EDvent Calendar: Day 19 (Safe social)

If Twitter gives you the Facebooks, here are a few safe ways to use Social Networks.
1. Edmodo is a Facebook-style site that is secure and operates a lot like a closed class space. My friend Tara T-J uses it with her classes but I don't have a lot of experience with it. "Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Our goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner."

2. Status.net allows anyone to set up their own micro-blogging site. It's a really safe, secure way to allow organisations to tap into the power of micro-blogging for internal communication, micro-reflection, questions and answers, out of hours discussions etc. It's great and we use it at our school.

Face book

3. Diaspora is not the new Facebook. It's not even the old Facebook, but it is a project that has the potential to become very useful to schools as sites like Facebook create impenetrable walled gardens within the web. Tim Berners-Lee says

"Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster and others typically provide value by capturing information as you enter it: your birthday, your e-mail address, your likes, and links indicating who is friends with whom and who is in which photograph...[but] once you enter your data into one of these services, you cannot easily use them on another site."

But Diaspora is different. It's completely free software, which means you can install the code wherever you want and retain ownership of your data. Right from the very start of the project, users have had the ability to remove their data and permanently delete it, unlike Facebook which makes it difficult to do this. Many schools and universities are wary of using Facebook to create communities around courses because all of the content they upload to Facebook can be used, modified or even sublicensed by Facebook in every possible way – even if they quit the service. It goes without saying that setting up your own internal Diaspora* server ensures you retain ownership of content long term. You can even link your account to Facebook if you really want to, which means you're posting into both environments at once.

EDvent Calendar: Day 17 (Cyber safety)

One of the best internet safety organisations in the world is New Zealand's Netsafe.org.nz. Here's a quick run-down of some of the best tools they offer:

1. In festive spirit, they've released their own Advent Calendar with 24 great tips on staying safe online: http://xmas.netsafe.org.nz/
2. Hector's world: http://www.hectorsworld.com/island/index.html "Hector’s World® is a unique cybersafety initiative for teachers and parents to help young people learn about safe online practices and digital citizenship. The core content of Hector’s World® is the 7 animated episodes featuring Hector the dolphin and his friends. Each episode has support material for teachers and parents."
3. Scam Machine: http://www.scammachine.org.nz/#/intro "[The Scam Machine] lets you build a news story based around someone you know, putting them at the centre of a online scam story. Once you have made your selections, added some information, you can watch the story unfold on video, with your friend right in the thick of it. Share the video news story to educate friends and family about how easy it is to fall for requests to send money offshore by wire transfer."

...and a couple of videos that can be used with older students to help educate them on the dangers of posting online.
Think before you post: 

Out of your hands: