I've been harping on this one for quite some time now. One of the very best things we can do as educators is help our students become savvy and safe users of the digital terrain. We can't fight it. We shouldn't fight it. It's here and it's life. Some of us may not love that fact, but it is an undeniable one. So how can we help? The best we can do is stay informed ourselves, and to pass that information on in a way that our charges will "get".
So... Lesson 1. At the risk of being on the ire of a hoard of rabid fanboys, I say this: The Apple Macintosh computer is vulnerable to viruses. All Macs should be protected. And it need not cost any money. Sophos, who you will read more about in this entry, offer a free anti-virus for OS X. There is no reason at all not to get it. You can find it here. There are several others, I'm not saying Sophos is the only one, but it is the one that I use. ClamAV is another popular one.
Let me be very clear here. ALL operating systems are vulnerable. Especially these days, when virus and mal-ware writers are focusing less on exploits to damage computers, and more on quick sell money making schemes. Most, not all, but most of the viruses you will see these days are web, or link based. It does not matter what you are running.
One of the biggest, most current forms of mal-ware is called clickjacking. While I don't often point out a wikipedia link as the be all and end all of web based information, this one is pretty good, and easy for the general end user to understand. The link also gives some advice on browser add-ons to help prevent clickjacking.
Information is still key, though, and considering that at least 90% of our charges (and ourselves) are on face book, a real simple thing to do is friend or like an information security provider. Sophos is who I use. Several times a day they will post something that helps keep me abreast of the current trends. They also have a great blog called NakedSecurity which is often a fascinating read.
We should continue to teach that one should never click a link from one's bank, or Facebook, etc contained in an email, instead going directly to the site to log in and see if the information requested in the email is also on the verified website. We should teach that secure passwords are essential, and that one should never give one's password out. We should teach people to READ a website, pop-up or email before acting on it. Most viruses and mal-ware are not written by native English speakers, and a little diligence can go a long way towards safety. We should teach our students and selves to know what our anti-virus software is, and to know to only act on suggestions from the software we own. No website will freely scan your computer and tell you you're infected.
Finally... Security updates. I had a conversation the other day with a Windows user who told me that he "never installed updates". He claimed that for years updates had done nothing but break things. I will counter that. I have installed every Windows update for the last several years. I've installed every Apple update. I've never had a problem. Folks... The bad update issue is over. It's more important to run the security updates, even if you do take a risk, than to remain vulnerable.
Because, in the end, your safety on the internet is completely up to you. Stay informed. Stay protected. Stay vigilant.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
I guess I'm a twit...
I've always (at least since my then-soon-to-be wife bought me the desk plaque above announcing it) known that I was a geek. However, it took me 'til the FETC conference last week to learn that I was a twit too.
I was hesitant at first, as I'm sure we all were/are. I have no interested at all in knowing what Shakira had for dinner last night, nor do I ever intend to announce that "LOL I'm hvng dnr wit frnds @ 5guyz" or anything like that. I will, however, tweet the occasional pearl of academic wisdom (at least from my perspective) or little tidbit of social commentary.
I must admit, in checking out who was following me, I was happy to see several of my peers, both from work and out there in the twitverse, display an interest in what I had to say. I was also excited to see that @sexxyrussianblond had sought me out for my wisdom. Even after I lost the "Free Internetz Lottery". (And they were so positive in the email that I had won. All I had to do was send my credit card info and they'd be sure to send along the money.) Oh.. wait. Yes! You have to manage your followers. Occasionally block some, I'm sure goodhearted, individual who might have slightly different goals from your own.
The roundabout point of this meandering post is that Twitter can, and should, become an important part of your professional learning. And as an educator, there's absolutely no better place to start than:
Go ahead. Check it out. I'll wait. ............
Oh... Hey! You're back. Slick huh? When you have time, check out the rest of his site. There are absolutely tons of useful sites, links, archives and more there.
Do you understand about hashtags? Here's the deal. If you're tweeting something of interest to the, say, educational community, you might end your post with #edchat. There are loads of like minded folks who use twitter tools to search for that hashtag (#edchat) and have a separate column in their tweetdeck (more later) just for posts with that tag. In addition, at Cybraryman's site you can find out this:
Noon and 7 pm EST
What does that mean? It means that on Tuesdays ad 12 and 7 EST, that hashtag is bustling with conversation. I'll admit it's a little hard to follow, but it's archived. Where? HERE, of course! Each scheduled chat has a topic and you can decide if you want to partake if you want.
OK. Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a free tool that allows you to segment out your Twitter feeds into a manageable format. You can have a single column for all feeds, another for #edchat, another for @shakira or however your little twetin' heart desires. It's incredibly helpful. It's not the only app, but it's a good one. Chrome users can install it as an app, so it will show right up on your apps window. The great thing about it is that if you have #edchat in a separate column, the chat will not get interrupted by @shakira letting you know that her broccoli was undercooked. Very cool.
So there you have it. This twit's views on tweets. On a blog.
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