Managing your online identity

 

The latest report from the PEW Internet and American Life project has some good news and some concerning news in it when I read through it today. 

It was heartening to see that young people (age 18-29 ) are the most active at managing their online reputations, as can be seen in the graph.

Of concern are the numbers of people in the older age groups - those more likely to be teaching our children - who  do not take active steps to manage their privacy.  I guess the presumption is that they don't know how. 

There has been a thread running this week in the MLE reference group forum online about what social networking NZ schools have blocked, or conversely what they have actively decided to open.  From the responses I get the feeling that schools are mostly blocking everything rather than teaching students how to manage their online identity and activities. This is not surprising if the teachers don't know how to do it themselves.

When speaking at conferences, from time to time I ask the audience "Who Google's themselves?"
People look self-conscious about raising their hands until I say that it is nothing to be ashamed of.  If we are unaware of what is (or isn't!) being said about us, then we don't know where to start with managing our identity. A Google Alert is so simple to set up and so informative.
As a parent I am amazed by people who don't Google their own kids from time to time (or have Google Alerts set up).  Those who challenge me about this invariably raise the issue of their own child's right to privacy - from them.  My response to that is, "If all the other millions of internet users can see it, why should I be the only one who refrains?"

I recently showed this video to our Lead Teachers and some interesting discussion ensued....


The full report is available here:
Young adults are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. When compared with older users, they more often customize what they share and whom they share it with.
Those ages 18-29 are more likely than older adults to say:

• They take steps to limit the amount of personal information available about them online -- 44% of young adult internet users say this, compared with 33% of internet users between ages 30-49, 25% of those ages 50-64 and 20% of those age 65 and older.
• They change privacy settings -- 71% of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online. By comparison, just 55% of SNS users ages 50-64 have changed the default settings.
• They delete unwanted comments -- 47% social networking users ages 18-29 have deleted comments that others have made on their profile, compared with just 29% of those ages 30-49 and 26% of those ages 50-64.
• They remove their name from photos -- 41% of social networking users ages 18-29 say they have removed their name from photos that were tagged to identify them, compared with just 24% of SNS users ages 30-49 and only 18% of those ages 50-64.

Maori TV shows the way - again

Ok, that title may be a tad over the top, since I am writing about a piece they did featuring Pt England School, but they really do make some great television on that channel!

We became dedicated fans of Maori TV a couple of years ago when they did their first all day ANZAC special and even included the mother-of-the-nation, Judy Bailey, as one of their presenters.

It bothers me when I see kiwis griping about tax payer money going their way because from my couch they make by far the best use of my taxes of any of the government funded channels in NZ.  And if all that is bothering you is a bit of Te Reo and the sub-titles, then you really need to get over yourself!
Towards the end of last year they contacted us to see if they could do a piece about eLearning for the 411 programme which has a technology, science and design focus.  It aired in March this year and it was only this week that I discovered the archive online.  Unfortunately they don't offer an embed facility so you will need to pop over there on this link to catch the full show.  I just snipped off the last minute of it to upload here.  Kia ora!
We were very impressed by their interaction while in the school filming and by their journalism when we finally saw the story they told.  And we have been using the camera work and editing as exemplars for our staff and kids.

Parents engage with their children's learning

We have been focussing on publishing student outcomes in online spaces to motivate and engage students in their learning, with a particular focus on literacy outcomes. Our research results have shown that this is highly effective, with students saying things like, "I like writing now because I know that people read it." It shouldn't really have needed a researcher to tell us that writing with only the teacher as an audience is not very motivating!

We have also discovered that working with students in this way is very motivating for teachers because they get feedback - albeit via the kids work - in a new and authentic way.

But we have had a real sense of validation as we have started to see our parents engage with our students through their online work. We publish the students work mostly through blogs, and we have made the settings very public. No passwords required to read, and no passwords required to comment. So we have been finding that our parents are being generous and as well as supporting their own child, they are leaving affirming comments on the work of children other than their own.

For anyone unfamiliar with our district, the majority of our families do not have computers or internet access at home and so we don't take their interaction online for granted. But anyone who overlooks the impact of Facebook on every age group of adults is out of touch with life in 2010. Our young mums at school may not have the gear at home, but because they use Facebook they get themselves connected at different times during the week - friend's places, internet cafe, library etc - and it is up to us to suggest ways they can interact with their own child online at the same time. We have been gathering email addresses from our parents and including them in the Settings (Email and Mobile tab) so they receive an email every time the class or student posts. We are also teaching those with Facebook how to add an RSS feed to their page so they can receive updates there.

Last week we held a Home School partnership meeting at night to teach our parents how to respond to their children's blog posts. We were taken by surprise when 93 parents turned up! This Flip video shows them listening to a preamble in the hall before they went off to classrooms to enjoy a 'hands on' blogging experience - leaving 160 kids with the principal for 'baby sitting'!

Aviary added to Google Apps for Education

With a huge focus on creativity in our Manaiakalani projects it has been a concern to some of us that through Google Apps for Ed we are in danger of moving more and more into 'productivity' apps with our students and spending less time on the creative apps.

The announcement that Aviary has been added to the available apps inside Google Apps for Ed is VERY welcome.

Image Editor, Effects Editor etc for graphics is a great start, but even better news for the Manaiakalani schools is the Audio editor.

As Jim Sill says:, "Aviary allows you to create graphics, audio files (Podcasts, VoiceOvers) and more. Now, you can save the files you create and they will be stored directly in your Google Docs account. It also gives you embed codes so you can put the pictures or the mp3 player on your site. This really opens the door for classrooms to produce content and share it with ease."

Can't wait to see our creative students and teachers using it.....

Transforming teaching by broadband

The last two eLearning conferences I have attended in New Zealand have opened with the Minister of Education speaking at length about the government plan to spend $1.5 billion on fiber optic roll out, which will include schools, across the country. What was perplexing to me was hearing significant numbers of kiwi teachers express sentiments along the lines of "there was nothing in that for me"! Agreed, the previous Minister announced a day off school for all teachers during his final conference speech, and the implications were far easier to grasp.

I observed a class of Year 3 students grapple with a similar concept recently when they met to discuss how they would spend the wonderful $250 prize they had received from the Ruth Hart Jessee Strange Award - a big feast or a Flip video camera? Hard decision for them to make!

I was reminded about this when I watched the BBC video of Sam Pitroda, who is adviser to the Prime Minister of India, delivering his views on how access to broadband in his country will impact teachers and teaching in India in the very near future.

Some of the gems from his talk include:

"Technology is a great social leveler, second only to death."

"It is not a question of replacing teachers by broadband; it's a question of transforming teaching by broadband."

He tells us that:

In India there are currently 550 million telephones

They are adding 15 million new connections each month

There will be 800 million in the next couple of years

This will see the whole country connected and the local government bodies connected to form a national knowledge network.

He speaks about the teacher's role as a mentor and talks of the internet / broadband bringing the guru tradition back to India. Guru are people who are there for you, who have many answers, we look up to them, but they are not always teaching.

He says the concept of teacher delivery with duster and blackboard is obsolete; it doesn't make sense today but we still go on doing it! And it will have to change. That's the power of the internet.

I am reminded that as educators we need to be looking for inspiration at every level (from personal to blogs/books/Twitter to large conference keynotes) outside of our traditional 'Mother Country' and North American go-tos. The video is only 3 minutes long. Check it out here.