We need to teach students and staff how to protect themselves online, so that their privacy is not intruded on. All too often, people take these new technologies for granted, and use them for immediate gratification - quick answers or instantaneous information, without giving too much thought about what the secondary effects down the road might well be (See http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/11/19/quebec-facebook-sick-leave-benefits.html ).
Some things I have learnt about how to protect one’s online privacy are detailed below. Some are "common sensical", but mostly these are things I am not familiar with :
• Set up my web browser using a pseudonym instead of real name, and to leave out any personally identifiable information that need not be shared
• Check the internet default program – Windows Internet Control Panel to ensure that all personal information is anonymised
• Turn off cookies that can track my motions through a web site. Cookies can be managed or blocked using cookie management software and services, for example, Internet Junkbuster at http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/ijb.html, InterMute at http://www.intermute.com/, Adsubtract at http://www.adsubtract.com/ ,CookiePal at http://www.kburra.com/cpal.html/ or http://www.websashger.com/
• Cookies can be deleted after surfing
• Use Cookie cleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com/ to delete traces of online activities such as Internet history
• Keep a clean email address, like a side account using some pseudonymous or alternate address (e.g. free yahoo mail or hotmail account)
• Use someuser@example.com if needed to furnish an email account to use a website ; this is fine so long as there is no need to actually go to this email account to access information (like passwords) sent to this address
• Keep a tight fist on personal information online and be wary of online acquaintances
• Avoid sending/discussing sensitive information using office email
• Avoid Web usage at the office unless it is for work-related purposes; employers can monitor all web usage
• Be aware of sites which offer rewards for contact information
• Do not reply to spam mail, as doing so confirms that the email is read by a real person
• Use anti-spam services such as Spam hater at http://www.cix.co/uk/~net-services/spam/spam_hater.htm to block spam mail
• Check for web security when transacting online – look out for https:// instead of http://
• Disable spyware (spies on online habits and other personal details) from your computer by using http://www/lavasoft.de/• Active X should be turned off when surfing, and should be turned on only when it’s a trusted website
• Turn off home computer when not using it to prevent malicious attacks or stealing of confidential information. Sites like http://wwwshareware.com or http://www.download.com can also offer protection
• Check offline contact information before engaging in online transactions and check if seal programs such as TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org are in place to protect one’s privacy
• Use encryption software for email and files such as Pretty Good Privacy at http://www.pgpi.org/
• Use proxies across the internet to wrap your IP address while browsing the web - http://www.torproject.org/
To be honest, I have not had time to really go into these websites to do much exploration as yet, but certainly intend to find out more soon. Indeed, I think it is needful for both teaching staff and students to know what they might be getting into on the web. Perhaps it is good to have everyone go through a course to learn some of these tips and tricks to protect their online privacy. All students should be taught early on, especially so they are even more vulnerable than adults on the web. I think we have to remind ourselves often, that we can and should control what information we choose to reveal, when, why and to whom.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Then and now..changes in the education landscape .
In the past, students who had to do research for their projects would simply do so by poring through books and journals at the library. The scope of their research was a lot narrower then. These days, we are not talking about just being information literate but this literacy has evolved and is now made up of pieces of a bigger multi-literacy puzzle. Students need to be able to do the very basic - read and write, students need to possess skills to search for information, students need to be digital literate to navigate the mountain of information in the online world and to do this, and there is a need to be IT literate. This is indeed quite a tall order, compared to the old days!
The students of today are digital natives, having grown up in a world where not having a laptop, internet access, mobile phone, iPod would be unimaginable. Students live in a digital world and make use of Web 2.0 technologies primarily for social networking.
The challenge for educators is to level up their knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies, embrace and harness the power of these Web 2.0 technologies as a new resource for teaching and learning. We have to adapt our teaching pedagogy to be attuned to the rapidly-evolving learning styles of students. Ignoring these changes would inevitably create a digital divide between educators and students – the battle is lost even before we begin. We have to learn new ways to engage our students and help them learn in environments and ways that they are already comfortable and familiar with. The challenge is to help students use Web 2.0 as naturally in their studies, as in their social lives.
In fact, many schools have already started doing this early on in the education system. Many secondary schools in Singapore begun using Web 2.0 technologies in their teaching (See http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/parliamentary-replies/2009/09/information-and-communications.php); to force students to go one step back to a print literacy dominant environment would lead to a disconnect with the students. We need to capitalise on Web 2.0 technologies to develop a learning skill set which is expected of the 21st century workforce – communication, collaboration, networking, creativity, leadership and technology proficiency. At the same time, we will also need to address the downside of such technologies, for example, the cut-and-paste mentality and failure to attribute information or, the lack of ability to critically evaluate information and form their own opinions about an issue.
Educators need to be convinced that the students’ profile (their disposition - a strong sense of belonging to online communities and learning preferences for sharing and participation) and the environment has changed irrevocably. Even the government has started using social networking to engage the youth (see http://www.ssc.gov.sg/publish/Corporate/en/news/media_releases/2009/1st_asian_youth_games0.html and to garner feedback from citizens (http://app.reach.gov.sg/reach/default.aspx). Charitable organisations have also jumped on the bandwagon. See http://www.clicktoaid.com, where organisations like the Community Development Council are using Web2.0 to raise funds for charity, or http://www.give.sg.
Indeed, there is an urgent need to respond to these waves of change accordingly. It requires lecturers to learn to “let go” and come to terms with the fact that there are many ways in which students learn these days… not just from the pearls of wisdom from the lecturer’s mouth anymore.
Content is no longer king – students are capable of learning beyond what lecturers tell them and what books write about. Open-source materials and online universities have diminished the attractiveness of higher education and made content from credible sources readily accessible (for example, http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm ). Lecturers need to be digital literate to guide students to the relevant sources; the tutor takes on a facilitator role more now, than ever before. Of course, it would be erroneous to assume that technology has to be used for technology’s sake - merely adopted wholesale for window-dressing purposes and an end in itself. Technology must be seen as a possible tool for providing a more relevant, enriching and challenging learning experience for students, whilst recognising the fact that face-to-face contact with students is still vital for adding a personal element to learning.
The students of today are digital natives, having grown up in a world where not having a laptop, internet access, mobile phone, iPod would be unimaginable. Students live in a digital world and make use of Web 2.0 technologies primarily for social networking.
The challenge for educators is to level up their knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies, embrace and harness the power of these Web 2.0 technologies as a new resource for teaching and learning. We have to adapt our teaching pedagogy to be attuned to the rapidly-evolving learning styles of students. Ignoring these changes would inevitably create a digital divide between educators and students – the battle is lost even before we begin. We have to learn new ways to engage our students and help them learn in environments and ways that they are already comfortable and familiar with. The challenge is to help students use Web 2.0 as naturally in their studies, as in their social lives.
In fact, many schools have already started doing this early on in the education system. Many secondary schools in Singapore begun using Web 2.0 technologies in their teaching (See http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/parliamentary-replies/2009/09/information-and-communications.php); to force students to go one step back to a print literacy dominant environment would lead to a disconnect with the students. We need to capitalise on Web 2.0 technologies to develop a learning skill set which is expected of the 21st century workforce – communication, collaboration, networking, creativity, leadership and technology proficiency. At the same time, we will also need to address the downside of such technologies, for example, the cut-and-paste mentality and failure to attribute information or, the lack of ability to critically evaluate information and form their own opinions about an issue.
Educators need to be convinced that the students’ profile (their disposition - a strong sense of belonging to online communities and learning preferences for sharing and participation) and the environment has changed irrevocably. Even the government has started using social networking to engage the youth (see http://www.ssc.gov.sg/publish/Corporate/en/news/media_releases/2009/1st_asian_youth_games0.html and to garner feedback from citizens (http://app.reach.gov.sg/reach/default.aspx). Charitable organisations have also jumped on the bandwagon. See http://www.clicktoaid.com, where organisations like the Community Development Council are using Web2.0 to raise funds for charity, or http://www.give.sg.
Indeed, there is an urgent need to respond to these waves of change accordingly. It requires lecturers to learn to “let go” and come to terms with the fact that there are many ways in which students learn these days… not just from the pearls of wisdom from the lecturer’s mouth anymore.
Content is no longer king – students are capable of learning beyond what lecturers tell them and what books write about. Open-source materials and online universities have diminished the attractiveness of higher education and made content from credible sources readily accessible (for example, http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm ). Lecturers need to be digital literate to guide students to the relevant sources; the tutor takes on a facilitator role more now, than ever before. Of course, it would be erroneous to assume that technology has to be used for technology’s sake - merely adopted wholesale for window-dressing purposes and an end in itself. Technology must be seen as a possible tool for providing a more relevant, enriching and challenging learning experience for students, whilst recognising the fact that face-to-face contact with students is still vital for adding a personal element to learning.
Applying IL to assignments...
In the Information Literacy assignment for week 2, I have already relooked and reworked the newspaper article assignment instructions for the module Microeconomics, to hone IL skills in students, albeit with some hand-holding, since these are first-year students at the polytechnic.
I intend to discuss this with colleagues and use this set of assignment instructions (perhaps with some modifcation if needed) for the new academic year in April 2010. I think the most important bit in reworking the assignment is realising that I need to let students know explicitly why they are doing an assignment! As such, the project objectives must be clearly articulated to students. In addition, they also need to know how the project objectives dovetail into course objectives.
As for the marking rubrics for this assignment, it might look something like this:
Breath of analysis (20%)
- Article selected incorporates at least three economic concepts
- Concepts are interrelated across different topics in both semester 1 and 2
Depth of analysis (60%)
- Ability to read text and select main ideas
- Restate textual concepts in own words
- Identify verbatim ideas that can be appropriately quoted
- Select information that provides evidence for the concept
- Recognise interrelationships among concepts and combines them into useful statements
- Draw conclusions based on information gathered
- Diagrams are used appropriately in explanation
Sources of information (10%)
- information sources are acknowledged using APA citation style
- provide a variety of formats as sources of information
Timeliness of submission (10%)
- project is submitted on time as scheduled
I intend to discuss this with colleagues and use this set of assignment instructions (perhaps with some modifcation if needed) for the new academic year in April 2010. I think the most important bit in reworking the assignment is realising that I need to let students know explicitly why they are doing an assignment! As such, the project objectives must be clearly articulated to students. In addition, they also need to know how the project objectives dovetail into course objectives.
As for the marking rubrics for this assignment, it might look something like this:
Breath of analysis (20%)
- Article selected incorporates at least three economic concepts
- Concepts are interrelated across different topics in both semester 1 and 2
Depth of analysis (60%)
- Ability to read text and select main ideas
- Restate textual concepts in own words
- Identify verbatim ideas that can be appropriately quoted
- Select information that provides evidence for the concept
- Recognise interrelationships among concepts and combines them into useful statements
- Draw conclusions based on information gathered
- Diagrams are used appropriately in explanation
Sources of information (10%)
- information sources are acknowledged using APA citation style
- provide a variety of formats as sources of information
Timeliness of submission (10%)
- project is submitted on time as scheduled
My reflections on Digital Literacy
We started off the course on Digital Literacy by learning about what Information Literacy. I think all of us do know what IL is about, but mostly we don’t spend much time thinking about what the exact standards are.
Information literacy is a set of abilities encompassing the ability to do the following:
• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally
(Association of College and Research Libraries – ACRL Information Literacy competency standards for Higher Education)
How can we develop students who are information literate and grow them into self-directed life-long learners? Firstly, educators need to build learning environments where students take greater responsibility for their own learning. Students should be given ample opportunities to find things out for themselves – to solve problems, to find evidence from multiple sources, to make inquiries. To do so, they will need skills in information literacy. We need to frame our research projects and how we assess those projects, such that we build in outcomes which help students to attain information literacy skills. For example, if we want students to be able to gather information from a variety of formats (e.g. books, electronic database, websites, videos, podcasts, etc), or if we want students to be able to evaluate information and its sources critically, or learn how to acknowledge the use of information sources, then all these should be clearly articulated in the project requirements. The marking rubrics for projects may need to be tweaked to include assessment components which grade students not just on the quality of their research and analysis, but also on attaining IL outcomes.
Information literacy is a set of abilities encompassing the ability to do the following:
• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally
(Association of College and Research Libraries – ACRL Information Literacy competency standards for Higher Education)
How can we develop students who are information literate and grow them into self-directed life-long learners? Firstly, educators need to build learning environments where students take greater responsibility for their own learning. Students should be given ample opportunities to find things out for themselves – to solve problems, to find evidence from multiple sources, to make inquiries. To do so, they will need skills in information literacy. We need to frame our research projects and how we assess those projects, such that we build in outcomes which help students to attain information literacy skills. For example, if we want students to be able to gather information from a variety of formats (e.g. books, electronic database, websites, videos, podcasts, etc), or if we want students to be able to evaluate information and its sources critically, or learn how to acknowledge the use of information sources, then all these should be clearly articulated in the project requirements. The marking rubrics for projects may need to be tweaked to include assessment components which grade students not just on the quality of their research and analysis, but also on attaining IL outcomes.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Why elearning?
What is elearning and why the push for elearning? What are some common practices? What can it do for learners? Does it make us smarter or dumber? What's your view? One thing I know for sure is that we cannot just let things be. We will lose all our students if we do not acknoledge that students of today are different from those of yesterday. We have to harness technology and engage them:)
IACE-T Presentation
View more presentations from ext504.
A new vision of students today...
A new vision of students today - digital natives so different from students of yesterday. It's the same the world over, in the States and here too in Singapore....
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Second Life - on the Web!
Yep, got myself another life on the virtual world by signing up for a Second Life account. Been quite an experience so far...... teleporting to other worlds and chatting with one avatar. Still learning about the usefulness of virtual worlds and how to harness it for education purposes. Some sites visited included CDC Island, Meteora, NOAA, and NP island.
Some things I learnt :
You can chat online with whoever's on the island and it will appear on everybody's screen. You can press the talk button to communicate.
You can also do a bookmark of an island while you are on it. Just click on the World tab and then select landmark. To see this, just go to my inventory and check out the landmark folder.
You can also click on the search button (bottom toolbar) and then select the events button, pick a category, like education and then type in say, economics or French and search for say a lecture or something. Alternate catergories include things like shopping :) and culture etc.
If you zoom out on the world map (bottom tool bar) you can see the virtual world with green dots denoting where pple are, and the pink stars where there is a lot of activity. Just click on these dots and you can be teleported to the selected location. Voila! Or if you are already at an island, then click on mini-map to see where other pple are in case you want to be teleported next to them.
As for connecting with friends in second life, click on the communication button and a text box will pop up.
Once that happens, you can search for your friends by keying in their second life names. When you have found them, just click on the add button. An invite will be sent to your friend. If accepted, you will have a virtual friend whom you can go on virtual tours with. You can teleport your friend to right where you are. You can see if they are online by clicking on the communication tab.
Ay yes, to hide your own name (in case u need to), just go to preferences and change one of the options in there.
So much for the time being, hope to attend a lecture on economics on Second life soon. By then, hopefully, I would have learnt how move less clumsily on second life. Hey, I really enjoyed the flying bit :)
Some things I learnt :
You can chat online with whoever's on the island and it will appear on everybody's screen. You can press the talk button to communicate.
You can also do a bookmark of an island while you are on it. Just click on the World tab and then select landmark. To see this, just go to my inventory and check out the landmark folder.
You can also click on the search button (bottom toolbar) and then select the events button, pick a category, like education and then type in say, economics or French and search for say a lecture or something. Alternate catergories include things like shopping :) and culture etc.
If you zoom out on the world map (bottom tool bar) you can see the virtual world with green dots denoting where pple are, and the pink stars where there is a lot of activity. Just click on these dots and you can be teleported to the selected location. Voila! Or if you are already at an island, then click on mini-map to see where other pple are in case you want to be teleported next to them.
As for connecting with friends in second life, click on the communication button and a text box will pop up.
Once that happens, you can search for your friends by keying in their second life names. When you have found them, just click on the add button. An invite will be sent to your friend. If accepted, you will have a virtual friend whom you can go on virtual tours with. You can teleport your friend to right where you are. You can see if they are online by clicking on the communication tab.
Ay yes, to hide your own name (in case u need to), just go to preferences and change one of the options in there.
So much for the time being, hope to attend a lecture on economics on Second life soon. By then, hopefully, I would have learnt how move less clumsily on second life. Hey, I really enjoyed the flying bit :)
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