Digital Citizenship in Schools

Video located at http://video.commonsensemedia.org/education/pause-think-online-2.mp4

Video located at http://video.commonsensemedia.org/education/pause-think-online-2.mp4

NSW Dept of Education

"If you chose the Facebook setting that hides your friend list from people who aren't you friends, Irene Abezguaz has some bad news. Abezguaz, a vice president of product management at Quotidium, outlined a loophole she discovered at AppSecUSA 2013, a New York security conference - that friend list isn't totally hidden. "

"Wickr is a free app that provides: ·military-grade encryption of text, picture, audio and video messages ·sender-based control over who can read messages, where and for how long ·best available privacy, anonymity and secure file shredding features ·security that is simple to use"

mmm ... apparently this app has been around for some time - 2 years at least. Spoke to my son who works in the IT industry and he is very sceptical about it - since email is sent to a server, then deconstructed and sent as packets and then reconstructed on a server and then sent to a user - when does the message self-destruct? If it is only at the end point then the digital footprint is still there. Military grade encryption - what does this mean? There is no such thing as a free lunch on the Internet - I would be careful about what I send and certainly not trust something that is touted as "free" - there is always a cost! :) BC

This is one of a number of videos created by Chris O'Reilly http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEducationClub in this case dealing with digital identity.

"Data Dealer is an online game about collecting and selling personal data - full of irony and gleeful sarcasm. It´s a browser/serious/edu/impact game about digital culture and surveillance and aims to raise awareness about online privacy in a new and fun way. The English version was released in May 2013. Let's call it a bastard offspring of certain shiny 2010 Facebook Games and the 1990 TV simulation game Mad TV, reborn with the souls of South Park and Bruce Schneier. And it´s also available on Facebook! Oh, the irony. In today´s digital age virtually everything we do is recorded, monitored or tracked in some way: Data Dealer is a unique interactive exploration of this personal data ecosystem."

"Can we be addicted to a computer? No, I don't think we can. Addict is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "One who is addicted to the habitual and excessive use of a drug." A computer is not a drug, so in fact I would tend to say that we can be dependent on what the computer offers us. Shotton (1989) spoke at great lengths about the misuse of the word addict or addiction in the context of computers."

This is an interesting and challenging examination of learning in the three ages of information by Bill Rankin. It looks at the role of information in learning and in shaping culture through Western history and the effect that access to information has had on education. I don't agree with everything that Bill says but he is affirming of the continuing role of teachers and librarians in this third information age.