Category: information technology


Sep
2019

illusory truth effect

categories: educational technology, information literacy, information technology, social media

When False Claims Are Repeated, We Start To Believe They Are True

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/09/12/when-false-claims-are-repeated-we-start-to-believe-they-are-true-heres-how-behaving-like-a-fact-checker-can-help/

September 12, 2019

This phenomenon, known as the “illusory truth effect”, is exploited by politicians and advertisers — and if you think you are immune to it, you’re probably wrong. In fact, earlier this year we reported on a study that found people are prone to the effect regardless of their particular cognitive profile.

A study in Cognition has found that using our own knowledge to fact-check a false claim can prevent us from believing it is true when it is later repeated. But we might need a bit of a nudge to get there.

The researchers found that participants who had focussed on how interesting the statements were in the first part of the study showed the illusory truth effect

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more on Fake News in this IMS blog


Sep
2019

E-learning Technologies

categories: e-learning, educational technology, gamification, gaming, information technology, instructional technology, mobile learning, pedagogy
Science and Technology Resources on the Internet E-learning Technologies
April L. Colosimo Associate Librarian McGill University Library & Archives
McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada  april.colosimo@mcgill.ca
https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/istl/index.php/istl/article/view/24/66
https://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewCompositeReview.htm?id=1347947
The technologies section covers: learning environments, learning objects, activities, gaming, and building community. The tools were selected to potentially enhance synchronous teaching, asynchronous teaching or blended classrooms. The focus is on open or freely available tools but whenever a cost is involved it is indicated.

Sep
2019

digital practices framework

categories: Digital literacy, educational technology, information technology, instructional technology

Imagine if we didn’t know how to use books – notes on a digital practices framework

 

the 20/60/20 model of change. The idea is that the top 20% of any group will be game for anything, they are your early adopters, always willing to try the next best thing. The bottom 20% of a group will hate everything and spend most of their time either subtly slowly things down or in open rebellion. The middle 60% are the people who have the potential to be won or lost depending on how good your plan is

The top stream is about all the sunshine and light about working with others on the internet. It’s advantages and pitfalls, ways in which to promote prosocial discourse. The middle stream is about pragmatics. The how’s of doing things, it starts out with simple guidelines and moves forward the technical realities of licensing, content production and tech using. The bottom stream is about the self. How to keep yourself safe, how to have a healthy relationship with the internet from a personal perspective.

Level 1 – Awareness

Level 2 – Learning

Level 3 Interacting and making

Level 4 – Teaching

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more on digital literacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+literacy


Sep
2019

Fake Video Audio and the Election

categories: Digital literacy, information technology, media literacy, social media

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/02/754415386/what-you-need-to-know-about-fake-video-audio-and-the-2020-election

deep fake: definition

What are “deepfakes?”

That’s the nickname given to computer-created artificial videos or other digital material in which images are combined to create new footage that depicts events that never actually happened. The term originates from the online message board Reddit.

One initial use of the fake videos was in amateur-created pornography, in which the faces of famous Hollywood actresses were digitally placed onto that of other performers to make it appear as though the stars themselves were performing.

How difficult is it to create fake media?

It can be done with specialized software, experts say, the same way that editing programs such as Photoshop have made it simpler to manipulate still images. And specialized software itself isn’t necessary for what have been dubbed “shallow fakes” or “cheap fakes.”

Researchers also say they are working on new ways to speed up systems aimed at helping establish when video or audio has been manipulated. But it’s been called a “cat and mouse” game in which there may seldom be exact parity between fabrication and detection.

At least one state has considered legislation that would outlaw distributing election-oriented fake videos.

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more on fake news in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news


Sep
2019

deepfake Zao

categories: Digital literacy, Facebook, information technology, media literacy, social media, technology literacy

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/02/chinese-face-swap-app-zao-triggers-privacy-fears-viral

Released on Friday, the Zao app went viral as Chinese users seized on the chance to see themselves act out scenes from well-known movies using deepfake technology, which has already prompted concerns elsewhere over potential misuse.

As of Monday afternoon it remained the top free download in China, according to the app market data provider App Annie.

Concerns over deepfakes have grown since the 2016 US election campaign, which saw wide use of online misinformation, according to US investigations.

In June, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said the social network was struggling to find ways to deal with deepfake videos, saying they may constitute “a completely different category” of misinformation than anything faced before.

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more on deepfake in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=deepfake


Aug
2019

WeChat surveillance

categories: Digital literacy, information technology, social media

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/29/751116338/china-intercepts-wechat-texts-from-u-s-and-abroad-researcher-says

Chinese cyberspace is one of the most surveilled and censored in the world. That includes WeChat. Owned by Tencent, one of China’s biggest companies, the chat-meets-payment app has more than 1 billion monthly users in China and now serves users outside the country, too, although it does not divulge how many. Researchers say its use abroad has extended the global reach of China’s surveillance and censorship methods.

“The intention of keeping people safe by building these systems goes out the window the moment you don’t secure them at all,” says Victor Gevers, co-founder of the nonprofit GDI Foundation, an open-source data security collective.

Every day, Gevers scans the Internet for vulnerabilities to find unsecured databases, and he has exposed a large number of them, particularly linked to China.

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more on WeChat and surveillance in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=wechat


Aug
2019

5G vs WiFi6

categories: Digital literacy, e-learning, educational technology, information technology, instructional technology, technology literacy

https://www.cnet.com/news/wi-fi-6-will-upgrade-your-workhorse-wireless-network/

Wi-Fi 6, the consumer-friendly new name for the tech standard actually called 802.11ax,

wireless chip designer Qualcomm is betting big on Wi-Fi 6

“Cord cutting is real. What was typically one TV in the average home is now five or six different screens,” Patel said. “There’s a tremendous amount of content sourced through the home that wasn’t before. There’s a congestion problem.”

One of Wi-Fi 6’s biggest advances is OFDMA — orthogonal frequency division multiple access, if you must know — an efficiency-boosting technology purloined from mobile networks. Another is MU MIMO, short for multiple user, multiple input, multiple output. And then there’s 1024 QAM — quadrature amplitude modulation — which bumps up data rates by 30%.

  • Double the range — though Qualcomm has built-in mesh networking technology that’ll let multiple wireless access points cooperate to bathe your house in Wi-Fi radio signals.
  • Triple the speed — useful not just for watching 4K video but also for uploading from our phones.
  • Better reliability — good for avoiding video chats plagued by stuttering.

Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon says Wi-Fi 6 and 5G networks complement each other.
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more on 5G in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=5g


Aug
2019

Linda.com LinkedIn Microsoft Privacy

categories: Digital literacy, educational technology, information technology, instructional technology, LinkedIn, privacy

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-07-23-as-linkedin-learning-subsumes-lynda-com-library-groups-raise-privacy-concerns

The American Library Association said in a statement Monday that the planned changes to Lynda.com, which are slated to happen by the end of September 2019, “would significantly impair library users’ privacy rights.” That same day, the California State Library recommended that its users discontinue Lynda.com when it fully merges with LinkedIn Learning if it institutes the changes.

The library groups argue that by requiring users to create LinkedIn accounts to watch Lynda videos, the company is going from following best practices about privacy and identity protection to potentially asking libraries to violate a range of ethics codes they have pledged to uphold. The ALA’s Library Bill of Rights, for instance, states that: “All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.”

The change will not impact most colleges and university libraries or corporate users of Lynda.com services, who will not be required to force users to set up a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn officials say that’s because colleges and corporations have more robust ways to identify users than public libraries do.

LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015 for $1.5 billion. The following June, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, the company’s largest-ever acquisition.

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more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy


Aug
2019

Flipgrid new features

categories: Digital literacy, digital storytelling, distributive learning, e-learning, educational technology, information technology, instructional technology, mobile learning, open learning, video

https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2019/08/how-to-use-flipgrid-to-create.html

Flipgrid is a free service that you can use to post prompts for your students to respond to with short videos that they record through their laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, or phones. Your prompts and your students’ replies can be kept private or you can make them public. a complete set of Flipgrid tutorial videos available here.

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more on flipgrid in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=flipgrid

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