Tag: safety

OpenDNS

I have been experimenting with an online service called OpenDNS. I must give credit to a Leo Laporte’s podcast for bringing this service to my attention.

Most tech folks are probably familiar with the role played by a DNS server. As I understand the purpose of the DNS server, it functions to translate the web address we enter into the IP of the server. The IP number directs the query to the needed machine.

My understanding of how OpenDNS works is that the DNS server could perform functions between this translation. It could check the request against self selected filter options and tell you that you really don’t want to go to the site you have requested. It could also record information about your Internet use. It might seem that these are sinister functions, but you may want to impose well defined types of filtering on your own activity (e.g., don’t let me go to known phishing sites) and you may be interested in your patterns of Internet use. I am guessing my service provider (the University of North Dakota) at this moment has a record of the activity originating from the IP of the computer I am using anyway. Perhaps the issue is – who do you trust?

The filtering options in OpenDNS are quite specific (phishing is the only one I apply) and may be of interest to institutions/businesses who feel the need to apply filtering. The thing I found most interesting about examining the log of my “activity” was the number of connections I was making to services without my awareness. All of the services my browsers activate without recent purposeful action were there on the list. As far as I know, these were all connections I asked my browser to make by adding plugins and using a wide variety of online interactive services, but it is informative to see just how many different servers you connect to.

The process of making use of OpenDNS is fairly simple. You add the OpenDNS IP as your preferred DNS. You create an account on OpenDNS and set preferences regarding what type of filtering you prefer and whether or not you want to log your activity.

The one thing I worry about is what happens if OpenDNS goes away. It might create one of those weird problems I have so much difficulty trouble shooting. What are the odds that two months from now I will remember that I am using this unique service as my designated DNS. Maybe the operating system just defaults to something else, but probably not unless I maintain multiple DNS listings (it was my impression that my system was skipping OpenDNS when I did this, but I may be wrong). This is one problem with experimenting with so many different tools and services. I simply cannot keep track of what I have done over time. I guess if the feel the need to experiment, the message is? – Back up often and be prepared to reinstall??

OpenDNS graph

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The Psychologists Speak

It may not be apparent from the topics I discuss here, but I am a psychologist. I work in a university psychology department and I often teach Introduction to Psychology. One thing living simultaneously in different academic worlds has taught me is how little cross-talk there actually is. Part of this is an attitude problem. It is too bad, because ways of thinking differ even when applied to the same topics and sometimes it is a different perspective that we need..

Today, I received my copy of Monitor on Psychology – the general publication that I receive as a member of the American Psychological Association. I seldom read this publication, but I note that the cover art indicates the special focus of this issue is “Children and the Internet”. I do think there is a form of attitude that professionals have about who knows what about what and I see some of this in myself. My reaction was pretty much – “this is cute, the psychologists are going to explain what kids do on the Internet to the rest of us”.

Most of the material was what I expected. But, hey, psychologists need to know about these issues too. It is nice is that the Monitor is available online. While people focused on technology integration will not find a lot new in these articles, I did see a couple of references to work I have not read and it is interesting to see how psychologists explore issues with less of an educational emphasis (social networking among adolescents, Internet pornography). For the example, the DeAngelis article considered research relating parenting styles to adolescent use of MySpace. This more nuanced examination of out of school factors is not necessarily something I would encounter in the education literature.

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Parent impression of the value of Internet slips

A new PEW survey (pdf available) indicates that in comparison to 2004 parents of teenagers have a slightly more negative reaction to the impact the Internet has on their kids. The down turn (7% fewer parents indicating the Internet has been a good thing) seems to be more related to content than time spent. The survey indicates about 70% of parents have rules about the types of sites their children can visit.

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BusinessWeek – Back to School 2.0

BusinessWeek (Sept. 5) has a recent article commenting on new technology applications in K-12 environments. Use of “2.0” is beginning to annoy me. I am thinking it is a personal problem – I have a way of using the term in reference to technology applications and it is sometimes difficult mapping this personal understanding on the way the term is applied in another context. Maybe if this is a general reaction we should recognize that the term has no meaning and move on.

Anyway – the article contains some project descriptions that were interesting and new to me. Take a look.

There is a section that deals with safety and educational value. The topic is consistent with the way I think about “2.0” issues, but the discussion did not seem connected with the examples used in the rest of the article. I wonder if this is a journalistic technique – throw the odds and ends in at the end. I have one complaint about this section. There is a statement here I would like to verify:

About 1 in 5 children online is sexually solicited, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which has created www.netsmartz.org to teach children, parents, and educators about online safety.

While the examples in the article are supported by links, the statements in the section on Safety and Educational value are not. I have read several studies from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children (see final comment) and know the organization has much more to say. What is said or not said makes a great difference in the context of the news item. For example, when students encounter online solicitation, where are they connecting from? If the connection is nearly always from homes, what might this say about the role of the schools? Perhaps social networking experiences and discussions related to social networking need to be emphasized in schools so that students are prepared for the encounters they might experience when mom is not looking.

Grabe summary of recent Missing and Exploited Children survey.
Grabe summary of recent report from the National School Boards Association.

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Who talks to their kids about the Internet?

A recently completed Harris poll offers some information on the question of do parents take a role in introducing their children to the Internet. Mothers, particularly mothers who grew up with the Internet, seem to take a much more active role. The survey itself appears to have been focused on who introduces children to the Internet and at what age. What was missing in the data provided, which seem to indicate many children are involved at a young age, was information regarding what advice/direction young Internet users were given. 1-800-905-Geek, the sponsor for the study, offers some summary data and related suggestions for keeping children safe online (see pdf).

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Social Networking Fears Unwarranted

Summaries of a recent survey of students, parents, and educators concerning social networking have been appearing on educational blogs (e.g., 2 Cents Worth, TechBlorge). The reason the results of this survey interest these other bloggers and me is that the survey seems to indicate the response of schools to the assumed dangers of student social networking exaggerates the dangers as reported by students and parents.

The survey, titled “Creating and Connecting makes” (pdf available from National School Boards Association) three main points:

  • Use of social networking among age group is increasing (some data from present study contrasted with 2002) and students make a surprising amount of use to accomplish educational tasks on their own.
  • Safety issues and inappropriate experiences associated with social networking do exist, but are lower than many adults assume – especially educational officials.
  • Online experience may help students learn to deal with inappropriate experiences.

Those looking for recent statistics may find the report helpful. The survey data include:

  • reports of the frequency of social networking activities and changes since 2002
  • frequency of several categories of inappropriate and dangerous experiences
  • proportion of schools blocking or forbidding various types of online experience while in school.

I wish research of this type were more commonly funded to be conducted by researchers at educational institutions whose goal was to publish their data in peer reviewed goals. To gain full access to the data collected by Grunwald Associates it appears you must pay several thousand dollars. More information about the questions asked in the survey are available from the Grunwald Associates site. What I wish I had the opportunity to review are the details of the methodology. The published pdf describes the student sample as consisting of 1277 9-17 year olds who responded to an online survey. The Grunwald associates site describes a nationally representative sample of 1000 teens/children. An online survey could mean different things and many approaches would not really generate a representative sample of all youth.

To have the National School Boards association behind the position that schools are overreacting to the dangers of participatory web activities and missing out on activities that interest students seems a good thing.

P.S.

Andy Carvin’s post in response to this report.

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Protecting Children on the Internet – Senate Hearings

Recent Senate hearings on the Internet are available for review. Andy Carvin, learning.now, offers a great summary of the hearings. If you take the time to view the archived presentations, I would encourage your careful attention to the presentation of Dr. Finkelhor. His approach, based on survey data collected from teenagers, offers insights that may surprise some because he emphasizes the role of the risk taking behavior of teenagers. Public impression must acknowledge this reality because methods of dealing with the dangers must accept the role the behavior of victims plays. This should not be confused with “blaming the victim”, but rather an effort to understand so that productive interventions might be developed.

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