1. Who can see the things you share (status updates, photos, videos, etc.)?

“Probably the most critical of the “privacy” changes (yes, we mean those quotes sarcastically) was the change made to status updates. Although there’s now a button beneath the status update field that lets you select who can view any particular update, the new Facebook default for this setting is “Everyone.” And by everyone, they mean everyone.”

“If you accepted the new recommended settings then you voluntarily gave Facebook the right to share the information about the items you post with any user or application on the site. Depending on your search settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share that information with search engines, too.”

“To change this setting back to something of a more private nature, do the following:

• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.Click “Profile Information” from the list of choices on the next page.
• Scroll down to the setting “Posts by Me.” This encompasses anything you post, including status updates, links, notes, photos, and videos.
• Change this setting using the drop-down box on the right. We recommend the “Only Friends” setting to ensure that only those people you’ve specifically added as a friend on the network can see the things you post.”

2. Who can see your personal info?

“Facebook has a section of your profile called “personal info,” but it only includes your interests, activities, and favorites. Other arguably more personal information is not encompassed by the “personal info” setting on Facebook’s Privacy Settings page. That other information includes things like your birthday, your religious and political views, and your relationship status.”

“After last month’s privacy changes, Facebook set the new defaults for this other information to viewable by either “Everyone” (for family and relationships, aka relationship status) or to “Friends of Friends” (birthday, religious and political views). Depending on your own preferences, you can update each of these fields as you see fit. However, we would bet that many will want to set these to “Only Friends” as well. To do so:

• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.
• Click “Profile Information” from the list of choices on the next page.
• The third, fourth, and fifth item listed on this page are as follows: “birthday,” “religious and political views,” and “family and relationship.” Locking down birthday to “Only Friends” is wise here, especially considering information such as this is often used in identity theft.
• Depending on your own personal preferences, you may or may not feel comfortable sharing your relationship status and religious and political views with complete strangers. And keep in mind, any setting besides “Only Friends” is just that – a stranger. While “Friends of Friends” sounds innocuous enough, it refers to everyone your friends have added as friends, a large group containing hundreds if not thousands of people you don’t know. All it takes is one less-than-selective friend in your network to give an unsavory person access to this information.”

3. What Google can see– Keep your data off the search engine.

“When you visit Facebook’s Search Settings page, a warning message pops up. Apparently, Facebook wants to clear the air about what info is being indexed by Google. The message reads:

‘There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.’ ”

“While that may be true to a point, the second setting listed on this Search Settings page refers to exactly what you’re allowing Google to index. If the box next to “Allow” is checked, you’re giving search engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked as visible by “Everyone.” As you can see from the settings discussed above, if you had not made some changes to certain fields, you would be sharing quite a bit with the search engines…probably more information than you were comfortable with. To keep your data private and out of the search engines, do the following:

• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.
• Click “Search” from the list of choices on the next page.
• Click “Close” on the pop-up message that appears.
• On this page, uncheck the box labeled “Allow” next to the second setting “Public Search Results.” That keeps all your publicly shared information (items set to viewable by “Everyone”) out of the search engines. If you want to see what the end result looks like, click the “see preview” link in blue underneath this setting.”

Although taking these three small steps may not seem very important, they are certainly worth considering. If educators are utilizing Facebook to interact with parents and students, it’s important they fully understand how information is being disseminated by Facebook. Furthermore, as educators we have a special responsibility to to protect the privacy of our parents, students, and staff members.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

Edmomdo 2.0

Twitter has brought the concept of micro-blogging to the attention of much of the world. The recent Iranian election drama that played out on a world stage, certainly would not have been possible without Twitter. Facebook and Friendfeed have also jumped into the instant update arena to keep up and provide interesting options themselves. In a previous article, I outlined the idea behind micro-blogging and some of the complaints associated with it.

In today’s article, I want to take a look at a great way to develop a light-weight, easy to use, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

While Twitter is lean and sticks to it’s singular purpose (the 140 character post), there are some challenges to using it in an academic setting. Enter Edmodo.

Edmodo is built in a lightweight fashion without all the bells and whistles of a traditional learning management system (lms) and that is really its charm. It is designed like a teacher would design a simple learning environment. Like Twitter, it contains a micro-blogging interface to allow a feed of messages to be sent and viewed. Unlike Twitter, because Edmodo was designed for use on the Web, it doesn’t use the annoying #, @, etc. While this may be appreciated by many, it brings attention to a rather large drawback of Edmodo. Currently you can receive notifications (the 140 character posts) via email, Twitter, or SMS, however, you can’t publish to your feed via SMS. This negates the huge benefit of using a cell phone. Hopefully this will be included in the near future.

As privacy is one of the major concerns in education, unlike Twitter, Edmodo is based around groups. A teacher creates groups along with an access key for their students. This is an obvious benefit for the classroom and ensures easy collaboration with the necessary privacy for those involved. This group feature is pivotal for the remaining features to function appropriately.

Assignments can be created with due dates. In addition, files can be attached to the assignments. This can be very beneficial if a specific format or template is to be used. As is expected, students can reply to complete the assignment, attach a file, or add a hyperlink in their reply. The last option is great if a blog or Wiki contains the product of their assignment. A calendar provides event notification for the group and due dates for assignments. Grades can be attached to the submitted assignments and in version 3.0 a gradebook is scheduled to be introduced.

Links to interesting or important websites and files can easily be distributed to group members. Furthermore, Edmodo provides a nice storage area for these that can be easily filtered as the list becomes longer. An additional feature of Edmodo, is the ability to create public pages. These are pages that can viewed by the general public and not just group members. In addition, public pages provide the ability for a user to subscribe to their RSS feed. The value of public pages will become more apparent as I discuss possible uses for Edmodo.

Here are several obvious and some not so obvious benefits and uses for Edmodo:

• Allows students to receive and submit assignments online (a core concept of the VLE)
• Privately allows teacher to student and student to student communication. Thereby creating a more collaborative learning environment.
• Provides an easy way to share necessary files and important or interesting links.
• Provides a clear class calendar. No more guesswork as to when assignments are due and what has been assigned.
• Groups can be used for clubs and teams, not just classes.
• Public pages are perfect for letting parents see class assignments, due dates, etc. No more questions about not having homework. Furthermore, if the parent subscribes to the RSS feed, they don’t even have to visit the Web page again, the information is delivered to their email inbox.
• Collaborative tool for teachers as well as professional development. Edmodo minimizes the isolation that teaching all day in the classroom can create.
• Major school news, events, sports, emergency announcements, etc. can be easily sent to all parents and students (Twitter may have an advantage here).

Here are some potential pitfalls or areas that should be addressed:

• Students still forget their passwords. While these can be reset, it distracts from teaching. What about integrating Facebook Connect or OpenID?
• Greater amount of work and time spent in front of the computer for the teacher. In the beginning, the time required to set up a group and create the required content can be rather large.
• No two way SMS posting! See early comments in the article.
• Quizzes or tests are not supported in version 2.0 but are scheduled to arrive in version 3.0.
• New semester or school year requires any information with a date to be either re-created or best-case scenario edited to be appropriate.
• Illegal file sharing, ethics issues involving cheating, etc.

With it’s great privacy features, collaborative tools, micro-blogging, and ability to connect, Edmodo is rapidly becoming one of my favorite tools for creating a VLE. Teachers should strongly consider adding it to their technology toolbox. As always, I appreciate your feedback. Let me know how you are using Edmodo or what tools you use to accomplish these activities.