Thursday, September 28, 2006
Monday, August 07, 2006
Teen's tips for avoiding MySpace dorkiness | Perspectives | CNET News.com
Teen's tips for avoiding MySpace dorkiness | Perspectives | CNET News.com:
"As much as I love MySpace.com and would detest restrictions for its use, I will concede that social networks are only as strong as the people who comprise them. So here are my five rules for using MySpace. I hope you all consider them--yes pink_Sparkle_fairy and sk8erPrincess246, I am talking to you."
"As much as I love MySpace.com and would detest restrictions for its use, I will concede that social networks are only as strong as the people who comprise them. So here are my five rules for using MySpace. I hope you all consider them--yes pink_Sparkle_fairy and sk8erPrincess246, I am talking to you."
Child ID Cards .....
Net Family News - kid-tech news for parents:
Child ID card?
'NetIDMe,' a new 'virtual ID card' for kids out of the UK mentioned by the BBC, is no 'killer app.' Like child age verification, it would require critical mass to be truly useful - e.g., all children required to have an ID card, which would also mean large databases of personally identifying info. One way it would work is in large groups, say, a school district: if every student had an ID card tied to a district's student database, and if there were a rule everybody followed that they could only email and IM with fellow ID-card-bearing students in the district (obviously this wouldn't work on MySpace). But everyone would have to obey the rule. Actually it might work better with peer groups, if everybody in the peer group obeyed their parents' household rule that everyone on the buddy list has an ID card. Parents, you can see even that would be a challenge! For more on this, see my feature 'Verifying online kids’ ages.”"
Child ID card?
'NetIDMe,' a new 'virtual ID card' for kids out of the UK mentioned by the BBC, is no 'killer app.' Like child age verification, it would require critical mass to be truly useful - e.g., all children required to have an ID card, which would also mean large databases of personally identifying info. One way it would work is in large groups, say, a school district: if every student had an ID card tied to a district's student database, and if there were a rule everybody followed that they could only email and IM with fellow ID-card-bearing students in the district (obviously this wouldn't work on MySpace). But everyone would have to obey the rule. Actually it might work better with peer groups, if everybody in the peer group obeyed their parents' household rule that everyone on the buddy list has an ID card. Parents, you can see even that would be a challenge! For more on this, see my feature 'Verifying online kids’ ages.”"
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Inspired again – is it sustainable?
Having just spent a very interesting day at the Blogs and Social Media Forum I am now sitting on the train back to Birmingham wondering how I can capitalise on some of the comments and ideas that were discussed. It will take a while to internalise it all but one immediate effect is a renewed drive to incorporate blogging into my daily(?) routine.
Up until now, I have had lots of ideas that I was going to write about but they have not materialised. Listening to the speakers today has helped me to reflect on my own use of this media and identify the self imposed issues I faced. I am not a natural writer; reports and other documents go through a lot of iterations before they are shared and, subconsciously, I have been applying this to my blogging. I would start a post, rewrite it several times and either run out of time or decide that it just wasn’t good enough. The end result – the point does not get made or the information is not available.
My target now is not to agonise over the structure of my writing but to make sure that the information available. If the content is useful then people will have to tolerate my style and with any luck I will improve with practice.
Up until now, I have had lots of ideas that I was going to write about but they have not materialised. Listening to the speakers today has helped me to reflect on my own use of this media and identify the self imposed issues I faced. I am not a natural writer; reports and other documents go through a lot of iterations before they are shared and, subconsciously, I have been applying this to my blogging. I would start a post, rewrite it several times and either run out of time or decide that it just wasn’t good enough. The end result – the point does not get made or the information is not available.
My target now is not to agonise over the structure of my writing but to make sure that the information available. If the content is useful then people will have to tolerate my style and with any luck I will improve with practice.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
ohear.net - Elgg
ohear.net
One possible future for Elgg may lay in the Government’s e-strategy ‘Harnessing Technology’, published last year, which has a clear commitment to providing a Personal Learning Space (PLS) for every learner. The idea is to offer a facility to store course materials and assignments online, and a place to record achievements. In her introduction, Secretary of State for Education Ruth Kelly describes a future where Personal Learning Spaces will be able to remember what the learner is interested in and alert them to relevant websites, courses and other learning opportunities that fit their needs.
One possible future for Elgg may lay in the Government’s e-strategy ‘Harnessing Technology’, published last year, which has a clear commitment to providing a Personal Learning Space (PLS) for every learner. The idea is to offer a facility to store course materials and assignments online, and a place to record achievements. In her introduction, Secretary of State for Education Ruth Kelly describes a future where Personal Learning Spaces will be able to remember what the learner is interested in and alert them to relevant websites, courses and other learning opportunities that fit their needs.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Cyber bullies haunt young online
BBC NEWS | Technology | Cyber bullies haunt young online
Bullies are increasingly using the internet to terrorise teenagers outside of school, a survey suggests.
More than 10% of UK teenagers said they had been bullied online, while 24% knew a victim, the MSN/YouGov survey found.
Bullies are increasingly using the internet to terrorise teenagers outside of school, a survey suggests.
More than 10% of UK teenagers said they had been bullied online, while 24% knew a victim, the MSN/YouGov survey found.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
IWF reports progress
Online child abuse - a decade on and the IWF reports progress
Good news from the IWF. This article from Silicon reports:
"In a decade, the number of sites hosted in the UK featuring child abuse images has fallen to 0.4 per cent of the global total from almost one in five in 1997.
There are also positive signs that sites listed on the IWF's Child Abuse Image (CAI) URL database aren't making their way onto increasingly graphic-rich mobile devices, with the UK's main network operators and some handset-makers using the CAI database to filter."
There also appears to be a case of double standards where middle America is concerned as they continue:
"However, looking to the rest of the world - and in particular Russia and the US where a lot of illegal sites are hosted - IWF CEO Peter Robbins said a lot more can be done."
Surely there can be no legal defense for allowing these sites to be hosted on American servers
Good news from the IWF. This article from Silicon reports:
"In a decade, the number of sites hosted in the UK featuring child abuse images has fallen to 0.4 per cent of the global total from almost one in five in 1997.
There are also positive signs that sites listed on the IWF's Child Abuse Image (CAI) URL database aren't making their way onto increasingly graphic-rich mobile devices, with the UK's main network operators and some handset-makers using the CAI database to filter."
There also appears to be a case of double standards where middle America is concerned as they continue:
"However, looking to the rest of the world - and in particular Russia and the US where a lot of illegal sites are hosted - IWF CEO Peter Robbins said a lot more can be done."
Surely there can be no legal defense for allowing these sites to be hosted on American servers
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Photographs for all .....
There are two very useful resources when looking for photographs to use with pupils. The first is morguefile which gives you access to copyright free stock photographs of a very high quality.
The second is flickr which offers everyone the chance to share their photographs with the world. The sheer diversity is amazing
The second is flickr which offers everyone the chance to share their photographs with the world. The sheer diversity is amazing
Never enough hours
Well I have been too busy to stop and post to my blog although my use of del.icio.us has increased considerably. This is now something I am determined to address as the issue of blogs as a source of informal or perhaps less formal information needs to be looked at.
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