http://edventures.whitemountaintech.net

So far, so good. I’ve got a long way to go to figure out themes and PHP but now I can experiment with my own installations – how dangerously exciting!
Here is the new URL and feed for my account out of my domain – www.whitemountaintech.net

New blog URL – http://edventures.whitemountaintech.net

New blog feed – http://www.whitemountaintech.net/wordpress/feed/

I’ve also tweaked the blog a bit to include the following plug-ins:

bsuite – a stats program courtesy of Casey Bisson

podPress – a podcasting encapsulation plug-in

Just a note, I plan on leaving this up until WordPress decides to deep six it so any links that currently point here will not break. But if you do find this blog, please visit my new home and link to these posts there.

I have just cracked it open but I am excited about its prospects, particularly since I am working on a culminative project for my M.Ed. which is the development of a graduate level course in current EdTech tools. Between Will’s book, and the syllabi posted by Ulises Mejias in his Social Software Affordances course and Terry Anderson in his Emerging Issues in Educational Technology course, I am excited to start diving into the course’s creation.

Congratulations Will, and thanks!

technorati tags: will, richardson, book, blogs, wikis, podcasts, edtech, web, tools, classroom

Today is a new day, a new start – and it is good to be back! 

• Discuss and defend their personal concept of netiquette
• Explain their philosophy of ethical network behavior as it pertains to:

• Personal privacy
• Legal issues such as libel/slander
• Intellectual property
• Copyright law
• Creative commons

• Explain the concept of the Creative Commons
• Identify and explain the different “licensing” levels that the Creative Commons provides
• Explain the concept of “open source”
• Explain the concept of “public domain”
• Explain the difference between a copyright and a patent

Netiquette

What is “netiquette?” Netiquette is a set of guidelines which help to ease the disconnect that can exist in online communication. Wikipedia has a wonderful article on netiquette. Albion.com has another good link.These are general rules of the road, but there are also more specific guidelines that cover such technologies as email, blogs and instant
messaging. Cyberjournalist.net has opened a dialogue on blogging ethics. Harvard’s Martin Kuhn has a paper (in PDF format) on blogging ethics as well. Rather than read the entire paper, focus on Appendices A and B.

Assignment:

Post a blog entry that details your own “code of ethics.”

Remember that we are expecting two posts a week at this point in our class.

Privacy

A topic that always seems to fire our passions is that of privacy. With the advent of the Internet, this has become almost non-existent. Whether the problem is offering too much personal information as in the case of many MySpace profiles or whether it is businesses with poor data management skills or even corporations falling victim to crackers, privacy and in particular identity theft is a growing concern. Wikipedia has a decent entry on data privacy.

USA PATRIOT Act

Sometimes concerns over a lack of privacy come as a result of legislation, such as the USA PATRIOT Act. If your eyes glaze over at the thought of reading a legislative bill, Wikipedia has a summary that might make a bit more sense. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has an article that highlights their perspective as does the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Libraries Association (ALA).

Automated services

Try to answer this question:

What are Internet or web “bots” and what impact might they have on one’s privacy?

Check this Wikipedia link to get yourself started.

Intellectual Property

One of the challenges any student faces is that over what constitutes fair-use of intellectual property. The U.S. Copyright office offers the legal standard, but the folks at Lamson Library have a number of wonderful books that deal specifically with copyright law as it pertains to the type of projects we will be creating.Here are a few more links you should check out:

• American Bar Association (ABA)
• American Library Association (ALA)
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Creative Commons

One answer to the vexing problem posed by the fundamentals of copyright law is the Creative Commons project. In this project, authors can assign a number of licensing options ranging in their level of restriction.Here are a few questions for you to answer:

• How many different Creative Commons licensing combinations are there?
• How is this different from public domain material?
• How is this different from open source material?
• What benefits can you see that might come from the expanded use of the Creative Commons concept?

Assignment:

Try creating something uniquely yours (it does NOT have to be very intricate) and post it to your blog. Give it a creative commons license following their directions for including the appropriate identification.

For those of you who are not familiar, Kathy Sierra is the author of a number of Head First books from O’Reilly Press but what really impresses me is her blog, Creating Passionate Users. I’ve referenced a number of her posts in my Web Expressions course and have tried to incorporate her learning and teaching philosophies into my own practice. Her latest entries as of this post are: Mediocrity by "areas of improvement", a fresh look at re-engineering the dreaded performance review, and Brain death by dull cubicle – her take on new developments in brain theory as they apply to our work environments.

These are a few of my favorite Kathy Sierra posts:

Crafting a user experience

Keeping users engaged

Blowing your own mind

Think sexy

The importance of seduction and curiosity

Creating a passionate…You

The user’s journey

Transparency v. seduction

and perhaps my own guiding text,  

Ten tips for new trainers/teachers 

 Thanks for the inspiration Kathy and keep up the great work!

technorati tags: kathy, sierra, creating, passionate, users, passion, creativity, inspiration, wow

Access to these accounts varies. Your Oz drive, also known as your M: drive, is mapped automatically on cluster computers. The Turing drive must be mapped separately. If you are on campus (and using a PC) you may map either of these drives yourself using the following directions:

• Right-click on My Computer and click on Map Network Drive
  
  
• Select the drive letter you prefer from the drop down menu in the Drive: field
• Type the following into the Folder: field
  For Oz: \\logon.plymouth.edu\username replacing username with your own PSU username
  For Turing: \\turing.plymouth.edu\username replacing username with your own PSU username

• To ensure that this drive remains mapped, check the box to Reconnect at Logon
• Now click on the Connect using a different user name link and type \\logon\username in the username box (again replacing username with your own PSU username) and type your password in the password field.
• Click OK, then click Finish

A window should open at this point displaying the contents of your mapped drive.

To access Dreamweaver, or any other application accessible via Terminal Services, map a network drive to: \\owl.plymouth.edu\afserv
If you should need a refresher on mapping a drive, check my last post. Once this drive is mapped, look for the folder titled TSClients. In this folder, you will find a number of shortcuts to the Terminal Services applications provided to you.

"I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind. "

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Given what we uncovered last week in both our class and at the Security Fair, and taking into account what you have discovered in your explorations, pick one aspect of network security and awareness and speak to it. Bear in mind that beginning with this post, we will raise the bar on our professional presentation and style. This means that spelling, grammar, context and content will be critical components of all posts from here on out.

For those of you who already began a post on the Security Fair, simply update that entry with an eye toward one specific aspect that held meaning for you. I look forward to reading your posts and encourage you to begin to take a look at the work of your classmates and post comments where appropriate.

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know how to.

Try to be better than yourself. “

- William Faulkner -

Rubric 1.0 by Hadley Wickham

Exercise: Student survey (visit online survey to assess current skill set)

Field Experience: Security Fair visitation

Learning Objectives: Students should be able to:

• Explain the technology that allows us to view web pages
• Explain how email is created, delivered and read
• Explain how the Internet impacts one’s privacy
• Identify and explain the impact of:

• spyware
• adware
• viruses
• worms
• phishing

• Define and explain “cookies”

Internet Basics

Please visit the Learn The Net website and explore the links that discuss the following:

• Connecting to the Internet (this animation deals with dial-up accounts, please be able to explain how your on-campus or apartment account differs)
• How the web works(please be able to discuss what hardware and software is required to be able to access the Internet)
• How e-mail works (Please be able to explain how you access your email here on campus and what is required in order to be able to send and/or receive email)

This online quiz will help you assess your knowledge of the Internet.

Privacy and security on the Internet

Phishing IQ test: This is an excellent test as it shows how difficult it is to distinguish legitimate emails from phishing attempts. Particularly informative are the explanations located on the solution page.

There is also a PDF advising how to evaluate possible phishing attempts called: Top Ten Tips for Finding a Phish

Here is a recent article from Slashdot that discusses the more sophisticated vectors of attack that hackers are employing in their efforts to elicit your personal and account information.

UPDATE: After our discussion of phishing what should arrive in our University HelpDesk email but the following (note the link address):

Cookies

Wikipedia has an excellent article on cookies.

As does the following Cookie Central website.

This article provides quick and easy tips on how to view the cookies that reside on your computer and provide information about your Internet habits. Make a note to explore the links on the side that explain about the darker side of cookies. They also have an FAQ page that will tell you everything you never wanted to know about cookies.

These are questions you should be able to answer once you have explored these cookie resources.

• How could cookies divulge private information about you?
• What other dangers exist using cookies?
• What advantages exist to using cookies?

Now let’s examine the cookies that exist on your M: drive.
You can find them here: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Cookies

• What do you think?
• Will you delete your cookies?
• Do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

Now that you know where they are, here is how you can delete your cookies:

IE: Tools -> Internet Options -> Delete Cookies and then click “OK”

FireFox: Tools -> Clear Private Data -> Check the Cookies box and click “Clear Private Data Now”

Spyware

Again, wikipedia has a terrific definition on what spyware is.

Compare this to how they define viruses, or more properly virii.

See if you can answer the following questions:

• What characteristics distinguish spyware from other forms of malicious software?
• How is spyware similar to viruses?
• How does spyware get installed on your computer?
• What can you do to avoid/remove spyware?

Look at a few instances of spyware and describe their effects.

Provide an example of spyware masquerading as a spyware removal tool.

The CIO of our institution aired his thoughts in a recent blog post:

“With the traditional web pages and my.Plymouth*, we now have an opportunity to focus our main PSU domain web pages on marketing to prospective students and outreach in our mission as a regional university. We can display our official pages, current and professional looking, to the world, and keep our business behind the firewall.”

From a marketing standpoint it would seem to make sense for any business to maintain strict control over its branding, the image presented to the world. But I wonder in this age where content consumer has become content creator if this 20th century model is still valid. Our future students are digital natives, born and bred in a world of search engines, blogs and constant communication. Will the sterility of the typical corporate presence serve as a warning flag? How will students interpret the PR spin? Will it be perceived as a lack of transparency and therefore somehow be found wanting? Will institutions be able to rely upon their current status to attract students in the future? And if so for how long?

I wish I had the answers, but right now I admit I am left only with questions.

UPDATE: I’ve started reading “The Cluetrain Manifesto” and what should appear in the first three paragraphs but a discussion about markets as a conversation. From the book (although you can read it in its entirety for free online):

“People of Earth…

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter – and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny, and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.”

Again more questions, but these have more to do with how we reach our market in the 21st century rather than dwelling on the techniques we’ve relied upon in the past. How do we reach those students in this evolving market? How do we keep pace with their almost insatiable demand for information? How do we provide and make accessible the information that we feel is most important? Or is that omitting our focus on the needs of our future learners?

* myPlymouth is our campus portal, powered by SCT Luminis, behind which lies access to the electronic services available to our campus community. It is one-stop shopping for email, campus news, e-learning, student and faculty services, library resources and other tools of use to the citizens of the modern campus. And while it holds great promise, I find it lacking in some fundamental features and functionality. But that is for another post.

technorati tags: higher, education, marketing, web, information, freedom, academic, cluetrain, manifesto

In class today I asked you about your philosophy as a learner. I also asked you to think about your roles as a member of the classroom community. Now that you have had an opportunity to consider what was discussed, I would like for you to post a blog entry which addresses the following:

• Describe how you believe you learn best,
• Describe your perception of your role in this class and,
• Discuss one area of weakness that you would like to improve as a result of this course.

What do you want?

My philosophy is that this class is learner-centric. It is my belief that while we are addressing certain topics that are central to the course, it is important for each of you as learners to take control of your education and focus on areas that you wish to improve. As a new blog entry, or as a continuation of the entry started above, please speak to the question of “What do you want,” and what you desire to get out of this course. Be insightful and true to your hopes and aspirations.

A Friendly Reminder
This is a good time to begin brainstorming topics that you might wish to employ as the basis of your class project.

One alternative to Internet Explorer that does not appear to have the same problem is Firefox. Firefox is a reliable and some would argue more functional alternative to IE. It supports tabbed browsing which means that rather than having 5 or 10 open IE windows, you can have one Firefox window and 10 tabs inside it.

For those really brave souls you can try Flock. Flock is a beta product based on the Firefox browser but is designed to be more compatible with what has come to be called “Web 2.0.” Flock supports blogging directly from the browser and is tied to del.icio.us, which is an online social bookmarking application.

Review last class

• Feed reader -There were some problems with IE, so everyone should try downloading Firefox and using that process.
• Blog entries – Is everyone caught up?
• I’m experimenting with recording this class and turning it into a podcast. We’ll see how it goes.
  (Due to equipment issues, this didn’t occur. After today’s conversation I truly wish we had. The level of excitement and engagement was second only to the quality and depth of what came out in our exercises. Particularly when we were discussing how artists convey mood through color, tone, design and sound. The example of the soundtrack to horror films (the classic ones particularly) sticks in my mind.)

My philosophy of this class and our roles for one another:

• My role – guide, co-learner, resource, facilitator
• What do you see as your role – let’s talk about this
• Show Kathy Sierra post – Mediocrity by “areas of improvement”

Discuss: Creativity in the context of this class is dependent upon what? Think about the title of this class and what that means to us.

• Hint – In our last seminar session, we spoke of creativity as both intimately personal and socially dependent?

Exercise: Small groups, brainstorm how humans have communicated from the dawn of our time. Back together lets air our findings and I’ll write them down. Let’s create a timeline (why?) and discuss how this impacts the delivery of our messages.

Discuss: In our last seminar session, we discussed the role that emotions, passions and feelings play in how we view and interpret creativity. How do we communicate these ideas, these intangibles?

Exercise: In the same small groups, think about an idea or concept that can be challenging to convey and talk about how you might try to communicate that to others. Create a mock-up of this and present to the class.

Classroom environment: Let’s take some time to put the chairs back for those who follow.

Homework: Blog entry – In class today we talked about our philosophies and roles as members of the classroom community. Post an entry about your philosophy, what you hope to get out of this course and how you view your role in this community. Be insightful and

Assignment: Project – Begin to brainstorm topics that you might employ as the basis of your class project.

My blog entry for today: Process – Use Meredith Farkas’ post on her book “…lessons learned so far“

And speaking of creative muses, there is some incredible creative thought already on display in the blog entries of your classmates. Check them out and use them to fuel your own imagination.

Happy hunting and we’ll see you on Thursday!

To make your life easier, I have created an export of the blog feeds from our course as an OPML file. An OPML file allows you to import a bunch of feeds much like you can import your bookmarks from one browser to another (such as from Internet Explorer to Firefox). The link to the OPML file is available here. On this page you will find a link call Web Expressions blogroll. To download the file, right-click on the link and click either Save Target As (in Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (in Firefox). Save the file to your desktop to make it easy to find.

Ok, so now you have an OPML file. Big whoop, now what? Well to make use of this file, you need to use the import feature in either Bloglines, SharpReader or your aggregator of choice. In SharpReader, click File -> Import and select the webex.opml file from your desktop. With Bloglines, click on My Feeds and then click the option to Edit. At the bottom of the Edit window you will see a link to Import Subscriptions. Follow the directions from there and your new subscriptions will show up in My Feeds.

Hey Mac crew, I haven’t forgotten you. Try using BlogBridge to manage your feeds. If you have questions, post them as comments here.

Marvin Bartel, Ed.D.

You know the adage – it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality. The same holds true here. It is my desire that each of you puts a significant amount of effort into the content that you create. I would rather have you talk less about more, then more about less.

I look forward to reading your posts. We’ll see you next Tuesday, have a great weekend!

It WAS 8:20 p.m., the kids are STILL in bed and some nut case on Survivor WAS singing cum-ba-ya. My bitterness is over and as promised, here are the links to the resources I promised you. You will notice that they come from a wide range of perspectives – education, business, technology and yes, even art. Peruse them over the next few days and allow them to help guide your own creative process.

I came across this article today. From Business Week, it is written by the thirty year old director of consumer products for Google, Marissa Ann Mayer. Turning Limitations into Innovation.

As I mentioned in class, this site has been at the top of my list since I came across it last summer. Kathy Sierra was a programmer and game developer who has taken her skills and applied them to writing books and in her blog – Creating Passionate Users.

This next resource is a paper by Marvin Bartel, Ed.D. of Goshen College. Called Teaching Creativity, it is a resource for art education teachers and has interesting insights on limiting the design process.

Next are a couple of links from the art website of Nancy Doyle. What is art about? and Notes on Art-Making speak to her process and philosophy.

You may also wish to explore the next few links at your leisure. They may provide the mental lubrication when your creative gears get stuck.

Creativity Central – Blog on the creative process

Keri Smith – Blog on passion and creativity

• What did you learn about me, take a few minutes to get together in small groups and work up a bio and provide a forensic overview of your process.
• Let’s talk about how creative your process is or could be, pretend you are an FBI profiler – work me up.

This class is not about me, it is about you. I find that people learn more from one another than they will from me. It’s all about the math, folks. The sum of the knowledge contained within a group will always be greater than that possessed by any one individual.

This course is not about lectures and stasis. It is about dynamic interaction. For those of you who have read my profile, you know that I am a rock climber. Any others out there? For the purposes of this course, we are climbing partners to one another. This course is not unlike a multi-pitch climb – in order to achieve the goal set before us, we will need to rely upon one another to reach the summit. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow. Belaying each other…, through the crux…And that crux differs for each of us.

Creativity is an adventure of the mind. When you think about it, we are gods within the worlds of our mind.

Discuss: What does it mean to be creative? What does creative look like? How can we/how do we express our creative thoughts.

• Develop a recipe for your creativity

Discuss: How do our emotions, passions, feelings affect what we see as creative and in turn how do they affect our own creativity?

Discuss: Creativity is at once intimately personal and socially dependent?

Homework: Blog reading
I will be posting an article on blog and creativity resources. Please follow and read these links and provide a responsive summary as a comment to my post.

Homework: Activity
For the next class, I would like for you to create a profile of yourself. Who you are, what you hope to get out of this class (other than a passing grade), and anything that would help us to know and understand you better. Create a profile for yourself and post it to your blog. Start early, experiment with the tools and be creative!

What is your philosophy?

Here are a few that I have tried:

Bloglines – An online blog reader which makes your feeds available from any computer with an Internet connection.

Pluck – An aggregator plug-in for your browser.

SharpReader – A stand-alone aggregator.

And for my Mac friends, try BlogBridge (works for PC and Linux too!).

I will be interested in finding out if there are things I didn’t know about myself!

You are about to embark on a journey that will test your technical prowess and encourage you to rediscover your creative potential. This blog will be your electronic home for the upcoming semester. Assignments and discussions will be held online through this blog and your own. The expectations for this course are relatively simple:

• Complete the work that is assigned in a timely fashion

• While this seems self-explanatory, bear in mind that this class does not support procrastination as it depends on real-time feedback and interaction.

• The Internet doesn’t always convey the intent of your meaning, be aware of how your voice is being heard.
• Spelling and grammar count! They reflect directly upon you and will be incorporated into your overall grade.
• Be original, be yourself but if you use the work of others – cite it!

• Personal interaction and peer review are vital components of this course.
• Provide feedback that is actionable – meaning that you are providing information that someone can use to improve their product, their process or their delivery.

Stay tuned…

The only caveat is that I have a couple of missing posts that I need to recreate for the sake of continuity so the flow may seem a bit awkward at first.

This initiative is also in keeping with my attempts to use my blog as a Personal Knowledge Management system. My blogroll includes four links to sites that have a KM focus. They are:

• The Otter Group (feed) and their blog, the Learning 2.0 Tip of the Week (feed)
• Planet KM (feed) and
• Innovation Creators (feed)

After analyzing a number of wiki solutions, we chose TikiWiki primarily because one of the requirements of our project group was that whatever solution we chose had to be PHP-based (which at the time ruled out MediaWiki which stated it was PERL-based) and allow us to ensure that the information that is presented to the campus remains accurate, or “trusted,” in content and that, as required, its availability could be limited to certain specific or targeted audiences.

In deploying TikiWiki as our campus knowledge base we found that we needed to develop access and structure hierarchies.

The access hierarchy was necessary for two reasons:

1. We have a number of sub-groups that needed an information repository that was not open to the general public, specifically our HelpDesk who need access to internal processes and procedures that are restriced based on access and/or privilege. As well, some of the information we have is available to our campus consitituents but not to the general public (such as WebCT tutorials that were paid for . Other information is primarily for the internal use of the staff at our HelpDesk and is not available for general consumption (We accomplished this by locking down branches of the tree and restricting it to certain user groups, such as the relatively small group (less than 50 students and staff) that are members of ITS. We are still working out some of the rough spots – specifically how to scale this to larger groups, i.e. all of our faculty, all of our students, just our graduate students.
2. We needed a way to empower and distribute content delivery but still maintain editorial oversight to ensure the quality of the articles posted. As such we used the admin feature to develop the roles of contributor, editor/moderator and administrator. The contributor has permissions to add and edit articles, the editor/moderator can rearrange the structure of the articles while the administrator has access to the application itself.

The structure became necessary because we encountered some frustrations with the means by which the app searches its articles. It appears that in order to maximize searchability, the common search terms needed to be embedded within the title of the article. This slowed us down because it meant that we needed to spend more time focusing on the structure of the knowledge base rather than developing the content. As such, we are still waiting to deploy this to our campus as the replacement for the Help Tab in our Luminis portal myPlymouth. We are hoping that this will occur within the next week.

We are not using the wiki as it was originally designed, yet I don’t feel that its value to us has been minimized. Althought I would love to run a side by side experiment where I could compare the trustworthiness and usability of an open wiki v. a closed wiki. But then again that would require time.

technorati tags: tikiwiki, wiki, knowledge, base, kb, help, support, information

I am sitting at my desk working up the curriculum for this class when my 5-year old son Hunter asks me, "Dad, what are you doing?" In my best fatherly tone I explain to him that I am preparing to teach this [Web Expressions] course in the fall. Without any hesitation he asks me the question that weighs on all little boys’ minds, "Dad, do big kids play too?" Being an adult and not too swift by 5-year old standards, it took me a minute to realize that the "kids" he was talking about were the students in my class.

Well that innocent little question stuck in my head (like one of those cheesy ad jingles or the Muppet "Mahna-mahna" song) and got me to thinking. At the time, I was trying to find a way to "teach" creativity and was frustrated by my lack of progress. Creativity is a rather abstract concept and it’s very nature is fluid and boundless. How do you neatly package something like that?

Well, if Hunter is right, the answer just might be in how we play.

When we play, whether it is building towers with blocks, creating an imaginary friend or skiing a backcountry bowl, we are expanding our minds, testing and pushing our perceived limits and developing new experiences upon which to build our future selves. Watch any child at play and you can see them grow, evolve.

How we play changes as we get older, as we explore new opportunities. Some of us lose touch with the ability to play with the unencumbered freedom of our youth. We find it difficult to "be creative" because we have for so long struggled with trying to fit in, trying to satisfy the expectations of others.

Get out and play, be a kid, who cares who’s watching? You just might learn a thing or two about yourself.

technorati tags: play, learning, teaching, creativity, knowledge, philosophy

Take yesterday for example, I’m driving my kids to my daughter’s basketball game and Hunter is in the backseat making some sort of vehicle with his Legos™. Holding up something he has built he says to me:

Hunter: "Dad, look what I made. It’s a ship."

Me: "Wow Hunter, that’s pretty wild."

Hunter: "I had to take something else apart to make it because I don’t have enough pieces."

Me: "That’s ok Hunter, that’s the best thing about building with Legos. You can make things and then take them apart and make new things."

Hunter: "I know Dad, I do that a lot. I like building new things, but sometimes I don’t like it when they break."

Me: "Yeah, that happens to me sometimes too. I try to find another way to build them that is stronger."

Then silence, Hunter was back in the zone.

It got me to thinking that knowledge and information are a lot like Legos. We acquire all of these various bits and pieces, which alone are useless, but can be combined to build incredibly intricate designs and constructs. Then we can break them down, and build them back up into something new – based on whatever new problem is thrown our way. Sometimes our designs have flaws and what we build falls apart when we test them. We deposit this experience into our knowledge bank, and then go back to the drawing board and either strengthen our construct or rebuild it from scratch.

Thanks Hunter!

technorati tags: legos, learning, knowledge, philosophy, connectivism

Uh-oh, house lights just dimmed. Time for the show.

P.S. – The concert rocked – as always the Bhoys are better in concert than on a digital track. Only a live performance can capture the energy and enthusiasm that the Bhoys convey. Their new CD "The Mill Sessions" has gone to press and should be in hand by Valentine’s Day. And for those that follow celtic rock, Greenwich Meantime is a new band on the scene with a new CD due out by the end of the month. This is another band that you have to see live to truly have a feel for their music. 

technorati tags: glengarry, bhoys, celtic, music, tupelo, pda, blog, greenwich, meantime, canada, scot, irish, cd

This dogma is being challenged furiously by what has been termed informal learning – not only are we no longer place-based learners (then again have we truly ever been) but our access to information and our ability to learn from a higher quality of social network has come to mean that we no longer place formal learning on the pedestal upon which it has so long resided. And as George Siemens illustrates in his theory of connectivism, between the sheer quantity of human knowledge and the impact of technology on our ability to access, process and remix that knowledge to create new understanding our culture is at a crossroads. If the education industry desires to remain competitive and viable, it must adopt a new business model rather than a model based on knowledge scarcity and knowledge as a commodity. The divide is growing, and our educational industry must rise to the challenge.

It brings to mind the lyrics from a song by one of my favorite groups, the Glengarry Bhoys.

"I fear that everything is changing.

I fear the world is spinning, around and round and upside down.

And I fear my ship is leaving and I can’t get it off the ground."

technorati tags: knowledge, learning, connectivism, formal, informal, proprietary

Entitled "Facing the Faceboook," it was authored by Michael Bugeja of Iowa State University, and at first glance seemed to deal primarily with the perceptions of faculty about the Facebook social networking service. Had the article maintained that scope, I wouldn’t be quite so torqued as I find myself at the moment. The author introduces the concerns that many of us in the field of education (and not just edtech) have been talking about for the better part of a year regarding the lack of concern over privacy, content and the pervasive nature of this social app.

Unfortunately, there are a number of broad assumptions and generalizations about the negative impact of technology and social networking. Here are some of the quotes from that article that I found frustrating because the are not backed by primary sources (the bolding is my own):

"To be sure, classroom distractions have plagued teachers in less technological times. In my era, there was the ubiquitous comic book hidden in a boring text. A comic book cannot compare with a computer, of course. Neither did it require university money at the expense of faculty jobs."

This is an inflammatory statement with no supporting references. Is it true that technology is replacing our faculty or is that a faulty attribution based solely on one’s individual opinion?

"John W. Curtis, research director at the American Association of University Professors, believes that investment in technology is one of several factors responsible for the well-documented loss of tenured positions in the past decade."

The key phrase here is "one of the factors." What are the others and where does technology fall in terms of its true impact on this loss?

"Unless we reassess our high-tech priorities, issues associated with insensitivity, indiscretion, bias, and fabrication will consume us in higher education."

Is the assumption here that technology is to blame for our continuing devolvement? For when it comes to the social failings quoted above, these our human culture has faced since the dawn of its age. Lest we forget that technology is simply a means and not an end. It is a tool and as such is only as effective as the one wielding it. As the employer of that tool, it is we who determine its impact on our culture, and whether it is used to build or to destroy. Educators throughout the spectrum have been struggling with these topics for far longer than technology has been on the scene.

"… the younger generation views technology largely as a means of delivering entertainment—be it music, video games, Internet access, or television—and secondarily, as a means of communicating."

I’m not sure I can support this statement, particularly in light of the reports coming out of the Pew Internet and American Life project which clearly show our "net gen" or millenials as content creators, rather than passive consumers. This begs the question about how we define communication and what it means to communicate ideas, thoughts and knowledge. Simply because a certain generation does not communicate in an historically acceptable fashion should not invalidate their methodology.

"… we must make hard decisions about our investment in technology and our tradition of high standards."

Should technology and standards be treated as mutually exclusive? I would hope not.

The Chronicle: 1/27/2006: Facing the Facebook (while the link lasts)

Looks like I am not alone. Both Bryan Alexander and Stephen Downes are following this as well.

technorati tags: facebook, chronicle, higher, education, university, college, social, software, networking

I have to admit that I am not all that keen on the design. My vision would be more along the lines of a sport jacket for the tech exec, but hey this is like a concept car, right? If this takes off, there are plenty of designs I would love to see – one involves incorporating directional speakers into the collar of the garment. I’ll be following this with interest.

BlackCoat Work – Industrial Elegance and iPod controls

technorati tags: ipod, clothing, koyono, elektex, wearable, technology

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Zach over at nosheep.net wants:

"…built-in bookmarkable ability. In other words, when I stop listening at a random place, I want it to pick up where I left off. I know it does it for some files it identifies as audiobooks, but how do I make it do this for ones I want to control. This part is merely the difference between an AAC with a .m4a and a .m4b extension. Though making a change like this to a pile of files could still be cumbersome.

You can solve both of these problems by grabbing a couple AppleScript’s – Join Together and Make Bookmarkable."

[link]

technorati tags: podcast, bookmark, mp3, ipod, technology, listening

The Micromemo is a 44KHz, 16-bit audio recorder which connects to the docking port. The device has a flexible mic and built-in speaker, but as it runs off iPod power, it will be interesting to see how that affects battery life.

Regardless, it will be an interesting experiment and I look forward to its release in "late Spring"!

Estimate retail price, $79.95

technorati tags: ipod, video, xtreme, mac, accessories, microphone, micromemo

1. Pick something that you have learned in the past month (or will learn during the next two months),
2. Summarize the experience objectively understanding that the purpose of the course is to think about how learning takes place,
3. Connect the experience to various theorists’ approach to learning with a mind towards enabling teachers’ understanding of learning theories,
4. Describe/reflect on your frustrations, successes, and personal learning styles.

technorati tags: ed506, learning, theory, philosophy

This blog category (ED506) represents my culminating project which begins to touch upon the philosophies and strategies I have cultivated as they apply to the incorporation of the newest educational technologies commonly referred to as Web 2.0. To find just those posts in my blog related to this thread, please enter this tag into the search column found in the right-hand column. For those new to blogs, you will find that many of the terms or resources are actually hyperlinks to the original online resource. These links are used not only to cite references, but also to provide the reader with additional valuable background information. As you follow this project thread, please take the time to visit these links as they contain information that serves to illuminate and/or define this project.

This link was published using the Performancing plug-in built for Firefox (although it was used in my Flock browser).

Two recent research studies have led to some startling revelations about our current generation of young learners. In early November 2005, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) published the ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005: Convenience, Connection, Control, and Learning in which they describe the characteristics and aptitudes of the generation that has been termed the “digital natives.” Other monikers include the “net generation,” the “twitch generation” and the “Millenials.” Around the same time, the Pew Internet & American Life Project published their report, “Teen Content Creators and Consumers.”

Each of these studies identified trends in this generation of learners that are important for educators to bear in mind. The ECAR report shows that among the participating colleges and universities:

• 96% of student respondents own at least one computer
• 55.6% of these computers are laptops, an increase of 10% over the 2004 results
• Yet only 14.1% of the students actually bring these laptops to class
• 90% of student respondents had access to broadband connections
• The average student spends 11 – 15 hours per week on their computers.

One important item to note is that while students self-reported that they were sufficiently versed in computer and internet technologies, ECAR data

“…suggests that students are possibly rating their skills higher than they ought. Students report difficulty with new kinds of applications or technology, and troubleshooting their computers.”

As educators we should bear in mind that comfort with computers and applications does not necessarily imply an ability to employ those skills for academic purposes. In addition, a technology proficiency gap already exists between the skill levels and technology preferences of the incoming freshman and outgoing seniors. In a span of only four years, there is already a significant difference in the aptitudes and comprehension of our learners. This gap is borne out, at least allegorically, by my experiences working with students at both ends of the spectrum in my role as the coordinator of the Technology & Learning Center on my campus. Couple this with the fact that sum of our human knowledge has grown more in the past ten years than at any other point in our history and according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD) continues to double every 18 months (Siemens 2004), it is clear that if this is a challenging time to be an educator, just imagine how overwhelming it can seem to our learners.

Unlike the ECAR report which identified trends in students’ use of and comfort with technology, the Pew Report examined the role of teens in content creation on the internet and summarizes their findings as follows (this is a national study; I have not yet found international statistics for correlation):

• 57% of online teens are creating content for the internet
• 19% of online teens keep a blog, 38% read them
• 15-17 year old girls are the predominant bloggers
• Teen bloggers are tech-savvy and heavy internet users

While ECAR identified four themes in student expectation of information technologies: convenience, connection, control and learning, we will, for the purposes of this project, focus on the aspects of connection and learning as they apply to educational technologies. The prevailing theme in the Pew Report is that our millennial learners are no longer satisfied with being content consumers, they are becoming content creators. These trends, connection and learning, and content creation, will become pivotal as we explore the potential impact that Web 2.0 applications can have on facilitating the learning process for this digital native generation.

technorati tags: web20, web, 2.0, learning, technology, educause, ecar, connectivism, philosophy, theory, social, software, networking, ed506

Update: It turns out that WordPress is finicky and it did not like the code that was placed into the post when I cut and paste from either Writely or from Word (at times, not always). I had to get into the HTML view and in one case, rebuild the post entirely, to finally figure this one out.

1. Give this blog the attention it deserves
There are a lot of exciting things on the EdTech horizon. That should make this one easy, right?

2. Finish my M.Ed. in Educational Technology
With just the completion of my current course and my graduate practicum to go, I should be able to do this by my intended grad date of May.

3. Start my Ed.D.
Am I too much of a glutton for punishment? Probably, but I am motivated by the successful dissertation defense by my friend and mentor, Royce Robertson. Congratulations Doctor Robertson!

4. Present at an industry conference
I cut my teeth as a co-presenter at the 2005 ResNet Conference in Atlanta, GA last year. My goal is to be lead presenter at an EdTech conference this year, such as NERCOMP, EDUCAUSE, SIGUCCS, etc.

5. Map out my career path
As a relatively young IT professional who has had a number of challenging jobs that have each provided me with invaluable experiences, I feel that it is about time I look toward my future and set goals for where I want to be and when. Particularly since the opportunity is now afforded me with the recent and upcoming organizational changes in my place of employ.

6. Give back to the EdTech field
I hope to develop stronger ties to EdTech resources in my home state of New Hampshire. Plymouth State University is centrally and ideally located to serve the needs of our central and northern tier schools. As it’s motto is Et Prosim or “To Serve”, I would like to either develop a formal support program or provide support to an existing one.

7. Develop and teach a graduate level course
For my grad practicum, I have proposed to develop a course that addresses recent developments in educational technology. Upon completion, I plan to submit it for consideration to our graduate studies department. I’ve come across a couple of blog posts that show me I’m not alone in this (see Ulises Mejias and Terry Anderson).

I like round numbers, so resolutions 8, 9 and 10 will be forthcoming.

Podcasting/Audio Tools
Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) – a great audio editing tool, and it is FREE
ODEO (http://www.odeo.com) – a podcast search and creation tool
EdTechTalk Podcasts (http://www.edtechtalk.com) – provides three weekly podcasts dealing with educational technologies
iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes) – Apple’s software to search and subscribe to podcasts
iPodder (http://www.ipodder.org) – another podcast resource
Bob Sprankle’s Room 208 blog – (http://bobsprankle.blogspot.com/)

Audiobook Resources
Audible Book Subscriptions (http://www.audible.com) – a fee-based service (think Barnes & Noble on your MP3 player)
LibriVox (http://librivox.org/)
Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/)
Storynory (http://storynory.com/)
Thomas Ford Memorial Library (http://www.fordlibrary.org/clickastory/)

Learning & Blogging Tools
John Martin’s PSU Resources – http://oz.plymouth.edu/~jemartin
John Martin’s blog – http://edventures.wordpress.com
Wil Richardson’s blog – http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
Tim Lauer’s blog – http://tim.lauer.name/
Dave Cormier’s blog – http://www.davecormier.com/edblog/
Tim Wilson’s blog – http://technosavvy.org
interactive educator magazine – http://education.smarttech.com
Bud the Teacher – http://budtheteacher.typepad.com/

Communication Tools
Skype (http://www.skype.com) – Voice over IP communications software
SharpReader RSS aggregator (http://www.sharpreader.com) – a free tool to manage your blog subscriptions

Video Editing Software
Pinnacle Studio – http://www.pinnaclesys.com

SmartBoard Tools
Smart Technologies – http://www.smarttech.com/

My thanks to all!

In other link action there is a test to identify: What pre-1985 video game character are you? My results were so lame that they do not deserve to be posted here.

And then there is this from OkCupid that one of my HelpDesk staff pointed me towards. As you can see I am a geek and I mean that in the most affectionate, loving, caring way. Actually according to my test I am classified as a modern cool nerd. That being said I could use some good social consciousness blogs to round out my experience. No rabid Republicans or Democrats need apply!

Modern, Cool Nerd56 % Nerd, 65% Geek, 34% Dork For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd. Nerds didn’t use to be cool, but in the 90′s that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn’t quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and “geek is chic.” The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)! Congratulations! Thanks Again! — THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST This test tracked 3 variables. How the score compared to the other people’s: Higher than 48% on nerdiness Higher than 90% on geekosity Higher than 55% on dork points Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

To top this all of Graham linked to a site that allows you to create your own likeness as a South Park character. Mine is still under construction as my rural dial-up is not exactly happy with me at the moment. But I’ll post it here once it’s complete.

Now get out and play!

Dancing on the Bleeding Edge
– The Implications of Web 2.0 in Higher Education.

The gist of it, as laid out in my presentation abstract, is this:

The recent emergence of a trend identified as Web 2.0 is heralding a new influx of challenges for educational institutions from faculty buy-in to the selection, deployment and maintenance of new campus-wide applications. This presentation is an overview of the technology, pedagogy and politics of the next generation of web apps.

The guiding question asks, “What is so important about the phenomenon known as Web 2.0 and how do institutions balance the demand for emerging technologies against their already strained resources?” The answer to follow will, hopefully, be a birds-eye view of the concept of Web 2.0 as recently coined by Tim O’Reilly, including the apps, but more importantly the attitudes that shape his definition over the past few years.

The proponents of Web 2.0 believe that the net experience is no longer satisfied by personal home pages and uni-directional communications. The new net experience is defined by its social impact, its facilitation of what George Siemens calls “connectivism.” Generic apps such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and other forms of social software such as del.icio.us and flickr, even mySpace and Facebook pose new challenges to be faced by not just IT departments but also the faculty and students we support.

As nearly all institutions struggle to keep up with the growing demands of their user base when it comes to new technologies, it is becoming increasingly essential that we stay abreast of current trends in order to best support those who will be using them.

Some of the resources I am using to compile supporting data for the presentation include:

• ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005: Convenience, Connection, Control, and Learning – EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research
• Teen Content Creators and Consumers Report published by the Pew Internet & American Life ProjectNew Web Services for Teaching and Learning - Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE)
• E-learning 2.0 - Stephen Downes, National Research Council of Canada as published in eLearn Magazine, xxx 2005.
• What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software - O’Reilly.com
• Social Software – Wikipedia

There will be more to come, but this is a start in the right direction. Please feel free to send other resources my way!

So why the name dropping? The bottom line is to drive more folks to this site. Unlike many podcasts, which are too often one-sided lectures, EdTechTalk is highly interactive. Their regular show schedule allows for, even encourages, global participation in the conversation. Whether via chat room, Skype, or tele-conference (I rely on my mobile as my rural connection rarely exceeds 22.6k), EdTechTalk is Web 2.0 at its finest – connectivity, discourse, and social networking.

Get involved and help make this great resource for those of us in the EdTech field even better!

In EdTechTalk #25, the featured speakers were David Warlick and Terry Freedman. David made the comment 39:59 minutes into the cast that:

“These kids do not think of information as something that you merely consume. And I that’s a lot of where the classroom is today, that we still think of information as something that you consume. It’s a text book that you read, it’s a video that you watch. And kids are consuming information and memorizing it, whatever. These kids don’t look at it that way. Information is something that they interact with. It’s something that they work. It’s something that they remix. And unless we are addressing this new way of looking at information in our classrooms, we are going to lose these kids.�

In EdTechTalk Brainstorm #11 at 45:23, the conversation returned to wikis and I believe it was Jeff Flynn who said:

“…when I was presenting with my colleagues, there were 3 or 4 media specialist/librarians in the group. And I could not believe, I was shocked by, the fervor, repulsion and horror they had with the term ‘wiki.’ I mean they had been receiving so much email and listservs about the horrors and dangers involved with Wikipedia. They were casting aspersions just on the term wiki before I even presented the software because of the evils they see involved with the un-nailed down, corporate certification for every piece of information out there.�

To which, Dave Cormier replied:

“Yes like the information that comes from the textbook company is perfect.�

And Jeff responded:

“That’s right. And like you wouldn’t want to double-check what CNN has to say?�

I mention this not to vilify media specialists or librarians but to point out that technology has enabled us to not only have more access to greater quantities of data but to be more critical in our analysis of its veracity. Historically, truth has been the stronghold of the publishers, whether in the press or the hardcover. The relatively free and open access that network technology has provided to so many new sources of information has us challenging heretofore sacrosanct texts.

The bottom line is that when it comes to our students, technology and data, the more traditional analog conduit will continue to be challenged by new filters and perceptions facilitated by the digital medium.

It has some eye-opening and, for those still rooted in analog pedagogy, frightening data. As I digest the report, I will be summarizing it here.

The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR)has come out with its 2005 study on students and information technology. StevenB observes that while students use search engines, “they clearly do not use those resources exclusively.” Barbra Fister reports, though, that “students report using computers only 11-15 hours a week, with searching library databases at less than an hour.” Christopher D. Sessums, following the Chronicle article, reports that the study “shows Students desire a balance of technological and human contact.”

Stephen’s Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ OLDaily

technorati tags: students, net gen, learning, ECAR, technology, education

As the culminating project for my Master’s course in Theories of Learning and Cognitive Development, I plan to explore and reflect upon the impact that social software and Web 2.0 has on learning and cognitive development through George Siemens’ concept of connectivism.

1. Shuffle your music
2. Have kids (if that is out of the question, rent or borrow some!)
3. Go to a toy store
4. Make something
5. Go to a live show

Read this blog entry or the entry title Blow Your Own Mind and you will find more tidbits and springboards that might serve to loosen up your pucker factor. Creativity is everywhere, you just need to learn how to see it.

I was sitting at my desk working up the curriculum for this class when my 5-year old son Hunter asks me, “Dad, what are you doing?” In my best fatherly tone I explained to him that I was preparing to teach this [Web Expressions] course in the fall. Without any hesitation he asked me the question that weighs on all little boys’ minds, “Dad, do big kids play too?” Being an adult and not too swift by 5-year old standards, it took me a minute to realize that the “kids” he was talking about were the students in my class.

Well, that innocent little question stuck in my head (like one of those cheesy ad jingles or the Muppet “Mahna-mahna” song) and got me to thinking. At the time, I was trying to find a way to “teach” creativity and was frustrated by my lack of progress. Creativity is a rather abstract concept and it’s very nature is fluid and boundless. How do you neatly package something like that?

Well, if Hunter is right, the answer just might be in how we play.

When we play, whether it is building towers with blocks, creating an imaginary friend or skiing a backcountry bowl, we are expanding our minds, testing and pushing our perceived limits and developing new experiences upon which to build our future selves. Watch any child at play and you can see them grow, evolve. 

How we play changes as we get older, as we explore new opportunities. Some of us lose touch with the ability to play with the unencumbered freedom of our youth. We find it difficult to “be creative” because we have for so long struggled with trying to fit in, trying to satisfy the expectations of others.

Get out and play, be a kid, who cares who’s watching? You just might learn a thing or two about yourself.

So I examined the question I was asking myself and came up with two potential answers. One, I needed to know why I was blogging and two, being a visual learner, I wanted to see examples of blogs in action to get a feel for what others were doing.

Perhaps the best “How-To” I came across was developed by Stephen Downes. His post on How To Be Heard is an excellent step by step, design based approach to developing and maintaining a quality blog.

Here are a list of some of the blogs I follow regularly:

• http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/ – One of my favorites
• http://mamamusings.net/ - Elizabeth Lane Lawley, formerly of RIT, on sabbatical with MS
• http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm – OLDaily – a newsletter for Online Learning, Stephen Downes
• http://www.downes.ca/ – Another Stephen Downes blog with a focus on pedagogy
• http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/ – learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community
• http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ – Another of my edtech resources

After a brief history of the evolution of video games from Missle Command (2d – more abstract than realistic) to Vzones (still 2d but more realistic) to There (a near 3d PG-13 MMOG), he dove into MMOGs as learning environments.

So how does this equate to learning?

MMOG’s lead to the development of real-world economies. Citing Edward Castronova’s Synthetic Worlds, Foreman notes that many people are turning games into profit with anshechung making $80k/year as an online real estate developer for the MMOG Second Life. IGE is a clearing house for many MMOGs giving a real-world portal to the virtual landscape. Some of the other issues that have arisen as a result of MMOGs are real property conflicts, the development of governance systems (not just democratic), and the refinement of interpersonal communication skills (such as the development of alliances and peacemaking).

Mr. Foreman believes that if we can create fantasy and real-world simultaions, how much more would it take for us to develop environments that support learning? Studying Shakespeare, send your students into a virtual Elizabethan England. Exploring marine biology? Immerse yourself in an exploration of the Great Barrier Reef. Following a parallel theme, there was a blog entry by Barbara Ganley that reflected on how social software can engender a sense of place without one ever having had to leave their physical environment. One of her students posted the following blog entry:

Bryan Alexander mentioned the Open Croquet project (formerly Tea) as an open-source MMOG development tool.

One last note: I at home among geeks!!! Of the four books mentioned, Ender’s Game, The Matrix, Snowcrash and Neuromancer, I’ve read three! Not that this is important by itself but these are identified as a few of the springboards from which our current MMOG/social technology has sprung.

11/06/2005 – 8:20 pm
I’ve been listening to an EdTech Talk podcast hosted by Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier, who were interviewing George Siemens and Jay Cross.

George is best known to me for his advocacy of connectivism and has a website which further explains this concept. What stood out to me in his brief introduction was the concept that networking, in the sense of connectivism, is learning. Our learning, our sense of what is known is tempered, refined and refuted by the filters of those in our network. In an age where we are inundated with data, input and white noise, it is impossible for any one person to understand fully the whole of any subject. Leveraging connectivism  allows us to aggregate the collective knowledge, experience and insight of our social networks thereby refining and improving our own understanding.

Jay’s perspective was focused on informal learning, what goes on beyond the classroom walls. He spoke about our ability to survive being totally dependent upon our ability to adapt. Learning, or rather the application of our ability to learn, is one of the best adaptive response tools we can employ.

More in a bit, I needed to get this posted as it has been sitting in my Google Desktop scratch pad for the past few days.

Introduction
Every new advance in technology, such as e-mail, comes with its own set of challenges. The same tool that streamlines and expedites our communications does the same for exploitations such as SPAM, worms and phishing. While mail-borne worms and phishing are a relatively new arrival, SPAM has been around since the inception of email. PSU’s ITS department has provided one tool to combat this nuisance but ultimately it falls upon us to develop personal management strategies.

Strategies for management

SPAM tools

• Spam Assassin via the Computing Resources channel in myPlymouth or by web at http://oz.plymouth.edu/spamkill/
• Outlook Junk mail folder
• Rules based management
• Avoid using PSU account for lists and downloads

1. Get and use a g-mail or Hotmail account

• Use images or alternative methods of displaying your email address on webpages(bots and culling engines)

1. Image format – http://mattshelton.net/2005/10/new-e-mail-link/
2. Rewrite- http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
3. Obfuscation- http://www.ez2ba.com/html/site-toys/obfuscate-email.html

Phishing Guidelines

• What is Phishing?
• How to protect yourself

1. Bottomline – never respond with any information that could impact your privacy. This includes user names, passwords, account numbers, social security numbers, etc.
2. If you are ever in doubt of the veracity of an email claim, pick up the phone and call your provider directly. Most services have a stated policy about asking for secure information via email.

E-mail Worms

• Your best defense against email borne worms is to install, run and keep up-to-date a full anti-virus program that scans incoming email.

I caught wind of this from a couple of blogs I follow in the EdTech arena and wanted to beta test it to gauge its efficacy for higher ed. We’ll see how this test goes. Unfortunately, this means I will be maintaining two separate blogs as the current version of Flock does not appear to support Serendipity installations. My other blog is temporarily hosted at one of my Plymouth State University accounts as it is used in the course of facilitating one of the courses I teach.