There's a lot of confusion in the air about student data privacy, and some widely quoted words about it from President Obama in his address Tuesday night didn't help (but I suspect his speechwriters were just looking for a spot to put a high-priority topic into "a simple, dramatic message about economic fairness," as the New York Times put it: "No foreign nation, no hacker should be able to … [Read more...] about ‘State of the Union’ & the student part of student privacy protection
A little social media news roundup
A flurry of social media news stories hit the airwaves this past week from Google, Facebook and Snapchat. Here are the ones most of interest to parents and educators: Snapchat: The Federal Trade Commission has apparently been wanting Snapchat to be much clearer about just how ephemeral its disappearing messages really are. The Commission filed a complaint and reached a settlement with Snapchat … [Read more...] about A little social media news roundup
Google’s new learning tool that learns
This may be the next step beyond tutorials on YouTube, MOOCs (massively open online courses), Google Play for Education and YouTube EDU. It may even be signaling the next step for education. It's called "Oppia," and it's a learning teaching tool. It helps teachers customize what they're teaching, student by student – by asking the individual learner questions and, "based on how the learner … [Read more...] about Google’s new learning tool that learns
New parental controls for Chromebooks
Just in time for parents' holiday shopping, Google announced its new "Supervised Users" tool for Chromebooks. You know about Chromebooks, right? They're a very viable alternative to tablets that are just as (in some cases more) low-cost and offer a more laptop-like experience, and this tool makes them an even more viable option for families. [As their name suggests, the Chrome browser is their … [Read more...] about New parental controls for Chromebooks
Safety tools for summer video viewing & search
Do the YouTube and Google search fans at your house know about SafeSearch and Safety Mode? Google made these safety tools available starting a few years ago (see my 2009 post about the former here), but software engineer Matthias Heiler just posted a heads-up about them for users who might be a little more active online during summer vacation. Even before summer was in full swing, 182 million … [Read more...] about Safety tools for summer video viewing & search