Fun On Friday #146: Facebook fool

It was this article that particularly caught my eye: Criminally Stupid.

International Money Pile in Cash and Coins,
a photo by epSos.de on Flickr.

Clearly the robber in Criminally Stupid has never had an Internet safety lesson, or if he has, it wasn't very effective! It made me wonder if funny news stories like this could be used as a starter to more serious topics.

Backbytes in general is worth a read. Other recent stories that amuse me include An education in tweeting, The very definition of a geek, and They know where you live.

What's your favourite?

Safer Internet Day

Heard a chap from CEOP on the Today programme this morning but I didn't catch the start and only realised it was Safer Internet Day when I read Terry Freedman's excellent online newsletter, Computers in Classrooms, this morning.

Franci plays maze
Originally uploaded by nico.cavallotto

The problems and issues are obvious (e.g. When the tech becomes unfriendly) but what to do about it isn't always so clear. The CEOP Safer Internet Day site has a number of good resources and ideas that will help. For example, there is a video competition which, apart from anything else, provides an example of the positive use of the Internet since the video competition entries will be posted on YouTube.

I suspect that online safety is an area that is worth revisiting and reminding myself about on a regular basis because, even though I like to think I am fairly knowledgeable about the pitfalls as well as the possibilities of online communication, I can still be caught out on occasion. For example, the theme of this year's day is Think Before You Post and an incident this morning shows I need to think more carefully about what I say online. I sent a tweet to a friend when he said he was at the shops. I asked why he wasn't at school and accused him of truanting... except I used a colloquialism for truanting which is in common use (or at least used to be) in the West Coast of Scotland. Unfortunately, this once innocent term has now acquired adult connotations and I received an unwelcome re-tweet as a result of this alternative interpretation. That'll learn me to Think Before I Post! What I mean to say isn't always what people read into it.

What do you think? Are regular reminders of Internet safety issues a good idea or can they be counter-productive? Are you doing anything for Safer Internet Day?

Facebook Privacy Settings

Saw a great post today on the new Facebook Privacy settings policy: Facebook privacy settings: What you need to know. It makes interesting reading (and watching as there is an embedded video).

Te blog's author, Graham Cluley, gives excellent advice on the settings you should use on facebook. In fact, he gives good general advice, for example, he admits to lying about his date of birth on facebook. This is a tactic I've adopted for some time on a variety of sites that insist I give them my date of birth. Often I can see that they need to know I am over a certain age but I don't see why most of them need to know my date of birth. Surely a check box to assert that I am the appropriate age (is it fourteen for facebook?) is effectively fulfilling the same function?

I was pleased to see that I had already set my privacy settings to the levels he suggested. Also, just to reassure myself, I had a look to see what I had filled in on my profile and again was pleased to see I had omitted most of the more sensitive information anyway. Having said that, I am aware that I have been using the Internet a long time and I am sure there is information out there that I have revealed in the past that I probably wouldn't reveal now.

For a slightly different take on the same issue, can I recommend The Joy of Tech.

Question
What do you think? Storm in a privacy teacup? Is it a case of, if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear?

Torbay RTC: New World Literacy

Live blog from #torbayrtc

Michael Munn is asking "Why are we here?" Can ICT make a difference? Michael believes that ICT can make a difference - can improve education for learners and teachers. Covering similar ground to Torbay RTC: iTunes U but emphasising the importance of content creation. If it is true that learners are moving from information consumers to information producers (on facebook, Blogger, YouTube, etc.) then content creation tools are important literacy tools.

Does adopting technology mean you have to drop something else? Or does using ICT tools enhance and develop rather than replace "traditional" elements (such as literacy and numeracy).

Talking again about iTunes U. Apparently the Open University has had over ten million downloads since they started putting stiff on iTunes. This is a sea change - universities (and others) are giving away their content instead of locking it away until someone signs up for a course. {Interesting - means that school pupils can access university level subject resources. I wonder how many do and what the implications are for school subject teaching? - DDM Also, during the presentation, somebody tweeted a link to The Argument for Free Classes via iTunes.}

Michael is arguing that there is a drive to producing interactive content. Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is not spending any more money on books for the State's schools. This implies the need for everyone to have a portable device - for example a mobile phone (see The iPhone and the Scientist and Mobile phones - A Weapon of Mass Instruction). Surveys suggest 95% of high school children have a mobile phone but most schools still ban them.

Now talking about learning communities: the ease and efficiency of creating and sharing digital content. "In times of change, learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer.

Podcasting and Reading on the Internet (#ecer2009)

Live blog captured during presentation by Carita Kiili*, Leena Laurinen and Miika Marttunen from University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Podcasting and Reading on the Internet

Discussed the need to develop web-literacy skills. The researchers wanted to support students internet reading skills: to help them search more effectively, to process the text they find appropriately and to collaborate on making sense of what they find.

Reported on the analysis of episodes, i.e. thematic entities that serve particular function. They analysed how students acted in the set tasks. For example how much time did they spend on gathering the information, considering concepts, proposing solutions, presenting and evaluating arguments, ... Some groups were very focused in their approach wheras others were more fragmented. Most of the students time was spent on gathering information and proposing or evaluating arguments.

They found evidence that students were co-constructing knowledge and that metacognative co-regulaton took place. They found that argumentative task instruction, especially when working in groups rather than researching on their own, seemed to support students' text processing ability.

Computer teachers’ attitude toward ethical use of computers (#ecer2009)

Computer teachers’ attitude toward ethical use of computers in elementary schools

Ozer, Niyazi; Beycioglu, Kadir; Ugurlu, Celal Teyyar
Affiliations: Inonu University, Turkey

The researchers looked at teachers attitudes to ethical uses of computers and tried to describe attitudes and understanding. (There are 60 female teachers and 81 male teachers in the study.) Looked at beliefs and behaviours.

Only 5 people had courses related ti cyber ethics in higher education and only 39 had had any cyber ethics training while in post. Most therefore used printed or visual material (e.g. internet) for information on cyber ethics.

Females showed a statistically significant more ethical beliefs about ethical computer use. Teachers who had pre-service course also showed more ethical beliefs {Should add to ITE courses? - DM}. Younger teachers also show more ethical attitudes to computer use - possibly to do with increased access to computers among young people and the development of cyber ethics courses in recent years.

Definitions of cyber ethics include things like copyright, respecting privacy, plagiarism, software theft, ...

Fun on Friday #31: If it's on the Web - it must be true!

A conversation at lunchtime today on whether sheep could really roll across cattle grids led us to conclude that if it is on the Internet, it must be true.

cattle grid
Originally uploaded by minipixel

To prove the point, here are some helpful websites that I have come across.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division: A very useful site warning against the dangers of this substance. For example, did you know that, "DHMO is a constituent of many known toxic substances, diseases and disease-causing agents, environmental hazards and can even be lethal to humans in quantities as small as a thimbleful"?

The Ova Prima Foundation: This body has scientific proof that answers one of the longest standing and most basic of all scientific questions. I feel a logical extension to this research is required but perhaps getting ethical approval for the road-crossing exercise would be too difficult.

The Official Carluke Gude: If you are planning to holiday in Scotland, or perhaps wish to set up business here, you should check out the valuable information provided by this site before you settle on particular location.

Please share the sites you find most helpful by leaving a comment on this post.

Cheaters never win and winners never cheat!

This article from the Guardian suggests that the old adage from the tile of this post may not be true:

...almost one in two Cambridge University students in a poll of 1,000 admitted to cheating in their studies.

Footballistic cheetah
Originally uploaded by Tambako the Jaguar

One in two! Grief! Given that this is from a report by a consultancy firm called Plagiarism Advice, they may be asking a very broad definition of cheating and bigging up the problem... but one in two is worrying what ever definition of cheating you use. Perhaps most worrying of all though is the revelation that: "Law students were the most likely to plagiarise, with 62% saying they had broken university rules."

To me, this underlines the importance of exploring issues to do with internet literacy and responsible online citizenship at school level. I suspect we also need to look at how we assess students if the best essays come from jiggling around a bit with the order of stuff found in a Google search on the essay title.

So that's the aim; but how do we teach this sort of internet literacy? What should assessment look like in the Internet age?

P.S. Not sure why Facebook is named and shamed in the article's headline. Any suggestions?