Compare the writing styles of Levy with Mitnick. Which do you find more
engaging? Which is easier to read? Which informs you more quickly? If
you were to master one style, which would it be like and why?
While both authors do much/all of their writing in a mode of story-telling, they differ most greatly in the fact that Mitnick writes several short stories from different people including himself, while Levy writes in the style of a novel.
Mitnick's book teaches us about many ways of deception on and off the internet through short stories and examples that are individually different, but join together to give the reader a clear idea of the concept being taught. I like the way he organized the book in that it is divided into chapters, but then divided several more times into subcategories. This format is similar to a text book, but more specifically an interesting text book. It has an interesting look and readability to it that reminds me of some of the textbooks from elementary and middle school because of it's short sections which aren't overwhelming to read as well as the captions, notes, and vocabulary words that pop up throughout the text. The dialogue also keeps things interesting. I enjoyed reading this book more-so than Levy's because of this fun, easy-to-read format.
Levy's book teaches us about cryptography and the part it has played in our privacy and lack thereof. Rather than short stories and examples, Levy tells the story in the form of a novel. I do like reading novels usually, but I had a hard time getting into this one after the first few chapters. At first, I really liked the story, but as it continued, some of the vocabulary became more difficult for me to follow smoothly and it became more boring for me to read rather than interesting.
In my own writing, I think I am more likely a novel-type writer. I have always enjoyed writing long stories from a single perspective. Even as a child I spent a lot of my spare time writing my own stories and books (of course when I say books, I mean pages of paper staple together to make a "book" back in those days). Although I have found that to be my writing preference, I do prefer Mitnick's style in these two examples for reading, and Mitnicks book actually inspired me to try writing in this style some time. I think his style would be much better accepted from students in an elementary school classroom should I ever make my own instructional books for something I may be teaching.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
First part of my Final Paper: So far
Deception
on the Internet
Whether or not we know it, or
whether or not we like it, deception is everywhere and it affects every one of
us who use the internet. We commonly use websites like Google and Facebook,
considering them great, free tools for researching and keeping in touch with
friends and family. In fact, a lot of people go out of their way on the
internet to protect their privacy on websites that obviously collect important,
personal information, but they still use the seemingly harmless websites like
Facebook and Google because they don't seem threatening. The unfortunate truth
is that these tools do, in fact, come at a cost. "If you're not paying for
something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold" (Pariser,
2011). What is it that is being sold that is so important? Our personal
information right down to our credit information and what search items you entered
into Google last night; Enough information to cause an individual to lose their
job, their credibility, their reputation, and potentially everything you own.
Many internet users are very
cautious when it comes to putting their personal information online. This most
commonly refers to account information or social security numbers, but there is
much less care put toward protecting a name or interest. In an article by Adam
N. Joinson, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Tom Buchanan, and Carina B. Paine Schofield,
they stated, " A recent poll by UPIZogby (2007) found that 85% of
respondents said that the privacy of their personal
information
was important to them as consumers. The Oxford Internet Institute survey
(Dutton
& Helsper, 2007) found that 70% of U.K. Internet users agreed or
strongly
agreed with the statement that “people who go on the Internet put their privacy
at
risk,” and 84% (up from 66% in 2005) agreed that “personal information is being
kept
somewhere without my knowledge.”" With
so many people being concerned with their privacy, one might think that those
people are sparing themselves from having their information taken, but as the
final line of the quote stated, " personal information is being
kept somewhere without my knowledge.”
There is now a company out there called Spokeo. I hadn't heard of it until I read Lori Andrew's book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did. In her book, she talks about this company and several others like it that gather and store information on everyone they possibly can. This information can be a bit more personal than what movie you went to see last week, however. When I looked up my name on this site, it gave me several location options for my name and there I saw my parent's home address along with one of the options. Upon clicking on this person, I was shocked to find that it had my cell phone number, a map of where my house was, my gender and approximate age, an estimated value of the property my parents live on and apparently had plenty more information to share if I was willing to pay less than $4.00 a month to get their full service. I didn't pay to see what other information they had on me, but the fact that they had what they did already out on the table for anyone to see along with the fact they had MORE, scared me.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Why I Would Recommend Levy's Crypto to a Colleague...
Right off the bat, reading Steven Levy's preface to Crypto he draws us in. He brings up the daunting privacy issues that Pariser and Andrews both brought to us (except in a more diluted fashion by Levy in the preface) but then brings hope for sabotaging others' efforts to steal our privacy. "a potential antidote exists: cryptography..." (pg 1). He scares us a little and then lures us into a nicer place which doubles as a brilliant introduction to his topic.
Another thing I love about this book is the style it is written in. Levy could have written a book simply listing off facts about how codes are made and broken or some other monotonous, boring way of depicting cryptography, but instead, he writes a story, about real people, and in it is included real human thoughts and even a little romance. Beginning on pg 3, Levy begins the story of Whitfield Diffie and a woman named Mary Fischer. It starts of simple, an nice story for the reader and then he twists it right into the subject matter without losing the reader's attention. "His rudeness appalled Mary. But she hadn't yet cracked his code" (pg 4). From there he really begins to talk about how he found his interest in cryptography, how he came to know his partner Marty Hellman and their partner Ralph Merkle, and how he came to get involved in creating such codes to protect privacy on the internet.
The story shows the ups and downs of their research. I really enjoyed the portrayal of excitement Diffie had as he discovered digital signatures on pgs 73-75. I've definitely felt the disappointment of finally figuring out a great idea and then forgetting the whole thing, fortunately, he regained his memory of it and shared his excitement with his wife the second she got home from work before rushing to Hellman's house soon after.
Overall, I would suggest this book to my colleagues from what I've read so far simply because it tells a story while also showing just how important it is to stand up for our privacy.
Another thing I love about this book is the style it is written in. Levy could have written a book simply listing off facts about how codes are made and broken or some other monotonous, boring way of depicting cryptography, but instead, he writes a story, about real people, and in it is included real human thoughts and even a little romance. Beginning on pg 3, Levy begins the story of Whitfield Diffie and a woman named Mary Fischer. It starts of simple, an nice story for the reader and then he twists it right into the subject matter without losing the reader's attention. "His rudeness appalled Mary. But she hadn't yet cracked his code" (pg 4). From there he really begins to talk about how he found his interest in cryptography, how he came to know his partner Marty Hellman and their partner Ralph Merkle, and how he came to get involved in creating such codes to protect privacy on the internet.
The story shows the ups and downs of their research. I really enjoyed the portrayal of excitement Diffie had as he discovered digital signatures on pgs 73-75. I've definitely felt the disappointment of finally figuring out a great idea and then forgetting the whole thing, fortunately, he regained his memory of it and shared his excitement with his wife the second she got home from work before rushing to Hellman's house soon after.
Overall, I would suggest this book to my colleagues from what I've read so far simply because it tells a story while also showing just how important it is to stand up for our privacy.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Privacy and Security Principles for a Principal New to Technology
Hello, I'm Ms. Misty Hill, newly hired 3rd grade teacher at Washington Elementary School in Medford, Oregon and I'm sitting here with our School Principal, Jeff Graham. Jeff has invited me to lunch today to discuss the prospect of getting more involved in online activity for our students and what we can do to promote security and privacy for our students as they begin using these resources.
One very important rule of thumb to keep our privacy is to keep our information anonymous. Although it was written concerning a much broader, more serious topic, Lori Andrews' mention of anonymity on page 65 of her book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did can be applied right here in our elementary school computer lab. Andrews talks about our right to freedom of press and further our right to publish these things anonymously. This can be done quite simply for things like emails, blogs, and other sites that require usernames. Email accounts can be created quite easily these days and there's nothing saying your name has to be real. Creating a list outside of the computer which assigns students to a nickname or number can be a great starting point. Create an email account through Gmail or Yahoo for each student using their assigned nickname or number rather than their actual name. This email can now be used to sign into other websites including blogs which can be used for class writing assignments anonymously to everyone except those who know the nicknames.
Social networks should not be used in schools. Many schools have internet filters that prevent access to inappropriate websites as well as to social networks. Even my high school didn't allow access to Facebook or MySpace. Andrews states on page 6 that, "Not only does Facebook make the private public, it makes the public private." Throughout her book, she also talks about Facebook's part in the death of our privacy. Facebook is something to be played with at home, not in school, not only for distraction reasons, but because it jeopardizes our efforts to keep privacy in our school's internet usage.
Something else to consider when moving to an online teaching method is to set specific sites for students to go to rather than always having them search. In the filter Bubble, Eli Pariser talks about how our searches and online activity change the way we see the internet. Two people may sit next to each other and type in the exact same search items and get very different results. Since this is true, our students may find different websites than we intend on them viewing and they are unfortunately not always appropriate. Teachers should preview and select specific websites for students to go to and/or teach students methods for weeding out good and bad information on the internet.
As long as we do these things, we will hold onto our privacy for our school and our students.
One very important rule of thumb to keep our privacy is to keep our information anonymous. Although it was written concerning a much broader, more serious topic, Lori Andrews' mention of anonymity on page 65 of her book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did can be applied right here in our elementary school computer lab. Andrews talks about our right to freedom of press and further our right to publish these things anonymously. This can be done quite simply for things like emails, blogs, and other sites that require usernames. Email accounts can be created quite easily these days and there's nothing saying your name has to be real. Creating a list outside of the computer which assigns students to a nickname or number can be a great starting point. Create an email account through Gmail or Yahoo for each student using their assigned nickname or number rather than their actual name. This email can now be used to sign into other websites including blogs which can be used for class writing assignments anonymously to everyone except those who know the nicknames.
Social networks should not be used in schools. Many schools have internet filters that prevent access to inappropriate websites as well as to social networks. Even my high school didn't allow access to Facebook or MySpace. Andrews states on page 6 that, "Not only does Facebook make the private public, it makes the public private." Throughout her book, she also talks about Facebook's part in the death of our privacy. Facebook is something to be played with at home, not in school, not only for distraction reasons, but because it jeopardizes our efforts to keep privacy in our school's internet usage.
Something else to consider when moving to an online teaching method is to set specific sites for students to go to rather than always having them search. In the filter Bubble, Eli Pariser talks about how our searches and online activity change the way we see the internet. Two people may sit next to each other and type in the exact same search items and get very different results. Since this is true, our students may find different websites than we intend on them viewing and they are unfortunately not always appropriate. Teachers should preview and select specific websites for students to go to and/or teach students methods for weeding out good and bad information on the internet.
As long as we do these things, we will hold onto our privacy for our school and our students.
Monday, April 30, 2012
My "Selves"
On page 117, Pariser discusses the differences between the
aspirational and current selves. Pariser then moves on to discuss the
nature of different selves as compared to Zuckerburg's view (ascribed in
part by Pariser) of people having one self. Prepare to stare into space
a bit: go blank. In your teaching and professional work, how many
selves do you have? Which ones are represented online, how much
information do they share, and which ones are the most "mined" for data?
When your students or colleagues or future employers search for you, which self do the see or find? Can you have any control over that?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have always known, in a way, that I have multiple "selves" so to speak. I remember in high school specifically I would be a slightly different person at school than I was at home in that I said words at school I wouldn't say in front of my parents and I definitely wasn't quite as outgoing and enthusiastic at home as I was at school. At home I was more quiet and though I spent a lot of time with my parents, I was often in my own bubble on the computer or playing games or making something. A similarity though that was true in both "selves" was a genuine love for life and a friendliness toward everyone.
Looking at my self today, I still see several versions of my self. I have a work self, a class self, an in a classroom self (which varies a bit with grade levels), a with my boyfriend self, a with my friends self, a with my parents self, a with my sister self, a with my brother Daniel self, a with my brother Don self, and several other "with different family member" selves that are all pretty similar.
In the Filter Bubble, Eli Pariser writes about Mark Zuckerburg's stance on "selves". He basically says that there is no longer a such thing as having "selves". We now have only one self and it is the self we are on Facebook. I must say I agree with this to an extent, but I know it is not entirely true. The self I have displayed on Facebook is one which pertains to the selves I portray in every circumstance. The difference lies in the things I don't post on Facebook but sometimes say or do outside of Facebook. For example, I never curse on Facebook posts and if one of my friends curse on my page I delete it. When I post pictures on Facebook they are viewable only by my friends (Just like real life!) and they are appropriate for viewing by any of my friends which does include my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins and even mentor teachers and my boss at work. I feel comfortable having all of these people as friends on Facebook because that self is my filtered "online self". To be honest, my other "selves" don't differ much from that of the one on Facebook. The only differences might include the occasional alcoholic beverages with friends, the tone of my voice depending on who I'm talking to, and the rare upset self curse word that only shows up around the boyfriend and certain friends. I know that when I'm with my brother Daniel I'm a lot more open and relaxed where as with my brother Don I'm more reserved because of a religion factor. The way we act around others is mostly due to our fear that they may get an undesirable impression of us.
Another set of selves I found interesting from Pariser's book was his example of the difference between our Google self and our Facebook self. It is true that I sometime research things that I would never dream of mentioning on a Facebook post because they are personal, yet the information we give through our Google searches is collected into databases just like the information we give through Facebook. This information being collected creates a self we have little to no control over, especially for those that don't even know it is happening.
This idea parallels with Pariser's points about future and present selves and how they differ in the moment. Although you may want to come across to the world as an intelligent, modest individual to future employers and colleagues, you may currently want to share the pictures you took with your friends at the beach this week on Facebook. Many people do not realize just how much the selves they portray on Facebook can affect them in the future and thus post things that their future selves may regret.
When your students or colleagues or future employers search for you, which self do the see or find? Can you have any control over that?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have always known, in a way, that I have multiple "selves" so to speak. I remember in high school specifically I would be a slightly different person at school than I was at home in that I said words at school I wouldn't say in front of my parents and I definitely wasn't quite as outgoing and enthusiastic at home as I was at school. At home I was more quiet and though I spent a lot of time with my parents, I was often in my own bubble on the computer or playing games or making something. A similarity though that was true in both "selves" was a genuine love for life and a friendliness toward everyone.
Looking at my self today, I still see several versions of my self. I have a work self, a class self, an in a classroom self (which varies a bit with grade levels), a with my boyfriend self, a with my friends self, a with my parents self, a with my sister self, a with my brother Daniel self, a with my brother Don self, and several other "with different family member" selves that are all pretty similar.
In the Filter Bubble, Eli Pariser writes about Mark Zuckerburg's stance on "selves". He basically says that there is no longer a such thing as having "selves". We now have only one self and it is the self we are on Facebook. I must say I agree with this to an extent, but I know it is not entirely true. The self I have displayed on Facebook is one which pertains to the selves I portray in every circumstance. The difference lies in the things I don't post on Facebook but sometimes say or do outside of Facebook. For example, I never curse on Facebook posts and if one of my friends curse on my page I delete it. When I post pictures on Facebook they are viewable only by my friends (Just like real life!) and they are appropriate for viewing by any of my friends which does include my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins and even mentor teachers and my boss at work. I feel comfortable having all of these people as friends on Facebook because that self is my filtered "online self". To be honest, my other "selves" don't differ much from that of the one on Facebook. The only differences might include the occasional alcoholic beverages with friends, the tone of my voice depending on who I'm talking to, and the rare upset self curse word that only shows up around the boyfriend and certain friends. I know that when I'm with my brother Daniel I'm a lot more open and relaxed where as with my brother Don I'm more reserved because of a religion factor. The way we act around others is mostly due to our fear that they may get an undesirable impression of us.
Another set of selves I found interesting from Pariser's book was his example of the difference between our Google self and our Facebook self. It is true that I sometime research things that I would never dream of mentioning on a Facebook post because they are personal, yet the information we give through our Google searches is collected into databases just like the information we give through Facebook. This information being collected creates a self we have little to no control over, especially for those that don't even know it is happening.
This idea parallels with Pariser's points about future and present selves and how they differ in the moment. Although you may want to come across to the world as an intelligent, modest individual to future employers and colleagues, you may currently want to share the pictures you took with your friends at the beach this week on Facebook. Many people do not realize just how much the selves they portray on Facebook can affect them in the future and thus post things that their future selves may regret.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did- Interesting and Disturbing
I have noticed over the past few years that ads I see on different websites always pertain to me. I always thought it was interesting that they were able to pull this information from me to suit my interests but I never dreamed just how extreme this industry really was.
I remember the first time I noticed this ad placement was an assortment of ads for "Mormon Underwear". I belong to the LDS church and may have looked up something concerning the church recently, but I had found it interesting that those were the ads that kept coming up considering those garments are actually pretty personal and sacred items to the church. I had also never purchased any of these garments before. These ads popped up every time I logged into Facebook and came up on several other websites for several weeks and I became rather annoying. I could definitely see these ads to be offensive to stronger members of the LDS Church simply because those items shouldn't be advertised like that. Since that time my advertisements have changed and most recently I have been getting a lot of ads for new moms and baby products even though I'm not having a child any time soon. My guess is I probably "liked" so baby group on Facebook or something.
As I read this weeks assigned chapters from I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did, I was shocked, intrigued and definitely disturbed. I was one of the many who thought that fixing my privacy settings on Facebook would prevent people who weren't my friends from seeing it. I was glad to see that it saved me from a little turmoil, but not enough to truly feel comfortable with the happenings of Facebook. I had no idea that Facebook made so much money each year, and I never would have believed that the majority of it comes from sod information. Personal information from each and every user of Facebook and several other web-based companies is sold to companies constantly in order to place appropriate product ads on our web-browsers and also to have in information data-bases all over the internet.
Spokeo (first mentioned on pg 9), is a website I had never even heard of before, yet when I went to the website and typed in my name, sure as day it had my name, address, phone number, and plenty of other information which I would have to pay for to see. The site even had a Google map showing my parent's house. The fee for the site to see all this information was rather cheap too. I couldn't believe that all that information about me was right there for the world to see. It made me wonder what other information about me is out there.
As I read further, my anxiety over this new-found information was worsened as I read about websites like Axciom (First found on pg 19). These websites have information as detailed and personal as your social security number yet they also are known to hold inaccurate information about individuals which can lead to inaccurate credit ratings and can cause a business not to hire you even though you have no control over the information or its accuracy.
To worsen this pandemonium even more, similar, smaller companies like ChoicePoint have been know to make mistakes in who they allow access to this information and have been the cause of mass identity thefts. (pg 20)
These things along with information about how credit companies use your search history as means of deciding how much and what kind of credit to grant you were among the most interesting and disturbing things I've found thus far in the readings. As I read, I am very upset by the stakes businesses have taken to get ahead in the world. Jeopardizing the security of individuals all over the world is beyond inappropriate. I am all for creating laws against these piracies of privacy, not only to protect our personal information but to protect our livelihood. No one should have the right to hold someone back from moving up the economical ladder simply because they started out poor!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
My Introduction
I figure since this is our main way of getting to know each other for class this term, I ought to post a brief introduction of myself.
My name is Misty Hill. I am 22 years old and in my 3rd term of the MSEd: Information Technology Program. I graduated from WOU in June 2011 with a BS in Early Childhood/Elementary Education. I enjoy spending time with children and watching and helping them to learn and grow. I am the youngest of four children by a long-shot and as a result I am the aunt of eleven children. I've been an aunt since I was six years old and my experiences watching them grow up and teaching them different things played a large role in my wanting to become a teacher.
I currently live in Monmouth, OR and have quite the plethora of pets. My boyfriend and I have ten running aquariums with a total of 26 aquatic animals, two birds, a dog and we have a potbelly pig who lives on a farm for now until we have a larger home. In my spare time I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, camping, swimming, etc and I enjoy crafty things like sewing and scrap-booking.
I am looking forward to improving my writing skills in this class and getting to know everyone!
My name is Misty Hill. I am 22 years old and in my 3rd term of the MSEd: Information Technology Program. I graduated from WOU in June 2011 with a BS in Early Childhood/Elementary Education. I enjoy spending time with children and watching and helping them to learn and grow. I am the youngest of four children by a long-shot and as a result I am the aunt of eleven children. I've been an aunt since I was six years old and my experiences watching them grow up and teaching them different things played a large role in my wanting to become a teacher.
I currently live in Monmouth, OR and have quite the plethora of pets. My boyfriend and I have ten running aquariums with a total of 26 aquatic animals, two birds, a dog and we have a potbelly pig who lives on a farm for now until we have a larger home. In my spare time I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, camping, swimming, etc and I enjoy crafty things like sewing and scrap-booking.
I am looking forward to improving my writing skills in this class and getting to know everyone!
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