Internet Safety Summit 9-21-07 Keynote Part 1 September 21, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Edubloggers.2 comments
I’m attending an Internet safety summit and was pleased to meet Bud Hunt, also known as Bud the Teacher. Nice to meet someone whose work I’ve followed online.
Our first speakers were US Attorney for the District of Colorado Troy Eid and Deputy Attorney General for the State of Colorado, Tom Raynes. http://www.ago.state.co.us/InternetSafety/SafeSurfing.cfm was provided as a page with safety resources. Mr. Raynes describes the Internet as the playground of today, and calls for that playground to be a safe (and fun) environment.
In Colorado, first offenders for child pornography are sentenced to an average of 6 years in prison.
Phil Bremmer (sp?) reminded us that unless we keep up with technology use patterns by our children we won’t be effective in the effort of Internet safety.
Troy Eid described tracking a single child pornographic image as it is traded online just in the boundaries of Colorado. Turns out it was housed on 50,000 servers. An expert group had only predicted around 5,000.
The students responsible for the Colorado iCrew podcast on iTunes were presented with video iPods. Nice to see their work rewarded.
Blog Example #11 – Virtual Field Trip September 15, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edublogs.add a comment
On November 3rd 2007, 4 teachers from the UK will be heading off to Antarctica on a scientific expedition. Follow the link below to see how they are doing.
http://edublogs.org/2007/09/12/edublogging-antarctica/
Snapshot of Media Trends September 15, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Data.add a comment
George Siemens has posted an entry on his elearnspace blog with links to two short and very interesting PDF documents that detail some of the current practices of how people interact with different media types. Well worth taking the time to read.
http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/archives/003072.html
Blog Example #10 – Professional Learning Community September 15, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edublogs.add a comment
Professional learning communities are a terrific way for teachers to engage in a dialogue to improve the craft of their teaching. Too often, they are only effective when the participants are all gathered together in one place. Too often, there isn’t enough time to meet. A new Edublogs blog, In Practice, is one effort to provide a forum for a learning community, to keep the dialogue moving forward.
http://inpractice.edublogs.org/
OLPC Now $188 September 15, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in OLPC.add a comment
CNN.com is reporting that the once $100 laptop developed by MIT for the One Laptop Per Child project is now selling for $188. Just thought you might want to know.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/09/14/hundred.dollar.laptop.ap/
Banned in the Library September 13, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion.add a comment
I overheard an interesting comment today while helping out at a school. The librarian was introducing the library to a new class. In describing the resources she asked if it was OK to use Google. Being mostly compliant students, they assumed the answer was yes. She told them,
“No. You can’t use Google in the library. You can’t just type in a question to get an answer. It’s too easy. What if you were in a library without Google? You have to learn how to use the resources in the library.”
I’m having a hard time picturing a library without Google. I’m also wondering about restricting certain resources from our students. Just imagine if we told students, “No, you can’t use printed materials. Books are too heavy. It’s too easy to just look up a key work in the index. What if you were at home or someplace without all these printed materials. You have to learn how to use only online digital resources?”
Just replace your favorite source of information (TV, storytellers, newspapers, blogs, magazines, radio, wikis, etc.) and think about what it would be like if you were banned from that resource.
For me, a better response or position to take would be to teach students the proper use of Google, how to verify results, how to access advanced find features, even additional online search tools.
It’s an Outrage, I Tell Ya’ September 13, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.3 comments
A joint project between UC Berkley International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) and the University of Washington (UW) provides us with a cool new tool called the UW CSE and ICSI Web Integrity Checker. The tool checks to see if your Internet Service Provider is inserting advertising into web pages. Think of it like your cable company running advertising along the bottom of your favorite TV shows. Are you safe from ISP inserted advertising? Follow the link to find out.
http://vancouver.cs.washington.edu/
Caveman Blog September 11, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Humor.add a comment
One of my favorite comics is Rhymes With Orange. Back in August the strip featured a very funny look back at the early genesis of blogging… and cave art!
