EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and change
Archive for Web Expressions
May 5, 2008 at 1:37 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts, Web Expressions
I am presenting today at the Business2Business Conference being held at the beautiful Mount Washington Valley Hotel. I was invited to speak about Free and Open-Source Solutions to enhance communication and collaboration in business. What follows is my Google Presentation that will go off in about 30 minutes.
Free Communication & Collaboration Tools for Business
How business can quickly and easily deploy Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) solutions to enhance their internal and external communications, collaboration and marketing efforts.
The recent explosion of content authoring tools such as blogs, wikis, and Google Office have created an untapped opportunity for businesses to improve their ability to communicate and collaborate internally, within the organization, but also externally, in working with partner organizations and development teams outside of the traditional business model. The simplicity and availability of these tools outside of the physical office environment have led to unprecedented gains in productivity, as well as some unique partnerships. This session will serve to introduce participants to the wide variety of tools available and discuss how they might be quickly integrated into their business practice.
UPDATE: Presentation went well. It was recorded, so I may have a copy to post here in the next couple of days. Here is the PBwiki link for those interested in the presentation development and some of the vids we didn’t have an opportunity to view this afternoon. Thanks again to all who attended!
February 24, 2006 at 1:57 am · Filed under Web Expressions
At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:
- Discuss and defend their personal concept of netiquette
- Explain their philosophy of ethical network behavior as it pertains to:
- Personal privacy
- Legal issues such as libel/slander
- Intellectual property
- Copyright law
- Creative commons
- Explain the concept of the Creative Commons
- Identify and explain the different “licensing” levels that the Creative Commons provides
- Explain the concept of “open source”
- Explain the concept of “public domain”
- Explain the difference between a copyright and a patent
Netiquette
What is “netiquette?” Netiquette is a set of guidelines which help to ease the disconnect that can exist in online communication. Wikipedia has a wonderful article on netiquette. Albion.com has another good link.These are general rules of the road, but there are also more specific guidelines that cover such technologies as email, blogs and instant
messaging. Cyberjournalist.net has opened a dialogue on blogging ethics. Harvard’s Martin Kuhn has a paper (in PDF format) on blogging ethics as well. Rather than read the entire paper, focus on Appendices A and B.
Assignment:
Post a blog entry that details your own “code of ethics.”
Remember that we are expecting two posts a week at this point in our class.
Privacy
A topic that always seems to fire our passions is that of privacy. With the advent of the Internet, this has become almost non-existent. Whether the problem is offering too much personal information as in the case of many MySpace profiles or whether it is businesses with poor data management skills or even corporations falling victim to crackers, privacy and in particular identity theft is a growing concern. Wikipedia has a decent entry on data privacy.
USA PATRIOT Act
Sometimes concerns over a lack of privacy come as a result of legislation, such as the USA PATRIOT Act. If your eyes glaze over at the thought of reading a legislative bill, Wikipedia has a summary that might make a bit more sense. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has an article that highlights their perspective as does the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Libraries Association (ALA).
Automated services
Try to answer this question:
What are Internet or web “bots” and what impact might they have on one’s privacy?
Check this Wikipedia link to get yourself started.
Intellectual Property
One of the challenges any student faces is that over what constitutes fair-use of intellectual property. The U.S. Copyright office offers the legal standard, but the folks at Lamson Library have a number of wonderful books that deal specifically with copyright law as it pertains to the type of projects we will be creating.Here are a few more links you should check out:
Creative Commons
One answer to the vexing problem posed by the fundamentals of copyright law is the Creative Commons project. In this project, authors can assign a number of licensing options ranging in their level of restriction.Here are a few questions for you to answer:
- How many different Creative Commons licensing combinations are there?
- How is this different from public domain material?
- How is this different from open source material?
- What benefits can you see that might come from the expanded use of the Creative Commons concept?
Assignment:
Try creating something uniquely yours (it does NOT have to be very intricate) and post it to your blog. Give it a creative commons license following their directions for including the appropriate identification.
February 23, 2006 at 3:06 am · Filed under Web Expressions
In our last class we spoke of the resources available to you as students at Plymouth State University participating in this course. For
the purposes of this class you have two web resources at your disposal, your Oz account and your Turing account. The Oz account has a current quota of 180MB for students and is yours as long as you remain an active student with the University. The Turing account has a larger capacity as it is designed to meet the needs of students majoring in Computer and Information Technologies and is yours for the duration of this class, longer if you apply for special dispensation from the department (meaning you will be actively updating and maintaining your web-based resource).
Access to these accounts varies. Your Oz drive, also known as your M: drive, is mapped automatically on cluster computers. The Turing drive must be mapped separately. If you are on campus (and using a PC) you may map either of these drives yourself using the following directions:
- Right-click on My Computer and click on Map Network Drive
- Select the drive letter you prefer from the drop down menu in the Drive: field
- Type the following into the Folder: field
For Oz: \\logon.plymouth.edu\username replacing username with your own PSU username
For Turing: \\turing.plymouth.edu\username replacing username with your own PSU username
- To ensure that this drive remains mapped, check the box to Reconnect at Logon
- Now click on the Connect using a different user name link and type \\logon\username in the username box (again replacing username with your own PSU username) and type your password in the password field.
- Click OK, then click Finish
A window should open at this point displaying the contents of your mapped drive.
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February 23, 2006 at 3:02 am · Filed under Web Expressions
Thanks to the combined efforts of our Systems group and CIS’ own Alan Baker, we can now offer students enrolled in the Web Expressions courses access to the Dreamweaver HTML editor via Terminal Services. This will allow you to work on your web projects from the comfort of your own computer but bear in mind that we have a finite number of licenses. In times of high demand, you may find that you will have to wait until someone has finished their work and frees up a license for your use.
To access Dreamweaver, or any other application accessible via Terminal Services, map a network drive to: \\owl.plymouth.edu\afserv
If you should need a refresher on mapping a drive, check my last post. Once this drive is mapped, look for the folder titled TSClients. In this folder, you will find a number of shortcuts to the Terminal Services applications provided to you.
February 23, 2006 at 3:01 am · Filed under Web Expressions
"I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind. "
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
February 20, 2006 at 1:53 am · Filed under Web Expressions
My apologies for being this late but between a sick child and the power outage of the last couple of days it has been difficult to post. That
being said, here is your mission:
Given what we uncovered last week in both our class and at the Security Fair, and taking into account what you have discovered in your explorations, pick one aspect of network security and awareness and speak to it. Bear in mind that beginning with this post, we will raise the bar on our professional presentation and style. This means that spelling, grammar, context and content will be critical components of all posts from here on out.
For those of you who already began a post on the Security Fair, simply update that entry with an eye toward one specific aspect that held meaning for you. I look forward to reading your posts and encourage you to begin to take a look at the work of your classmates and post comments where appropriate.
February 16, 2006 at 5:06 pm · Filed under Web Expressions
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know how to.
Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself. “
- William Faulkner -
February 14, 2006 at 6:56 pm · Filed under Web Expressions
Class: Lab and field experience
Exercise: Student survey (visit online survey to assess current skill set)
Field Experience: Security Fair visitation
Learning Objectives: Students should be able to:
- Explain the technology that allows us to view web pages
- Explain how email is created, delivered and read
- Explain how the Internet impacts one’s privacy
- Identify and explain the impact of:
- spyware
- adware
- viruses
- worms
- phishing
- Define and explain “cookies”
Internet Basics
Please visit the Learn The Net website and explore the links that discuss the following:
- Connecting to the Internet (this animation deals with dial-up accounts, please be able to explain how your on-campus or apartment account differs)
- How the web works(please be able to discuss what hardware and software is required to be able to access the Internet)
- How e-mail works (Please be able to explain how you access your email here on campus and what is required in order to be able to send and/or receive email)
This online quiz will help you assess your knowledge of the Internet.
Privacy and security on the Internet
Phishing IQ test: This is an excellent test as it shows how difficult it is to distinguish legitimate emails from phishing attempts. Particularly informative are the explanations located on the solution page.
There is also a PDF advising how to evaluate possible phishing attempts called: Top Ten Tips for Finding a Phish
Here is a recent article from Slashdot that discusses the more sophisticated vectors of attack that hackers are employing in their efforts to elicit your personal and account information.
UPDATE: After our discussion of phishing what should arrive in our University HelpDesk email but the following (note the link address):
Cookies
Wikipedia has an excellent article on cookies.
As does the following Cookie Central website.
This article provides quick and easy tips on how to view the cookies that reside on your computer and provide information about your Internet habits. Make a note to explore the links on the side that explain about the darker side of cookies. They also have an FAQ page that will tell you everything you never wanted to know about cookies.
These are questions you should be able to answer once you have explored these cookie resources.
- How could cookies divulge private information about you?
- What other dangers exist using cookies?
- What advantages exist to using cookies?
Now let’s examine the cookies that exist on your M: drive.
You can find them here: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Cookies
- What do you think?
- Will you delete your cookies?
- Do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
Now that you know where they are, here is how you can delete your cookies:
IE: Tools -> Internet Options -> Delete Cookies and then click “OK”
FireFox: Tools -> Clear Private Data -> Check the Cookies box and click “Clear Private Data Now”
Spyware
Again, wikipedia has a terrific definition on what spyware is.
Compare this to how they define viruses, or more properly virii.
See if you can answer the following questions:
- What characteristics distinguish spyware from other forms of malicious software?
- How is spyware similar to viruses?
- How does spyware get installed on your computer?
- What can you do to avoid/remove spyware?
Look at a few instances of spyware and describe their effects.
Provide an example of spyware masquerading as a spyware removal tool.
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February 10, 2006 at 3:04 am · Filed under Web Expressions
For those of you who are fans of the SciFi genre, you may recognize the origin of these questions. For the uninitiated, the questions are asked of the protaginist in the series Babylon 5. I chose this theme after the discussion in our class today which highlighted the impact of media on the way we encounter, perceive and process information.Who are you?
In class today I asked you about your philosophy as a learner. I also asked you to think about your roles as a member of the classroom community. Now that you have had an opportunity to consider what was discussed, I would like for you to post a blog entry which addresses the following:
- Describe how you believe you learn best,
- Describe your perception of your role in this class and,
- Discuss one area of weakness that you would like to improve as a result of this course.
What do you want?
My philosophy is that this class is learner-centric. It is my belief that while we are addressing certain topics that are central to the course, it is important for each of you as learners to take control of your education and focus on areas that you wish to improve. As a new blog entry, or as a continuation of the entry started above, please speak to the question of “What do you want,” and what you desire to get out of this course. Be insightful and true to your hopes and aspirations.
A Friendly Reminder
This is a good time to begin brainstorming topics that you might wish to employ as the basis of your class project.
February 9, 2006 at 10:12 pm · Filed under Web Expressions
Some of you mentioned that you were having problems downloading the OPML file I provided that contained all the blog links for our class. This appears to be related to how Internet Explorer handles downloads. For some strange reason IE keeps trying to save OPML files as straight XML files and that has caused some problems for those of your attempting to import into your feed reader of choice.
One alternative to Internet Explorer that does not appear to have the same problem is Firefox. Firefox is a reliable and some would argue more functional alternative to IE. It supports tabbed browsing which means that rather than having 5 or 10 open IE windows, you can have one Firefox window and 10 tabs inside it.
For those really brave souls you can try Flock. Flock is a beta product based on the Firefox browser but is designed to be more compatible with what has come to be called “Web 2.0.” Flock supports blogging directly from the browser and is tied to del.icio.us, which is an online social bookmarking application.
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