Learning - Thinking - Playing

Online Safety - Growing Up Online Video

As I prepare for a presentation tomorrow at a large metropolitan Melbourne school I have been thinking and developing my slides and information. not that I don't know it but that I have a passion for sharing and exploring the issues we as educators face and getting the message right is very important especially when speaking to 250+ people.

I came across the following site/video which is a must watch for all teachers, parents and anyone involved with students or children going online. The video was released last week in the US on the PBS network as part of the Frontline program. Growing Up Online explores a large number of issues about students growing up online and the challenges that everyone face from parents to teachers and most importantly students.

There are teacher notes coming in Feb and these should be useful, the website as a whole has lots of information and links and provides a lot of good useful information. It is important to note that the show does focus on the negative side of going online, and that anyone using or showing clips need to ensure audiences know that going online has a lot of advantages and positives - we just need to get a balance and educate our children and their parents and teachers.

The following are a couple of posts on the video Growing Up Online - they are worth a visit:

Engage or entertain?

FRONTLINE "Growing Up Online"

Spore is coming - to the Mac

I use a wide range of technologies and devices and in the last 6 months have moved across to using my Mac  more than my PC, I personally believe that it is a wise move to understand all technologies on offer and be able to use all operating system. In the last week there was some great news from Mac world, apart from MacBook Air that is. It was released at the event that a number of major games companies would be release major titles for the Mac as well as the PC, the one that really interested me was the story that the game Spore from EA will be released on both the PC and Mac at the same time. I have spoken about games and spore in previous blog entries on Games as well as on the podcast EdTechCrew (Ep 20, Ep 10).

Whilst the PC is still the best device to play the majority of games on, the Mac is starting to change the environment and with Spore this will change it even more. The opportunities that this game offers for learning and use in the educational environment is huge and I hope that teachers and school will look to its use as a learning tool. Spore was slated to be released in March this year but as yet this has not be confirmed by the company.

The following article on CNET News provides a few shots and more detail on the Mac release for the game - Seeing 'Spore' on the Mac for the first time.

Greatest Web Video's?

While doing a little surfing (web) in between real surfing whilst down the coast in Vic came across the following website put up by Dane from the TWIT network, the post entitled "All Time Best Geek/Web Music Videos" is worth a look. I have not had the chance in the last year to get a good look but these clips are worth viewing when you have a little time up your sleeve - some also great inspiration for students and teachers to think about for a project this coming year.

I particularly like the Weird Al one.

Online Safety - 2008 Challenges

It is interesting at the moment with the school and summer holidays in full swing (in Australia) and people in a relaxed and laid back frame of mind that the new Federal Government have continued its push to be seen as getting stuck into its polices and promises. One of these areas is the protection of children to online resources - the latest development in this area is the proposal for ISP based filtering as mentioned in the following two articles "Conroy wades into child porn net flood" and "Australia's plans to filter Internet under fire". This proposal has generated a fair amount of discussion online although the impact and discussion for every day Australian's seems to have taken a back seat.

What does a proposal like this mean for the every day person - well the following are some of the positive and negative consequences:

• Protection of our children from inappropriate material (as much as can be provided)
• Gives parents and guardians a false belief that their children are safe online
• ISP and Internet services may be slowed
• If you want to have un-filtered access to  the internet then you may be required to ring up/email and request this access - providing details to a central service for what should be a basic right
• Does not provide a failsafe protection for children as they could potential get access at other locations
• Starts down a path of information access filtering - potential for future restrictions to be added without full consideration.

This is an issue that all need to be aware of and conscious about.

The following blog entry is worth a read - While You Were Out: Australia Makes Plans to Censor the Internet, it makes for some interesting reading.

Finally the 'Clean Feed' system proposed has a few issues "Rudd porn filter fails: experts".

A New Year and a Resolution

Welcome to the New Year - I have held off for the blog to write my first 2008 (or in this case type) for the year - one of those little things i think about. anyway what a year to promises to be in so many different ways - there is the challenge to all Australians from our new Labor Government with the planned content filtering at the ISP level - which for most would seem nothing but is a major issue. There is also the planned educational revolution and planned spending of $900 million over the next 4 years on ICT in education - $100 million of which is planned to be expended by the end of this financial year - is this a rushed job.

in 2008 there will be new games and challenges about their use in classrooms, there will be new web 2.0 tools and resources and developments in technology for teachers to experience, learn, explore and deal. So much to look forward too.

One of my new years resolutions was to increase my postings on my interests, work and education on this blog, another resolution was to start commenting more on others and getting involved as a blogger and blog-consumer an the final one was to develop better and more expansive online networks. I will list these in greater detail later and start a process to evaluate these resolutions so that I can review them at the end of the this new year.

I look forward to blogging with you all.