Billings Beta

by Sam K

There are some computer games that have internet access. In most of those games, guess what people do? They swear. Now even though they know its bad, they still do it. Luckily for those people that don’t swear the computer automatically covers up the swear words or words and turns them into symbols like a dollar sign or an exclamation point. Want to know something? There are even some people who act the opposite when they are on the internet then when they are in the real world. Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about some issues related to Digital Identity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_identity
What is Digital Identity? “Digital Identity is an aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the connection of people’s experience of their real life identity and the identity of other people online”. Digital Identity opens a door that when people go through it makes them act worse than they are. My personal thought is that this is bad because when the people go through that door it makes them worse not better and the world needs those people to get better not worse. If anything could be done to prevent these kinds of actions, it would be that all the websites that were the source of the bad behavior should be deleted or they could be given redirection to a special manner website that teaches them… Netiquette! Warning: if the sources of the bad stuff should be deleted, it will greatly affect freedom of speech in a negative way.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9896576-7.html
Chinese authorities in the Beijing University area put a ban on online bad behavior. Examples of such bad behavior are online swearing and rumor spreading. The authorities shut down the websites responsible for the bad behavior. I personally think that that this is a good way to stop online bad behavior, but I also see a disadvantage to this method. The good side to this is that it prevents online bad behavior such as swearing and rumor spreading, but the bad side to it is that even though it’s preventing this kind of stuff it limits the freedom of speech those that go online.

http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/jun/09manners.htm
There are some people that think that people who chat online should spread their politeness beyond the dining table and to the online world of the internet. Some people listen to this and some don’t. Those who don’t often act strange or odd when they are in their chatting areas. Some examples of being strange while chatting are using all capital letters or pausing a lot while those people are chatting. There are people out there like Virginia Shea who has a manner website that teaches Netiquette. This is a much better option than shutting down websites. Here is a website that teaches people manners:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html

The whole moral that I have written here is that swearing online is bad and you shouldn’t do it and that being polite online is good and that you should DO THAT! If people misuse technology then that makes life worse for everybody else. I personally think that Digital Identity is a gateway to a good and bad future. Basically I am saying that Digital Identity is both good and bad. Bad because it cause people to make another identity or identities and these other selves hide their true identity so they can act bad. Despite being all this bad stuff I don’t think that the websites should be shut down.

Morse code is old - really old (164 years). Text messaging is way faster - right?

This Saturday (May 17^th from 11-1) the City of Seattle is having a free open house for its new Emergency Operations Center located at 4^th and Washington. This is a great opportunity to see all of the technology our City uses in emergencies to help keep people informed, safe and healthy.

I got to go on a super sneak preview on Tuesday night as part of the Citizens’ Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board. Here is a photo panorama taken with my cell phone of the EOC main floor.

They have biometric identification scanners that control security!

They have lots of flat screen televisions!

They have lots of cameras and a sophisticated monitoring system!

They actually let me control the entire facility!

No computers today - we sat down to introduce and discuss cyber-bullying. Our conversation began with talking about conventional bullying. Students noted that bullies may act out because:

• they feel bad about themselves
• they have been bullied in the past
• they don’t have friends
• they are unhappy at home
• it makes them feel powerful
• they might make friends by being funny and mean

We talked about how humans usually feel that on the whole they are good, and that even when we do bad things we individually feel that we are more good than bad. This is true even for bullies.

The 6th grade defined cyber-bullying as “being mean or hurting someone using technology.” Cyber-bullies can use many types of technology to pick on someone; students noted the following ways:

• text-messaging
• instant messaging
• emailing
• building a website that makes fun of someone
• posting mean pictures or videos about someone
• saying mean things on MySpace

We talked about different ways that messages can be delivered. In a one-to-one format, bullies send a message to their recipient (email, instant message, text-message, etc). In a one-to-many format, bullies send a mean message about a person or people to many, usually in an effort to recruit more people to make fun of the victim (building a webpage, posting a video, etc). In many-to-one instances, a group of people will pick on an individual (incoming messages to a MySpace account, online petitions, etc).

Finally, we pondered why so much bullying goes on at social networking sites (e.g., MySpace, Facebook). The main reasons (according to students) are:

• there aren’t many adults to monitor things
• it’s easier to make fun of someone you don’t know or can’t see
• other people might be doing it so it seems okay

Overall, this was a really interesting class - we’ll be following up on this discussion in another week, before the summer starts.

by Nava

A digital identity is who you are online, on your phone, on your credit card, anything digital. Maybe it’s your real name, maybe a nickname. It’s what computer you use; what sites you go on. It’s your phone number; your AIM screen name, anything you have that’s digital. I think that young children, differing in age from child to child, should have their parents know what sites they go on, who they are calling, to keep their digital identities, and real identities, safe.

I think having a list is a useful thing to do, especially for things like keeping people safe. On one site I went to, there was an actual guideline for keeping yourself safe, for kids! It had some ten useful rules, and here are three of them

1. I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents’ work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents’ permission.
2. I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
3. I will never agree to get together with someone I “meet” online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.’

It’s a good guideline, for children and parents both, for teens and toddlers. It can help young kids know what’s safe, and it can remind the older kids of it, too.

With a device that can be installed on phones, called Radar, parents and others can make sure that their kids are safe. If anyone calls who isn’t on their approved list, they are sent a text message. This could be a good thing. For example, if their children were being harassed and didn’t know what to do, their parents would know about it and they could help.

However, Radar could also not be a good thing. Kids should have a bit of privacy, without their parents completely running their lives. If they get interrogated about every one of their friends that their parents didn’t know, it would get very tiresome to keep telling their parents, who called; what they knew that person from, and all that. Their parents should trust them a bit, and maybe not have such an extreme grip on them, as to monitor their phone calls.

In conclusion, kids should get some freedom, and some safety. I believe that as you get older, your parents should give you more freedom, especially if you use that freedom responsibly. From cell phones to using the internet, you need some privacy, but some safety.

Articles:
Here are two very similar lists of Kid Online Safety Rules:
http://www.safekids.com/kidsrules.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/family/age/upto10.mspx
Here is a site about parents being able to track their children’s phone calls.

by Emiko

Cell phones are a very important part of the society. In my opinion, I don’t think that phones should be banned completely from school grounds. The students could keep their phones in their back packs. There has been no complaining that the students are not learning. Digital identity is when people give their information online and then their digital identity A Digital Identity is the representation of a human identity that is used in a distributed network interaction with other machines or people.

In one of the articles, by Jennifer Feals, a father named Rocky Rochford’s daughter’s cell phone bill went $170 over, all from text messaging. The messages were sent through out the day, even, during school. Though his daughter was extremely irresponsible with her phone, I don’t think that the schools should ban cell phones from the school completely; just the parents should enforce some punishments for texting too much, especially during school.

Cell phones can be used for emergencies. In one video on you tube, there is a teacher hitting his student. Probably the video was taken with some other student’s cell phone. Because if the teacher knew that he was on camera, he probably would not have hit the student. That’s one way that cell phones can come in handy.

In the other article by Lyndsey Besser, people took a survey of the use of their phones. 84% of the people who took the survey reported that they regularly use their cell phones for sending and receiving text messages. .Of those who text, 70% admitted to text messaging while in class.

Teachers probably have a hard time dealing with lots of student’s texting during class. The students are there to learn and not text message. If I were a parent, I might be disappointed in my child for not paying attention in class. The students probably would have the phones on vibrate and text when the teachers are not looking. Texting answers during a test is a new way of cheating.

Cell pones are a key part of this generation but for the learning. The two stories connect because they both involve text messaging and it being a problem in school.

Link for the story:
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/2007/11/parent-questions-text-messaging-in.html
Supporting Story:
http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2007/04/23/texting-during-class-can-b-distracting-4-u/
Got the definition from:
http://www.digitalidworld.com/local.php?file=aboutdid
Video about the teacher beating the student:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR1f2TkW6GU

by Maya

I think that online educational resources should be available to students to use.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, has been the subject of a lot of controversy in the last few years. Some educators are reluctant to allow students to use Wikipedia as a resource.

One of the reasons teachers are so unwilling is because of a few well-publicized scandals involving people who submit articles under containing false information. Other times people have given false credentials while writing articles. I think that Wikipedia is a wonderful way to get good information.

Despite the attitudes many are taking to the new site, Wikipedia gives good information, for the most part. Just because of a few loud scandals, Wikipedia has been written off as “faulty” and “completely untrustworthy.” I have used Wikipedia in almost every paper I have written, sometimes to a huge degree, with outstanding results. In order to use Wikipedia, you have to be careful and check a few facts with certified websites to make sure some stuff is parallel, but otherwise Wikipedia is a great site to use for information. People who use Wikipedia without checking any facts at all deserve what they get if there is faulty information in their paper.

Wikipedia requires a little more work to work effectively (checking info) but it has more than 2,000,000 articles in its database. The number of experts who have contributed significant, factual articles is astounding, and it makes it one of the best used online research sites. Some people think that Wikipedia is not fit to be used because it doesn’t do a very thorough check to see if people are really who they say they are, or more importantly, if they have the information they say they have. The result is that every so often one may come across an article that isn’t true, but that has never happened to me, and I admit to being a little surprised. But I am not complaining. Some people are, though, and finally the founder of Wikipedia, Jeremy Wales, has finally announced that they are upping the standards an article must pass in order to submit an article.

The reason that people are so reluctant to allow the citation of Wikipedia in elementary, middle, and high schools, is that it is so easy to submit falsehoods about your age, education, credentials, expertise, etc. Teachers don’t want to have to double check to see if the students Wikipedia information is correct, and so are trying to have it banned. If the teachers don’t check the information, then the students have an opportunity to virtually make their entire paper up. If they do check everything, then it could take them days or even weeks to grade every paper. That is where a site called TurnItIn.com is covering the bases. The way TurnItIn.com works: students write their paper and cite all their sources. They email the paper to TurnItIn.com and the site scans the web and comes up with all the phrases on the web that are similar in the paper. The teacher checks to see if similarities are cited, and if they aren’t, confronts the student. But this site is more practical only for larger classes.

Wikipedia is such a huge thing because students find it much easier to use than a real paper encyclopedia because it is much faster and it isn’t in twelve volumes (or more!). Most of the students I asked said Wikipedia. Some haven’t even used or heard of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Wikipedia is an example of using a digital identity because you can say you are a Professor of Religion at Stanford, but in reality be a 15-year-old looking to pull a small prank.

A digital identity is you, represented (by yourself or otherwise) online or on the web or anywhere that you represent yourself digitally. Sometimes your digital identity is information about yourself, whether it is true or false, or it could be pictures that represent you and have your name on them or are on your MySpace or any other social networking site. It could be a movie, or even a poem or a paper or anything that is associated with or attached to you. Some people put real information about themselves on the Internet. This is extremely dangerous, because the more information someone has about you, the more damage they can do. They can say really mean things via the Internet and put your name on them. They can call your phone, they can find out where you live and where you go to school. Some people can figure all this out even with fake identities, but it is a lot more likely to happen if you put real information about any part of yourself- your age, what you look like, where you are, who you are, etcetera. Many people put fake information about themselves if others can see it. This is safer than putting real information about yourself, but it is still a really bad idea. For example, if a 12-year-old were to pretend that they were talking to a 20-year-old, they could end up getting harassed online because people would act like they were talking to a 20-year-old, and not a 12-year-old. People maybe don’t realize this, but you very differently around the to different age groups, and the 12-year-old might get involved in some conversations they weren’t ready for.

• My personal beliefs concerning the Internet are solid and simple-
• No social networking accounts (email is fine)
• Stick to your parents rules about the internet-they are for good reasons
• Don’t go to sites you would be scared have your parents catch you on
• Absolutely NO chain mail, no matter how stupid, tempting, scary or touching, even if it says it will donate money to a good cause (I have gotten into trouble over the last one!)

Although not all the sites I visit are educational (actually, it’s a far cry from that), I certainly think that people, especially young teenagers, are not using the Internet safely. Some bully, some are bullied, and some sit back and watch it all happen without saying a word to anyone who could actually do something about it all. People are not educated about being respectful, courteous, and kind even on the Internet. People are seriously racist and derogatory on the Internet, and they are not arrested or fined as they would in the real world. People have adopted the Internet as their alternative reality, so they can say and do things they wouldn’t really do- people think that using a fake name or age makes them someone else and they forget that they are doing it- just under someone else’s name.

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7130325.stm
Students “Should Use Wikipedia”
By Alistair Coleman

by Becky

Digital Identity is like part of you but in the technology world. It’s like the facts about you and not your features. Digital Identity has information like your name, age, phone number, maybe your credit card number. Your Digital Identity can be found everywhere. Digital Identity is on the computer and on your cell phone. Digital Identity is part of who you are.

Cell phones are kind a like who you are. They have all of you friends and family on it and it might even have labeled pictures of them. But should kid take there cell phones to school? Texting can be used for bad reasons and good reasons. If you were in a test and you text your friend for the answer then that would be bad because wouldn’t help your friends learning and you wouldn’t be helping them learn. But if you need to call for after school activities then you could text. Some schools are starting to wonder if cell phones should be banned.. I think that schools should allow cell phones for after school only. If you are texting a friend to ask a question on a test then it’s your loss. You are the one that won’t be learning anything. It’s your life. There could be a consequence your cell phone could be taken away.

On YouTube there is a video that shows an angry professor. It shows that he had taken one of the student’s cell phones and threw it at the ground. The student’s cell phone split in to pieces and the teacher started to yell. This YouTube was taken by another student that was in the classroom and videoed it with his cell phone. This is one of the better reasons to have cell phone in school. It relates to the first article because they both have the issue of dealing with cell phones in school. But the professor did throw the cell phone at the ground because the student was distracting the teacher. That would be a bad reason to let cell phones be in the school. If that student hadn’t taped the professor then no one would be able to prove that the teacher lost his temper. The students that go to school with there cell phones have a choice how to use there cell phone. It could be for cheating could be for catching a teacher get angry There are some people that use cell phones efficiently and they shouldn’t be punished because of someone else fault.
I got my sources from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hut3VRL5XRE

by Bill

Your Digital identity is when you buy something on the nets, credit card or whenever you use anything with a LCD screen on it and/or a plug, virtual this. Like, in the New York drum school the players are using guitar hero for learning and the army with the trauma patients with fear.

Video games; parents hate them; kids love them, and the army to? Yes that’s right the army is now making video games to train soldiers of the arts of war without being there, at least for now. Dan emery the owner of the “New York City Guitar School” says that the students of his school are enjoying learning and are turning to old classic rock via the video game “Guitar Hero 3” witch uses a plastic guitar to play the notes of the screen. The screen has notes to play songs. And the guitar has keys that you can press.

Ok get this scientists have made a drug to erase fear. How they proved it is by getting a family of lab rats and exposed them to a cricket noise and a beeping noise then after 20 seconds they get a shock. The scientists do that 3 time to get the rats afraid of the noises. Then they exposed the rat just to the cricket noise and injected them to a drug that makes them forget. So next time the rats get the noise of the cricket they don’t freak but not with the beeping noise. The scientists are thinking of doing the same thing with video games and veterans/patients with severe trauma by watching what happened.

Games they can’t be all bad Entertaining and fun. saving soldiers from bad memories and exposing guitar players to the classics. They are also good for getting the parents redder and throats sorer. Yes there’s down side and yes there’s good in the games to, like trauma and jobs. But still video games were for kids and no active competition, like you want to play baseball but no field and it’s just you and your friend.

Sources
Popular science mag December issue
Video games + a lot of time = job opportunities?

by Sierra

I think that you should ask kid’s parents before you get them a technology related toy. I think that because some parents have different opinions about their kids using the computer. A lot of parents think that if it’s educational then its great but if its social they are a little bit skeptical. “Just as you wouldn’t spring a puppy on a family as a surprise, you should check in with parents before you give a tech toy.”

You wouldn’t ask a parent to get a board game but you would you were getting them a cell phone. That’s because a board game they always know who they are playing with and a person can’t stalk you from a board game. But you would ask to buy them a cell phone because any one can call you and you can call any one.

The first article that I read was about how kids were getting thing like stuffed animals that connects to the internet but the parents didn’t know that it connected to the internet and when they found out about it they weren’t sure that they liked it. They wanted their kids to have it but their wasn’t a lot that they could do about it. See the link above to read the entire article.

There are bad ways that people could use toys that can connect to the internet but there is also there is good ways too. One of the good ways is that some companies make toys that help younger kids learn. Why kids use these toys is they aren’t complicated and they are made especially for kids there age. Here is a link that explains more.

Ithink that little kids learning about how to use computers is a good thing because then they can understand it more when they are older and feel more conferrable on the internet when they are older, but I also think that if kids are on the computer it is not good because then they won’t do anything else and they will be lazy and out of shape. “Allowing children to access technology at an early age will allow them to be far more discerning and feel more comfortable with the technology they will need in the future.”

hat is why you should ask the parents and you should know about the toy that you want to buy for a kid.