Onwards and upwards or just onwards ...?

Brian Smith emailed round the Naace advisory group earlier today after he had been experimenting with Twitter and had commented on all the new things he had discovered.

Looking down the email I came across the URL to a YouTube video that he posted in Feb 2008 about how culture fails to keep up with technology and how early adoption is pretty well always about replication. In terms of the video we have now, in some way, invented the 'rivets and welds' of Web 2.0 but in doing so have opened up a great number of other avenues as to what can now be done ... and this is beginning to stretch the rules that have always applied to publication.



Harry Lessig in his TED talk How creativity is being strangled by the law begins to address this issue. But it is a similar issue to the one concerning the job market for your people. In the next decade many will be doing jobs that don't exist yet ... we and they will need to adapt to the changes as they com along ... not simply try to replicate solutions as we always did.

The Byron Review - everyone has their say

I am only picking up on the Internet safety issues here rather than muddy the waters with the rating for video games. There are many comments from the industry on the already well-publicised rating sysytem and whether a new one will have any more effect ...

There are so many views on Tanya Byron's Review ... You can read some of them here.

More here if you wish to get Keith Vaz's point of view.

The Times have their own viewpoint ... strange scare mongering...

An Irish point of view ... here

From the 'HandHeld' Learning Forum ... here

itsneak notes that there is a Government anomaly here

This is enough to be going on with .... What is your view?

PS
More Google Alerts on this by the hour but none appear to be any more than just reporting that the Review has happened.

A safer Internet - young people asked !

On 12th February a group of young people from all over Europe met in Brussels to give their views on how institutions should act to make the use of social networks safer for them.

The 'Safer Internet Day' was part of a global drive to promote a safer Internet for all users, especially young people. In 2008, the European Commission focuses particularly on the experiences and involvement of young people.
In celebration of Safer Internet Day 2008, the European Commission organises a Youth Forum on Safer Internet in Brussels where youth (14-17 year olds) from Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Sweden .

One of the outcomes of the forum is: 'Based on these discussions the youth will identify the 10 most important online safety tips for their age group.' I wonder if they will follow adult trends or will the young have something really innovative to offer?

The BBC's report was written by Ammani,12, from West Yorkshire who was one of a group of children from across Europe invited by the European Commission to a conference to talk about children and online safety.

I find myself slightly worried the article and wonder about ( as one always would in these cases) validity of the group format and what can be read into their comments.
'We all believe that mobile and internet dangers are serious' was one of the comments and accepting that the forum was about safety there is no mention of excitement, stimulation, joy of connected communities etc. I suppose a forum drawn together to talk about safety will have this focus but when will we see the european Commission draw together a group to talk about the tremendous advantages to be gained from social (and other) networking.

Earlier this week Becta held a conference on a similar theme: Safeguarding children in a digital world. The presentations are now available and looking at the programme I have high hopes of some creative thinking from such a connected group.

Becta have produced a guidance document : Safeguarding children in a digital world: Developing an LSCB e-safety strategy

An extreme form of sensorship

Utah Bill Would Block Wi-Fi Access to Minors

Trawling one of my US feeds I came across this;

A bill in the Utah state legislature would require public wifi providers to ensure that minors can’t access the Internet. If passed, Utah libraries and community networks could find themselves shutting down publicly accessible wireless networks that are essential for many young people to conduct schoolwork off-campus.

The Blog author writes:

As far as this bill is concerned, the choice boils down to “block all kids but give adults access to everything,” or “block lots of content and give access to everyone.” For lots of people, that won’t seem like much of a choice at all.

So much for freedom of information. I do hope the British Government don't read the same feeds as I do !( Whoops ... they might read this - but I doubt it)

FaceBook (again)

A BBC report into data protection indicates that the Information Commissioner's Office is investigating the fact that it is difficult to clear all the data from FaceBook accounts and that deactivation is just that and this does not remove the data from FaceBook's servers.

The report says: "Users who wish to completely delete their information must, according to the automated response from Facebook's Customer Service, “log in and delete all profile content". and it goes on to say : "An individual who has deactivated their account might not find themselves motivated enough to delete information that's about them maybe on their wall or other people's site."

This needs to be read with the post below about FaceBook.

Is this paranoia? Is it a 'witch hunt' against something that has gone viral and is 'anti-establishment'? The social networks we have are in infancy and what is there today will undoubtedly not be there wearing the same clothes in the future and so it is right to worry about the ownership of the data.

At a seminar session at BETT last week I asked an assembled group of BETT visitors, mainly teachers, how many of them had opened up their FaceBook page (if they had one) or created one and had shown the students how to make the page as safe as possible. Out of the 80 or so listening to me ONE person said that they had done that.We need to teach people how to be safe. We do it for Road Safety. We spend a fortune on drugs awareness. We have not yet got to grips with personal safety in social networks ... and we need to now .

I have said these things before and feel the need to say them again !

Panorama - One click from danger

I missed the programme last evening but, thanks to BBCi, I am watching it now, as I type this post. I have been a bit disenfranchised of late with this flagship of the BBC since the 'WIFI' programme that caused so much fuss so I am hoping for more facts and less 'TV'.

The programme is still scaremongering and any parent watching it would be forgiven if they immediately dashed up the stairs and dragged any computers that were there from the bedrooms - but does give some really good advice, if you can see through the hype. It is quite clear that what is needed is a concerted education programme in our schools. We should just get on with some positive education, showing young people how to stay safe. We spend a fortune on road safety, drug awareness, anti-smoking, safe sex education etc. - this is the 21 Century safety campaign we need to get on with it not leave it up to peer 'hearsay'. If we do this we will be seen to be letting down our young people.

Our children are intelligent and media savvy we need to discover what they know and don't know so we can help them to get the safe best out of their social networking.

The problem is that our teachers probably are not up to speed on the technology and so there is a blanket 'WOW DANGER', we don't want to go there.

So a real education programme, quickly, for the teachers first. Young people need practical help on how to protect themselves online ... we must do it now before this hype gets in the way of all of the good that can be done.

If you missed the programme there are still five days left to download it to BBCi.