Hope Springs Eternal

[The links to the following 2 stories about the proliferation of technology in rural India were forwarded to me by my friend, Uma Chandru, a cultural anthropologist, environmental designer and educator, who recently concluded a fellowship at the Smithsonian where she researched democratic policies and practices that accord respect to and foreground the values and agency of indigenous visual artists and artisans in India with a view to safeguarding tangible and intangible cultural heritage.]

The first was about FM radio stations in Bihar schools, and the second about 100% broadband connectivity to the Internet in Gujarat (every village is now connected!)

Here's the note she attached to the first story -

For those interested in educational technology and design in state
schools in India---

The Bihar government has some lofty aims in its plans to set up Frequency
Modulation (FM) radio stations in schools

- to make education more effective and user-friendly.

- use information technology in schools for easy access to knowledge

- to provide entertainment

- to educate and inform students about community development, health and
disaster management

what I find most interesting is the aim

-- to help revive local and folk music and art and provide opportunities
to local people to generate employment, particularly in the rural areas.

It is interesting how state policies in the education arena are getting so
technology centered-and also to see such ambitious plans on what can be
achieved through introducing FM technology in schools.

Not clear if they have the people trained for this in such schools and who
will generate the content and how govt school teachers will utilize this
in their teaching and whether this will do good or make things worse for
the children in such schools or the bearers of the "folk" art and music
traditions.

While I am all for appropriate technology and content, given 4-5 hours of
such FM programming which will also include entertainment, to be aired
each day presumably during school hours, what will the govt school
teachers do during this time? Will they be capable of choosing and
integrating appropriate content in their classroom and facilitate new
and meaningful learning through this technology ?

Or will it merely become a substitute for the teacher who hardly comes to
the school anyway, at least in govt schools in rural areas.

I may be wrong on this, but the state officials also seem to be over
estimating the costs of the equipment etc-I thought I had read somewhere
that they cost much less these days.

Big Question is - Will the ministers and the technology company that is providing these FM radios and some mega content generation company benefit more from this more than the teachers, students or the culture bearers?

Good questions, Uma. Unfortunately, one cannot help being skeptical, given Bihar's poor track record in development. One also wonders about how Gujarat villages and schools will leverage broadband connectivity, what with so much electricity shortage!

That said, such stories make my heart soar. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, and one looks forward to an India - and not just urban India, but rural India as well - that has truly turned a corner with respect to access and connectivity, and subsequently leveraging the Internet and other technologies to better the lot of the average Indian, not just with respect to education, but quality of life in general as well.

Remember the pre-Google days?

Lest we forget what web 0.5 or web 1.0 looked like - what with the speed with which the Internet has burgeoned over the last decade, and the growing clamor around web 2.0 (and web 3.0 seemingly around the corner), here's a video that takes you back to the early-mid 1990s. Great piece of history that we were witness to - usenet, newsgroups, IRC, gopher, mosaic, lycos...

Imagine a world today without the Internet! Enjoy (courtesy waxy.org)...

Kid-Safe Internet Browsing

[Here's another one on Google searching, kid-safe Internet browsing, critical thinking, "topical research" on the internet...Click on the appropriate tags below to see other posts on this topic]

Tired to having to monitor your children's Internet activity? Unable to monitor your child's time on the Internet? Concerned about what your child may run into on the Internet?

Consider installing a "Safe Internet Browser" for your child. Instead of trying to control what sites your child visits on the Internet via google searches; or being worried about inappropriate ads and other windows "popping up" on the screen, just rely on an Internet browser which automatically restricts the sites your kids can visit, and what your kids can do while on the Internet.

Buddy Browser (which happens to be one of a few "children's Safe Internet browsers" available for free), boasts of the following features (among others) --

• Secure and Safe Kids Browser without popup windows (No spyware or adware)
• No Internet Chat Rooms
• Safe Buddy Messenger for Kids
• No Internet Surfing
• Kids Safe Search
• Individually Reviewed Quality Sites for Kids
• Educational Learning Channels - Science, School, Nature, Animals and More
• Privacy Assured
• 100% Free!

I think this could be a useful option for young kids (elementary school), not just from a safety point-of-view. Kids spend (waste?) a lot of time doing aimless Internet searches ("researching a topic") as they put it, which is not effective and that requires a lot of critical evaluation of websites and material that kids are usually incapable of doing. Having a list of pre-approved sites to go to for "Internet research" (the sites available through Buddy Browser are exhaustive and kid-friendly) would not be such a bad idea anyway!

Perhaps it could be argued that kids need to learn how to sift through the vast amounts of information and make sense of it - as a 21st Century skill. I agree with this need, but also think that kids only above 12 years or so - (i.e. starting in Middle School) should be taught this skill and made to hone it through their various projects.

Until that age, a kid-safe browser such as Buddy Browser should suffice for exposing kids to the Internet

Is Google Killing Intellect?

The latest Businessweek has a discussion/debate on whether "the search engine makes it so easy to get data that users forgo deeper study?"

Sure, Google can deliver facts and figures at lightning speed. But is it turning users away from other avenues of learning such as books, scholarly magazines, lectures, and classes? Hear experts Jakob Nielsen (FOR) and David Alan Grier(AGAINST) discuss the question "Is Google Killing Intellect?", and respond to student comments.

(I have to preface whatever I write with stating that I am a technophile and I usually embrace technology in every shape and form... ) I personally have started to push my children and students more towards the library these days simply because I am beginning to get leary of the whole "Wikipedia culture" of getting information that is unfiltered and very often grade- & level-inappropriate. I ask my sons to first browse all the encyclopedias and other reference books we have at home for "basic" information on a topic and go to the Internet (which to them is synonymous with going to the Wikipedia most of the time) only for specific pieces of information that they don't find in books/magazines. The richness of the images that accompany the text in most encyclopedias and the fact that the information is somewhat "contained" is something I find comfort in. (Finding a decent alternative website to WIkipedia is also oftentimes high on my agenda and I strongly suggest teachers of kids in elementary school, if not middle school as well, to do the same.).

But the truth is that kids today do need to learn how to scout cleverly for the information they need, and make sense of huge amounts of information, evaluate the information critically, and to use the Internet and Google to their advantage. Little kids (younger than 12-13 years of age) are incapable of performing effective searches anyway, so the process must be scaffolded for them.

Clearly, there are pros and cons to extensive use of Google, which is why it makes for an interesting debate!

Citizendium: "Our new compendium of knowledge" is the new Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizendium

It's no coincidence that to write an article about the wikipedia, and explain a term that will soon be as much a part of our vocabulary as the term 'wikipedia' is, I am citing a link to the wikipedia itself!

If you are a teacher who uses google for your everyday searching on the Internet, then you must know that for most of the topics that we discuss in class or give our students assignments to "find out about" - a lot of our information today is picked up from this "wiki" that has put been together by thousands of unknown names and faces. We all - teachers and students - are relying on a mass of information put up by anyone and we never really stop to question the quality of this information. In a recent article I read on the issue of the indiscriminate use of the internet in the classroom - this is what I came across (I have not tried it but I am inclined to believe the stats) -

"Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dominates all of these searches, appearing in the top ten every time.

• China - Wikipedia = #1
• acid rain - Wikipedia = #4
• Montreal - Wikipedia = #3
• Charles de Gaulle - Wikipedia = #1
• Virginia Woolf - Wikipedia = #1"

Anyway, as it turns out, the founders of the Wikipedia are also worried about this trend; and so we have a Citizendium in the works!

"Citizendium works much like Wikipedia in many ways. Both are considered wikis, which are collaborative web sites that represent the ongoing, collective work of many authors. (Similar to a blog in structure and logic, a wiki allows anyone to edit, delete, or modify content that has been placed on the site--including the work of previous authors--using only a browser interface.)"

But unlike the wikipedia, the Citizendium will require contributors to register their names and the project has tapped subject-matter experts to serve as content editors.

I'm sure this will herald even more reckless use of information from the Internet, the only difference will be that the recklessness with the new wiki will be less problematic as far as the quality and sanctity of the information is concerned.

BEWARE OF THE WOLVES THAT LURK IN THE DEEP, DARK FOREST THAT IS THE INTERNET

[I wrote this article recently and have sent it to a local newspaper for publishing as well.]

More often than not, teachers and parents of teens are blissfully unaware of what their kids are up to when they are on the Internet. For those of us keeping tabs on issues of kid safety on the Internet, nary a week goes by these days without the mention of some nightmarish teen experience related to their Internet explorations, or what the big players in the Internet “Social Networking” space (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others) are doing (or rather attempting to do) to make their software tools safer for teen-use. The truth is that nothing works better than raising awareness levels among schools, teachers, parents, and above all, kids themselves, of the potential dangers that lurk in Internet chat rooms and social spaces, as well as in the seemingly innocuous act of music/video file sharing.

At a recent workshop I conducted for teachers of Mallya Aditi International school, Bangalore, on issues of Internet use by teachers and kids in their teaching & learning, the section on safe use of the Internet was an eye-opener, and prompted a session dedicated solely to this topic, with parents of middle-schoolers in the same school. This article is prompted by the earnest plea of the teachers and parents who attended these sessions that I get the word out and reach many more parents/teachers who live in blissful ignorance of these very real dangers.

Types of Risks
The 4 types of risks that I associate with Internet use among kids in urban India are –

1. Harmful relationships with online strangers
2. Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
3. Access to Inappropriate Material, and,
4. Loss of Privacy - which is a potential danger inherent in almost all online interactions with others, especially strangers.

Harmful Relationships With Online Strangers
This is very likely to happen if your kids are visiting unmoderated chat rooms, chatting on MSN Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messaging, Skype or GMail chat. Pedophiles have been known to frequent chat rooms that are popular with children and teens. This may also happen through the vast number of “social networking” and blogging sites that have burgeoned on the Internet. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Google’s Orkut, MSN Spaces, Xanga and Hi5 are becoming increasingly popular with teens even in India, for chatting, exchanging photos and extending their network of “friends”. While several of these mandate a minimum age requirement of 14 or 15, there is obviously no system of verification.
Recent stories from the US such as the assault on a teenager that was linked to her presence on Myspace and that of teen Justin Berry, while extreme and not everyday occurrences, stand as testimonials to the horrific turn that some innocent Internet explorations can take, especially when kids use webcams along with Chat.

Child Safety Tips for Chatting and Blogging and “Social Networking” on the Internet-
• Do not visit unmoderated chat rooms.
• Only chat with people you know and have met in person, preferably kids your own age.
• Keep your profile as anonymous as possible. Do not provide your full name, address, phone number, or school information in your user profile.
• Because many spammers use names they can easily collect from a chat room, consider having a "chat" screen name. This name would be one that is different than your e-mail address. This could help prevent unwanted Spam mail from coming to you.
• Never agree to give out personal information in a chat conversation with anyone.
• Never to agree to get together with anyone you meet in a chat room without first checking with your parents.
• Always remember that people are not always who they seem to be on the Internet.
• Be wary of the use of webcams.
• Never post a photograph on the Internet without getting your parents’ permission. In general, avoid posting photos. Remember that things have a way of staying online forever; what may be done with your photos (even ones you send to “friends”) may be beyond your control.
• Don’t lie about your age on social networking sites. If you are too young to sign up, have your parents find an alternative that is age-appropriate for you.

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Does your child download mp3 music files off of the Internet? Chances are the he/she is doing this in violation of the law. Hundreds of children in urban India are using Peer-to-Peer or P2P file sharing applications such as Kazaa, Limewire and Morpheus to illegally download copyrighted music files from the Internet. These programs work by providing access to a portion of your computer to everyone else on the network and vice versa. The risks and downsides to doing this are many-
· Computers on P2P networks are vulnerable to viruses, spyware and other malignant code. A harmless-looking music file may be bundled with a virus or spyware that then gets access to your computer
· More that 35% of the total P2P traffic is pornographic in nature. Your child may inadvertently download age-inappropriate, sexually explicit material.
· There is a danger of strangers getting access to sensitive information on your computer, related to your finances or employment.
· Some day the law may catch up with violators of Copyright Law. Music sharing through these means is illegal.

So what is the solution to this? Join a paid music club and download music legally.

Access to Inappropriate Material on the Internet
...is usually just a click away! This material could be of a sexually explicit nature, be violent and hateful, or may advocate and glorify the use of drugs, weapons, alcohol or tobacco.

Ever misspelled a URL (a website address) and had a pornographic site load up? Not long ago, misspelling google.com with an extra ‘l’ brought up an asian porn site. Several parents and teachers have had embarrassing experiences with children searching on school-related material using seemingly innocuous keywords on Google. Among the tricks pornographers have been known to use is the linking of kid-friendly keywords such as “pokemon” and “Action Man” to porn sites.

The solution?

• Encourage kids to use kid-safe search engines such as Onekey and ensure that you are using “Strict” Search Preferences on Google.
• Educate your kids about the presence of inappropriate material.
• Bookmark child-friendly web sites. This allows your children to easily get to safe sites that they have used before.
• Teach children to crash and tell. If they encounter a bad experience, they should feel comfortable in immediately turning off the computer and talking with you about the experience
• Teach children to never open email from someone they don't know.
• Never respond to an ‘Unsubscribe’ on a pornographic email.

So what else can you do as a parent or teacher?

• Place your computer in an open room with the monitor in plain view. This allows you to keep tabs on your child's online activities.
• Limit the amount of time your kids spend on the Internet.
• Have up-to-date anti-virus software protection for your computer
• Consider installing software that filters specific sites and/or monitors online activity.
• Consider not allowing your kids to go online when you are not home.
• Find time to stay up-to-date on issues of kid safety on the Internet. There are several relevant sites such as http://www.safekids.com/ and http://www.wiredsafety.org/.
• Finally, remember that there is absolutely no substitute for adult supervision of your kids’ online activity.