Identity Theft

I have heard a couple of reports this weekend raising concerns about the possibility of identity theft from social networking sites such as Facebook. The concern seems to be that users share far too much personal information on public facing sites. I am not sure what I think about this. On the one hand the fear about identity theft is very real. I have not had to deal with it personally but it must be very difficult to handle. So much of what we do involves on-line activity that would crash around our ears if we could not do our banking, buying and selling stuff and all sorts of other things. On the other hand, there is a huge amount of personal information about me already in the public domain. I don't think there is anything on my FaceBook or Bebo page that would add to to that. Perhaps some people are putting a lot more about themselves out there than me and perhaps we just need to have a bit of a think about what we share on-line. I certainly would always encourage youngsters to keep their page private.

It is certainly worth thinking about but probably not worth over reacting to.

Not Even on the Radar

Two little incidents in the past few days have reminded me of the generational differences when it comes to social networking. The first of these was when my twelve year old daughter told me that she was the only person she knew who had parents as friends on Bebo. I asked her whether this was a good or a bad thing. Her answer was that "it was cool". Before I pat myself on the back too much she added that "everyone else can get away with whatever they like"! The second happened when we were out with friends last night. I was quized by a group of my peers about what Bebo and MySpace were. These people were all quite technically savvy but they did not have a clue about how the Internet has changed! This was all reinforced when I was looking at my schools in FaceBook. There was absolutely no-one from my schools anywhere near my age!

My conclusion based on this fairly small study is that the generational divide in the uses of social networking is as wide as ever. Many older folk seem to be using technology far more but they don't seem to be using web 2.0 yet.

Back from the holidays

Well that's a fortnight's leave over. I am back to work on Monday for a week before we go off again to lead a Scripture Union holiday at Scoughall near North Berwick. All the photos from the holiday on Skye have been uploaded to flickr (you can have a look here if you have nothing better to do with your life!). I wonder how many emails will be waiting for me when I get back to the office? I could check before then but I have steadfastly set my face against doing so.

I have a few things rumbling around in my head that I am going to blog on over the next few days so watch this space for more. Before then, however, I must head off to pick up my son from Perthshire.

Wifi on the Isles

Day 199 - Flora MacDonald's monument
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

I am currently on the island of Skye on holiday. I am sitting in the lunge of the youth hosetl in Uig and blogging quite happily. This is the first such place I have found while on this holiday and the first youth hostel I have ever found with wifi access. It is a real find to have access to upload my flickr photos whilst away from home. Roll on more such places.

Geocaching

Geocaching
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

We have just had a fascinating discussion with the warden at the Crianlarich Youth Hostel about a concept he is involved with called geocaching. The idea seems to be that there are a whole series of small boxes hidden at particular GPS points. Each of them has some significance which is explained on the site and the box. When you find one, based on it’s GPS data from the website, you can record this and leave a message for the next person. You can also swap the item for something new. The warden had a huge number of keyrings which he had collected from different sites around the country. He had logged over 500 tags. There are also special caches which have a tag called a travel bug. These are ones which you are supposed to move on to it’s next place. One that the warden had moved on to it’s next location a couple of weeks ago was now in New Zealand! I think that there might well be very real potential for turning this into an educational activity related to geography, history, literacy or many other things. I can feel a new idea coming on! As soon as I can find out a bit more about the idea I think I may be having a go.

This is a very quick post as I am currently on Skye and Internet access is not that easy. Today has been the exception. We are currently staying at the Uig Youth Hostel where I can get wifi access. hence the fact that I have been uploading some photographs to flickr today.

Interactive Floors

I have been catching up with some of my podcast listening this week on my way to and from work. Digital Planet is a favourite BBC World Servce programme on my playlist and I had four episodes to listen to! The item that really caught my ear this morning was from a few weeks ago about a project in Denmark where an interactive floor had been installed in a school. The device is called a Wisdom Well and is another example of a completely different way of interacting with the computer. What seems to be particularly clever is the fact that a number of children can use the device at once.

It has been really exciting recently to see such innovative ideas in exploring the way that we interact with the computer. The Eye Toy, Nintendo Wii, Buzz and now this interactive floor. The emphasis in this project is very much about the collaborative nature of learning. This is right up there with our thinking on how we learn best so it will be really interesting to see how this project develops.

The downside is that you have to dig a great big hole in the floor of the classroom in order to install the device. I wonder how that would go down with our PPP contractors?

twitter

twitter
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

"Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!"

That's what it says in the Twitter FAQs. I have been trying it out. This seems to be attracting lots of attention. I wonder why!

What makes a good Head Teacher?

Some reading
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

I was at a meeting at the Scottish Executive offices in Edinburgh today so had the chance to do some reading on the train. I got hold of a copy of a new booklet by Tim Brighouse published by RM. The subject matter is on the quality of of what a head teacher does to be successful in that role. I don't know that I agree with all that Tim says. I do, for example, get a bit concerned when there is a discussion that seems to demonstrate that a head teacher needs to give their whole life to the job.

When we think about work life balance we need to think fairly seriously about what that means I am not sure that this booklet really does that. It is, however, an intersting read and one that heads and those in leadership shoukd have a think about.

It Goes Both Ways

An interesting story on the BBC news site caught my eye this evening. We have talked much in the past year or two about pupils using mobile phones to video bullying, and teachers losing their temper in the classroom. This one is the other way round. A teacher has just been found guilty of unprofessional conduct as a result of undertaking secret filming for a channel 5 documentary. She was banned from teaching for a year by the GTC in England.

She seemed to think that "What we were doing was in the public interest. I am clearly disappointed that the committee did not agree".

Not a great advert for the profession or a good role model in the responsible citizens stakes!