Really interesting NPR piece on computer software that grades homework/essays for students. Do students "miss out" by having their work graded by a computer instead of a person? How will these types of programs impact the future of education? Can we/should we/are we replacing teachers with computers? Pennsylvania currently offers an online public schooling option, is this a move in that direction?

I agree entirely. Both of my siblings attended vo-tech high schools, which operated on a rotational schedule with "traditional" schooling for 3 weeks and then a shop/trade for 3 weeks. For them, they needed an option that was not a traditional classroom but gave them an outlet and focus, keeping busy with their hands as well as their minds. I think the online schooling programs in PA are a similar option, providing flexibility and opportunity to students at different levels or in different situations.

When I have used that feature, only my new/initial posts are visible, my comments on other peoples posts do not show up.

From Brookings, this 2011 YouTube video on internet privacy and security takes a different view point, that if people are unwilling to share their information online, parts of our information economy could collapse. (Video is approx. 5 mins)

From their website: "The Center for Democracy and Technology is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public policy organization and the leading Internet freedom organization working at the critical edge of policy innovation." This group has a great collection of resources on a variety of pertinent topics such as Digital Copyright, Security and Surveillance and Free Expression. Each topic includes current News and Events and also Research and Analysis.

This podcast deals with a discussion of internet anonymity and the Tor software. This program allows people to be online anonymously and hides their location and activity. With many sites like Google, Facebook and Amazon tracking and monitoring our activity for many reasons, including advertising, this discussion of online privacy and anonymity is timely and informative.

Here at work we only have IE and everything is spaced weird and appearing wonky. I use chrome and firefox at home, so I'm hoping to have a better layout once I'm back on those systems.

This is the personal site for a research fellow at the University of Oxford, Anne-Marie Oostveen. Her work is focused on SI and I found her list of publications to be interesting, as they address several areas of SI such as online identities, online activisim and public trust issues.

Article from 2000 about SI and its purpose. Although it is somewhat older, it is interesting to see 12 years ago what kinds of programs and courses were being offered about SI and where some of the research in SI was going. It would be interesting to compare this to more current information on these topics.