Safety and Education on YouTube

With the proliferation of online bullying and inappropriate postings, tagging and comments on the Web via different Web tools such as social networking sites (Facebook, My Space, etc...)  or even on YouTube, content providers are finally stepping in.

In an effort to help the online users Google, YouTube’s parent company, has just launched a new “Abuse and Safety Center” which is meant to help make the site as safe as possible for families. The new section offers tips from organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Crime Prevention Council. 

"Our new Abuse and Safety tool lets users better manage their channel, giving them the option of blocking specific users from making comments or sending e-mails, and makes communication with us about hate speech, harassment, and privacy concerns straightforward and specific," YouTube spokesperson Scott Rubin told TechNewsWorld.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/65491.html

For more info visite Goolgle's official Blog at:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/safety-education-and-empowerment-on.html

Collective Intelligence... How Private is your digital Information?

Electronic banking, digital medical records keeping, e-shopping, online or elearning, electronic tax filing, Social Networks... these are but a few of the digitals processes that we are using in our daily lives. But, are these safe, are we leaving behind a trail of information, “a digital footprint”?
Are we closer to George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen eighty-four”, where he states that "Big Brother is watching you".
John Markoff in his article “You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?” (New York Times November 19th) describes a project from M.I.T. were: “Mr. Brown and about 100 other students living in Random Hall at M.I.T. have agreed to swap their privacy for smartphones that generate digital trails to be beamed to a central computer. group of M.I.T students.”
This article offers a glimpse in the new field referred as “collective intelligence” where “The students’ data is but a bubble in a vast sea of digital information being recorded by an ever thicker web of sensors, from phones to GPS units to the tags in office ID badges, that capture our movements and interactions. Coupled with information already gathered from sources like Web surfing and credit cards, the data is the basis for an emerging field called collective intelligence.”
“You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?”

Scared Of Technology? You're Old!

Ask a teen how he uses his cell phone and he will tell you that it is for texting. Ask the same question to most adults and they will tell you they use it for voice communication, “a portable phone”. Therein lays one of the differences between “digital natives and digital immigrants”.
“Digital Natives” (Mark Prensky, author, speaker, CEO of Games2train, etc... claims to have coined the phrase) are quite at ease when it comes to using digital tools that surround them and that are readily available to all. If you observe most young students or teens using technology, the first thing that you will notice is their fearless approach in using the new technologies, be it hardware such as computers, mp3, iPods etc... or software applications such as Social Networking.
On the other hand, you have the “Digital Immigrants” (those who are expected to adapt, assimilate and embrace the newfound technologies) are often reluctant in using these new gizmos and gadgets.
Why the discrepancy? Well it appears to be linked to your age. “According to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, your age might have something to do with your attitudes and emotions surrounding technology.” (ReadWriteWeb: Scared Of Technology? You're Old! Written by Sarah Perez / November 17, 2008).
For more detailed information read Sarah Perez’s article Scared Of Technology? You're Old! on ReadWriteWeb’s blog.

Screen Recording: CamStudio (Free)

When remote asynchronous training is required there is nothing more helpful and powerful than being able to record the training or teaching session. Screen recording software allows the trainer to record either or both, their screen, voice and mouse clicks. The sessions can then be posted or distributed to others.

When selecting such an application, users have a variety of tools that are readily available (Captivate, Connect, Camtasia, Quick Screen Recorder, etc...) but, at some cost.

CamStudio (Open Source) is free streaming video software that will allow the user to record anything on their screen, from mouse movements to animations. (E.g. record a Google Earth expedition).

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).
Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

• You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
• Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?
• You can create video tutorials for school or college class
  You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
• You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell
• You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them

CamStudio (Open Source): http://camstudio.org/

Editing your Google Searches

It never fails! Whenever you are searching for something on the Web you are bombarded by a multitude of results, not always relevant to what you are searching for. In an effort to help users customize their searches Google has enabled users to modify the favourite repeat searches. "Google simply wants to make specific sets of results more useful to each individual that comes to its search engine, said Marissa Mayer, who oversees the company's search products. Users will have to have a personal login to take advantage of the editing feature." BusinessWeek

The new system called "SearchWiki" allows users that are logged on to their Google account to modify their searches by selecting one or several of the tools.

As with other Google Apps, the "SearchWiki" is limited to the Google users who have an account.

Suspended Teacher in Facebook Incident Ignites Debate: Should Online Privacy for Educators Exist?

With the proliferation of Social Networks, users tend to forget that what they post is not that confidential, even when they think it is.

Digital Natives (coined by Marc Prensky) are quite adept and comfortable when using current technologies but for some, there is a "laissez faire" attitude in the way they use the new technology. Unlike Vegas, chances are that what they post on the Web will stay on the Web (Archive.org is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form with over 85 million pages). Users should be aware that perspective employers are now using the social networking sites to screen candidates. (When screening job candidates, one in four employers uses the Internet to acquire personal information, and one in 10 uses or has used social networking sites (like facebook.com or MySpace.com) for the same purpose... Employers use Facebook in hiring process).

As Digital Immigrants, we must ask ourselves, are we teaching them (digital natives) how to navigate safely the Web?

For those still doubting the power of Web 2.0 read the article, that appeared in the November issue of the "THE Journal". "...attorney John Gresham is quoted as saying, "Facebook pages are only meant to be viewed by people permitted to see them." He questioned how the private postings became public ...

Portable Applications

Wouldn't it be nice to have access to some of your favourite software applications from any computer (running on the same Operating System (OS) as yours)? Chances are that when you are using another computer those favourite apps are not available, or they could be a different version. There are two distinct ways that you could go about using the same tools regardless of the computer you use.

1. Collaborative on-line tools
   
2. Portable Applications on your USB flash drives (requires that you run the same OS)
   

Now with the advent of larger capacity USB flash drives you can now travel with your favourite tools. According to Wikipedia : "A portable application, or portable app for short, is a software program that does not require any kind of formal installation onto a computer's permanent storage device to be executed, and can be stored on a removable storage device". A quick search on the Web will reveal a wealth of free portable applications.

Here is a list of my favourite applications that I regularly use.

Suggested list of Portable Applications

• Audacity Portable (A simple audio editor and recorder)
  
• FastStone Capture 5.3 or (Site 2) (A powerful, lightweight, yet full-featured screen capture tool that allows you to easily capture and annotate anything on the screen ) (N.B. the latest version of Capture v6 is Shareware)
  
• FastStone Image Viewer 3.5 (An image browser, converter and editor)
  
• FastStone Photo Resizer 2.5 (Convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermark to images in a quick and easy BATCH mode.)
  
• Flv-Player S A powerful version of Flv-Player)
  
• OpenOffice.org Portable (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility)
  
• VLC Media Player Portable (An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats)
  
• 7-Zip Portable (File archiver and compressor)
  

A New Way of Searching for Videos

Did you know that the fastest growing segment on the Internet is, the uploading, viewing and downloading of video files, from large full length movies to small clips (some legal while others are not) posted on sites such as DotSub, Blip, TeacherTube or the perennial favourite, YouTube. ! (BTW, according to Jim Cicconi, vice president of legislative affairs for AT&T, "the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010" (read the full article) and videos are using up a good part of the pipe).

By far, the most widely video site used is YouTube but, with all of these video files out there, how do you search and find those gems, (tutorials, demos, etc...)?

If you are searching YouTube you can use their built in search engine or you could use the iDesktop.tv Web site. iDesktop.tv brings you a better way to search and watch YouTube videos and yes, you can download YouTube videos!

"The various content and popularity of YouTube are indisputable but iDesktop.tv gives you the opportunity to manage that content in many possible ways:

Features / Benefits

• The REAL Web 2.0 Experience
  
• Interface, designed to be used just like every other desktop application
  
• Fast flexible searching, displaying the results with option to resize them, so you can watch YouTube videos on a plasma TV, sitting in your sofa - will look just as perfect!
  
• Managing Playlist - create and save playlists to watch later or share them with friends! You have all standard features for shuffle and repeat mode, buttons to go to the next or previous video and to clear the playlist, with scrollable menus
  
• Watching multiple YouTube videos at the same time - you can have more than one player open - all made easy using standard functionality - dragging and resizing the windows, minimizing them within the tray - never been easier!
  
• Pop out player for simplified watching, in another browser window
  
• Download YouTube videos as avi, mp4 (ipod), mov, 3gp and 3gp2 (mobile), wmv, flv, exe (built in standalone player) - all converted on the fly. That gives you the chance to save all your favourite YouTube videos on your computer, iPod, iPhone or other device and watch them whenever you want.
  
• Drag and Drop interaction - Allows you to drag videos around to create a new player or playlist.
  
• Choose from 12 themes - set the way the site looks according to your mood
  
• View the video in fullscreen format
  
• Share videos with friends - send url's and recommend videos to friends through e-mail
  
• Get the URL of each YouTube video
  
• View the last 50 videos played
  
• Create and manage a list of your favourite YouTube videos and watch them whenever you want just with one click
  
• View YouTube adult content
  
• Import playlists and favourites from your YouTube account, or any account you subscribe to or a channel provider
  
• Dim the background while watching videos
  
• View the video in 4 different ratios, 16:9, 4:3, custom and the video's original
  
• Refined searching options. You can sort your results by relevance, date, rating or view count"
  (http://www.idesktop.tv/ (About))

Tech Tuesday: Smart Ideas

For those who attended the workshops on Smart Ideas v5, here are some links to sites that could help you.

Smart Ideas Update v5.1 for Vista (licensed by OSAPAC)

Nipissing University ITeach (Tutorials)

SMARTboard Links to Engaging Learners

Smart Ideas Templates

Helping Mother Earth on Earth Day and Every Day!

Do you want to reduce your carbon footprint while surfing the Web?
Well here is an interesting way in doing this without leaving the confort of your chair or even sacraficing the use of your favorite search engine, Google or Yahoo.

• Each time you use ecocho as your search engine, you'll be helping to slow climate change.
• How? For every 1000 searches that users make on ecocho.com, up to two trees will be grown to offset carbon pollution emissions
• Switching to ecocho.com doesn't alter or slow your search. Search results are displayed via technology you already know and trust - Yahoo and Google
• ecocho.com is the world's first known search engine that enables users to offset their own carbon emissions for free
• ecocho.com is an international initiative to reduce global warming. The service is multi-lingual and is being rolled out globally.
• Trees are grown via official Government-accredited projects.
• KPMG will run quarterly and final year-end audits on the amount of carbon credits purchased and "retired" by ecocho
• Yahoo and Google have both given their support to the project, contributing the search results for the site
• ecocho.com aims to contribute 70 per cent of revenue back into carbon offset credits, for the growth of trees
• Now everyone can help reduce global warming by switching to ecocho.com as their internet search engine (http://www.ecocho.ca/lang_en/whats-ecocho.php)
  

For more information visit the ecocho site at http://www.ecocho.com, depending on where you live, you will be redirected to your countries site, (ecocho.ca, etc...).

IT SummIT-VI Recap

The IT SummIT-VI: Collaborative Learning & Social Networking was a great success! There were over 150 participants who attends the nine different sessions.
Congratulation to Chris in wining the iTouch. As mentioned in the closing remarks, all participants will be receiving their USB memory stick via the pony as soon as they come in.

A big thank you to all who presented and those who helped.
We hope to see you next year.
Gabe

IT Summit-VI: Collaborative Learning & Social Networking

Please visit the SummIT-VI blog for information about:

Collaborative Learning & Social Networking

Social Software

We are all familiar with the common buzz words that create and drive the current technologies, but what about “Social Software”.
Social Software can be defined as the current technologies that enable users to create communities and resources to collaborate and build together.
In their book, Wikinomics, Tapscott and Williams site the fact that:

“Billions of connected individuals can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social development in ways we once only dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate, they collectively can advance the arts, culture, science, education, government, and the economy in surprising but ultimately profitable ways.”

Social Software is a broad term that basically supports multi-user interaction, the sharing of ideas, knowledge and feedback required to grow as a community.

With the advent and evolution of the Internet, we are now better able to communicate and collaborate with others. Some of these tools have evolved from chat rooms and now include: Wikis, Blogs, Instant messaging, Learning Management Systems, and Collaborative real-time editors (such as Google’s Notebook). One cannot overlook the gaming communities that allow the interaction of hundreds if not millions of users in a virtual environment.
For a more complete list of social software see “List of social software”

So how do we use these in education? Most of our students are already aware of or are using some of these tools, so why not use them in their education? Most, if not all of these tools are available for free and only require connectivity.
In my next post we will explore Wikis.

Blogs, Blogs and more Blogs

As of September 2007, the blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs.

So, what is a Blog?

According to Wikipedia, “A blog (web + log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.”

The University of Lethbridge's Faculty of Education has a very brief definition.
Blog - A web log: an on-line diary or frequently updated personal web page.

Here is a quick online video by CommonCraft on“Blogs in Plain English”

DotSub.com
You can also view it on: TeacherTube, Blip.tv

How can you use Blogs with your students.

10 ways to use your edublog to teach

There are many ways you can use an edublog in your teaching, here are ten to get you started

1. Post materials and resources
2. Host online discussions
3. Create a class publication
4. Replace your newsletter
5. Get your students blogging
6. Share your lesson plans
7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions
8. Organise, organise, organise
9. Get feedback
10. Create a fully functional website

http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/