure, in our family… On long car trips with shared 3G wireless data access, it’s going to mean yet ANOTHER reason no one can say, “I’m bored Dad!”

Technorati Tags:
apple, cloud, ipad, iphone, ipod, ipodtouch, touch, flash, adobe, vnc, browse, cloudbrowse

Access Flash websites on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (including Webkinz and Club Penguin) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 14, 2010.

Blog reader “JJ” wrote:

I am an avid reader of your blog, I follow you on Twitter, and I appreciate your contribution to my personal awareness of educational issues. However, there is one issue that I believe you are lacking in understanding. I try hard not to take your statements about IT Directors personally, but you continually throw us under the bus with regard to content filtering. In many schools in our state the “IT Director or Technology Coordinator” is the only technology staff person for the entire district. My job includes every aspect of networking, hardware, software, staff training, e-rate (which is monumental), online state testing (mega-monumental), and tech support for computers, Smart Boards, projectors, sound equipment, and any other equipment purchased by the district. I have hundreds of computers and network equipment at 5 different sites all over town. I work 60-70 hours a week and still can’t ever get it all done. Most of the time I just run to the hottest fire and the rest of the problems have to wait…sometimes for weeks. This situation is fairly common in our state. Most of us are not interested in having control; we just try to survive.

My ISP provides the content filtering service, but I manage my own filter. I would love to open it up more, but I have to comply with directives from e-rate and my administration, and the limitations of my network. When parents, teachers, or even students report inappropriate sites being accessed, I am usually instructed to block them. I blocked Flickr for a period of time because the students were using the site to find photos involving nudity and other inappropriate content, and we had parents who were outraged. I have been directed to block YouTube, Facebook and MySpace because of the potential for inappropriate content and activity. I did not make that decision myself, but I happen to agree. YouTube has great content but also has content that is totally unacceptable. Until we can find a way to selectively filter the content the site will remain blocked. Our current filter uses category blocking. I realize this also blocks valuable social networking sites that have valid educational uses. The ISP staff works with me to create exceptions for these when teachers need changes made. It’s not perfect, but we don’t get the ideal situation very often in public schools.

I also have to ensure that our network remains functional. We have 4 T-1’s and we are constantly pushing our bandwidth to the max. We are currently administering state mandated online tests. It doesn’t much matter whether I agree with that whole process (I don’t), it is not optional. In order to conserve bandwidth, I have blocked a few areas such as internet radio and video streaming. This was not a censorship decision, but a necessity. Again, in an ideal world we would have adequate bandwidth for any and all educational endeavors.

I do not just randomly block categories or websites. In addition to adult content, I have such categories blocked as online auctions, illegal activity, and personals/online dating. I also have web-mail blocked except for our school mail. This is simply because I don’t have the time to clean up the infected computers due to phishing scams, malware, and viruses. No anti-virus protection will prevent all of these threats. I work had to ensure that our teachers and students have access to tools, sites, and applications they need. It is sometimes impossible to perfectly balance those needs with the realities of our infrastructure. I understand that balance is the key, but sometimes it is not easy or even possible to achieve. So instead of blaming us IT folks for standing in the way of progressive education, perhaps you need to understand the bigger picture. We are not just randomly making decisions to control users on our network.

I agree that students need to be taught digital citizenship and given opportunities to collaborate and create in online social environments. I want my school to be progressive and overcome challenges involved with balancing their experiences. But as the IT Director, I am a very small piece of that puzzle. You sometimes give me far to much credit and power that I don’t deserve or possess.

This was my response:

JJ: This rant was not an attack on all IT directors. While I certainly can point to specific cases in specific districts where the IT director is a HUGE impediment to the cause of digital citizenship and acquisition of the ISTE NETS (that is the case in some large as well as small school districts) I totally agree that it is unfair to lay all of this at the feet of the IT Director. Bottom line, this is about leadership and administrative vision. Yes, IT directors have a responsibility and an obligation (I’d argue) to help inform their administration about risks and about “balance” when it comes to content filtering. That said, however, schools are hierarchical bureaucracies and like all other staff the IT Director works for the superintendent, who works for the school board, who works for the public. So the buck REALLY stops with the top leaders in school districts.

We all have important roles to play, and the role of an IT Director is undoubtedly a vital one. I definitely acknowledge there are a myriad of legal mandates with which schools (and IT departments specifically) must comply. In many cases, however, FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) overrule reason and logical thinking. I’ve taught in school districts and worked in school districts where the threat of lawsuits led administrators to do things that could be rightly judged by outsiders as irrational and against the developmental needs of children. Removing all playground equipment from all elementary schools because of a lawsuit threat from a parent is one non-technical example that comes to mind. There are LOTS of factors here. But let’s bring it back to technology and content filtering.

Your job as the IT director is not and should not be construed by parents, your administration, or your community as “guaranteeing the safety of all students on the Internet at all times.” I recognize that is a common perception, but it is a FALSE one. It is one we need to work together to address and change. If you read through the materials currently available on the Unmasking the Digital Truth project, you’ll see that schools have a GREAT deal of latitude in how they choose to enforce content filtering.

Do you have to block webmail and YouTube? No you don’t. You can choose to, but you don’t have to by legal mandate. If students or adults on your network are searching for objectionable content, that’s not your fault as the IT director any more than it would be a teacher’s fault if a student brought a Playboy magazine to school. I believe we need more accountable networks and communities in our schools to address these issues. Many people today assume falsely that content filters can keep our students on task and keep them away entirely from online content we consider objectionable. They can’t. We need to acknowledge this and adopt MUCH more balanced filtering rules in our schools than we have at present in MANY places.

Praise God we live in a relatively free society. (I won’t digress into a diatribe about The Patriot Act here.) I’ve lived in Mexico, and I’ve visited mainland China twice, Hong Kong once. We believe in freedom of expression and in freedom more generally. The enforced rules of content filtering in many of our schools do not, in my view, reflect our values as citizens of the United States or as citizens of a free society. My September 2007 post, “Content filtering in Communist China versus an Oklahoma school” highlighted some of these contrasts. We should NOT block all video sharing sites, all sites permitting social networking, all wiki sites, and all blogs in our schools. Yet sadly, that is EXACTLY what many of our schools in Oklahoma specifically do now. This is wrong, and I believe we all have a responsibility to help fix this situation.

I acknowledge this is a complicated problem, and no– I do not ascribe to you as a technology director the powers of God. You are in a vitally important role, and I cannot put myself in your shoes to feel how difficult it must be at times to be caught between angry parents and your school administration. These are not easy issues, and I’m not trying to paint over this with a brush which would oversimplify things that have developed because of complex interactions.

I do want to say THANKS for your service and commitment to our kids as well as educators. Educators are SO often not thanked enough, and the work you do makes a difference for many. Please understand I am NOT attacking you personally. I am trying to uncover and bring to further light a BIG problem which we need to fix together. I don’t have all the answers to this, but I am committed to working with others (like you) to find them.

Thank you for your response, and taking the time to share your views. I am listening and paying attention. Only by working with all our educational constituents can we hope to find workable solutions to issues like these.

How would you respond to JJ’s comments?

photo credit: CarbonNYC

Technorati Tags:
content, filter, filtering, oklahoma, parent, protect, school, technology, director, safe, safety, liability, concern, superintendent

Criticism of School District Content Filtering Policies is not a personal attack on ALL tech directors originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 23, 2010.

Fiore’s app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone.

I need to emphasize the above “quotation” is an ALLEGED quotation from Steve Jobs. TechCruch writer Siegler includes email header/IP information which supports the legitimacy / authenticity of the email, but it remains officially unconfirmed. (I also fixed a typo in the quotation, changing “and” to “an” at the end.)

What IS confirmed today in multiple contexts is that Apple continues to “gatekeep” the approval of applications which are in the official Apple App Store. This is controversial, but overall I think it’s a good idea. Here’s why.

Organizations and individuals who assert a “moral responsibility” today are naturally contentious. We live in a world in which some press for an elimination of all boundaries, and a removal of all limits. In a civilized and moral society, we need boundaries and limits. This is true at a societal level and at an individual level. See my January 2009 post, “Iran, Sovereignty, Colonialism and the Values of the West” for more background on this. When people in the Arab world look at the United States as “the great satan,” they are (at least to a degree) viewing “The West” as villainous and evil because of a perceived LACK of all moral boundaries. Frank Viviano’s article “Saudi Arabia: Kingdom on Edge” for National Geographic in October 2003 highlights this in much greater detail than I’ll do in this post today.

I am glad Apple is doing two things with respect to application censorship, gatekeeping, and parental controls:

1. There are applications which Apple is simply not approving to be in the official App store, because of its apparent moral stance against things like pornography.
2. Apple has provided some parental control / content restriction options for iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads which permit users to have SOME control over applications which can be purchased / downloaded. (All apps in the App Store can still be VIEWED, however, regardless of the parental control settings which are enabled. I’ll explain this in detail below.)

I certainly wouldn’t want the official Apple App Store to become a sewer of pornographic content. From a corporate profit standpoint, I’m sure that scenario would not sit well with stockholders because it wouldn’t be positively received by many consumers. It’s reasonable to speculate there are both moral and financial reasons for Apple to continue gatekeeping apps. That said, I think it’s also great Apple is gatekeeping because of the large-scale experimental comparision shaping up between the Apple App Store and the Google Android Store / Android Market. Google is apparently NOT gatekeeping apps in the same way Apple is. What will be the result? Will Google provide tools and mechanisms to keep potentially objectionable apps hidden from eyes which either do not want to see, or whose parents/guardians/teachers do not want them to see and use, those applications? Time will tell. An important experiment involving digital ethics is underway, and the results are (and will be) visible for everyone to judge independently.

Organizations and corporations, like individuals, SHOULD be permitted to define their own limits and boundaries. This is called FREEDOM. Freedom is a good thing. Freedom has up sides and down sides, but on the whole I think we should support the right of entities to determine and enforce limits / boundaries.

With this philosophic perspective in mind, I’d like to next examine what “parental controls” on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad currently enable users to do or not do in terms of limits. This is a topic I’ve been wanting to write about since Spring Break, when my 12 year old son commented in a podcast I published here that he’d seen some “weird” apps in the Apple App Store. We had a follow-up conversation in which he shared with me what he meant by “weird,” and I think these findings should be of interest to any parent or educator who has children and/or students using iPod Touches or other Apple devices. All of the screenshots I’ll be using below in this post are aggregated in a Flickr Set. These were taken on my iPhone on April 10, 2010, running the iPhone 3.1.2 firmware.

By default, an iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad does NOT have “parental controls” or “restrictions” enabled. This means “anything goes.”

Step one to using parental controls is clicking SETTINGS, GENERAL, RESTRICTIONS, and clicking ON. Restrictions can then be selected by application (for the default Apple-provided apps) and by CONTENT, using available rating systems. The screenshots below show default values for NO restrictions, when restrictions have simply been turned ON but none selected individually.

It is important for parents and educators to realize that although Apple has not (and apparently is not going to) allow pornographic applications into the official App Store, there ARE applications which have sexual themes in the store. Some of these can be found in the GAMES category, as you can see from the following screenshot taken of the “top free games” tab in the App Store on April 10th. (Note the same screen shows the popular “Words with Friends” game – this is one game my wife enjoys playing on her iPhone. Ironic juxtaposition here.)

Sexually-themed apps are also available currently in the “entertainment” category of the Apple App store:

In experimenting with parental controls / content restrictions for the iPhone / iPod Touch, the BIGGEST SURPRISE to me was that even after restrictions are selected, applications OUTSIDE the approved content categories REMAIN VISIBLE on the iPhone / iPod Touch. They simply can’t be purchased / downloaded. The apps are still there, however, INCLUDING app reviews. Some examples are below.

For this experiment, I chose to ALLOW iPhone / iPod Touch applications rated “12+” and below. Apps rated “17+” (adult/mature) were therefore “restricted.”

I chose a similar setting for movies, permitting those rated “PG-13″ and lower. “R” and “NC-17″ movies were therefore restricted:

The screenshot below was taken AFTER parental controls were enabled on an iPhone. Note an app rated “17+” is still VISIBLE:

Because parental controls / content restrictions are enabled for this app’s content rating, however, the buttons to purchase (free) and download these app are greyed out / not available:

Hopefully in a future firmware release, Apple will update its parental controls / content restrictions system so these applications are NOT VISIBLE AT ALL in the store. If an Apple application is restricted / blocked on an iPhone or iPod Touch, that icon is removed from the device entirely and not available. The same should hold true for apps in the store which do NOT meet selected content authorization guidelines.

Since these “non-authorized” applications are still VISIBLE on an iPhone or iPod Touch even when content restrictions have been enabled, it is important to realize the APPLICATION REVIEWS are also visible. The content in these reviews can (at times) certainly fall into the categories, “objectionable” and “disruptive to student learning in the classroom.”

In summary, I think Apple is not only within their legal rights to gatekeep / restrict applications which are approved for the iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad platforms, they are also rightly taking the moral high ground. I am glad Apple provides some parental control / content restriction options for these devices, but as noted above I think there are important issues which still need to be improved / addressed.

The larger issues of open content and accessibility are certainly connected to this conversation, and I am an advocate for both. It will be interesting and instructive to watch how the Google Android Store / Android Market addresses these issues, including parental controls / content restrictions. Ultimately we DO have a responsibility to prepare our children and our students “to be the filter” when it comes to content in the world. That said, it’s also reasonable to have limits and controls over what they see when they browse an application category like, “top free games.”

It’s also important (I contend) to maintain basic levels of content filtering on home Internet networks as well as at school / in the library. See the OpenDNS for Households page for more information and tutorials about one way to configure FREE home network content filtering. I’ve addressed this in the following past posts:

1. The Value of OpenDNS (free) content filtering at home (March 2008)
2. Reflections on home content filtering and OpenDNS after a year of use (January 2009)
3. Setting up a basic content filter for free at granddaddy’s house (May 2009)
4. Successful New Home Router Configuration for Videoconferencing, Dynamic DNS and OpenDNS Content Filtering (June 2009)

Lots of important issues have been raised here. What are your thoughts, and where do you stand in these debates?

Technorati Tags:
apple, content, digital, ethics, google, ipad, iphone, ipod, store, touch, android, censor, censorship, restrict, guidelines, parental, protect

iPhone / iPod Touch Parental Controls, Digital Ethics, Open Access, and Apple as App Gatekeeper originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 20, 2010.

Synchronized slidecasts like this are free to create on SlideShare, and can be powerful examples of asynchronous learning. Only about 75 people could fit in our conference breakout room at the Moore Norman Technology Center on Monday. There is no limit to how many people can view and listen to this presentation on Slideshare. For referenced websites, videos, and other resources in this presentation, check out the podcast shownotes for this presentation.

Technorati Tags:
communication, future, librarian, library, slideshare, technology, fryer

Communicating In The Digital Age (SlideShare Slidecast) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 20, 2010.

This podcast is a recording of a presentation shared by Wesley Fryer with librarians and staff of the Pioneer Library System of Oklahoma on February 15, 2010, in Moore. Our digital communications landscape today includes far more than email. By working in the “cloud” using collaborative environments like Google Docs and Google Reader, we flexibly access as well as share information on a variety of computing platforms. This session is a practical overview of the communications landscape of the early 21st century, as well as tips for library media specialists about ways to constructively and powerfully utilize these capabilities.

Show Notes:

1. Presentation slides on SlideShare (available as a synchronized Slidecast)
2. Referenced websites in this presentation on ShareTabs
3. Communicating In The Digital Age (Google Presentation)
4. Pioneer Library System (Oklahoma)
5. Sarah’s book report in VoiceThread on, “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan
6. Digital Footprints ‚ Digital Dossier (YouTube)
7. Intel “Sponsors of Tomorrow” video (YouTube)
8. Online Stopwatch
9. IBM Social Computing Guidelines
10. Social Media Guidelines for Educators (Facebook group)
11. Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
12. Technology 4 Teachers (15 week course in Spring 2010 at the University of Central Oklahoma)
13. Power of Asynchronous sharing: SlideShare “Things I Want to Model As Your Teacher“
14. One to Many Communication
15. Cloud Computing (WikiPedia)
16. Google Docs in Plain English (YouTube)
17. Collaborative Document Writing: Blogs, Wikis, Google Docs (PI4BL)
18. Google Reader
19. RSS in Plain English (YouTube)
20. All recent and upcoming presentation / workshop resources by Wesley Fryer

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Podcast339: Communicating in the Digital Age (Presentation for Pioneer Library System Librarians) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 20, 2010.

SlideShare does permit users to add YouTube videos to slides, but videos cannot be added if you opt to create a Slidecast as I have with this presentation. If you’d like to view the five videos I shared during this presentation, you can do so by viewing it as a Google Presentation. I edited the audio for each video out of the mp3 audio recording I synchronized with SlideShare. Hyperlinks to referenced resources in the Google Presentation are also available.

METC will be publishing the archived videos of keynote and featured speaker presentations in March. Live streaming of sessions during day 2 of the regular conference (Feb 10, 2010) will also be available, and remote participants are encouraged to participate in backchannel discussions on Twitter using the hashtag #metc_CSD.

I added the SlideShare Facebook application this evening to my Facebook profile. Yet another way to publish and share our ideas interactively!

Technorati Tags:
ethics, journalism, metc, metc2010, metc_csd, storychase, storychaser, storychasing, upload, video, youtube, citizen

Storychasing Literacy Keynote on SlideShare (METC 2010) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 10, 2010.

The recently released video, “RE: Cry of the Dolphins,” is a clever and thought-provoking anti-cyberbullying effort by Google/YouTube, the National Crime Prevention Council and Saatchi & Saatchi. Watch closely, you’ll probably be surprised what happens.

“Think before you comment” is a slogan many more web users need to take to heart. Circle of Respect is:

…the National Crime Prevention Council’s (NCPC) latest and most comprehensive campaign to protect youth from bullying and cyberbullying. Launching in October [2009], the campaign seeks to change the commonly held belief that bullying is a rite of passage, and teaches instead that such behavior is unacceptable through a positive, pro-social message that encourages respect and consideration for others. To succeed in its mission, the Circle of Respect will feature an education campaign, outreach materials including publications and public service advertising, and partnership efforts to reach a national audience.

This video (RE: Cry of the Dolphins) is one of the Circle of Respect project’s outreach videos. Kudos to the authors and producers.

H/T to Melodie Fulmer of the Oklahoma State Department of Education (21st Century Schools Program) for alerting me to this video.

Technorati Tags:
ad, psa, video, youtube, cyberbully, cyberbullying

A reminder to address and stop cyberbullying – RE: Cry of the Dolphins originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 19, 2010.

My request to follow updates was granted, so I am able to see and follow OKCPS Twitter updates once I log into Twitter, but I’m quite mystified why the district continues to have a “protected” Twitter account. The district’s Facebook fan page is not protected, so anyone can click the link provided on the OKCPS homepage and immediately become a ‘fan.’ I certainly encourage both individuals as well as organizations to carefully consider who they choose to “follow” in Twitter, since we can be judged by the company we keep both online and in person, but protecting updates on Twitter in this context seems counterproductive to the goal of providing an open and free flow of information and updates about your organization.

Worse than setting up a Twitter account and protecting updates, however, is the practice of setting up an organizational Twitter account and never using it or using it only once.

Servenet.org is a nonprofit I learned about because of a visit to The King Center online today and a link in their left sidebar under “Get Involved.” Servenet includes a prominent icon on the right sidebar of their website homepage inviting visitors to follow them on Twitter.

The organization’s Twitter account has only been updated once, however, in March 2009.

If Twitter use is something which is going to be “phased in” for Servenet, I’d say it’s about time to start tweeting!

Tools like Ping.fm can help individuals post information updates to multiple accounts simultaneously. I use the free WordPress plugin Twitter Tools to send new posts on several blogs immediately to Twitter. I have not figured out how to post updates to an organizational Facebook “fan” page from WordPress, but I’m sure there must be a way. (We needed this for the K-12 Online Conference this year, and had to manually copy/paste Twitter updates to our Facebook page.)

My advice to organizations regarding inactive Twitter and Facebook pages is: If you’re not going to use one of these platforms to regularly communicate with constituents, don’t set up the accounts in the first place! If you’re going to setup an organizational Twitter account, don’t protect your updates. As an organization, you’re using Twitter to better communicate with people on the public Internet. Protecting your updates impedes others being able to view your updates, so it doesn’t make sense to do it.

For individuals, however, I’d give different advice. I think it is important to try out and experiment with different types of social media tools. After creating a profile on a website, however, I think it’s worth considering whether or not you want to maintain or delete that account. I probably need to delete my profile on MySpace which I never use and hadn’t visited (until this evening as I composed this post) for months. This is not the case with Twitter, since it does not provide a “comment wall,” but with sites like MySpace, FaceBook, and others your account can accumulate unwanted and/or inappropriate comments over time which could reflect poorly on your digital footprint. I guess we could call this process “digital footprint cleanup” or “digital footprint maintenance.” If you’re a technology early-adapter you likely have accounts on multiple sites on which you’re no longer active. It’s important to realize some profiles on some social networking sites continue to actively “live” and may grow… so consider carefully if you want to keep those accounts or delete them if you find yourself not using them.

I have found it helpful (thanks to a tip from James Deaton months ago) to maintain a list of the websites to which I actively contribute on ClaimID. (claimid.com/wfryer) I went ahead and deleted my MySpace page from that list this evening, but haven’t deleted my actual MySpace profile yet. I also deleted it from my “Connections and Contributions” links in my blog’s left sidebar, along with links to the TechLearning Blog (to which I no longer contribute regularly), the website 43Things, and my handouts site on PBworks which I’m migrating to wiki.wesfryer.com (made with Google Sites) in 2010. Lots of digital footprint maintenance!

I’ve collected a series of links and put them in my course outline for my “Technology 4 Teachers” course this semester, under the heading, “Digital Footprints, Privacy and Information Disclosure.” I recently added a link to Yahoo’s Safety website: FAQs about your Digital Reputation. I think it’s a good idea to use the term “digital reputation” when discussing these “digital footprint” ideas and skills with students.

It’s important to be both proactive and vigilant when it comes to protecting our digital reputations and digital footprints.

Technorati Tags:
account, digital, footprint, management, reputation, twitter, inactive, organization

Protected and inactive organizational Twitter accounts, Digital Footprint Maintenance originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 18, 2010.

My 9 year old, Sarah, led this session several weeks ago in Maine at the ACTEM09 Conference. Thanks to TWiT Podcast 218, I learned this week (in advance of the session in Tonganoxie) that Google Profiles now officially permit users to assertively take some control over the results displayed when others search for names on Google. This is how my Google profile is shown at the bottom of search results for my name:

I showed and demonstrated this in today’s presentation. According to the Google Profiles website:

What do people see when they find you online? You can control how you appear in Google by creating a personal profile…

Help people find the right information when they search for you on Google.

Create a personal page that links to your blog and other profiles.

Keep family and friends up to date with your contact info and photos.

Google Profiles joins claimid.com and friendfeed.com as free sites which can be used to “stake your virtual claim” in cyberspace for your own digital footprint, similar metaphorically to the ways 3rd graders in many Oklahoma schools “stake claims” as they re-enact the land runs of the late 1800s in the United States.

Both Google Profiles (of course) and Friendfeed are owned and operated by Google. ClaimID is a service catering to online reputation management, defined on WikiPedia as:

…the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media. It is also sometimes referred to as online reputation monitoring, maintaining the same acronym.

This is similar to but different from online identity management, defined as:

… online image management or online personal branding or personal reputation management (PRM) is a set of methods for generating a distinguished Web presence of a person on the Internet. That presence could be reflected in any kind of content that refers to the person, including news, participation in blogs and forums, personal web sites, social media presence, pictures, video, etc.

My Google Profile, Friendfeed page, and ClaimID website all contain similar links to sites to which I contribute periodically. Of these, my ClaimID page is the most comprehensive.

Another change from my presentation at ACTEM about “digital footprints” was the use of a video from EduTopia’s Digital Generation Project today. This fantastic video series includes ten videos about diverse youth around the United States who are using digital technologies for fun and learning. I heard Milton Chen talk about and share the Digital Generation Project last week in Hangzhou, China. Today I shared Virginia’s Story with our session participants. These videos are superb to use in sessions like this discussing Internet safety and digital citizenship. Virginia is a student of Vicki Davis in Camilla, Georgia.

I also drew a bit on some slides I’d prepared for librarians in Norman, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, in a session titled, “Digital Citizenship in Libraries: Constructively Leveraging the Power of the Social Web.” The complete Ustream video archive of that 2 hour session is available. During both Wednesday’s presentation for librarians and today’s digital footprint session for Kansas educators, I shared results from the 2008 study “Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies” by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States. This study, among other things, dispelled several “myths” about social networking and dangers youth face online.

We discussed but did not adequately answer the question, “At what age should students start publishing under their own, full name? We discussed the value of students posting under an “alias” before they are ready to post under their real name online, and then when they reach that stage of readiness “claiming” their aliased online identity to include past digital artifacts in their online, digital portfolio. This was a suggestion made by Ginger Lumen in her May 2009 presentation at PodStock, “Students as Self-Advocates: Why/How Learners Should Craft Their Own Digital Footprints.” In addition to Ginger’s provided wiki resources, a complete audio podcast of that session is also available. On the subject of digital citizenship, I also recommend Robyn Treyvaud’s presentation, “The Natives are Getting Restless: Growing Up and Learning in a Web 2.0 World.” I wish I’d remembered to share the YouTube video, “Digital Dossier” during our session today, as Robyn did in Hong Kong in September. This video speaks very well to our need to proactively monitor and craft our digital footprints.

The August 31, 2009, post “The Social Media Mullet” on Blogging 4 Jobs includes some interesting advice for the percentage of an adult’s digital footprint which should be allocated to professional posts and content relative to personal ones. H/T to MetroTech (OKC) for this link.

Resources from my keynote and both breakout sessions at TIC TAC are available from this link, which I shared via a free SMS business card using Contxts during our opening session in the morning. H/T to Karen Montgomery for sharing Contxts with me months ago. It’s a great way to provide others with a link to your presentation resources and handouts!

Technorati Tags:
google, management, profile, claimid, identity, reputation, sms, contxts

Google Profiles, Online Reputation Management, and Digital Footprints originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 13, 2009.

The highlight of the presentation, IMHO, was Rachel teaching the librarians about the commercial social networking website Club Penguin. Her segment begins in the second video clip below, at minute mark 18:20.

I was able to successfully Ustream the session live and archive the video, but for some reason Ustream split it into two parts. The audio quality was pretty good, since I used my Nady Wireless Mic setup, but I had the Ustream video quality ratcheted down because of a prior test in a location with poorer bandwidth. I wish I’d increased it for today’s Ustream, but at least the entire session did record fine with good audio. I apologize for the graininess of the video, and the fact that the projector’s screen is not readable in the video.

It was a delight to share this presentation and these ideas with Oklahoma public librarians, and again present with one of my children as I’ve been able to do several times this fall. Kids really can be effective communicators about technology topics with adults, and it’s a delight to see my own children developing their confidence and poise speaking in public.

I’m an outspoken advocate for balanced approaches to Internet filtering in our schools, and it’s wonderful to see our Oklahoma librarians recognizing the constructive potential of social and digital media as well as the safety concerns they present. Hopefully more of our K-12 school administrators will get on this bandwagon as well in the months ahead. Many thanks to Robyn Treyvaud, whose presentation “Our 21st Century Challenge: Developing Responsible, Ethical and Resilient Digital Citizens” at the 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong Conference inspired and informed me this past September.

The first Ustream video segment from today is 31 minutes long.

The second Ustream video segment from today is 1 hour, 28 minutes long.

Last night, thanks to Kevin Jarrett, I learned about an upcoming free webinar on Nov 18, 2009, titled, “The Power of Youth Voice: What Kids Learn When They Create With Digital Media.” Attend it if you can, or our third K-12 Online 2009 LAN Party for the free K-12 Online Conference.

Technorati Tags:
facebook, filter, filtering, library, myspace, myth, networking, oklahoma, research, social, norman, pioneer, facts, myths

Digital Citizenship in Libraries: Constructively Leveraging the Power of the Social Web originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 11, 2009.

Obviously the two girls didn’t want everyone to see the pictures, so they posted them with the privacy controls set so only friends could see them. However, the photos were copied and eventually ended up on the desk of Austin Couch, the school’s principal.

Couch then punished the girls based on the school’s athletic code, which provides sanctions for student athletes that engage in behavior in or out of school that “creates a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral or educational environment at Churubusco High School.” The two girls were barred from participating in any extracurricular activities, made to apologize for the photos to an all-male coaches board (which the complaint describes as “profoundly embarrassing”), and forced to undergo “humiliating” counseling.

Back in April 2009, a California court ruled photos posted to an online social networking website (MySpace in this situation) cannot be considered “private.” This latest case from Indiana will put this plea to the test again, but in slightly different circumstances since the posters DID share the images with privacy controls enabled.

I agree with John Palfrey’s point about online privacy on social networking sites in the article. Palfrey is a Harvard University law professor and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Polfrey, quoted in the article,

…said that the idea of privacy on social networking websites is merely an illusion, even with added privacy controls. He also believes that schools have a right to regulate a student’s online activities, but the court will have to determine if the two girls in this case had their First Amendment right violated.” The fact that it took place in cyberspace instead of in a classroom doesn’t mean you don’t enforce the rule,” he told the AP.

I do not agree that schools should have an unrestricted right to “regulate a student’s online activities,” however, and will watch this case with interest. We definitely have situations in some of our Oklahoma schools where officials have stepped over the line and ignored the fact that students in schools still do possess constitutional rights, including limited free speech. In this Churubusco High School case, it appears the school officials took an overly broad interpretation of what constitutes a “disruption in the school environment.” Since the photos were taken the previous summer, made no reference to school, and were not brought into the school by the students in question, it seems highly doubtful the school administration can make a disruption case following the Tinker precedent. Of course, I’m also not a school lawyer, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Whatever the court rules in this case, the fact is that these photos have gone public and the girls in question are understandably embarrassed. This supports my primary point in this post: Photographic privacy is over. Whether or not you post a photo online or someone else does, it can end up on the desk of your school principal, your boss at work, or your mother. We may not like it, we can gripe about it, but this is the reality of the online, networked world in which we live.

In contexts like this, it certainly seems wonderful NOT to be growing up as a teen today. With all your friends armed with digital cameras and camcorders on their cell phones, how many different incidents from your youth could have landed you in the principal’s office if the school district took the same posture towards those photos as school officials in Fort Wayne, Indiana have in this case?

Technorati Tags:
facebook, myspace, photo, photos, principal, privacy, school, administration

Photographic privacy is over originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 7, 2009.

Our culture practically mandates time online, he (Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis of the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development, in Seattle) says, with Wi-Fi connections in coffee shops and BlackBerries and iPhones that allow Internet access almost anywhere. “It would be as if we mandated that everyone drink two beers every day or everyone gamble for an hour every day,” says Christakis.

Are you addicted to the Internet? Is hyperlinked reading and writing consuming more of your time than is probably healthy? How about online games? How many people in your family are addicted to Farmville now? This article and cited study provides a definition of Internet addiction:

Definitions vary, but an Internet addiction usually includes symptoms such as spending a lot of time on the Internet (especially more time than intended), an inability to cut back on usage, a preoccupation with online activities, and symptoms of withdrawal such as anxiety, boredom, or irritability after a few days of not going online.

A technology fast over the upcoming holidays may be able to serve as a personal litmus test for Internet addiction. Whether or not you think you are addicted to online activities, this is a good conversation to have with your family members, students and others in your sphere of influence. Balance is essential, and online destinations are more alluring and engaging than ever. We all need to likely grapple with these issues of time spent online and balancing those activities with other priorities in our lives.

Technorati Tags:
cnn, conversation, family, health, internet, technology, balance, fast, addiction, study

Internet addiction a growing concern originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 7, 2009.

PBS is in the midst of creating a follow-up program to “Growing Up Online” called “Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier.” The website invites people around the world to send in their stories about life online and their digital experiences.

Videos have been and continue to be submitted by viewers via YouTube and tagged “dig_nat” for aggregation. PBS is publishing interview segments via their YouTube channel in advance of the final relese of Digital Nation. This short story (1.5 minutes) from Rebecca Self reflects the kind of amazing, connected tales of romance and relationships which are now possible online, and can counterbalance some of the over-the-top predator danger programs we’ve seen and heard frequently in mainstream media channels the past few years.

In the website section titled, “Living Faster: Daily life in the age of nonstop connection,” Mark Prensky and others offer perspectives on students living connected lives. Here is a 4.5 minute clip from Mark Bauerlein, author of “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30)” talking about students as “digital natives” and addressing the question, “Are They as Savvy as They Seem?” Mark argues we need “more and better web/screen activities” for young people.

I am concerned that mainstream media advocacy like this, simply for “more digital activities” for students without a pedagogic foundation in constructivist PBL, may not ultimately result in digital learning outcomes we need in our schools and society. We do NOT simply need to provide students with “more digital activities.” We need to restructure the expectations and tasks within schools so students are not simply consuming digital versions of 20th century course materials, but rather becoming active content creators and collaborators demonstrating compentency in higher order thinking all along the 2001 revision of Bloom’s taxonomy.

“Digital Nation” is scheduled for broadcast by PBS in Winter 2010. It is fantastic that program producers are publishing program segments in advance and soliciting participation from anyone. I may submit a video at some point this fall, discussing my own concerns and perspectives about digital engagement and “shifting” our schools to a CCC model. Perhaps you and your students should consider submitting video contributions as well?

Technorati Tags:
digital, kids, safety, students, life, pbs, nation, digitalnation, dig_nat, growing, isafety

Digital Nation Call for Participation – Thinking about Digital Learning Activities originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 22, 2009.

A Place is NOT a THING

showing a graphic of MySpace contacts
- your friends
– your friends’ friends
— your friends’ friends’ friends

Story of a student using YouTube, after using the software “Guitarmaster Pro Net,” simply titled: Guitar

Quite a community has grown up around this video

From “Circuits of Cool / Digital Playground” study in 2007
- average person connected to digital technology has:
– 94 phone numbers
– 78 people on instant messenger list
– 86 people in his/her social networking community

Many students today observe those statistics and note

technology is an enabler

almost all young people are using technology to ENHANCE rather than replace face-to-face interaction

2007 DEMOS report “Their Space: Education for a Digital Generation”
- found use of digital technology has been completely normalized by this generation of young people
- majority of young people use new media to make their lives easier

This generation is capable of self-regulation when kept informed about issues

THIS IS A HUGE AND IMPORTANT POINT

bedroom culture
- many methods in use by kids to keep their online activities shield from parent awareness and involvement

From study: Byron REview Children and New Technology – UK 2008
Kids always want to explore boundaries and take risks
From the executive summary:
- point 12:

Just like in the offline world, no amount of effort to reduce potential risks to children will eliminate those risks completely. We cannot make the internet completely safe. Because of this, we must also build children’s resilience to the material to which they may be exposed so that they have the confidence and skills to navigate these new media waters more safely.

- point 13:

Through the right combination of successes against these three objectives – reducing availability, restricting access and increasing resilience to harmful and inappropriate material online – we can adequately manage the risks to children online. A number of efforts are already being made in pursuit of these objectives, and the strengths and weaknesses of these are explored in Chapter 3. But we need a more strategic approach if industry, families, government and others in the public and third sectors are going to work effectively together to help keep children safe.

Gap between generations should be closed
- need to engage students in the educational process
- leverage youth’s knowledge about the online environment and safety

Australia in 2007 study: compared concerns of parents vs concerns of kids
Whose Myth? Whose Reality?
- many parents concerned about Internet addiction

Very effective strategy

Internet Safety Task Force study published in 2008: Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies
- from page 20 of the final report:

Contrary to popular assumptions, posting personally identifying information does not appear to increase risk in and of itself. Rather, risk is associated with interactive behavior. Further, youth who engage in a high number of different potentially risky online behaviors (e.g., having unknown people on a buddy list, seeking pornography online, using the Internet to harass others) are also more at risk (Wolak et al. 2008b; Ybarra et al. 2007c).

Dana Boyd was chair of the lit review committee of this study

Nancy Willard quotation from 2008, from her document “Essential Strategy” (MS WORD)

Help young people learn to do what is right, regardless of the potential of detection and punishment. To do this, we must enhance their reliance on their own internalized personal moral code. We must shift our focus away from rules and threats of punishments. Threats of punishment are simply an ineffective approach when the likelihood of detection and punishment is so remote. The message: “Don’t do this because it is against the rules” has limited impact if you believe that you are invisible and that your actions cannot and will not be detected and punished.

Instead, we must focus the attention of young people on the reasons for the rules. Rules are generally enacted because actions that violate the rules can cause harm to someone else. So our focus must be on the potential harm, not the rule. In a world where we are invisible, a much more powerful message is: “Don’t do this because if you do you will harm someone by (describe the possible harmful impact of the action) “

We used to believe before we had research, that the third level (friends of friends of friends) would be where most of the online offending takes place (strangers)
- now because of research we know it happens at the first level, FRIENDS

From study

Online bullying begins in year 2, it can be exclusion on Club Penguin

Sending and receiving of sexual content is experiencing by primary age students

Article “10 Things I Wish Adults Knew About the Online World” (MS WORD – HTML)

1. Teens Are Doing The Same Things Teens Have Always Done—Just Digitally.
2. The Predator Issue Has Been Sensationalized By The Media
3. Teens Won’t Talk About Cyber-Bullying Out Of Fear That You’ll“Take The Internet Away
4. Preteens Will Lie About Their Age Inorder To Join A Social-Networking Site
5. Teens Have A Different Perception Of Privacy Than You Do
6. Multitasking Makes Concentrating Hard—Even For Teens.
7. They Spend More Time Online For School Than You Think.
8. Teens Are Creating Media.
9. Blocking, Filtering, And Monitoring May Work For Young Children, But Notfor Teens.
10. There Are No Easy Answers.

THESE ARE GREAT RESOURCES AND I’M GOING TO USE THEM IN UPCOMING SESSIONS OF DIGITAL DIALOG

We have common naivete among youth that they are NOT publishing in “myspace” – it is a public space

research shows multi-tasking can lead to homework taking 2 or 3 times as long to complete

Advice for parents on home internet filtering: consider those filters just 1 level of protection, there must be communication about these issues regularly

Challenges of ethical behavior in these digital environments

new ethical considerations
- from D. Johnson “Teaching Students Right from Wrong” 2007 (PDF of PPT of Aug 2008 preso by Robyn)

Pornography
- stats from Online survey of 300 13-19 year olds in Australia

There is no age verification, and there is no monitoring

July 2009 study from Australia: “Teens main producers of child pornography”
- sexting

Law in Australia: kids need to understand long term impacts and ramification
- in Victoria there is no statute of limitations
- kids lose control over the ownership of that image

I THINK THE VIDEO “THINK BEFORE YOU POST” IS GOOD TO SHOW ON THIS ISSUE

Robyn recommends the website: ThatsNotCool.com

now discussing number of illegally downloaded songs on student mp3 players

What happens to your personal data?
- MySpace’s privacy policy indicates that their data/information is transmitted to the US where laws may be different than those in their country

Great online program: Triple J: Hack Half Hour. My Face

Definition of covert bullying works better than cyberbullying, have had a recent study published on this in Australia

2 in 5 students feel things stay the same or get worse after telling an adult about a bullying instance

we are working to empower students not only to protect themselves

Now watching a cyberbullying video from digizen.org
- “Let’s Fight it Together”

That video really resonates with kids, it is an excellent resource to use with them

At the heart of what we need to do to address these issues is student voice
- if students are not involved, none of these approaches are going to be effective and real

In your school, do AUPs reflect our current conditions?
- do you have incident response procedures
- what about your curriculum: how can you embed digital citizenship?
- wonderful opportunities for peer education and mentoring
- more….

Finding quality resources: Google results are overwhelming (showing examples of different queries)
- my wiki has some of these resources and more: http://digicitizen-wiki.com

New Australian cybersmart site, includes units of work students and teachers can utilize: http://cybersmart.gov.au

I will continue to remain optimistic as long as we continue to involve young people in the decisions which affect their lives

Technorati Tags:
#21chk, citizenship, digital, education, ethics, online, research, safety, technology, pornography

Our 21st Century Challenge: Developing Responsible, Ethical and Resilient Digital Citizens by Robyn Treyvaud originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 18, 2009.

Why do you think I titled this session “the natives are restless?”

Much of my background was in the government sector in Melbourne, Australia. I left to work on a laptop project with David Loder at Wellsley College. My greatest challenge: I had been in leadership positions and wanted to go back to the classroom to see how the laptop could transform my learning and my teaching. This was well over 10 years ago. At the time, I noticed the girls were using the technology very differently from the boys. Girls perceived there was not anything “for them” on the Internet and the laptop. Asked girls what you want to use the laptop for, and they said we just want to be able to communicate with each other, to create websites, and to work together / collaborate.

In those days it was Netscape Navigator, started all-girl computer club called “Geek is Chic”
- was going to be 1 lunch per week, girls really wanted to come in much more
- communication and creation really empowered the girls
- girls created a flash-based website

Taught me it’s all about meeting the needs of individual students

Then I became a PYP leader
All through these times, I became very aware of the ethical / digital citizenship side of this

On delicious, Robyn is rtreyvaud
- I used to find the biggest time wasting took place when kids used Google going to the library and doing their own research
- we used to create a website hotlist
- now using a site like delicious we don’t have to even do that
- most of the resources for today are on this account

My wiki for this topic, focusing on digital citizenship: http://digicitizen-wiki.com

aspect we’ll focus on 2nd: the 21st century literacies
- how to we teach and scaffold these to help students become critical, discerning users of these resources

Example: Introduction to Citation Machine 5.0 (from David Warlick)

“Digital media is a broad term youth use loosely to define a wide range of information and communications technologies, entertainment and news sources”
- kids navigate: internet, social networks, news media that deliver content digitally, video game consoles, mp3 players, mobile phones and other mobile devices
- digital media is ubiquitous: youth describe themselves as “always connected” and not always in front of a computer

digital media connects issues with people
- youth not overly interested in tech/media for its own sake: they are interested in social aspects, opportunities to use info/communication tools to connect with others
- connects with isues and people
- embedded in social contexts, shape relationships and extends communication

video games: youth don’t tend to see them as isolated experiences able to promote their learning on their own

Time magazine article from 2006: “In this media drenched era of blogs and podcasts, Google searches and Instant Messages young people need to acquire a new set of literacy skills that allow them…”

Example video of student voice: Learning to Change/ Changing to Learn: Student Voices
- we will discuss:
– are these students sitting in your class?
– do you know what technologies they use?
– how will you find out?
– what does this mean for schools?

Now watching: Learning to Change/ Changing to Learn

THIS MAKES ME THINK THAT I SHOULD OFFER MYSELF UP AS A FREE LEARNING CONSULTANT FOR STUDENT RESEARCH IN MY CHILDREN’S OWN SCHOOLS, TO HELP TEACHERS AS WELL AS STUDENTS DISCUSS AND DEVELOP THESE CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR INFORMATION ACCESS / RESEARCH.

Discussion questions:
- do these videos reflect contemporary teaching and learning challenges?
- If so, what are they?
- Do you agree or disagree with the ‘messages?”
- What are they?

Teacher response:
- I’m aware of students’ other world / digital world, but really I’m not able to smoothly integrate those things into what we are doing and learning in the classroom
- there are pockets of people who try to integrate those worlds

categories of sites from Slideshare, WEb 2.0 Student Teachers, 14-9-09
- Blog: post (text, audio, video, photo), read, comment, feed
- social bookmarking: web sites, bookmark, tag, share
- podcast / vodcast: audio and video, feed, podcatcher, media player
- wiki: content (text in web pages), collaborate, edit, save

Discussion questions
- Do you block sites at your school? Why or why not?
- Do you use blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and podcasts?
- How are you using them?
- What other web 2.0 applications are used at your school?

Response: the blocks at school don’t stop me from doing what I want to do, but it does prevent the teachable moment, “what do you do when you encounter this?”

reasons for blocking
- legal liability
- parental fear

Conundrum: how can we transform learning if we are not current with the technologies

Some teachers using
- wikis
- Google docs

In one school, Google Docs and the immediacy with which students can comment and respond to comments has really enhanced student writing quality
- tough part is balancing a traditional

Moral Compass: What do YOU do when no one is watching?!
- copyright and intellectual property issues play in this space

In many cases we are not scaffolding how you research and make sense of what you find when you research

Ribble/Bailey 2005 Digital Compass for the 21st Century (SEE THIS LINK FOR THE GRAPHIC OF THE DIGITAL COMPASS: I REALLY WISH THIS WAS AVAILABLE ON FLICKR AS AN IMAGE!)

Ethics in the digital age
- ethical questions are about right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust

They matter because what we do affects us individually, affects our community, and can even affect epople we do not know or see
- Australian group is now sharing videos with musical artists, talking about their creation process and the impact of not receiving money from their work

[I WOULD LIKE TO GET THE LINKS TO THOSE VIDEOS]

Video: 24 hours in the life of a digital native

The vast majority of districts prohibit:
- online chatting
- instant messaging
- sending or receiving email during school
- posting on bulletin boards or blogs
- using social networking sites

Almost all use software to block certain sites and require parents or students to sign an internet use policy

YESTERDAY WHEN ROBYN AND I WERE VISITING, I SHARED THE SITE / PROJECT “UNMASKING THE DIGITAL TRUTH”

Proxies
- do google search for proxy sites
- Example marketing text from “SneakySir” proxy site

Do you like to surf Myspace? How about Bebo? Are you at school or work, and bored, and want to access Myspace or Bebo from school or from work but those sites are blocked? Well you came to the right place. SneakySir Proxy is your answer to blocked websites like Myspace. All you have to do is enter the site you want to visit (www.myspace.com) for example, hit the “Begin Browsing” icon, and SneakySir sneaks your right through to your favorite website! Sneakysir fully supports Myspace logins, Bebo logins, Flash Arcade logins, and many more websites, all for free! You can edit your Myspace profile, view other people’s Myspace profiles, and more, all from work, home or school! Have fun browsing!

ethical dilemmas with copying digital content, file sharing, etc.

Book recommendation: Media: New Ways and Meanings by Burton, Lee

I’VE GOT TO LEAVE THIS SESSION UNFORTUNATELY TO GO SHARE MY OWN ON PODCASTING! END OF NOTES….

Technorati Tags:
education, librarian, library, literacy, media, research, school, student, teacher, technology, voice, web2, critical, educator

The Natives are Getting Restless: Growing Up and Learning in a Web 2.0 World by Robyn Treyvaud originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 17, 2009.

Robyn is the author and owner of the website CyberSafeWorld, and hails from Australia. She will share the workshops “The Natives are Getting Restless: Growing Up and Learning in a Web 2.0 World” Friday and “Opportunities & outcomes of students as partners in responding to cyber issues” on Saturday here in Hong Kong. Robyn is very focused on helping dispel myths regarding Internet dangers, and encouraging a focus on “digital citizenship” rather than simply “Internet safety” in our schools. I’m eager to learn more from her this week!

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citizenship, cyber, digital, internet, online, safety, footprint, robyn, treyvaud

Digital Footprints – Digital Dossier originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 17, 2009.

I found this video, unfortunately, when researching YouTube Community Guidelines for flagging videos. This short tutorial gives the basics on flagging.

The YouTube Online Safety Center provides an excellent set of tips and steps users as well as content creators can take if they find a video which has violated community guidelines and should be removed.

In the past six hours I’ve filed a copyright takedown request (via the YouTube copyright complaint webform) for a copied video of Sarah’s response to President Obama, which has advertising added to it, and have just flagged a response video because it includes profane and sexually explicit attacks on my daughter. I am not linking to those videos because I do not want to amplify them. Wonderfully, I can report that the attack video which I flagged was taken down by YouTube staff within 15 minutes of me flagging it.

Way to go YouTube!

Hopefully YouTube staff will respond to my copyright takedown request soon. It sounds like those requests take longer to investigate and therefore remove.

This is continuing to be an instructive journey…

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content, education, psa, youtube, flag, videos, respect, disabled, special

Addressing the R Word Proactively and Flagging YouTube Videos originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 11, 2009.

Whoa! What happened? I’m not 100% certain, but apparently thanks to Twitter and Facebook links it was shared rather widely yesterday, including on the site Reddit. (H/T to PBKrissy.)

I’m sure Sarah will be as surprised as I was to see those view statistics when she comes home from school today. How amazing to think that she shared her thoughts with over 17,000 people in the last 24 hours… The day of social networking and viral video sharing in which we live is remarkable, and is fraught with opportunities as well as dangers. In any previous era of human history, would a 9 year old have had a similar chance to share her voice and thoughts with others around the world, particularly in a comparable timeframe? I don’t think so. Even though I work with social media constantly, situations like this still amaze me.

The global stage is here.* Are we having the conversations we need to have with each other to not only remain safe, but also leverage the tremendous power this learning and communications platform affords us?

Tonight at our church here in Edmond I’m starting a 15 week course entitled, “Digital Dialog: The Intersection of Technology, Learning and Faith.” My lesson plan just changed – I’ll be sharing this video and these viewer statistics tonight as a conversation starter. I’m also going to share the TEDtalk, “Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web.”

Consider the fact that this presentation was recorded in December 2007, a year and a half ago. These statistics are amazing, but they are, in fact, outdated. Wow.

H/T to Anthony Mayfield for the reference to this video on his post, “The anonymity dilemma.”

* “The Global Stage” is a term I first heard from Marco Torres. Marco has created, btw, a new website using Squarespace. I can’t wait to hear him present in about a month at ACTEM in Augusta, Maine!

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dialog, education, obama, safety, sharing, video, youtube, viral, response

Over 17,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 9, 2009.