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May 13 2015

Transient and Anonymous Social Networking Tools

A couple years ago, Snapchat just came out and was one of the new, popular tools for sending messages that could include video or photos that disappeared. Billed as a feature, this service offered its users the ability to send things without worry about accountability. For instance, the service might be used to send very private photos, but the unlike regular texting, it would prove difficult for the recipient to save the photo. As it turns out, the service is still popular, but it’s being joined by other services that either emulate its main feature or else has capitalized on new ways to communicate under a cloak of anonymity.

Watch our video explaining some of these tools.

Tools we think parents should be aware of include:

  • YikYak (anonymous location-based messaging service),
  • Snapchat (encourages distribution of images and videos),
  • Periscope (live video streaming via Twitter),
  • Meercat (live video streaming via Twitter),
  • Kik (peer messaging system).

There are also alternative apps that mimic Snapchat. What’s difficult is to track what are the new tools and which are the popular ones. As new tools are developed that allow for communication in different ways, it becomes of paramount importance not to necessarily ban the apps from kids—or ban a specific way of communication—but instead to talk in more general terms about what you, as a parent, find acceptable.

As an example, let’s assume you do not want your child using dating apps on their smart phone or tablet. Many of these services are intended for young or older adults, but lying about your age isn’t an impossibility to gain access to these types of apps. This article from April, 2015 looks at some of the more popular dating apps that allow for communication with others. While parents can go online to learn about what’s popular, the conversation and expectation might be more far-reaching: “there will be consequences if you use your phone to use apps aimed for adult users that encourage dating. I am not comfortable at this time you using these services.”

What we find interesting of late is the generational divide and diversity among social apps. Adults (18 years+) prefer to use more mainstream apps, such as:

  • Facebook,
  • LinkedIn,
  • Pinterest,
  • Instagram, and
  • Twitter.

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, the most popular tools used by teens also include:

  • Google+,
  • Vine, and
  • Tumblr.

The same report cites that 73% of teens have access to a smart phone, and 87% have access to a laptop or desktop computer.

Some tips for staying on top of the latest apps allowing us to communicate in new ways:

  • Set up your app account so that you are granting permission to the account and can control the password;
  • Regularly check the device to see which apps your child is using and in what capacity;
  • Read the age ratings of apps provided by the app stores;
  • Have regular conversations with your child about your expectations for communicating online and what the consequences are;
  • Understand that there is an incredible amount of peer pressure for students to communicate socially with online tools, including texting (also called SMS messaging). Just because the tool can allow something inappropriate, does not mean your child will use the app or service for something inappropriate. That said, all the apps in general allow for private conversations, and unlike a phone call, these conversations written in text can re-surface causing embarrassment;
  • As a general rule, you should not communicate with text, picture, or video anything that might later embarrass you, another person, or you wouldn’t mind your own mother (or father) seeing.

By John Hendron • For Parents • • Tags: communication, social, tools

Apr 18 2013

Free Online Instructional Resources

For over a decade, as an educator you could proclaim that there was “a ton of free content online” for use in the classroom. This is no different today, but the sheer volume of content doesn’t make using any of it, any easier! Teachers need high-quality content, and there is finally some new efforts and corralling high-quality content together.

Disclaimer: It would be impossible for me to list all the free content out there. This is a start at looking at freely-available classroom resources for use by students.

  • CK-12 Foundation – middle and high school textbooks available in a variety of formats for computers and tablets
  • Curriki – Free Learning Resources in the arts, CTE, health, foreign language, and core subject areas
  • MIT Open Courseware – likely of interest to upper-level HS instructors; open courses from MIT. Check out their high school section
  • CreativeCommons Open Textbook Summit – initiatives to create open textbooks
  • Connexions – open learning modules in arts, business, humanities, math and stats, science and technology, and social sciences
  • Merlot.org – open learning materials starting in K and up; includes activities, presentations, and written content
  • Flatworld Knowledge – new service for inexpensive textbooks (college) that can be customized
  • iTunes U – free tools from Apple for publishing courses, podcasts, and more. Through iTunes, you can access thousands of free and paid content – including digital textbooks
  • Boundless Textbooks – access open, free educational resources – secondary and college-level subjects
  • edX – “the future” of online education – open, anytime courses from MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, McGill, and other international universities. Some of this content could be used in high school, but it also is a great model of what could be done for K-12.
  • Gooru Learning – a search engine for learning materials, 6-12.
  • Annenberg Learner Video resources for learning (K-16)
  • YouTube Education – a collection of YouTube videos that can be used in business, university, K-12, etc., organized in a number of different ways

If you’re a Goochland educator and want to add to this list, leave a comment!

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers, Resource of Interest • • Tags: resources, textbooks, tools

Oct 25 2010

Top Tools

Mr. Covington sent me this link, on the top-ten tools for teachers and the top-ten for administrators.

Then I began to think about my favorite tools… maybe a top 5?

  1. E-mail (a lot of my work comes from e-mail messages, although this group focused on tools other than e-mail).
  2. Google Docs
  3. Twitter (there’s an amazing number of ed-tech leaders, teachers, and thinkers on Twitter sharing resources)
  4. Blogs
  5. Wikis

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: administrators, teachers, tools

Feb 1 2010

Digital Construction Paper

The educator known as “Digital Roberto” did a seemingly great presentation at last summer’s NECC in Washington, D.C. entitled Digital Construction Paper. His site has a lot of great Web 2.0 resources for teachers and students to use in the classroom.

His handout was recently featured in an ISTE e-mail, and I’d like to thank him for sharing his resources online!

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: tools, web2.0

About this blog…

This is the blog of John Hendron, Ed.D., director of innovation & strategy for Goochland County Public Schools. Through this blog I share information for teachers, administrators and families dealing with learning and teaching with technology.

You can contact me via e-mail! I look forward to hearing from you.

John Hendron Goochland Schools

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