Facebook keeps your data - forever!!

A worrying change to the terms of service from global social networking behemoth, Facebook.

It's bad enough the media darling of online chatter wanted to keep your personal data archived indefinitely in their former TOS. Now it emerges that even if you deactivate your account, their new agreement with users gives the company perpetual rights to sell, market and re-distribute anything you've posted. Frankly, that's terrifying and users should think very carefully about what they upload to the site.

The only light at the end of this dark tunnel is that the company does permit a small get-out clause when it notes that these rights are 'subject only to your privacy settings.' In other words, if you don't let anyone see your content, by restricting access, then they might leave you alone. But given how people use Facebook it seems unlikely anyone will notice.

Read more here.

The advert is blowin' in the wind

A rare treat for lovers of Bob Dylan's music. 

The reclusive singer has allowed British ethical company, The Co-Operative, to use his iconic song, Blowin' In the Wind, in a forthcoming TV advert. You can watch it here.

Small town music from the global village

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Tecnobrega beat rocks Brazil

news.bbc.co.uk

A great story about the rise of Tecnobrega, a regional music phenomenon in Brazil. There, bedroom studios and the sale of CDs in market stalls has seen the rise of an alternative business model for the music industry; as well as a homegrown musical genre that's offering creative and commercial opportunities to those lacking formal training.

You can read more here.

A question of trust

It's always a risk relying on Wiki based sources for reliable information.

Wikis have the potential to be fantastic collaborative learning tools, but they need to be overseen by someone who's watching the History button, to ensure any changes to text are made in good faith, and not for malicious purposes.

The fact that anyone can alter the content on web-based Wikis in the public domain means they aren't reliable secondary sources of information, however high they might appear in search engine results.

This week's dodgy edit comes courtesy of the British Conservative Party, who altered the death of a grand master, in order to score a cheap political point. The BBC video below explains all.

Tories admit to Wiki-alteration

news.bbc.co.uk

Digital Life, Minimal Privacy

Get your own - Open publication

Last Friday, as the snow cancelled school for the fourth day in a week, and our website hosts went down, our Principal, Mark Steed, set up a school Facebook group.

Within a day it had over 900 members and what started was a quite polarised debate, initiated by students, regarding the degree to which teachers were invading their privacy. They also found it hard to conceptualise the fact we were using Facebook to communicate with them in a formal capacity - leaving messages about cancelled sports fixtures, and more controversially for the students, setting work to make up for the four days lost. 

This debate, which we have embraced, was timely. The Principal and I had been talking for some weeks about ways to cover European Internet Safety Week, which began on February 9th. Now we had our opportunity.

Interestingly, many students couldn't get their heads round the fact we ought not to be on first name terms, that TXT SPK isn't student-teacher speak, or that it's wrong to post inappropriate language on an official school group.

And so it came to pass that on Sunday I put together a presentation, ready to deliver this week to the various sections of our school. So far, we've spoken to the Sixth form and the girls' senior school. On Thursday we'll be chatting to the boys. 

I've turned the presentation I made into an online booklet, courtesy of issuu.com. It can be read either like a digital book, with animated turning pages (my favourite option), or as full screen slides. I've left out the opening animation for reasons of privacy, but let me tell you about it. 

Since so many students had made me a friend, I had access to much of their personal information. The idea of using privacy settings seemed alien to them. So, I helped myself to dozens of mobile phone numbers, and turned them into an animated opening sequence. As you can imagine, a fair few sixth formers were perturbed to see their phone numbers flashing up on the big screen. It certainly drove the message home.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the presentation and do let me know your thoughts.