Technology Ranks #1 As World’s Most Trusted Industry

The technology industry has been ranked most-trusted for the seventh consecutive year, ahead of the automotive and food and beverage industries, according to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer. However, Edelman’s corporate practice chairman, Ben Boyd, warns that "It's a double edged sword: As technology enables more data capture and data dissemination, data concerns are going to rise.  For the tech industry, that's how do we continue to deliver value while not compromising things customers' value." The survey was done with 31,000 people in 26 countries. 57% of people surveyed trust media ahead of government institutions (48% trusted), but behind NGOs (63% trusted) and businesses (58% trusted).

Washington Becomes “Twitterpated”

Twitter says that all U.S. senators and 90% of House members have accounts on the network, compared with 44% of the Senate and 35% of the House in 2011. Among state legislatures, 29 states have all their lawmakers on Twitter, and all states have at least 70% participating. We can only hope it opens up lines of communication in Washington and elsewhere, as well. Wouldn’t it be great if they could solve some of the nation’s problems in 140 characters or less?

Social Media Rumors Cut Both Ways

School districts are complaining that students are more and more often texting and tweeting about things that happen during the school day, often without getting all the facts, causing consternation among parents, teachers, school administrators, and even law enforcement. Here’s an example: a student accidently cuts himself in art class and someone sees him bleeding in the hall on the way to the nurse’s office, a text goes out and suddenly there are rumors flying around that someone got knifed at school. Parents call the school in a panic and the police get called, as well, long before the school has had a chance to check out the facts for itself.

While many schools acknowledge that texts and tweets can let kids reach out to parents when something serious is happening at school, such as a lockdown, to let them know they are safe, sometimes this happens before schools can get a notification out and that causes confusion. Schools, now, are finding that they have to use social media to spread the correct information just as quickly. It’s an issue of social media management and damage control and it is a new area for schools, some of whom find themselves out of their depth at this point in time.

Essential Apps for Kids and Teens

Did you or someone in your family get a new smartphone or tablet? For some guidance about some of the best apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android phone or tablet, or  Kindle Fire take a look at what Common Sense Media has listed in their new Essential Apps for Kids and Teens guides, broken down by age groups.

Another Reason to Read

“Don’t let the keyboard strip you of your humanity,” says social media expert named Molly Page, who encourages her clients not just to read and write online, but to really read what others post and pose counter arguments. She also makes another argument for reading saying “If your Twitter stream or Facebook feed is an endless flow of self-promotion, we’re going to notice and lose interest. It’s not fun to interact with those who only talk about themselves. Make it a point to share a wealth of knowledge from a variety of sources.” Just something to pass along to your kids when their noses are (literally) pressed up against their digital device screens at all hours of the day and night, checking their social networking status.

Fraudware Scam

During the doldrums of winter, many people decide to clean up their computer and take care of possible security issues. Just be careful that you don’t, in a fit of trying to “take care of business,” respond to one of those messages that pops up on your screen inviting you to buy a security program. While your brain tells you it is a rip-off, that part of you that wants to “get it over with” may download the “free” program (that you end up paying for), and as a result you find you have a piece of fraudware instead. Once you have it, you’ll know because no matter how many times you run the program it will always find the same problems and keep trying to get more money out of you. Once you have fraudware, running a real antivirus program probably won't help. To stop the pop-ups, you must run an anti-spyware program. There are a number of good ones — try starting with Ad-Aware.

Judging Social Media Sources

So, your child is doing a school project and wants to include some information they found on a social media site. How do they gauge whether the source of the information, which probably lacks the traditional credentials of an established journalist or researcher, has any merit? In an article in the School Library Journal, librarian Joyce Valenza suggest four sites where kids can obtain some measure of how many people follow the site and what they think of it, as well as gain some insight about establishing their own positive online presence. She writes, "While these tools may be useful in exploring the influence and perhaps expertise of others, they also have growing importance in how our students will be measured in the world of business. Exposing them to these tools is a first step in getting them to think about their own social influence and in managing their e-reputations and developing a personal brand. They may sometime prove as important as the business card, the resume, the CV.” -- A great digital literacy lesson in the making.

Do You Speak Tech?

Sarah Cargill, in Getting Smart, offers teachers an Ed Tech Cheat Sheet to help them better understand new trends in educational technology, but parents might find it useful as well if you are trying to change the technology at your children’s school. The sheet, developed by Boundless, was originally meant for college students, but we all need assistance with some of these terms. So, if you really aren’t sure about what a MOOC is or whether you need OER, synchronous online learning, or gamification, this is the dictionary for you. You can download it as an infographic.

Information Surplus May Define our Lives

If your child thinks that math isn’t important, you might want to run by them the fact that data now runs our days from the moment we wake up to the extinguishing of the final late-evening light bulb. All day, 24 hours a day, our every move is catalogued, counted, communicated, researched, analyzed, extrapolated, and then, someone comes to some conclusions about what it all means. Now, a new book on the subject called “The Human Face of Big Data,” by Rick Smolan (”A Day in the Life of America”) and Jennifer Erwitt is trying to help humans start a conversation about what this knowledge explosion all means. Of course, it is not just us being counted, just about everything on the planet is being subjected to the same treatment. Of course, warns a saying Abler Einstein used to quote, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Big Teacher May be Watching

I know a number of adults still who bemoan the end of books, but it turns out that digital textbooks may give teachers yet another set of tools to monitor their students. The latest of those tools to gain a following is one offered by CourseSmart that allows educators to track the total time it takes students to read a digital textbook. While some have raised concerns over privacy, officials say students may opt out of the tracking feature, but of course, most teachers will be suspicious why.