PTA Technology Corner

A University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth study of 453 college admissions departments found that 26 percent of colleges are actively researching students through search engines such as Google and 21 percent are checking out social networking profiles when reviewing applicants.
LINK: Online profiles a factor in college admissions

(PS: Future employers are looking as well! More Than One-Quarter of Recruiters Look at Social Networking Sites)

Looking for a computer for your young child at home? How does “for free” sound? Well, not exactly, but you’d be doing someone a favor by participating in the limited-time “Give one. Get One” campaign run by the “One Laptop per Child” effort.

The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

You may have seen the ads on TV:

The founder reminds us that the program is not all about laptops, but rather about education. However, it looks like a pretty cool laptop too!

To learn more about the one laptop per child program, go to http://www.laptop.org.

CNET - a popular technology news and review site - recently posted a review of the parental controls available on Microsoft Vista and Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard”.

While they point out that the Mac version is “cleaner and simpler”, they both have robust capabilities for managing what your children can see online and how long and when they can be online. I highly recommend reading the review if you plan on leaving your youngest children online without your guidance. In the end, they proclaim parents to be the winner, but I’d suggest it’s the children that win here.

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking and moderating a group of middle and high school parents in my town on the subject social networking. We had about 70 people attend in a packed library. I spoke for about 25 minutes (you can download my slides here) and then we had a panel of four students discuss their use of Facebook and answer parent’s questions.

Needless to say, parents had LOTS of questions. But there was a dominant discussion on who can see their children’s Facebook profiles and who can and can’t join Networks on Facebook. I found an excellent source on the Facebook help pages to further explain networks.

While we attempted to stay away from pushing any particular set of values in the discussion, I believe each family needs to consider what they are for them, where the line should be drawn on what is and isn’t appropriate for their kids to share online. On one slide I wrote “A Generational Lack of Understanding of Private vs. Public” and I visibly saw many parents shaking their heads in agreement. Perhaps this is a good time to have that discussion with your son’s and daughter’s about what they are posting online - especially those preparing to go to college or seeking employment.

I hope everyone found last night informative and not too stressful (as one parent put it at the end of the event, talking about kid’s and their behavior always creates anxiety, but being informed is better than not). And it doesn’t start in high school or even middle school - it’s starting in elementary schools with relatively harmless sites such as Webkinz and Club Penguin - a topic for another time!

Thanks to all who attended. See you on Facebook!

Note: for the two mom’s that were asking about Facebook advertising and the ability for advertisers now to target students based on almost any keyword, I went back and re-listened to the NPR story you also heard. This story was about the new abilities Facebook gives to advertisers that allows them to target ads based on keywords in your Facebook profile - much like Google serves up ads based on keywords you are searching for. Advertisers won’t be able to see your kid’s profiles just by advertising, but they can place ads on their Facebook page based on what is in their profile. Sound creepy? This has been standard practice on the Internet for over 10 years - you just didn’t notice it until now as we’re all talking about privacy and even the slightest bit of “data mining” by advertisers is of concern to many. But since Facebook is free, this is the tradeoff we must accept, or we shouldn’t use it.

You just signed up for Comcast Cable or Verizon FIOS and they are so nice to include an email address with your service. It may be tempting to use it, but I’m about to talk you out of it. First, there are hundreds of free email services available (about a half-a-dozen that are used by most folks). They come with spam filters, forwarding capabilities, can be used in almost any email application you have and are easy to use.

But the best part about using a free email service other than the one that came with your combined voice/TV/Internet service is that you can turn off or change your TV service without changing your email address! Lots of folks are looking at Verizon FIOS as an alternative to Comcast Cable or other options they might have (I switched last year and not only saved money, but got a great deal more than I was getting with Comcast). This week two people I was talking to for different reasons said they didn’t want to change their voice/TV/Internet service because they don’t want to change their email address.

Do yourself a favor - even if you’re not thinking about changing your cable TV or Internet access service at your house, start to migrate to a new email address that’s free and doesn’t depend on other services you may have.

My favorite? Gmail from Google. It’s easy to use, gives you a huge amount of storage space, and comes with probably the best spam filter available. After that you might look at Yahoo or even AOL (yes, they are still around and now you can get an email address for free!). MSN/Hotmail has been notorious for spam filter problems (sometimes working, sometimes catching things it shouldn’t - called a false positive) and at times being unreliable or down for maintenance when you need to access it. If you’re an Apple user, the .Mac service is wonderful because you get so much stuff with it like backup software, website hosting, calendar syncing, etc. that’s fully integrated into the Mac operating system. It does cost $99 per year though so do the 30 day trial to see if you like it first. All of these make your messages available via the web too so you can get your email from wherever you are!

No matter what you choose, make it one that isn’t tethered to anything else you subscribe to and someday you’ll be glad you did when it’s time to upgrade to a better TV, Internet or phone service at your home.

The topic of conversation among friends has increasingly turned to what our kids are doing online - probably because some think of me as “the geek in town” or they know I have a technology blog to help educate parents. One research study and one television report came out yesterday that might make you as a parent think about this subject even more.

One of my favorite research companies, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, has done some very interesting studies on technology and the family. Yesterday they released a report “Parents and Teen Internet Use” that contained some interesting information you might want to know:

• 59% of parents think the Internet is a good thing for their children (down from 67% in 2004)
• 88% of teens said that the Internet and their use of other communication devices make their lives easier (only 69% of parents agreed)
• 65% of parents check up on their teens’ Internet use (what websites they visit, what IM conversations they are having, etc.)
• 77% of parents have a rule about what their children can do online

As a parent, we’re careful to balance giving our children the freedom to explore while being sure to protect them from what we consider inappropriate content, discussions or posting online.

But I never really stopped to think about what they do online and how it could impact me as a parent. I sometimes wonder if parents know what their children post on their Facebook pages when I come across some rather racy pictures or language that probably would shock many parents. Then I came across this story, The Parent Trap, from a television station in Milwaukee, WI.

It seems that 16 year old Shannon posts frequently on her social networking site. But today’s teenagers don’t have the same sense of privacy as their elders (that’s you and me folks!). It seems Shannon not only discusses her nagging mom, but also the fact her dad does drugs and her parents are lazy alcoholics. And now dad is in trouble with his boss.

“It’s important to know what they’re doing and to be able to help them if they get into trouble. And to keep them safe and, apparent, now we have to have them keep us safe as well.” Good advice from Shannon’s mom to all of us.

A report was released today by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (a favorite research firm of mine) called “Teens and online stranger contact report” that I encourage you to read (a PDF download is available at the site). It outlines experiences teens have online with strangers. Only 7% of those asked said they had contact with a stranger that made them feel scared or uncomfortable. That probably 7% more than you and I as parents would like.

This has led to more school districts running events on how to protect your children online. I’ll be participating on a panel at the high school in our town next month on social networking. I’ll outline what to look for, how to teach your children what is right and wrong behavior online, and even how to participate and encourage your children in using various online social networking tools.

In discussing this with parents in our town, I learned that parents in general are very nieve to what their children do online. Most have never used Facebook or MySpace, few IM or text message (unless it is from their child, and then it’s usually responded to by a phone call from the parent since T9 text messaging is foreign to many adults). So that prompted me to propose a workshop for all of the elementary schools in our town to bring parents up to speed. From the response I got that night I proposed it to the PTA board, I think we’ll be doing this soon.

My point is this - you can’t protect or teach your children about appropriate online behavior unless you’ve participated yourself. Ask what social networking site your child uses - for the younger ones it’s probably Webkinz or Club Penguin. For the older ones it’s probably MySpace or more likely Facebook. Get yourself an account. Learn what they can do. Connect with your child online. Be involved in their online world.

The more you know, the better your children will be. Happy surfing!

This week marked the first guilty verdict won by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against illegal downloading. A Minnesota woman was accused of sharing songs through a popular file-sharing network and was found guilty and fined $220,000.

The reason I bring this up to parents of grade schoolers is that while companies like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon have made it easy and relatively cheap to buy and download digital music online, many children feel it is their right to download and share for free music with their friends (and the rest of the world). What they don’t understand (but you need to) is that it is relatively easy for the RIAA to track down illegal music sharing online.

How do they do this? Each computer is assigned a unique number - called an IP address - when it goes online. The major internet service providers have been more than willing to share that information with the government and organizations like the RIAA when potentially illegal activity is suspected. The woman found guilty this week was sharing music from her home computer and even used her email address as her user ID on the file sharing network.

Two things I’ll suggest to you to help avoid this from happening to you and your family:

1. Make sure you do not have any file sharing software on your computers at home - Limewire and Kazaa are the two most popular file sharing software. Talk with your kids about illegal music sharing and explain the risks to them (it might to indicate that the woman found guilty this week was fined over $9,000 per song she shared online!)
2. Be sure to secure your wireless network at home. Turn off the broadcast ID or encrypt your wireless router with a password (see my blog post “Secure Your Wireless Network” for details). The reason for this is while you may not be illegally downloading music and sharing it online, if your wireless network is open, others in your neighborhood may be using it for illegal activity and could potentially be liable for their activities.

In a previous post (”Timeshifting. You’re In Control.“) we discussed podcasts. Apple recently mentioned that they have over 125,000 podcast “shows” available on the iTunes network. And did I mention they are all FREE!

I listen to lots of podcasts about technology, news, travel and education. But one in particular I’d like to recommend to all parents - it’s called “Jumping Monkeys” and is produced by a popular technology guru, Leo Laporte and hosted by Megan Marrone. They discuss technology and parenting that is down to earth, fun and informative. A new show is posted every other week or so and includes interviews and a very interesting segment called “Spend, Save and Give”.

To learn more, go to the Jumping Monkeys webpage or directly to iTunes to subscribe for free.

If you have podcasts that you like to listen to that you would like to share with other parents, let us know by submitting a comment. Happy listening!

Last night I went to my daughter’s 3rd grade “Back to School Night” and was approached by a few parents about the status of this blog.  It seems that there were more readers than I knew!

So, we’re bringing it back!  Every Sunday I’ll try to post something that helps parents understand, appreciate or warn about related to their children and technology.  If you have any suggestions, just let me know.

And if you run a PTA organization, you are welcome (at no cost) to include our content in your newsletters or website.  We only ask that you also provide a link to this website when you do so.  We appreciate the traffic!

Do you have an iPod? A Tivo or other DVR device at home? Is your schedule so crazy you have to find time for yourself? We have entered the world of timeshifting - the ability to do things when you want, how you want and where you want.

Tivo seems to be the start of it all - the ubiquitous device that has come to replace the old VCR on top of our television sets. Launched in 1999, a Tivo device (also called a digital video recorder) allows you to search for, record and watch television programming when you want. Sounds like a VCR, right? Two things make it stand out: (1) it’s recorded on a hard drive instead of on to tape and (2) you can subscribe to shows or shows with certainly keywords in the title so you don’t have to remember to record them or even know when they are being broadcast.

These days I can never remember what nights my favorite shows are on TV - Grey’s Anatomy, The Office, Scrubs, Jon Stewart, etc. And I don’t have to because Tivo takes care of it for me. While I’m writing this article, it’s 5am and I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy from last week that was recorded while I was out of town on a business trip. I’ve “timeshifted.” I don’t care when the television broadcast executives decided to place my favorite shows on the schedule - I watch it when I have time.

Did you know there is something similar that you can put on your iPod or other MP3 device? They are called podcasts and they are the fastest growing medium today. Currently, there are approximately 60,000 podcast shows available on the Apple iTunes network and they are all free. You choose a show you like, subscribe to it, and when a new show becomes available it automatically is downloaded to your computer in the iTunes application (which, is also free at http://www.itunes.com for both Mac and Windows). There are other places to get podcasts, but simplicity wins for me and iTunes is just that.

Podcasts are simply audio files (there are also video podcasts too) that you can listen to when and where you want. I listen to the podcasts I subscribe to while driving to and from work, when taking a walk, on the plane during business trips and while waiting for the kids to get finished with their activities.

Some of my favorites are provided by NPR - in fact they now have one called Shuffle that randomly records a different NPR show each day so you can sample what they offer. There seems to be a show on just about every topic. I challenged a group I was presenting to recently to come up with a topic that can’t have a podcast available. They came up with bowling. Would you believe there are three podcasts on bowling available? Go check it out by downloading the iTunes program and search in the iTunes Store for topics that interest you. Then subscribe and enjoy as new episodes become available.

Timeshifting - all the cool kids are doing it! Until next time, enjoy your newly liberated entertainment options - on your own terms!

When you think of securing your computer, most people think of email viruses, annoying pop-up ads and inappropriate material on the web. But for many people in Haddonfield, wireless networks in the home have become a significant convenience. But are they secure?

Surprisingly, drive down many streets in Haddonfield with a laptop computer and you’ll find dozens of open wireless networks every few blocks. This means that anyone with a wireless computer can use your network to access the Internet or worse, possibly break into your computers in your home from the street.

If you have a wireless network setup in your home, there are a variety of things you can do to secure it. For many, it’s advisable to consult your device’s user’s manual.

(1) be sure to change the password used to change the administrative settings on your wireless network.

(2) change the SSID – the name that is used to identify your network. For example, if you have a Linksys device, its default is “linksys” so change it to something only you know (and don’t make it your home address).

(3) change the setting on your network to stop broadcasting your SSID. This way, someone trying to break into your wireless network won’t know that it even exists.

(4) encrypt the network (this is where it gets a little tricky). Each device works a little differently. There are ways to require computers trying to connect to the network to provide a passkey and there are ways to only allow certain computers to connect. Again, consult your user’s manual for instructions.

For an excellent guide to security a family computer and network, click here to download “How to Protect Your Family’s PC”.