This week, tech news websites have been raising the alarm about Heartbleed (a massive Internet security scare), and the mainstream media are slowly catching up. With this media exposure, a lot of non-technical people are uncertain of the risks, and consequently have a lot of …
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Tag: Internet
Heartbleed: What You Need To Do
Friends Without Benefits
What Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Instagram, and Internet Porn Are Doing to America’s Teenage Girls
This is an abridged version of the full article from Vanity Fair. It has been prepared for educational use with students in lower secondary school (ages 11-14). Inserted at times are …
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Remix
After posting a piece on remixes I use with students, I received some interest in the unit that the remixes are used in. So, here is that unit. It focuses on developing student skills and knowledge in terms of copyright and Creative Commons (a …
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An Evening With CogDog (aka Alan Levine)
Last night I was lucky enough to play host to the very knowledgeable and laid back Alan Levine (aka @cogdog on Twitter) as he presented to a group of 50 educators. With teachers from 12 schools from around Hong Kong, and a few intrepid students, …
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Internet Scavenger Hunt
While I came up with the idea for this activity independently, it seems like it is already a well known Internet phenomenon (what isn’t?). The basic premise of an Internet scavenger hunt is to is to provide students with a set of clues, which they …
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Alan Levine in Hong Kong
I am very happy to be organising a CPD session with Alan Levine, renowned technologist (http://www.nmc.org/horizon-project) and digital storyteller. Teachers and students are welcome. Details of the event are below. Please email me (ross@rossparker.org) to register.
Your Work: Dead or Alive?
The following tweet landed on my feed this morning, and it really got me thinking. I so often try to tackle printing as an environmental issue, that I forget the fact that it is, in many ways, simply an inferior way to work.
Don't tell me a policy is a "living document" that is being constantly reviewed if you then go and print it on paper. Sigh. — Chris Betcher (@betchaboy) January 28, 2013This led me to compose the following email to my colleagues, as an opening salvo in a new offensive against the poor practice of printing:
Colleagues, you all know that I am opposed to printing. But there is more to it than just environmentalism.
If you want to think of your work as "living" (eg actively used, collaborative, flexible, responsive, meaningful) then why consign it to static paper? Why not share your work online, build an audience and set your work free. Put it in a blog, or an online document, invite commentary, make everyone an owner.
This is the future of knowledge for our students. Lead by example. Paper is a dead end. Isn't it time to upgrade?
Fortunately Chris Betcher put his thoughts down in a shared, digital environment, and so we are all able to make use of them. Imagine if he just printing them out, and filed them away.
Firefox: Essential Plugins 2012
Right from the start of its life as a browser, Firefox aimed to ship with a small set of functionality which could be extended using Addons. If there is something you need to do, and Firefox does not do it out of the box, …
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Me vs Me
I am planning projects for the year to come, and as part of a unit on Digital Citizenship I am trying to get students to think about the way they project (or create identities) for themselves. I will be asking them to compare their identity within their own family to their identity online. This is what I call "Me vs Me" (a nod to the old Mad comic "Spy vs Spy"), and students will be asked to create a visual representation of these two facets of themselves. To make it clear what I mean I put together the following example work...I hope no one takes it seriously:
Thanks to Bbpics on Wikimedia Commons for the image of the model.
Stop Joseph Kony
Joseph Kony, head of Uganda's LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), is responsible for the abduction, sexual enslavement, multilation and militarisation of thousands of African children. Although he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, he remains essentially invisible to the world's media, governments and armed forces. Kony2012 is a massive online and real-world campaign to push for the capture and prosecution of Joseph Kony this year. Watch this video, share it, and take action.
My current thinking is to bring this to my students in the hope that they will be inspired to take action.