Signs You Have Been Hacked

Roger Grimes shares 11 sure signs you've been hacked .

-DD

Large Scale Face Recognition

Tim Homyak reports that "Osaka Train Station Set for Large Face-Recognition Study ." Homyak notes that the station is used by over 400,000 passengers on a typical day, and that the study will record the faces in the crowd and assign each an identifying number. Movements will be tracked for a week to analyze traffic flow patterns.

-DD

Turn the Search Around To Find Factual Answers

Wendy Boswell serves as search editor of ABOUT.COM. Her tip for finding factual answers is to state the question as a statement, omitting the missing fact.

-DD

Web Archives

Wendy Boswell of ABOUT.COM has developed a list of archives which can be found on the web.

-DD

Open Directory Project

The Open Directory Project is a curated directory of information. Some of this could be valuable in an academic setting, such as the Free Access Archives.

-DD

Seven Ways Crowdsourcing Can Enhance Branding and Customer Loyalty

Jennifer Schiff shares Seven Ways Crowdsourcing Can Enhance Branding and Customer Loyalty . Two ideas seem very creative:

1. Running a contest where customers review your website for images for a customer greeting card, and
2. Encouraging customers to post pictures of themselves using your product.

These crowdsourcing activities cause users to review your website, and they furnish grist for future public relations efforts.

-DD

DARPA Seeking New Search Engine Technology

Micheal Cooney reports that DARPA's Memex effort seeks domain specific indexing of public web content.

-DD

Transportation Security Administration Still Finding Guns

The Transportation Security Administration maintains a blog which lists weapons confiscated during the week. It is amazing the number of loaded firearms which are found on passengers.

-DD

 

How to Beat Applicant Tracking Systems

Sharon Florentine provides tips on "How to Beat Applicant Tracking Systems ." Florentine cites job search expert Rick Gillis, who recommends that job seekers use specific resume formats (provided in the article) to game the system.

-DD

 

Android E-Reader Software

Lee Schlesinger reviews "Four Android E-Reader Apps ." With more and more student textbooks becoming available in an e-book format, it would be interesting to see if textbooks can be read on a phone. It would be a boon to studying anywhere, but would also offer another opportunity to cheat in a "closed-book" test environment.

-DD

Smartphone Technology Calls-Out Fraud

Ellen Messmer reports that banks are using smartphone technology to identify online fraud .

-DD

Healthline.com

Healthline.com offers medical information, and has medical maps of the human body. The articles I examined had each been reviewed by a physician before publication. The firm also has a YouTube channel.

-DD

 

Obsolete Education Tools

Ian Jukes observed that there are "Eight Education Tools that Are Going Away :

1. Books
2. Pencils
3. Chalkboard
4. Teaching from the Front of the Class
5. Technology-Free Class
6. Memorizing
7. Teacher as Expert
8. Handwriting

One thing which concerns me about such pronouncements is that they may be driven in part by the educational technology vendors who hype the need for the constant acquisition of new technology. I would be interested in research on the technology typically employed in the classrooms of nations such as Switzerland and Singapore, in order to see if the latest technology is required for high educational attainment.

-DD

Classroom Design for Digital Technology

Gary Russell shares what he has learned through experience about updating a classroom for digital instruction . He notes that planners often make no provision for allowing instructors to record their lectures, even though the ability to record and disseminate lectures is becoming a key component of the modern classroom.

-DD

What We Know the NSA Can Do

Jody Avirgan has curated a list of "What We Know the NSA Can Do."

-DD

Classroom Technology Ideas

Jennie Magiera shares "Seven Ideas for Going Digital Without [Individual Student] Devices ."

-DD

Service Organizes Soccer Games

Mark Gibbs extols a new Web service which organizes soccer games .

-DD

Using the Kindle App

J. Robinson shares the utility of the Kindle Tablet App .

-DD

Google Custom Search

Nancy Minicozzi explains how to create a Google Custom Search Engine link. Providing such a link to students is very useful for educators who want to direct students to quality sources.

-DD

 

Data Information Literacy Training Being Developed With Institute of Museum and Library Services Funding

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is funding a research project among four research institutions to discern what data information literacy training is needed by graduate students to enable them to produce excellent research. The project aims to develop, implement and evaluate a data information literacy curriculum in conjunction with university faculty.

-DD

FlightRadar24 and FlightAware Track Aircraft Flights

FlightRadar24.com shows aircraft positions around the world - most European craft are displayed in real time, while U.S. aircraft generally have a five minute delay. For tracking a particular U.S. flight, FlightAware.com offers the option of showing the aircraft's actual departure time, flight path and updated estimated time of arrival (ETA) of a scheduled U.S. commercial flight. The latter feature is useful if you are meeting someone at the airport.

-DD

 

Google Videoconferencing

Sharon Gaudin reports that Google is offering Chromebox for Meetings which will compete with WebEx and Lync. The required hardware costs a thousand dollars, and it can communicate with some existing videoconferencing systems with appropriate software from Vidyo. The software is a version of Google+ Hangouts, and therefore is familiar to millions of Google and Android users.

-DD

Business Communication Skills for IT Leaders

Tracy Mayor shares how to improve business communication skills for those technologists elevated to upper management.

-DD

Microsoft Security Essentials

Gregg Keizer reports that Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware Assassin will be available to WindowsXP users into 2015. General support for the decade-old operating system is slated to end April 8, 2014, causing concerns that widespread malware infestations would occur shortly thereafter.

-DD

Online Collaboration

Mike Scheuermann notes the efforts to encourage collaboration amoung online students and Drexel University.

-DD

Photocopiers Can Be A Security Risk

CBS reports that a copy machines can be a security risk .

-DD

 

Transformation In Bibliographic Citation - Hypercitation

Tyler Lopez suggested in SLATE that bibliographic citation styles such as APA and MLA should be replaced by hypercitation . Microsoft founder Bill Gates has suggested that future versions of Word shall have a focus on linked electronic media, and the new version of the DOI system is designed to be serve as a document link, so this idea seems to be gaining traction.

-DD

Self-Destructing Mobile Phones

Sharon Gaudin reports that IBM is developing smart phones that self-destruct for the U.S. military. The goal is to keep enemies of the nation from extracting secrets from captured mobile phones. Of course, if these enemies obtain the self-destruct code the loss would be immense....

In a similar vein, Martyn Williams tells of legislative bill being proposed in California which would require that smartphones and tablet PCs sold in the state be equipped with a digital "kill-switch" that would render the devices useless if stolen. The impetus for this is that half of the robberies in San Francisco involve the theft of these devices.

-DD

MOOCs and Teamwork

Amy Choi explores Harvard University's plan to add student teams to MOOC learning in the hope of bolstering engagement and completion statistics.

-DD

Google for Education

Google is trying to become a player in the education market with tools for students and teachers.

-DD

Inexpensive Internet

Sharon Gaudin and Sharon Machlis share U.S.Census Bureau data indicating that roughly 20 percent of of the population does not have a computer. Most of these people are either the very young or very old. It makes sense to me that those in custodial care would not have their own computer.

It is also telling that U.S. Census Bureau statistics show 25 percent of U.S. citizens do not use the Internet at home. The high speed Internet service required to use websites with rich content can run $500/year, or more than the cost of a low-end consumer-grade laptop. Providing cheap Internet to the inner cities would level the playing field.

-DD

Content Curation for Student Engagement

Tiffany Reiss promotes "Using Content Curation Tools to Engage Students ." She founded TheHubEDU.com, which was designed to accomplish this task.

-DD

 

TheHubEDU Welcome Video from The HubEDU on Vimeo.

What Does (and Doesn't) Speed Up Your Mac

James Galbraith shares "What Does (and Doesn't) Speed Up Your Mac ."

Animated Atlas of U.S. History

Peter Mays developed an animated atlas of U.S History called "Growth of a Nation ." (One can purchase a version which includes information on changing population densities and other layers of information). Mays also offers a timeline of U.S. History which highlights several dimensions of national change.

-DD

 

Education Technology Datapalooza

The U.S. Department of Education has posted videos on YouTube that explore new technologies .
The blog EdCetera had a rave review about these videos, providing the following summary of notable presentations:

For example, College Abacus created a service to personalize the potentially misleading “average” information that families receive about potential colleges such as costs, loan defaults, graduation rates and so on helping students to make financially informed decisions when choosing a school. 2U uses technology and thoughtful user experience design to better engage and educate students online. Student Success Academy combines automation and crowd-sourced school counseling to give high school students the personal counseling time they need to make effective college choices. Technology leader Linked-In presented their student program that leverages Linked-In data entered by members regarding their educational background and later career outcomes.

-DD
 
Christina Allen explains how Linked-In can help students choose the proper university.

Sensors Providing New Information and Capabilities

Patrick Thibodeau reports that "There's a Rapid Push to Give Tech Something We're Born With: Senses." Thibodeau notes that the accelerometer found in smart phones is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensor, and that projections indicate over ten billion MEMS sensors shall be sold in 2014. Of the five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) it is the last two that presently stymie development.

-DD

Retaining Students Online

Bernard Bull shares ten tips for retaining online students.

-DD

Apps on Campus

Jacqueline Bengfort reports on the changes which mobile apps are making to campuses.

-DD

Unforeseen Consequences of Cloud Computing

Mark Gibbs shares a Softchoice report indicating that security should be a concern for corporate cloud managers.

-DD

What MOOCs Teach

Andrew Miller shares Four Lessons From the Failure of MOOCs. He makes these points:

1. Retain the Human Element
2. Foster Focused Collaboration
3. Provide Ongoing Feedback
4. Blended Is Best

-DD

The New Media Consortium 2014 Higher Education Report

The New Media Consortium 2014 Higher Education Report says that social media, online/hybrid learning, data-driven learning and other trends will have a tremendous impact on universities in the next 1-5 years.

-DD

Technology May Prevent Some Auto Accidents

Stephen Lawson explores the promise of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology. My concern is that technology-equipped drivers will become complacent, even though older cars without a location beacon shall be on the road for another generation. And some equipment on the road may never bear a beacon. For example, I have a friend who narrowly escaped death when a pickup truck towing a very long trailer crossed the road ahead of him -- the pickup was out of his way, but he had to leave the road to avoid hitting the trailer which blocked his path down the highway.

-DD

Microsoft Innovation May Focus on the Cloud

Brandon Butler notes that new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was responsible for Microsoft's recent credible development as a cloud computing infrastructure company, and suggests that reliance on the cloud/Internet may be the basis for future Microsoft innovation.

My concern is that external threats, primarily "cyber security" concerns or a Cardington event, may disrupt this market and dim the luster of this approach. For similar reasons I predict rough times eventually for companies solely distributing media solely online, or solely offering education online, or solely offering banking online. An outage or disruption of the open Internet will be devastating to tech firms (and governments) relying on the Internet for the services they perform. We have been blessed with cheap access to information for the last decade or two. If the cost of transferring bits becomes expensive it will be extremely disruptive to our nation's business and entertainment practices.

-DD

Seven Tips To Get More Value From Hashtags

Susan Hanley shares tips on using hashtags in Microsoft Sharepoint server to improve your organization's Yammer social experience.

-DD

Gate Reveals Nadella as CEO, and New Office Strategy

Bill Gates welcomes Satya Nadella as Microsoft CEO, and also suggests that the Microsoft Office will be able to create interactive documents .

-DD

 

Job Satisfaction

Melissa Shaw reports that 25% of information technology professionals intend to find new employment in 2014 - a figure 10% higher than in 2013. She also asked IT professionals which benefits were more important than salary, and obtained these responses:

• Job stability: 69%
• Location: 64%
• Good work culture: 60%
• Affordable benefit plans: 57%
• Good career advancement opportunities: 40%
• Ability to telecommute: 40% (compared to 19% for workers across all occupations)
• Ability to offer flexible schedules: 40%
• Learning opportunities: 40%

These statistics were turned into a presentation which graphically illustrates the desired benefits.

-DD

Technologist's Toolkit

Brian Chee shares his favorite IT hardware gadgets for repairing or inspecting equipment.

-DD

Ohio Web Library

Ohio offers its citizens the Ohio Web Library , a mixture of database results and search results from a curated list of Web sites. An excellent source of reliable information for high school and undergraduate students.

A search that draws data from a number of independent sources is known as a "federated search." Federated search technology generally does not provide a tightly focused set of results because the queries are often limited to a form of keyword search. More precise searching can be done with subject searches in each individual database, but the federated search saves the user time."

-DD