PTA Technology Corner

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”.

We hope over the past school year we’ve been able to educate or at least enlighten each of you with respect to technology and your children. We’ve also spent time providing advice on to how to keep your children and your computer safe. To round out the school year, we thought it would be best to give each of you a little homework - we’ll call it a technology to do list - and we encourage you to take each seriously:

Browse Safer
Stop using Internet Explorer. Make the switch and download Firefox. It’s safer, updated more frequently, and more compliant. A new version of IE is coming out (currently in beta) but when we actually see the final version along with the delivery of the next Windows operating system, Vista, this is a great place to begin. And check right now - do you have an anti-virus program running? Is your firewall turned on?

Time to Switch
Ok, call me biased, but if you’re trying to avoid viruses, spam, pop-up windows, etc. don’t just upgrade the browser, switch to a Mac. I use Windows, Macs and Unix almost everyday - and it’s no contest. The price is right, the speed is right, the software is there and the support is the industry’s best. Go visit an Apple store and stop worrying anymore.

PLOS
Start using Instant Messaging with your children, friends, colleagues, neighbors (ok, maybe not your neighbors - spend some time on the porch with them instead It’s easy, fun and you’ll start to understand why kids use it so much these days. Oh, and by the way, PLOS stands for “Parent Looking Over Shoulder” - got to know this stuff folks!

The New Radio
Did you know that there are now over 60,000 “shows” available for free to download to your computer when they are available for you to listen to when you’re available? They’re called “podcasts” and they are starting to chip away from radio listenership. To get started, download iTunes at iTunes.com. Click on the Music Store and then the Podcasts items. Search for your hobbies, sports teams, your alma mater. And you don’t need an iPod to listen to them either (but it doesn’t hurt).

And Finally …
Know what your kids are doing on MySpace and other social networks. Read this article in Information Week. It’s not all that bad, but needs your attention. Want to learn more, read “Protecting Teens Online,” a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 73% of families have their computer in a public place in their home. Where’s your computer? 64% of parents set rules about their children’s time on the computer including when and where they can go online. 79% of teens (not parents) think teens are not careful enough when giving out information online. Some basic structure can go along way to protecting your children online and make it a very useful medium in their lives.

And keep the conversation going over the summer. We’ll be here and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s going on that you need to know about at the PTA Technology Corner!

Recently I was asked if I knew any good places to go to read about children and their use of technology. As a part of my job, I read a great deal about the Millennial Generation (those born between 1982 and 2001) and those coming next in the yet-to-be-named youngest generation (hint: might be called something like the “9-11 Generation”). So, I thought I’d take this month to lay out some resources you might consider checking out.

There’s a great deal of research and studies on today’s teenagers and “tweenagers” regarding how unique this generation is from previous ones - particularly on their use of technology. Probably the best and most recent resource is from The Pew Internet and American Life Project called “Teens and Technology” (http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=162).

Another good resource is from Harris Interactive and their monthly newsletter called “Trends and Tudes” (http://harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters_k12.asp).

If you’re interested in learning more about your own “Millennial”, two gentleman wrote a series of books about this generation - Neil Howe and William Strauss. Probably one of their best books is called Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (http://www.lifecourse.com/products/millennialsrising.html).

Did You Know?
7.8 - the number of hours each week children socialize with friends online (compared to 10.3 hours socializing in-person)

Just about everyone has at least one computer in the house, there’s a 90% chance it’s a Windows machine, there is nearly a 100% chance if you make over $75,000 that you have broadband access and many folks have setup a wireless access too in their house. And while this all sounds good, it’s a recipe for disaster if you are not fully protecting yourself from viruses, spam and other malicious computer attacks.

A reporter last year from the BBC sought the assistance of a computer expert to determine how fast a computer could become infected if not protected. They took a brand new computer out of a box, plugged it into the Internet and waited to see what happened. It didn’t take long at all for the first malicious attack to happen. Would you believe 18 seconds??

So, what should you do to protect yourself? First, if you are running Windows XP, make sure you have it updated to Service Pack 2 and have your computer set to install new updates automatically. This is all managed from the Security Center located from the Start Menu, under All Programs, Accessories, System Info. Make sure you have the Firewall turned on also.

Second, you also need to install at least two important programs. One is an anti-virus program and one is an anti-spyware program. Microsoft has a program currently called Windows Defender Beta 2 that is free - see the link at the bottom of the article. To protect your computer from viruses, my favorite application is AVG from GriSoft. It’s less than $40 and updates automatically when needed - link is also at the bottom of the article. There are many other applications available that claim to do both, but I’ve had great success with these two in combination.

Fourth, you’ll want to install some type of anti-spam software. There are a bunch available and frankly none of them are great. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I recommend checking out Qurb (see link below) - they have a trial version available and if you like it, it’s less than $30.

Finally, if you are using a wireless network in your home, make sure you have turned off the SID (which will not show your network to others) and turn on the encryption settings. Each wireless router is different, so make sure you read the instructions that came with it. If you’re unsure, contact their customer support as this is an important thing to do to protect your computers in your home.

A note to Apple Mac users: Just because there hasn’t been a real virus attack on Mac OSX, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t protect yourself. Keep the system up-to-date by using the “Software Update” in the Apple menu and follow steps four and five above.

Microsoft Windows Defender Beta 2
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/support/howto/download.mspx

GriSoft AVG Anti-Virus
http://grisoft.com/doc/Single/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?prd=sng.1.0.0

Qurb
http://www.qurb.com/

The days of visiting the record store (just calling it a record store has long become a misnomer) and thumbing through the latest albums (there I go again) has taken a dramatic change in the past few years. How and where we’re listening to music has changed as well. I remember working at Sam Goody’s when I was younger and I remember getting my first Sony Walkman. But we have entered the “now” generation. The online generation. And the download generation.

It all started with Napster – what became the popular – yet later deemed illegal – download service. Then Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in April 2003 (http://www.itunes.com) and now offers over 2 million songs, over 3,000 music videos, 11,000 audio books, over 25,000 podcasts (we’ll get to what those are in a future article) and recently dozens of popular and past television shows. They’ve sold over 850 million songs to date and over 42 million iPods – over 10 million in just the last three months of 2005. This is more than a fad. It’s a new culture! It seems that it’s hard to stand on a street corner and not see someone with those white earbuds hanging from their head. And Apple isn’t the only one selling music online or MP3 players (although they do have an 84% market share in this space even though the iPod only works with iTunes on both Macs and Windows computers).

So why do we bring this up? This column has become a sort of “how to protect yourself and your children” space and downloading music is a topic that warrants some attention. And if your child hasn’t bugged you about buying them an iPod Nano or some other MP3 player, I’ll bet they will be soon. So, what do you need to know?

First, how do you download music? Probably a better question is “how do you buy and download music.” This can be done from a number of sites, even though Apple’s iTunes Music Store is by far the most popular. The others major services include MSN Music (http://music.msn.com), Walmart (http://www.walmart.com/music), Sony Connect (http://www.connect.com) and Real Rhapsody (http://www.rhapsodydirect.com). These services either sell songs one-by-one at around $0.99 for each song or have a monthly subscription service. While the initial price of the subscription service may be appealing (one price and you can download any number of songs you want), when you cancel your subscription, you don’t get to keep the songs.

Second, how should you NOT download music? There are a number of “peer-to-peer” networks (or P2P) available where individuals can share music online. This is not only illegal, but is one way the Recording Industry of America Association (or RIAA) is catching individuals illegally downloading music. Stick with the pay services listed above and you’ll be ok.

Finally, it is ok to “burn” compact discs that you own onto your computer and transfer those songs to your MP3 player too. Most of the services, including the iTunes store, allow you to do this very easily. You’re not doing anything illegal here as long as you own the CD already.

The days of passing gossip notes in homeroom, making physical threats at recess or keeping personal thoughts in a locked diary have taken on a completely new meaning with the penetration of the Internet in our children’s lives. It’s MySpace (http://www.myspace.com), Xanga (http://www.xanga.com), Friendster (http://www.friendster.com) and other online social sites that have become the medium of choice for today’s teens and preteens to open up their lives to the world.

And as a parent, you need to know about them – now!

Highlighted in a recent cover story in the Philadelphia Inquirer and brought up at a School Board meeting a few months ago by Middle School principal, Alan Fegley, these relatively new free, online websites are attracting literally millions of our children to post their thoughts, pictures, opinions and personal information.

It’s amazingly simple to do. Children can sign up for an account on these sites for free – no credit card or parental permission is required. Then they can keep an online blog (or diary), upload pictures of themselves (as racy as they want them to be), list information about where they live, where they work, who they hang out with, post polls of who the think is cute (or worse), discuss their sexual activities and even worse (if you can imagine).

“It’s a social nightmare” for principals at high schools, middle schools and even elementary schools. While the worst of these sites might not seem like an issue for the youngest of our early cybersurfers in our family, many young children do not understand that what they write or post on their site is open to the entire world to see and read.

So, what can you do as a parent to protect your child yet encourage appropriate use of the Internet at home? Experts agree that the first issue has to do with where you place that computer. Is it in an open area of the house, a place where you walk by regularly and can watch what your child is doing online? Sure you want them to have their privacy and you want to trust them, but what your child does on the Internet – especially on these social websites – are not private and our young children are still learning what is and isn’t appropriate to do on the Internet.

Second, make sure you are regularly reviewing their IM logs (see the November 2005 issue of The Focus for more information on instant messaging) and review the history of sites visited in your computer’s browser to see where they are surfing. If you want to be more proactive, there is software you can install that monitors the Internet traffic on your computer and limit where they can go without your permission. Again, while some may see this as an invasion of privacy, it’s our job as parents to first protect our children as they learn and grow.

Third, ask your child if they have a website and ask to see it. They may be proud to show you what they have built online. While you’re at it, you should ask them for their email address (but keep in mind, they older kids probably have a half dozen email addresses at least) and IM screen name so you can communicate online with them as well as in-person. If they don’t have a website and show an interest, setup a family website. There are very easy ways to do this with a blog account. Check out Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) or LiveJournal.com (http://www.livejournal.com) for free services that let you post things going on in your family’s lives. We setup a family website a few months ago to share with friends and family what’s going on with our daughter’s gymnastics and our son’s footbal.

And finally, you should look at this as an opportunity to teach our children what is appropriate. Having a personal website isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can be a learning opportunity where they can show off their creative talents and increase their writing abilities.

Instant messaging (IM) has become the most popular online activity for children and teenagers today. More than 90% of kids 12-17 years old have instant messaged and 49% are IM’ing each day. With the growth in cyber bullying, it’s probably a good idea for parents to understand IM and what to watch for to protect our kids.

There are now four primary IM systems – AOL, Yahoo, MSN and the new Gtalk from Google. AOL is the most popular in the U.S. especially for teenagers and is called AIM (or AOL Instant Messager). Each of the four systems is currently incompatible with each other (AOL IM’ers can’t chat online directly to MSN IM’ers, for example).

As a parent, I suggest that you get involved in your son or daughter’s IM world and register an IM address. To do so, first find out what IM service your child uses first. Then go to that respective service and register a free IM account (for example, for AOL IM go to http://www.aim.com). Then ask your child for their IM address to put in your “buddy list” and ask them to put your IM address in their buddy list. Then regularly start an online conversation with them to get used to instant messaging. For example, when our son comes home from school and we’re not home, he might IM me at the office to tell me he got in the house ok and I can remind him to take out the trash.

If you share a computer in your family room, for example, or provide a computer in your child’s bedroom, you may want to track their activities. In most IM services you can review the “logs” of their IM conversations by turning on “logging” in the preferences area of the IM application they use.

Finally, it’s probably a good idea to protect your child by reviewing with whom they are IM’ing. Some IM clients allow parents to approve who they chat with online. Doing this and reviewing the logs of their online conversations will allow you to help protect your child from cyber bullying and other offenses online.

One last tip, if you see your son or daughter type “POS” (one of the thousands of acronyms IM’ers use), you should know that it means. Parent Over Shoulder. For other acronyms, go to http://www.acronymsonline.com.