Taste of Tech

My brother and I had walkie-talkies when we were kids. I think we got them for Christmas one year. They were red, ran on 9-volt batteries, and had ridiculously long antennas. We used them constantly until the batteries died. Then, they fell into disuse (we never seemed to have a battery surplus). In the half-dozen years that followed, occasionally one would be discovered, and a new battery installed. The trouble was that we never seemed to be able to find both walkie-talkies at the same time. Since the range was pathetically short, about all we could do with one of them was listen to static. So it would go back in the toy box. A few months later, the other one would show up, but by that time the first one was lost. We never seemed to get both working at the same time after that first Christmas.

Years later, when I signed up for my first email account, I didn’t really have a good idea of what I was going to do with it. In truth, I just needed an account on the university’s mainframe so I could participate in some online forums. I didn’t even know I had an email account until several weeks later.

The new account, and the discovery of what it could do, weren’t much help to me. I didn’t know anyone else who had an email address, so there wasn’t anyone to write to. Eventually, I met some other people on campus who had email accounts, so I started writing to them. It was a year or more before I started emailing people who lived more than half a mile away.

Last week, I spent some time with a group of teachers in a class on developing personal learning networks. We focused on collaborative tools and technologies, like social bookmarking, Internet telephony, video conferencing, and shared online productivity tools. I talked a lot about my network. I’ve met a lot of smart people who have similar interests and goals, and I can rely on them to help when I’m in a pinch. As we went through the various tools, I tried to describe how I use that tool to interact with my network. I’ve certainly learned more from my network over the last two years than I ever learned in a college classroom.

The teachers liked the tools, and immediately starting thinking of ways to use them in their classes. That’s great. I expected them to do that. But they were less keen on the idea of a professional learning network. Sure, they can share their bookmarks with other Delicious users. But no one they know uses Delicious. It’s great that they can use Skype to conference with other second grade teachers, but they don’t know any other second grade teachers who use Skype. They only have one walkie-talkie. There’s no one to talk to.

The solution — I think — is blogging. Nearly everyone I interact with online in a professional way is someone I met through blogging. When I started writing a blog, I wrote it for my district staff. Most of them don’t read it. I think it was a year or more before anyone read my blog who doesn’t live in my house. At the same time, though, I started reading other blogs. I commented on those, and contributed to some conversations. Occasionally, I’ve posted on things people are interested in, and I’ve received some comments on this blog. That’s how I started building connections.

The same could be said for other “pull” technologies. I’ve met some people by listening to their podcasts (most notably those crazy people at EdTechTalk). I’ve found some new friends through Twitter, too, mostly by looking at who the people I’m following are following. Take recommendations from people you trust and respect.

It’s hard to get traction. It’s hard to see how interactive technologies work when you don’t have anyone to interact with. If you work at it, you’ll develop your own network. It starts with a lot of reading and a little writing. But if your network is as good as mine is, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

This week, we’re offering two professional development classes on using technology in the classroom. In the first class, we’re covering a series of interactive web tools including Protopage, Blogging, Podcasting, Wikis, and Moodle.

Because he introduces this better than anyone else in our district, we convinced middle school teacher Joe Zenir to introduce this for us. Here’s the video of his presentation:

On Tuesday, June 4, the EdTech Posse will be joining the Women of Web 2.0 in their weekly webcast at 9:00 PM EDT. The show will include a game show component, where the two teams will compete against each other to will fabulous prizes, which mostly consist of just bragging rights.

You can help by submitting game show questions. All of the items in the form below are optional, but we won’t be using any questions that don’t have answers

Hopefully by this point, you’ve put the cybersafety issue into perspective, implemented some basic measures to protect your kids online, and used resources to help teach kids how to protect themselves. Now it’s time to talk about filtering Internet access.

Conceptually, web filters are very simple. When using a filtered computer, requests for web pages, pictures, and other resources are first sent to the filter. Based on keywords, databases of allowed or blocked sites, and other factors, the filter determines if access to the resource should be allowed. If it is, the filter allows the computer to access it. If it isn’t, the filter blocks access to it.

It’s important to know that all filters have limitations, and some of them are pretty significant. With thousands of web pages being added, removed, and modified on a daily basis, it is impossible for any database to keep up with the ever-changing list of sites that should be blocked based on a certain set of criteria. It is also much more difficult to filter multimedia (pictures, audio, video) than it is to filter text. Text can easily be compared with certain blocked words to determine the nature of the content. It’s a lot more difficult for a computer to tell if the people in that picture have clothes on.

This problem is complicated by the increasing interactivity of the web. As more and more sites allow viewers to contribute their own content, they lose some of the control of those sites. It’s possible, for example, for someone to post inappropriate content in a comment on a CNN.com news story. That doesn’t necessarily mean Internet filters should block CNN.

It is also worth noting that a determined person can nearly always circumvent the filter entirely. Because students read this blog, I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but if you can get a web request to go directly to the Internet, rather than through the filter, you can access anything you want.

The final caveat, before we start talking about filtering solutions, is to note that many web filters are just that — WEB filters. They may not filter content in email, instant messages, or other types of Internet activity.

With all of that said, there are two basic types of filters available. The more complex of these is installed on a server. Computers on the network are configured (or forced) to access the web through this server. This has the major advantage that the computers being filtered are not running the filtering software. This makes it much more difficult (though not impossible) to disable or circumnavigate the filter. Because this requires a local network, server, and (maybe) packet routing and filtering, we’re going to assume that this is beyond the scope of most home users.

The other type of web filter uses software or a software configuration on the computer itself. While this has the disadvantage of being defeated by those being filtered if they can change the settings or uninstall the software, it is a much more manageable solution for most parents.

Filters
All right. Enough with the caveats and provisos. Where are the filters, already? Here are some free ones that come pretty highly recommended. The descriptions are paraphrased from the web sites for the software:

K-9 Web Protection: This software prevents the computer user from viewing Web sites that contain unwanted content. It can block more than 55 different categories of content, including pornography, hate speech and sites that promote violence or permit gambling. It’s free for home use.

Naomi: Naomi is a free internet filtering program intended for families. It is able to constantly monitor all internet connections, protecting children from inappropriate online material. Naomi examines in real-time all the data being transmitted and received through any internet application - such as web browers, chat programs, and news readers.

OpenDNS Adult Site Blocking: Adult site blocking is a free service that lets you block adult websites on your network. The software uses site categories compiled by St. Bernard Software, who have human-reviewed tens of millions of domains, to make sure you get the most comprehensive, easy-to-use adult site blocking service ever.

X3Watch: Rather than blocking access to inappropriate sites, this software simply logs the access, and emails those logs to a person you specify. It’s used more to monitor access than control it. The free version contains the basic features, and there’s also an advanced version available for a fee.

I haven’t actually used any of these products, but from what I’ve read, they seem to be the best of the free products. If I were setting up filtering in my home, I would start with one of these.

“The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.”

– Elbert Hubbard

In the first part of this series, we tried to cut through some of the irrational fears about online safety and put the issue into perspective. In part 2, we looked at some tips for parents to help keep their kids safe online. Now, it’s time to turn our attention to teaching children to protect themselves.

As children grow, they become more independent, gain more freedom, and take on more responsibility. When my daughter was a preschooler, she decided she was going to visit her friend. The friend lived six houses away, on the same side of the street. She knew that if she just followed the sidewalk, she’d get there, so off she went. Mom, of course, wasn’t very happy about this when she found her daughter halfway down the street. Now, she’s bigger. She can go to her friend’s house by herself (when she’s not grounded). She can go to the park that’s a few backyards away. She can’t yet go to the high school that’s slightly farther away. As they grow, the kids gain new freedom. The boundaries and limits change. But they also have to take the responsibility for their behavior along with it.

In my house, we recently instituted a change in how the TV is managed. Previously, we had several different profiles on the satellite receiver. The default one, which the kids used, only had access to about half a dozen channels, and there were pretty serious rating limits. Now there are more channels available, and the kids have access to DVR’d programs. But they’re much better about self-regulating, choosing appropriate programs, and limiting the amount of time they spend in front of the TV. It also helps that Mom and Dad set expectations for TV use, with rewards and consequences based on the choices they make.

The Internet isn’t much different. There are some things on the Internet that aren’t for kids. There are also some things kids shouldn’t share online. They shouldn’t tell people where they live. They shouldn’t give their passwords out to their friends. As they get older, they have to be concerned with pictures and video they upload. They also have to protect their online reputations, since most of this stuff is public. And, they have to know when to allow things to be public and when to protect it.

How do we teach this? Here are some pretty good resources:

NetSmartzKids has a number of games, videos, activities, and other resources for elementary kids. They address everything from password privacy and stranger danger to computer viruses in a compelling, kid-friendly way. For older students, NetSmartz Teens takes the privacy lessons a step further, and also addresses cyberbullying and online enticement.

Think U Know has resources for students aged 5-7, 8-10, and 11-16. The resources for younger kids include the Hector’s World cartoon series on online safety. In addition to teaching kids how to be careful online, they also address the etiquette issues of being nice to one another. For older children, the Cyber Cafe is a place to have fun while learning about online safety. The resources for teens also address mobile phone use, chatting, social networking, and blogging.

Social Safety offers a free packet on online safety for teens. It’s definitely written from the fear perspective, with the assumptions that Law & Order episodes mirror real life, and that people who contact you online are probably just trying to kidnap, rape or kill you. But in the right context, it might be a useful resource.

Safekids and Safeteens are web sites that have good resources for children and teens for staying safe online. While it’s mostly textual information, does give useful information from an authoritative source.

X-Block is another resource for older students. It’s a much more interactive resource, giving students a way to participate in social networking on a limited basis while learning the basics of online safety.

Regardless of the method used, we have to teach our children to protect themselves online. We can’t always be looking over their shoulders to protect them. We have to set expectations of responsible behavior, teach them what those behaviors are, trust them to make good decisions, and then follow up with positive and negative consequences based on their choices.