Group items tagged

Do Not Track is a personalized documentary series about privacy and the web economy. If you share data with us, we'll show you what the web knows about you. This documentary series will explore how information about you is collected and used. Every two weeks, we will release a personalized episode that explores a different aspect of how the modern web is increasingly a space where our movements, our speech and our identities are recorded and tracked.

"As I lamented in my last post, many of the fabulous Web tools out there are restricted to users 13 and over. This limits what Elementary/Primary schools students can access online to create content to collaborate. To save others at school some time, then, I have compiled a list of popular/well known Web tools that can and can't be used by children under 13 - 1), so we are legally covered in what we are allowing our students to use and 2), so they know what is available. Please note that generally the sites that allow for under 13s still ask for parental permission ( even Edmodo if you haven't read the Terms of Use) so a solid school user agreement is needed to use these tools. Some of the sites are not US based so are not bound by COPPA and CIPA regulations. It still requires schools to carefully check out what can be viewed on these sites to ensure they are appropriate to access."

A guide to staying safe and secure online from Google Explore quick tips and how-to's that explain what you can do to stay safe and secure on the web. Get advice from parents at Google and family safety experts on how to help your family safely surf the web. Learn how Google helps protect you.

"Michael Fraser calls it the ''rubbish web''. That is the internet we will be left with in five to 10 years unless governments and cyber corporations fix the holes that allow criminals to infiltrate the world wide web and strip global citizens of their identity, money and dignity, he believes. In his bleak view, those who can afford it will retreat behind private corporatised security walls."

"Today's schools are focusing on boosting kids' technological proficiency and warning them about the perils of the web. But something critical is missing from this education. When Reuben Loewy took up his first teaching gig in 2012, he had a major revelation: The digital revolution has dramatically transformed the way that kids perceive reality."

"The internet is the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and is not a technology that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has claimed in a rare public appearance. Assange acknowledged that the web could allow greater government transparency and better co-operation between activists, but said it gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents."

This site contains a range of attractive and powerful tools for the creative use of Web 2.0.

"Information and communications technologies (ICT) policies in schools have two dimensions. One is to ensure that students are protected from pernicious materials on the Internet. The other is to enable student access to the extensive resources on the Internet for learning and teaching. While these two dimensions are not intrinsically in conflict, in actuality, such can become the case."

Some tools that may be useful for Assignment 1.

This concept paper explores citizenship in a digital age. The potential of Web 2.0 tools highlights the importance of educational institutions' consideration of the use of these tools in school settings to promote citizenship at a time when students are already exposed to powerful online communication platforms. First, a description of three Web 2.0 tools, blogs, wikis, and online social networks, is provided. This is followed by an exploration of digital citizenship. Then, several cases in recent history where Web 2.0 tools played an important part in promoting democracy and social justice are examined. Finally, using a lens of digital citizenship, several instructional suggestions are provided for educators to help students experience and understand multiple layers of citizenship in a 21st century technological landscape.

"The most time-consuming part of evaluating web tools for educational use has got to be looking at the Terms of Service (also know as Terms of Use or Terms and Conditions). They can go on for pages, and are so often wrapped up in so much legalese that even if you manage to read to the end, there is no guarantee you will be any wiser. And yet we can't just ignore them; it is our duty as educators and as digital citizens to protect rights and understand responsibilities online."

"Schoolchildren are at risk of having their online activity tracked and monitored for targeted advertising by internet firms through free cloud based education services. A survey has found that many parents do not know about data mining - the process of tracking email and web browsing habits in order to target advertising - but once they do they have grave concerns for their kids' online privacy, and believe schools need to do more to protect it. The survey commissioned by American IT industry group SafeGov asked 1000 Australian parents about their knowledge of data mining."

You may already have come across this link on the OZTL_Net. I'm adding this short video to my Digital Citizenship teaching program. It's simple and informative.

"Surely, online interactions can be shallow, but it's no certainty. I've spent over a decade in different online spaces-primarily as a member of various web fora where sub-communities exist-and I cannot say that what I've witnessed and experienced was anything less than a human desire to connect with others. Sometimes these online spaces offered, for those who felt lonely or isolated by their interests in their physical environments, a place to belong. In other words, for many people I've encountered, these are not places for leading a shallow existence."

Some advice from Duck, Duck Go on how to restrict tracking that can occur when browsing the web.

"Full on transformation can only be fueled by a deep understanding of how significantly out of step the school experience has become with the real world. If we're honest, we know we've always been lacking in that regard. But there's little question that the gap between school learning and life learning has become wider and more acute as the Web and mobile technologies continue to evolve as learning opportunities."