Starting this week, students will be emailed an invitation to take a survey to better understand student experiences with technology. It’s completely confidential, and no personally identifying information will be published.

To take the survey, go to http://tinyurl.com/collegesurvey.

The winner of the iPod Touch will be randomly chosen within four weeks after the study is completed.  All you need to do is place your student ID at the beginning of the survey.

The survey itself will be thorough, discussing everything from what software you use on a regular basis, to what sites you use to blog and or do social networking (Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

It will ask questions about what kinds of electronics you use, which email provider you prefer, and the ways you communicate (e-mail, text messaging, etc).

It is important that students respond to the survey because it is essential that we understand the technology that runs in our daily lives. However, that doesn’t mean everyone has equal knowledge about how to use it. This survey will gauge that understanding.

This survey is a fantastic way to address that knowledge gap. It will also help the college better target the most common issues students are having with technology.

It will be of great benefit to students that the college knows your level of skill with technology.

This way, they can create better methods in helping you understand how to use computers, especially during your college life.

If you have any questions about the survey, you can contact Dwayne Harapnuik at dwayne.harapnuik@lethbridgecollege.ab.ca, or (403) 320-3202 Ext 5349. You can also visit http://learn.lethbridgecollege.net.

In my next column, two weeks from now, I’ll take a look at Windows Vista and the controversy surrounding it. If you have any thoughts on any of my articles, please email me at kevin.lloyd@lethbridgecollege.ab.ca or visit www.thedigitaldistraction.com.

Originally posted 2008-10-02 10:44:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world, with more than 150 million active users. The site quickly introduced a new “Bill of Rights”, and is allowing the site’s users to comment and vote on the new wording of the Terms of Service.

As CNN noted, Facebook, and we quote, “granted itself permanent rights to users’ photos, wall posts and other information, even after a user closed an account.”

Thousands of angry users either cancelled their accounts in protest.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quick to point out that users reminded the company that they feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, and just the information that they share over the site.

Facebook was quick to clarify their position, which eased a lot of minds. Here is an excerpt from that statement:

“We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc…), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend).

The note goes on to say that any limitations that a user puts on display of the uploaded content are respected by Facebook.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also posted a more philosophical response on the Facebook blog saying that while the new Terms of Service were “overly formal”, and that the company is encouraging user input for a new Terms of Service. In essence, they admit as new features are introduced, mistakes will be made, because companies like Facebook are new.

“Rather than simply reissue a new Terms of Use, the changes we’re announcing today are designed to open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future,” said Zuckerberg, referring to how the company is now accepting input into a new Terms of Use.

In 2006, Facebook launched the News Feed, which is a key part of the Facebook site now, but it caused a great deal of uproar when it was introduced, since users can see what a friend’s friends are up to. Users came to accept the feature, though.

Many websites use user information for marketing purposes, including Facebook. For example, if you make it known to the site that you’re single, you will see a lot of singles ads. Websites across the internet use such methods.

A golden rule of thumb seems to be that people shouldn’t post anything to the internet that they want kept private or that could embarrass them, including pictures, video, and personal information. Sites like Facebook make it a lot harder for just anybody to find your information, but for sites like MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter, anyone can access it.

It’s important for users of sites and companies like Facebook to continue to make it known what they feel is acceptable for a Terms of Service. This will remind companies not to get power hungry, and that, overall, the success of such sites solely depends on how they treat their users and customers, and their content.

Originally posted 2009-03-02 01:33:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

from left to right: Allan Wilson, teacher and writer; Bridget Pastoor, MLA Lethbridge East; and Dr. David Swann, Leader of the Alberta Libera Party.

Dr. David Swann, who has led the Alberta Liberal Party since December of 2008, after Kevin Taft resigned, wants to make it perfectly clear that his party’s mission is to renew itself by reaching out to young people, end voter apathy, make the environment a much larger focus, and renew Canada’s democracy.

Swann has spent over three decades in the field of medicine, and admits jumping from medicine to politics has been ‘really interesting’. Swann says both medicine and politics are essentially about the same thing, creating healthy communities. He says it’s been a ‘fun transition’.

He wants to increase the involvement in Canadian politics, starting with getting people back to the polls at election time.

“It’s a challenging time for the party. You know, we only had a 40 per cent turnout in the polls last year. Our vote dropped, and our membership has dropped to 6,000, our peak membership was in the ‘90s when we had 100,000. A tremendous amount of work needs to be done, I’ve called for a renewal process within the party,” says Swann.

Dr. Swann is scared that we’re losing democracy in our province, and is determined to do something about it by creating ways for people to have a say on issues that concern them.

“That’s why I’m in politics, I’m afraid we’re losing our democracy in this province.  This is 37 years of increasing entitlement, power broking, and self-serving that seems to be a tighter and tighter connection with the corporate community and making decisions in short-term interests of private enterprise, not public interest, for the long term, which is what I’m about,” explains Dr. Swann.

One of the key ways Dr. Swann and his Liberal Party are using to connect with young people is by using the web services they use, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, keeping a blog, and producing a podcast on Swann’s website, which is http://www.davidswann.ca/.

“[We’re] using web based interaction to hear from people about what they think about the Liberal party,” says Dr. Swann.

For the first time in Alberta history, the Conservative government will be running under a deficit of more then $1 billion. Swann says this is because of a lack of responsible spending, and that the provincial government wasn’t saving during the past decade, when it had oil and gas surpluses of nearly $10 billion per year.

“We’ve spent [all of the] oil wealth coming out of the ground in the last 15 years. The Heritage Fund is worth less then it was when Peter Lougheed left office.”

“We should have been saving during that boom time, because by spending, we caused such an inflation. Housing, costs went sky high, we had everyone wanting to come here because the economy was doing so well, that’s when we should have been saving,” explains Swann.

Dr. Swann says the best way to stimulate the economy is to move away from non renewable resources.

“We need to move away from this fixation on fossil fuels. It’s not only unsustainable, because of the non-renewable resources, it’s unsustainable because we’re killing our climate.  We can tax carbon and give tax incentives for retrofitting your home, for using a high-energy furnace, [and] for using public transit.”

“It’s a lack of imagination, lack of commitment. The [Conservative government is] so tied in tight with the oil industry that they can’t back out,” says Swann.

A lack of affordable housing is a huge issue. Dr. Swann says that the way to solve the housing crisis is to slow down the population growth that has been encouraged in recent years.

“Slowing down the growth would be one thing. That would make less inflation, more affordable housing. We have to, federal, provincial, municipal, develop a longer term plan. We have the largest homeless population in the country in Calgary,” says Dr. Swann.

Dr. Swann blames the growth of the oil sands in respect to our current environmental and economic threats. He says that because of the inflation, the oil sands themselves are in trouble.

“We’ve allowed the oil sands to grow as fast as they’ve wanted to grow without respect to environmental, social, or even the economic threat that we’ve created. Because we’ve increased the level of inflation, we’ve now threatened the oil industry itself,” says Dr. Swann.

Dr. Swann also explains that the government needs to invest more in green technology, and give more incentives.

“If you’re going to invest in a real legacy for future generations, if you’re going to give more incentives for green technology, like solar and wind, geothermal, giving money to create energy efficient buildings. That’s a good investment. We know [the cost of] fossil fuels are going to go higher and higher,” emphasizes Swann.

Swann says the current provincial government isn’t doing enough to monitor or enforce environmental protection.

“They denied climate change up until three years ago. It’s not a priority for this government, to educate people on the greening of their lifestyle, or how to reduce their carbon footprint. That’s where the environment department needs more resources.”

A common complaint among young people and many Canadians is that the level of rhetoric in the legislature needs to be toned down, since seeing our leaders screaming and yelling at each other is hardly inspiring, nor conducive to meaningful conversations.

“My goal is very simple, I want to attract people to politics. I don’t want to repulse them. I think what you called apathy is really repulsion. They don’t like who we are, they don’t like what we do. I want to attract people to politics. If we’re going to attract, we have to act in a responsible, mature, respectful way,” says Dr. Swann.

Last semester, students were quoted saying they would really appreciate it if politicians would come to their workplaces, and our schools, to speak directly to people, many saying it might change their vote if that happened.

“Definitely. I would love to see that. I want more younger people involved. This is your future we’re playing with,” says Dr. Swann.

Originally posted 2009-03-17 01:34:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

You may have seen it being talked about or used on CBC or CNN, or as a blue icon or bird logo on many popular websites or blogs. If you’re not tech-savvy, you likely just ignored it, thinking of it as just another tool on the internet, which it is, but it’s one of the more useful tools, and it’s seriously worth taking a look at.

The internet is no longer just about going to a website and reading articles. Users are leaving comments, and in a lot of cases, the comments on articles are more interesting and thought-provoking then the news stories themselves.

People are using tools such as Delicious.com, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Twitter, among others, to share their findings with friends and family, and the people they know online. It’s faster and far easier than simply e-mailing something of interest, and much less annoying, as we all hate sifting through email.

Most of us use Facebook on a regular basis, and we update our “status” as we check the latest news of what’s going on in the life of friends and family. Twitter uses a similar function, but eliminates the extra stuff, like applications, and focuses solely on those small status messages.

Facebook’s  status messages are among a mix of other news feed items, not a part of an ongoing conversation between “friends”. Facebook does not have a simple way to view status messages over time. Twitter, on the other hand, is an ongoing, easy to follow conversation between “friends”.

Twitter uses the same concept that text messages use, using a max of 140 characters to say what you want, and is completely free, unlike text messages. You can use your phone, too, but you must have a “smart phone”, like an iPhone or Blackberry (in Canada, anyway, they allow text messages in the U.S.).

One of the most loved components of Twitter is that it’s instant. Last month, when a plane crashed into the Hudson River in New  York City (no one died), people living in the area started “tweeting” about it a full half-hour before news organizations started talking about it.

The reason I enjoying using Twitter is because it’s like a hive mind, with knowledge, websites links, current events, and more being shared on a real-time basis within the online community. Such items may not be newsworthy, but it‘s of interest to me. Obviously, you’re not going share personal details about yourself, though you can talk to other users directly through private messages, if you wish to.
Unlike Facebook, Twitter can communicate with desktop programs designed to work with the service, such as Tweetdeck, or my personal favourite, Twhirl. So, as I’m working or playing on my computer, I can see what my friends (people I “follow”) are saying in real-time.

It’s also a great marketing tool.  Companies can monitor Twitter conversations through the search function, and respond to what is being said about their company or a product. Ever hear the saying, if people have a bad experience, they’ll tell 10 of their friends? If they have 1000 friends on Twitter, that could be a public relations nightmare.

It’s also an awesome tool to get mass-opinions and perspective on issues in real-time, whether it is thoughts on a new law, or a new trend.

Hash tags (i.e.: #lethbridgehurricanes) are often used to make searching for terms and topics easier. To send another user a message, type “@username” (without the quotes). For example, @kevinlcc (my username).

Barack Obama used Twitter (and Facebook) to communicate with those using the services and to reach the younger crowd who use the internet in their daily lives.
There’s no point in joining Twitter if you’re only going to post things like “I had soup for lunch”. That’s what Facebook’s status updates are for. Twitter is about creating conversation. Instead, say “I’m about to have lunch at Moxies. What the best thing on the menu?”

Its best not to start “following” everyone you can find. Use http://search.twitter.com to find a topic of interest, and ”follow” people who are talking about things you care about, and follow who they follow, and so forth. If you end up following thousands of people, and don’t have many people following you, your account can be deleted for abusing the service, so engage in conversations to avoid this.

Even though Twitter’s page asks “What are you doing?” think of it as asking, “What has your interest?”

Originally posted 2009-02-28 20:00:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The internet has grown in use, and so have the tricks hackers and malicious websites use to steal personal information and put viruses and spyware computers. They might try and get you to download a file in order to see special content, or put hidden code in a website that can put itself on to the computer and use it for malicious purposes.

The latest example has been an issue on the website called “Twitter”, where users connect and exchange short messages with useful information and handy links with friends worldwide. Users receive a message from a friend, not knowing their friend’s account has been compromised, they click a link that brings them to a hacker’s website, which steals their twitter login and password, hoping they use the same combination on important websites, like banks.

It’s best to have a different login and password for each website you register for, but if that’s not realistic, have a different set for types of websites, one for banks, one for social networks, one for email, etc.

You’re a smart person, and in no way would I imply otherwise, but hackers and spammers out to make a buck off of your information, and can be very enticing and tricky in getting you to click that link or download that seemingly innocent browser plug-in, so be aware of what you’re doing online.

You may argue that you are running security or antivirus software and that you’re protected. True, but nothing is guaranteed. If you click “yes” or “ok” on something unwittingly, hopefully your software catches it if it’s bad, but it might not. User behaviour is the best defence, so please, pay attention.

A few extra seconds of paying attention to exactly what you are downloading and the websites you are visiting can mean the difference between a healthy computer and having to reinstall Windows and potentially lose your data.

Originally posted 2009-01-17 20:40:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter