Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Big Brother, Freedom and Life

We all love our cell phone. If we are lucky enough to have a so called "smartphone" then chances are we tweet, we Facebook, we tumble, we browse, we email, we photograph, we video, heck - we may even make the occasional call on it. And let's be honest - we may have given the whole privacy issue about whether the information that passes through our phones might be used by someone else for whatever reason - but the chances are that we have not understood some of the issues, or thought through them, or maybe we just don't really know what is kept by phone companies and what might be done with that information.

Enter Malte Spitz. A Berlinner. And a Green Party MP in Germany. He actually went to court to find out what his phone company had on him. And with the help of some other people what he has to say in this recent TEDGlobal talk might raise a few eyebrows. It certainly provides a perspective which I found really interesting.

So - watch this 9 minute TED talk and wait till you see the graphic representation of the data that is presented towards the end. If you are an "ethics" or "social implications" enthusiast - then it will provide plenty of discussion points.



Now - you might like to know what your local phone provider has to say on this. I'm a Vodafone customer ... this is from their website this morning  ..


1. What information does Vodafone collect?

We collect information relating to you that you have provided to us (for example, on an application or registration form or through the way you use our products and services) or that we may have obtained from another source (such as our suppliers or from marketing organisations and credit agencies).
This information may include, your name, address, telephone numbers, information on how you use our products and services (such as the type, date, time, location and duration of calls or messages, the numbers you call and how much you spend, and information on your browsing activity when visiting one of our group companies' websites), the location of your mobile phone from time to time, lifestyle information and any other information collected in relation to your use of our products and services.

There will of course be governmental rules around privacy of information ... here are a couple of starting points if you are interested in following through on some of this.

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003
Privacy Act 1993




Friday, July 20, 2012

Google bits and pieces



Just thought it might be useful to share some stuff that you may not have found on Google yet.


1. Learn some search tips and tricks via "A Google a Day"


According to Google - "Trivia with a twist. Search for answers, then challenge friends and climb the Google+ leaderboard.  A Google A Day is the trivia game where searching for the answer on Google is not only allowed but encouraged".
While it works well with Google+, if you haven't enabled Google+ n your Google Apps for Education account just follow the link at the top to go to the "regular version"
So far today I've learned about electric- blue clouds in the mesosphere and cartomancy. Might be a fun activity for a class or tutor time.


2. While on Google - check out their "Inside Search" pages for ways to improve your results with Google search options



3. And while still around Google - check out their educators pages - lots of new and newly organized stuff here.


They have a new "curriculum" for helping better understand the use of YouTube.
YouTube is probably the first or second place I go to search for information. Why?


I'm a visual learner - and often I am looking for "how to do" something ... and for me, a video on how to do something is better for me than wading through pages of "standard hits" on a regular search.


There may be just as much value in this for teachers as students if you are unsure of many of the issues and how they play out in today's rapidly changing world. Youtube accounts for the majority of web traffic that we consume at school. This video explains it a little, and this link takes you to the YouTube curriculum.



4. Sticking with "literacy" issues - check out the Digital Literacy tour. Staying safe and playing safe are covered well here with teacher guides and student notes.

5. Last one for now ... Google Apps for Education


I'm a fan of Google Apps - mainly because they are easy to use, easy to share and easy to maintain. More recently Google have restored offline access and editing (anyone remember Google Gears?) and while the editing tools on iPhone and iPad are pretty rudimentary at this stage - you can at least do some editing and  that is good. 
On the training page for Google Apps for Ed you'll find a wealth of resources.

But of course - you'll find that YouTube has a whole series of videos on how to do stuff in Google Apps - here's just 1 example