Group items tagged

Explains the Google Pigeon Rank system, where flocks of specially trained pigeons gather answers to search queries to provide that Google edge. A completely nonsense site of course (an April Fool's Day joke in fact) - but how long will it take students to realise that? Often a student will consider the site host before considering the value of the actual content. Useful for teaching information literacy.

Another twist in the infamous shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes by UK police. Menezes was shot after police allegedly confused him with a known terror suspect. To demonstrate the similarities between Menezes and the actual suspect police presented a spliced image of the two. The integrity of that image however, being used in court, is now under question...

Four case studies of schools that have converted to open source software. Good coverage of the software being used as well as the effects on the students, teachers, and IT staff.

From Now On The Educational Technology Journal. Jamie McKenzie looks at research questions and ways to avoid plagiarism in schools.

If you want to keep up to date with what's going on in the world of green ICT, take a look at The Green IT Review. This blog covers significant industry-related news, and highlights issues and trends, with a focus not so much on what happened today, but what it means for tomorrow. The Green IT Review is read by people in more than 75 countries across the globe, with a significant number of registered readers receiving news by email every day. News and comment from the site is reproduced in a number of web sites and publications in North America, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Too complex for students but useful background for the teacher. Smart sensor networks - technologies and applications for green growth 12-Jan-2010 Sensor networks play an important role in tackling environmental challenges. Sensor applications in smart power grids, smart buildings and smart industrial processes make significant contributions to more efficient resource use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. This report gives an overview of sensor technologies and applications, and quantifies their environmental impacts.

Two downloadable reports on this page Towards Green ICT Strategies Measuring the Relationship Between ICT and the Environment

A Class blog, but the discussion has some good info and interesting links concerning the social aspects focusing on trust issues

A poster linking to Web 2.0 tools

Througt the use of networks, cell phones and maping tools people are saving lives in Haiti

Good article on the computerization of medical records. Gives examples of some of the challenges that were faced, as well as the benefits of implementing such a system. Might also be useful for the 2010 Case Study.

"Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing."

A nice online game where players have to distinguish genuine URLs from those likely to be used by Phishers. Not as easy as you might think!

New York Times article about the infamous AOL search data release. From the "anonymized" numbered search results of AOL users, NYTimes journalists were able to piece together enough about Thelma Arnold to track her down and knock on her front door. A frightening example of how lots of small pieces of data can build up a clear picture about you.

TED talk from Dean Kamen about developments in this area. Even if you don't listen to the talk, the last minute is a must-watch.

A detailed study of the Therac-25 radiation overdose accidents. Rare but easily avoided software bugs in the Therac-25 cancer treatment machine caused six accidents and three deaths. Additionally, many of the stakeholders contributed to the problem through their action or inaction. The fact that the machine was in service for 3 years without error, yet then killed 3 people in two years, gives an interesting insight into how we define "reliable". This case provides an interesting focus for a debate on reliability, dependency on IT, and responsibility for failures. These pages contain a HUGE amount of detail and so I would recommend summarising them for students - especially ESL students. However, if this is done a lively debate can definitely be had.

Royal Bank of Canada online services and security and privacy policies

Source of articles for Paper 2.

Macworld. This article deals with privacy of people and property.