Group items tagged

"The Legal Implications of Surveillance Cameras District administrators need to know the law and make these policies clear. By: Amy M. Steketee District Administration, February 2012 undefined The nature of school security has changed dramatically over the last decade. Schools employ various measures, from metal detectors to identification badges to drug testing, to promote the safety and security of staff and students. One of the increasingly prevalent measures is the use of security cameras. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education reported that more than half of all public schools used security cameras during the 2007-2008 school year to monitor students, a 30 percent increase over eight years prior. While security cameras can be useful in addressing and deterring violence and other misconduct, they also raise several legal issues that can leave school administrators in a quandary. Does the use of surveillance cameras to capture images violate a student or staff member's right of privacy? If the images captured on a surveillance recording are of a student violating school rules, may district administrators use the recording in a disciplinary proceeding? If so, are parents of the accused student entitled to review the footage? What about parents of other students whose images are captured on the recording? How should schools handle inquiries from media about surveillance footage? Can administrators use surveillance cameras to monitor staff? I outline the overriding legal principles, common traps for the unwary and practical considerations. Advertisement Legal Principles Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment prohibits the government, including public schools, from conducting unreasonable searches or seizures. Courts have generally held, however, that what an individual knowingly exposes in plain view to the public will not trigger Fourth Amendment protection because no search has occurred. Someone who is videotaped in public has n

Award winning global collaborators Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis (co founders of the Flat Classroom Project) are excited to announce the 2012 NetGenEd Project, another global collaboration to envision the future of education and social action by inspiring today's students to study leading technology trends and create their vision for the future. In this project, students will study and "mash up" the results of the 2012 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and Educause and Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. Students will study the current research and create wiki-reports with their student partners around the world analyzing current trends and projecting future happenings based upon this collaborative analysis. This project is managed by the students who assume roles such as project manager, assistant project manager, and editors of the various wikis. After compiling their wiki reports based upon current research, and encouraged by "expert advisors" (subject matter experts in the industry), students will then create a video based upon their research in current global technological trends. Applications open now: http://www.netgened.org/apply.html February 1 deadline extended for interested ITGS classes. Contact julie@flatclassroom.org

The typical image people have of air traffic control (ATC) is that of a group of people in an airport tower who coordinate aircraft activity by staring at radar screens that use points of light to represent aircraft. While not fundamentally incorrect, this isn't a fair representation of the extent of ATC operations. This article will flesh out that simplistic image and introduce you to the equipment, technologies, and procedures that go into keeping aircraft and air travelers safe in the air and on the ground. We'll look at the way air traffic control is organized, and explore the communication technologies that air traffic controllers use to keep in touch with air crew and ground personnel. We'll also look at the radar technologies used to keep track of aircraft, and we'll end with a brief look at some next-generation technologies.

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world use Tor for a wide variety of reasons: journalists and bloggers, human rights workers, law enforcement officers, soldiers, corporations, citizens of repressive regimes, and just ordinary citizens. (Note: sometimes ITGS students need to be able to access sites that are sometimes blocked)

"On Wednesday night, in advance of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, iHealth Labs, a start-up in Mountain View, Calif., unveiled the iHealth Blood Pressure Dock, an attachment for iOS devices that can measure and record heart rate and blood pressure. The kit, which costs $100, comes with a blood pressure cuff and a battery-powered dock that doubles as a charging station for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The hardware is available for sale in Apple retail stores, through Apple.com and on the company's Web site. The kit also requires a mobile application to log the results, which is available for free through iTunes."

"Even though a hard drive with a terabyte (or 1,000 gigabytes) of storage can hold thousands of photographs, songs and movies and costs less than $100, storing your files in a distant commercial data center, encrypted and secure, increasingly makes more sense. Cloud backups are appealing for another reason: as computing becomes more mobile - on laptops, tablets and smartphones - you need to have reliable access to the data anywhere over an Internet connection. "

Facebook may have found a way to break the Egyptian government's blockade of its website. The government there has been blocking several social media sites that demonstrators are using to organize and document protests. Today marks the third day of protests in Egypt calling for the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak. Facebook is using lessons it learned in Tunisia, where the government allegedly hacked its Web site and tried to steal the passwords and personal information of protesters in that country. Jillian York of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society monitors the Arab world online and discusses efforts to get around governments' blockades of social media sites.

"Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have brought together Queenslanders hunting for up-to-the-minute information on the devastating floods afflicting the sunshine state. As Queensland Police work around the clock to keep the public informed on the movement of flood waters, they have also turned to these popular sites to publish updates and combat myths and rumours, as citizens post photos, updates and words of encouragement to one another. Although Queensland is issuing information through its State Disaster Management Service website, some web services have been disrupted with Brisbane City Council's flood flag map unable to cope with the high demand for updates on road closures and evacuations. Advertisement: Story continues below As a consequence, Facebook and Twitter have become a crucial lifeline as Queensland Police publish regular bulletins about the flood waters, warnings of road closures, and evacuation procedures."

"Facebook's photo-sharing app Moments will not be made available in Europe due to concerns about its use of facial recognition, it has been revealed. The app, which allows users to share mobile-phone photos with friends without posting them publicly, was launched in the US this week. The Irish data regulator said that users must be given a choice about whether they want it, with an opt-in. There is currently no timetable for such a feature, said Facebook. Richard Allen, Facebook's head of policy in Europe said: "We don't have an opt-in mechanism so it is turned off until we develop one." Moments arranges the photos on someone's mobile phone into groups, based on when they were taken. The facial recognition technology can identify Facebook friends to whom users can then forward the photos. Combining data The social network is taking facial recognition very seriously and announced earlier this year that its DeepFace AI system was powerful enough to identify users with a 97.25% level of accuracy. But the social network's use of the technology has not gone down well with European and Canadian regulators. In 2010, Facebook rolled out facial recognition technology to identify people in photos but, two years later, it was forced to withdraw the technology from Europe, after Ireland's data protection commission highlighted privacy issues. At the time, the privacy commissioner of Canada said: "Of significant privacy concern is the fact that Facebook has the ability to combine facial biometric data with extensive information about users, including biographic data, location data, and associations with friends." The system, which is increasingly used by technology and other firms, is the subject of debate in the US too. Recent talks between privacy organisations and government agencies aimed at creating a code of conduct around facial recognition technology broke down after they failed to reach agreement. "At a base minimum, people should be able to walk down a publ

"The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, is a national fingerprint and criminal history system that responds to requests 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help our local, state, and federal partners-and our own investigators-solve and prevent crime and catch criminals and terrorists."

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.

Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century learning and improve academic performance through content driven collaboration. We engage teachers and K-12 students in meaningful project learning exchanges worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding.  We prepare youth for full participation as productive and effective citizens in an increasing global economy.

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.

"http://www.warcosts.com Since 2004, up to 884 innocent civilians, including at least 176 children, have died from US drone strikes in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. A new report from the Stanford and New York University law schools finds drone use has caused widespread post-tramatic stress disorder and an overall breakdown of functional society in North Waziristan. In addition, the report finds the use of a "double tap" procedure, in which a drone strikes once and strikes again not long after, has led to deaths of rescuers and medical professionals. Many interviewees told the researchers they didn't know what America was before drones. Now what they know of America is drones, death and terror. Follow the conversation @WarCosts #UnderDrones"

K12 Online Conference 2010 Julie Lindsay and Madeleine Brookes Inside ITGS is about classrooms globally coming together to form an online learning community for the IB subject Information Technology in a Global Society. Madeleine Brookes from Western Academy Beijing and Julie Lindsay from Beijing (BISS) International School, both in China, explore the impact of virtual communication and collaboration and feature the students from pioneer classrooms in a rare face-to-face meeting. It is through their eyes, as cyber-students, that we will learn more about how to use emerging technologies and build stronger more effective learning communities.

"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."

"August 02, 2007 - Ellen uses Assistive Technology to go about her day to day life - both at home and in college. Ellen has Cerebral Palsy and has difficulty controlling her body - she is able to access her Assistive Technology using two head switches. Through these head switches, Ellen is able to drive her powered chair, communicate with people, access the computer and internet and control her TV and household equipment."

Facebook has dozens of toggles for privacy settings on its service, and a privacy policy longer than the US Constitution. And while many users of the service know that they're sharing information with their friends and associates, they may be surprised to find out just exactly what they're sharing, and with what groups of people. New programs that offer to tie social media integration into outside web sites offer an ever-more social experience, but they also expose even more of your online activities to social media service providers and advertisers. Is it getting too hard to keep hold of our privacy online?

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning. Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks - and less able to sustain attention.

concerns have developed about invasions of privacy, for the most complete records on the travelers may be the ones they are carrying: their laptop computers full of professional and personal e-mail messages, photographs, diaries, legal documents, tax returns, browsing histories and other windows into their lives far beyond anything that could be, or would be, stuffed into a suitcase for a trip abroad. Those revealing digital portraits can be immensely useful to inspectors, who now hunt for criminal activity and security threats by searching and copying people's hard drives, cellphones and other electronic devices, which are sometimes held for weeks of analysis