Tech Tips

Notes from Social Networking: A Parent's Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:33:00 +0000

On Tuesday I gave a talk on social networking, sponsored by the Parent Education Committee. I said right away that I feel qualified to talk about the technology and what it means, but I'm not qualified at all to give parenting advice. My goal was to help parents understand the allure, the risks, and the benefits of social networking, and think about some ways they might approach the subject with their kids.

Not Just a Website
Social networks have grown from a few simple sites where you post a profile and connect with friends to worldwide, all-inclusive platforms for web applications. Taking Facebook as an example, members can post links, pictures and videos, and even record video from within Facebook. There are hundreds of games and applications that let you share your in-app accomplishments with your network. And you can even "check in" to locations, sharing where you are at any given moment with the world. It is possible, if you want, to publish nearly everything you see, do, or think via Facebook.

View on XKCD

Why do social networks want you to share ever-increasing amounts of information about yourself? Simple: targeted advertising. It's those ads that show up in your news feed that know (in my case) that you're a climber, or engaged, or that you like Apple products. The ability of companies like Facebook to bill themselves as an ad space is dependent on their ability to encourage you to share ever-increasing details about your life and preferences.

Scary Stuff
This is a scary thing, especially for parents of teens who may want to do just that. Even if you think you're protected by limiting your sharing to just real life friends, it's still very easy for a "friend" to share information from your profile or posts, and to copy and repost something publicly. For this reason, you really do have to consider everything you put online to be public.

This can be a problem, since it's a common practice of schools and employers these days to check out applicants on social networking sites. In addition, you have to recognize that even if you do everything right, the things that show up on your page are not entirely under your control; much of that content comes from your friends. The question here is, is social networking to blame? Do schools and employers have a problem with people posting inappropriate things on Facebook, or with inappropriate things showing up on your page? Isn't the problem that such things were done at all? That you have friends that would speak in ways that would get you into trouble at work? In the words of another educator, social media doesn’t cause unprofessional or inappropriate behavior. It catches it. I think it's important to recognize that it's not inevitable that you'll be embarrassed online, if you make responsible choices.

Of course, there are other reasons to be scared of social networking. A study by psychologist Larry D. Rosen shows that using Facebook can lower self-esteem and breed narcism, while being addicting and distracting. Then there's the extension of teenage life online, which includes the potential for regular teen drama exposed to the world. The following is an episode of WNYC's Radio Rookies that details the lure and pitfalls of Facebook Drama.

Sometimes the drama goes beyond small hurts, and becomes truly tragic. Even though there's a lot of sensationalism and myths around bullying, the consequences can be real. Many instances of cyber-bullying have been documented in the news recently, including the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a student at Rutgers who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate filmed and broadcasted Tyler's romantic encounter with another young man.

The Brighter Side
On the other hand, there is a lot to recommend social networking. It's our 21st Century version of word-of-mouth; where we can go for news, advice, or to spread a message. Social networks are incredibly an fast, distributed form of communication, which can be very powerful in places where the traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers) is controlled by a small minority. This is clear from looking at the revolutions of the Arab Spring, none of which would have been possible without the social media campaigns that brought democratic activists together. In general, social networks have become a key way that people with limited resources can reach many people free of charge. That is why social media is now an important part of most modern business strategies.

Kids can learn these skills too, through their use of social networks. That same study by Dr. Rosen points out that those silly status updates can help kids develop entrepreneurism. He points out a number of other benefits of using Facebook: it can help boost self-esteem, teach less social kids to socialize, and develop "virtual empathy." That is, empathizing online, which leads to real life empathy. Another interesting effect: when making friends online, kids are more likely to ignore race or ethnicity and make friends based on shared interests.

Even the darkest tragedies of social networks have their flip side. In 2009, a teenager in the UK was chatting on Facebook and told a girl in Maryland that he intended to kill himself. The girl told her mother, who called the police, who called the White House, who called the British Embassy, who called the police in Oxfordshire, who went to the boy's house. They found that he had, in fact, taken an overdose, but was still conscious and able to be brought to the hospital. The very thing that is scary to many parents, that children are more likely to share intimate, personal details about themselves online, things they would never say to a person face-to-face, actually saved this boys life.

How to Live with the Inevitable
So given all of this, and the fact that social networking is as much a part of the social landscape for kids as school or pizza places, how should we protect children?

Here's one reason to breath easy: I've learned that even though there's more information about us online than ever, the completely overwhelming size of the Internet makes it difficult to find a particular person. Try this exercise: sign up for a Facebook account with a different email address than you usually use, and search for yourself. You might find that it takes quite a bit of looking to get to you, even if you have an unusual name. How recognizable are you really in that tiny thumbnail image?

This is a good time to check your security settings. Every social network lets you exercise some degree of control on who can see what. Some, like Google+, think of these controls as their main draw to users. Facebook, on the other hand, seems to continually change their privacy settings to try to keep people off-balance. But didn't I say that everything on these sites should be thought of as public anyway? True, you may not be safe if you ever try to run for office, but you can still protect yourself from casual perusal. Facebook hides all the stuff they don't want you to do behind this innocuous looking button in the upper right hand corner:

See?

It's definitely worth it to spend some time poking around the privacy settings, using the Help site for reference. This is a great thing to do with your kids, since they may know more about how to change these and you will probably have some insight into why certain settings should be changed.

It's also good to know what Facebook has to say about all the stuff you might be worried about. The Facebook Family Safety Center will give you some nice corporate advice, but also includes more helpful parts like getting an image of your child removed and the Different Privacy Settings for Teens.
Most parents will also want to know about the options for monitoring their children's activities online. I can't recommend any particular services since I've never used them, but you can find reviews and downloads at download.com and pcmag.com by searching for "parental control" or "monitoring." These primarily come in three types

Online apps that plug in to social networks to send parents reports or warnings
Software that restricts access to certain sites on a computer
Software that records information like websites visited and passwords

All of these have significant limitations. The first category generates their reports by communicating directly with the social network using the user's login information. They present a useful opportunity to discuss the dangers with your child and let them know that you're watching out for them using this tool. On the other hand, if your child decides to remove the application or create another account, or sign up for some other network you don't know about, they are no longer effective.

The second category lets you restrict access, but this is limited to devices you control in your own home. Even assuming your kids don't have access to other computers or Internet connected devices, there are literally hundreds of websites dedicated entirely to helping people circumvent these kinds of web blockers.

Finally, you can choose to secretly install stealth software on your home computers that will record pages visited and text typed, including passwords. From this you may secretly get access to your children's accounts or see what they're getting up to when you're not around. Clearly, this will only work on your own computers, and is increasingly less useful in a world where kids access the Internet from a variety of connected devices at home, at school, at friends houses, on smartphones or tablets, etc.

In the end, I think this is a case of the tighter your squeeze, the more slips through your fingers. What kids need to learn about the Internet is not that Big Brother is Watching, but how and when to trust, what to share, and how to protect themselves from people that want to hurt them. At the same time, the Web will be the dominant medium of their lives (unless something even crazier comes along), and it's important that they learn how to express themselves within that medium.

I overheard a teacher at school say something that I thought made a lot of sense. She was talking about watching TV with her daughter (I think it was Pretty Little Liars). She doesn't like the show, and doesn't love that her daughter is so into it, but she sits and watches, just to know what her daughter is seeing and be able to talk about it. How else is she supposed to know what her daughter is watching, and how it impacts her thinking? Is this a better strategy than simply banning the show? It's certainly more work. As a parent, maybe the only thing you can do about social networking is be there with them.

My Best Things List

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:29:00 +0000

This post is not so much a tip as it is a list of things that have been inspiring the work I want to do with students. I feel like such a list is useful, because all of the ideas for lessons and projects that I have spring from the incredible work of other people. In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, and connecting the school community to my own sources, here are some of my favorite things to watch, listen to, and use:

Diigo
Diigo is a tool for social bookmarking. That means you can use it to save things on the web, share them to your friends or community, and retrieve them later easily. By participating in groups, it's also a great way to keep informed about topics you're interested in. I'm hoping to use it later in the year when we start research projects. Here's a link to my Diigo page, where you can browse my public bookmarks and see what I've been reading.

Radiolab
Radiolab is hands down one of the best radio programs produced today. They explore big ideas about science, philosophy, and the human experience in an absorbing, almost musical way. As the creators put it, "Radiolab believes your ears are a portal to another world."From a media studies perspective, Radiolab is a great model for how to conduct interviews, compose a story, and edit an audio piece.

Planet Money
I started listening to Planet Money in early 2009, when I had finally realized that our economy was falling apart and I didn't understand why at all. They report on ground-level stories that illustrate larger economic concepts in an easy to comprehend way. From our vantage point in the Great Recession, Planet Money seems like essential listening for every citizen.

Radio Rookies
The episodes of Radio Rookies come from a WNYC (that's New York public radio) initiative that provides teenagers with the tools and training to create stories about themselves, their communities, and their world. They hold workshops all around the city, and broadcast some of the incredibly powerful pieces that come out them to the world. To get a feel for them, I highly recommend Facebook Drama.

Hackasaurus
I literally just discovered this site while looking for the Radio Rookies link, but after poking around for 20 minutes I've decided it might be the best tool ever invented for learning HTML and CSS. Those are the two languages that define the content and style of every website you've ever seen. Just their X-Ray specs will blow your mind.

Axe Cop
This one's a bit silly, but I love the idea: a 29 year old cartoonist draws the stories that his 5 year old brother tells about his toy cop action figure. They're crazy, disjointed, and hilarious; a wonderful tribute to the power of imagination we all once had.

Tech Self Help

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:58:00 +0000

As usual, let's start with a comic from xkcd.com:

Here's a presentation that includes some more details about this process that I've found helpful over time:

Web Browsers are a Big Deal!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Today's Tech Tip is all about web browsers. I felt inspired to write this because I've been hearing from students that they've had problems accessing Google Docs on their computers at home. We use Google Docs more than Microsoft Office in school because it runs in your browser, which makes it easy to save, share, and work on your assignments from home. The problem is, Google Docs is a modern web application that depends on the newest technology, and many people may be using outdated web browsers at home. Hopefully this tip will help you get up to date.

What's a web browser?

Watch this real short video from Googler Jason Toff:

He also set up a site, whatbrowser.org, that will tell you what browser you're using if you're not sure.

Which browser?

You don't need to have the newest or fastest computer when you work on the web! But having a modern browser is important! Fortunately, all the major browsers are free!

I personally recommend Google Chrome. It has a number of features that are very useful:

Chrome runs on Windows and Mac
Chrome starts up quickly
Chrome never needs to be updated because it keeps itself up-to-date automatically
Chrome was built with web applications like Google Docs in mind. I rarely see Google Docs errors in Chrome the way I do all the time with Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
Chrome is very stable. If an individual tab or window freezes or crashes, the other tabs aren't affected.
Chrome is simple. Instead of a separate address box and search box, it has a single "Omnibox" that can tell if you're typing in a search or a web address.

If you'd like to download Chrome, click the Chrome icon:

Stop trying to Google-fy everything!

If you're using another browser that you already like, take a moment to make sure it's up to date. As of this writing, here are the latest versions of the major browsers. Compare them to the versions shown on whatbrowser.org:

Internet Explorer: Version 8.0 for Windows XP and Version 9 for Windows Vista or 7 (No Mac version)

Mozilla Firefox: Version 6.0.2 for Mac and PC
Safari: Version 5.1 for Mac or PC

Final note: please, please don't use AOL browser! It make good computers do bad things.

Favorite Mac Utilities for Teaching

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:51:00 +0000

Here's a bunch of tips rolled into one: all my favorite Mac utilities for teachers:

Good to Know 7 - Utilities - HD from Bronx OET on Vimeo.

This video (which I made in my former life) is a lineup of 5 free utilities (plus one tool that's built into Mac OS X) that are great for anyone who teaches with their Mac. Here they are:

Manage Displays from the Menu Bar: Go to System Preferences --> Displays --> and check "Show displays in menu bar"

Caffeine: Keeps your display on and screensaver off with 1 click. Available from the Mac App Store, or directly from Lighthead Software. Here's a similar utility with the same name for Windows users.

Cinch: Automatically resize windows to full screen or half-screen. Check out Cinch on the Mac App Store, or at Irradiated Software. They also have a product called SizeUp if you'd like Cinch-like capabilities with keyboard shortcuts.

JumpCut: Saves up to 40 text clippings for pasting later. Available on SourceForge (with information and release notes). Download directly by clicking here.

Dropbox: Keep files in your Dropbox folder in sync on Macs and PCs (2 GB free), and access those files from iPhone, iPad, Android, and in the browser. Sign up for a free account here.

InsomniaX: Keep your Macbook running with the lid closed. Be careful with this one: your laptop can get very hot, and could cause damage! See the developer's site for more info, or just download it now.

What password strength means

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:44:00 +0000

This cartoon is pretty mathy, but the gist is this: if you can think to replace some letters in your password with symbols and numbers, so can a hacker. Plus, such passwords are hard to remember. Fortunately, most of us don't have to worry about this because our data isn't important enough for someone to spend 3 days trying to hack it. That's why password reuse is a much more relevant danger to us.

Click to view large

Re-Using Passwords

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Dreyfus) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:40:00 +0000

This comic from xkcd.com does a great job illustrating the danger of password reuse. This is the most common way accounts get hacked these days. So if you've ever discovered that your email account has been sending out messages about how you "made thousands of dollars working from home!" you've probably fallen for one of these schemes. Some solutions to this problem after the jump.

Note: Password entropy means how RANDOM your password is, or how unlikely it is to be guessed.

Click to view large

Possible solutions:

Get really good at memorizing lots of different passwords.
Rely on the web services you use to know when they've been hacked and inform you. Banks and popular services like Facebook and Google have gotten pretty good at this, and they'll tell you to change your password when it happens.
Use a password keeper. This is a piece of software that saves all of your passwords and lets you retrieve them with only a single password. Most importantly, they generate random passwords that are very hard to break into, and are completely unique. The good ones work on Mac, PC, and smartphones, and sync the data so that you're never without your passwords. Some others work entirely online. This article gives a rundown of the best ones. Here are a few:

Be safe, folks!