TAD Consortium May 2000 Information Update1

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CONTENTS
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NEWS/TRENDS

--- Multilingual Moroccans Surging Online
--- Lat Am Net Growth Has to be Faster, Fairer
--- Older Users Take to the Internet in Droves

PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS

--- Chiapas Media Project - Mexico
--- MISA Community Media Research - Southern Africa

ONLINE RESOURCES

--- Web pages on educator development for ICTs
--- UNESCO Online Photobank
--- "The Social Implications of ICTs"
--- Could Robots, Genetic Scientists wipe out Humanity by 2030? A Futurologist's Nightmare
--- SchoolNet News
--- Network of Partners involved in African Media
--- On-line Bibliography on Dispute Resolution
--- Financial Crises in Emerging Markets [.pdf]

ARTICLES

--- Virtual Games For Real Learning:  a seriously fun way to learn online
--- Internet Privacy Article
--- Top Ten Mistakes In Education

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NEWS/TRENDS
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Taken from NUA Internet Surveys April 17th 2000
Published By: Nua Limited Volume 5 No.15

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IEC Marketing:Multilingual Moroccans Surging Online

Almost 60 percent of Moroccan Internet users say they are ready to purchase a product or service online, according to IEC Marketing.The majority of Moroccan Internet users are young, single, well-educated men who have disposable income to spend online.

Almost 70 percent of the online population are male and 56 percent are aged between 21 and 30. A further 13 percent are 20 years old or younger while a further 21 percent are aged between 31 and 40. The remaining 20 percent are aged 50 or over.

Almost all Internet users in Morocco speak Arabic and French and the majority also speak English. About a quarter also speak Spanish or Berber.

Just over 30 percent of users have an Internet connection at home while those who are not online at home use the Internet in cybercafes, at work, in school or university or at a friend's house.

Only 22 percent of users spend less than 4 hours a week online. 30 percent use the Internet between 4-8 hours a week while 19 percent use it for 8-12 hours a week and 29 percent use it for more than 12 hours a week.

<http://www.iecmarketing.com/web/eol/eol2/preseol2p.htm>

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Taken from NUA Internet Surveys April 17th 2000
Published By: Nua Limited Volume 5 No. 15

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Reuters: Lat Am Net Growth Has to be Faster, Fairer

Internet users grew by 136 percent in Latin America last year but the medium remains largely the preserve of the elite in the region, according to Yoshio Utsumi, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union.

In a speech at the Telecom Americas conference this week, Utsumi warned that Latin America and the Caribbean could be left behind in the New Economy.

Only about 2.7 percent of the region's 500 million strong population owns a computer that can access the Internet.

Utsumi fears that Internet penetration growth in the region is not happening quickly enough to catch up with developed countries. Computer and telephone line penetration need to increase rapidly and a dedicated Internet backbone for the region is also direly needed.

The prognosis is not entirely bad. The booming cellular phone market in Latin America could help to increase Internet penetration, said Utsumi.

http://news.excite.com/news/r/000410/13/net-latam-internet

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Taken from NUA Internet Surveys April 17th 2000
Published By: Nua Limited Volume 5 No. 15

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Media Metrix:Older Users Take to the Internet in Droves

Older Internet users now comprise the fastest growing demographic group in the US Internet market, according to Media Metrix. One fifth of US Internet users are aged between 45 and 64 and more and more people in this age group are going online.

The Media Metrix study shows that users in this age group access the Internet more often, stay online for longer and visit more websites than younger users.

People who fall into this demographic are highly desirable targets for advertisers as they have the most credit cards and use them most frequently. They also have the highest percentage of frequent fliers and are more likely to own large-screen televisions and satellite dishes and to purchase technological gadgets of all sorts.

The most visited site for people in this age group in December 1999 was thirdage.com, followed by shopintuit.com and whoohoo.net. Customercast.com was the fourth most popular site, while mallandmore.com came fifth.

http://www.mediametrix.com/PressRoom/Press_Releases/04_04_00.html

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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS

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Taken from the Drum Beat - 48
Compiled by THE COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE (http://www.comminit.com)

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Chiapas Media Project - Mexico - is a bi-national partnership that provides video and computer equipment and training to marginalized indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico.   Communities produce videos to document their struggle for human rights, democracy and land reform, and to disseminate this information.

http://www.chiapasmediaproject.org/html/projects.html  

Contact cmp@vida.com OR promedia@laneta.apc.org
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Taken from the Drum Beat - 48
Compiled by THE COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE (http://www.comminit.com)

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MISA Community Media Research - Southern Africa - MISA Broadcasting Programme is conducting community level research into information needs and media attitudes in communities in Zambia and Namibia.  Results will be available June 2000.   Research will feed into national level campaigns in these countries.  In Zambia, a coalition will be launched to lobby for an independent broadcasting authority and in Namibia the focus will be in creating an enabling environment for community media.   Contact johnb@misa.org.na

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ONLINE RESOURCES

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Gerald Roos has set up a series of web pages on educator development for ICTs, as part of his work on this topic for SchoolNet SA.The pages are linked from the SchoolNet home page, or you can directly to them at:

http://www.school.za/edict/

Regards

Stephen Marquard

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Taken from The Scout Report for Social Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.  http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
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UNESCO Online Photobank

http://www2.unesco.org/photobank/

"UNESCO now offers full access online to its collection of photographs and slides covering a wide range of subjects related to the organization's fields of competence: education, science, culture and communication." The collection contains more than 10,000 images and may be searched by region, country, city, theme, subject, keyword, and photographer. Results are returned in thumbnail versions that can be clicked to enlarge. Plans are in the works to allow users to obtain reproduction rights online, but current users must contact UNESCO for reproduction permission. [DC]

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Readers may be interested in looking at a paper I have just published on the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) website entitled "The Social Implications of ICTs" by Manuel Castells, Professor of Sociology, and Professor of City & Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley.

The web address is: http://www.chet.org.za/castells/socialicts.html

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Taken from TELCOMINE: Trends in Telecom Technology Volume 3, No 4, April 2000

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Could Robots, Genetic Scientists wipe out Humanity by 2030? A Futurologist's Nightmare

Could robots with super-human power or scientists armed with genetic or micro-electronic forces that could "self replicate" with the force of the Big Bang) wipe out the human race in no time? By no means entirely new, the question has been posed with a fresh sense of urgency by the well known philosopher - scientist Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems. In the style of Orwell's "1984" Joy predicts  this should become technically feasible by 2030.

Details: http://www.infozech.com/articles/apr900.shtml

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Welcome to the first issue of the quarterly, SchoolNet News. It will inform you of developments happening within SchoolNet SA as well as progress on project implementation.

You'll find it at the following URL:

http://www.schoolnet.org.za/news/newsletter/

Please send us any comments or questions that you may have.

With every good wish,

Eric Williams
Information Officer
SchoolNet SA
Tel: 27-(0)11-403-3952
Fax: 27-(0)11-403-1417
E-mail:       eric@schoolnet.org.za

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The Network of Partners involved in African Medias has a website: http://www.gret.org/mediapartner/en  

This site displays information on the activities relatives to the development of the African media sector.

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Taken from the Drum Beat - 48
Compiled by THE COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE (http://www.comminit.com)

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On-line Bibliography on Dispute Resolution, by Catherine Morris. Contains several hundred titles on negotiation, mediation, arbitration, public policy & environmental dispute resolution, conciliation of human rights complaints, international dispute resolution, culture & conflict, restorative justice, school conflict resolution, and other topics.

Http://www.peacemakers.ca/bibintro99.html  

Contact Catherine Morris readings@peacemakers.ca

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Taken from The Scout Report for Social Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.  http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

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Financial Crises in Emerging Markets [.pdf] http://www.nber.org/crisis/

This project, from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), studies "the causes of currency crises in emerging market countries as well as the policies that can reduce the risk of future crises and the adverse effects when such crises occur." Along with a extensive collection of downloadable NBER research papers on this subject, the site also lists upcoming conferences on emerging markets and reports on past conferences. Chapters from forthcoming books authored by NBER associates as well as other authors affiliated with the World Bank, the Federal Reserve System, and numerous universities are also available for download. Those just beginning to learn about this topic will want to read the list of questions that the project is attempting to answer.

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ARTICLES
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VIRTUAL GAMES FOR REAL LEARNING:  a seriously fun way to learn online

Dr Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan and Marie Jasinski

OVERVIEW:

Since April 1999, we have designed, facilitated and evaluated a series of web-based games on a range of topics with over 1000 practitioners mostly within the vocational and corporate training sectors in Australia and the USA.  Our observations and feedback from our players have led us to reinforce what we suspected:  that unglamorous, "low tech" but highly functional communications technology like e-mail, bulletin boards and chat can be used as primary tools to promote and encourage collaborative interactive learning online.  This article documents our observations and experiences in the use of e-mail games.

Why virtual games?

A significant investment has been made in the development, support and management of online learning environments.  Yet there are mixed reports about how well these environments are being utilized.  While outstanding successes will always be showcased, there are many online training products gathering dust on virtual shelves.   Attracting learners, teachers, and other stakeholders to adopt an online learning environment, seems a bit like handing out samples of a new product line in a supermarket.   Customers certainly come and taste, and may even buy a trial size pack, but sampling and trialling doesn't mean that in the long run they are going to buy the product or indeed switch brands.

While enough learners are motivated to enrol in an online course many do not stay or return.  How do we motivate learners to not only come but also to stay, contribute and return to the world of online learning?

There are many layers of complexity to consider when exploring how to motivate online learners.  This presentation focuses on one of these layers:   how to promote and encourage person-to-person interactivity through the use of e-mail games.

Virtual games: promoting person-to-person interaction online

Interactivity is promoted as one of the most valuable features of online learning.  However, a closer look at many instructional offerings online, reveals that much of the provided interactivity is of a variety that only connects the learner with the content.  The online environment offers much more than person-to-computer interaction.  Communication technologies like e-mail, bulletin boards and chat have often been overlooked as primary learning technologies.  Yet we have found they offer unique opportunities for supporting game-based instructional strategies that encourage learner-to-learner and learner-to-facilitator interaction.

Through the use of open-ended and often provocative questions, virtual games are a challenging way to create and process content, check and assess participant understanding, use role play and simulations to solve problems, make decisions and provide feedback.  The challenge of virtual games is in the instructional design and facilitation rather than technological skill and sophistication.

While virtual games can be played with any combination of e-mail, bulletin boards, chat and web pages, in this instance, we have chosen to focus on e-mail.

How to play an e-mail game

In an e-mail game, a facilitator and a group of players address a key issue by sending and receiving e-mail messages during several rounds of play spread over a period of days or weeks.  Unlike fancy web-based or real-time games that involve sophisticated graphics, programming and simultaneous play in chat rooms, our e-mail games are limited to low technology and text messages.  Typical e-mail games exploit the ability of the Internet to ignore geographic distances and capitalize on the ability of participants to generate and process content through the posing of an open-ended and often provocative question.  In the early rounds of play, the interaction is between players and the facilitator, while in later rounds, players come together via a bulletin board to discuss processed content and to debrief.

In addition to training, e-mail games can be used for encouraging participation in a variety of benchmarking and idea-sharing activities.  For example, most of our games have been played in a professional development context in the LearnScope Virtual Learning Community at www.learnscope.anta.gov.au.   LearnScope is an Australian national professional development program aimed to encourage teachers and trainers in the vocational education and training sector to utilise online technologies to achieve more flexible learning.  Games have also been played with members of the American Society for Training and Development and the North American Simulation and Gaming Association.

Here are three examples of e-mail games we have played with these groups.

Game 1: Depolarizer

Depolarizer is a role play game using e-mail and a bulletin board.   An open-ended question is posed; for example, Do lurkers learn?  Through a six round series lasting about a week, players explore this issue from both a personal perspective and also from a designated role.  Depolarizer is based on the philosophy that many issues that we treat as problems to be solved are actually polarities to be managed.  The game begins by having players think about their opinions regarding a selected polarizing issue (in this case, whether lurkers do learn).  By informing the players about the range of positions, we increase their awareness of the spread of opinions around the issue.  By having players randomly role-play extremes, we encourage them to think about different points of view.  By reviewing extremely polarized comments, we help players make more informed decisions.  The game seems to encourage players at extremes to get closer to the average.  We may not change anyone's opinion, but we increase their level of awareness about alternative points of view by playing the Depolarizer game.

Game 2: Galactic Wormhole

In this role play game, players participate in a time-travel scenario to explore an issue relevant to their context, for example, the status of online learning in vocational training in the year 2004.  They are given either a Utopian or a Dystopian scenario based on a newspaper headline, either:

Utopia is here: Australian VET sector leads the world in online learning

Or

Dystopia is here: Australian VET sector lags behind the world in online learning

Players are randomly assigned one of these two scenarios and given a stakeholder role of either teacher, learner, manager, decision maker or industry client.   Each player is then asked to submit a 150 word story outlining how their stakeholder contributed to either this utopian or dystopian future for online learning in vocational education and training.

These scenarios are submitted anonymously to the facilitator who collates and posts them in a designated discussion forum or on a web page.  After reviewing all the scenarios for both positions, players submit their five top ideas for ensuring a utopian future for online learning in VET.  From the list of ideas submitted, players then vote on the five top issues that need to be addressed to ensure a utopian future for online learning in VET.

Game 3:  C3PO

C3PO stands for Challenge, Pool, Poll Predict, Outcome.  In Round 1 of C3PO, an open-ended challenge is posed to the players eg How do you increase person-to-person interaction in Internet-based training?   Players are given a deadline to send their top three ideas to the Facilitator.  In Round 2, the resulting pool of ideas is sent back to the players whose next task is to generate a popularity list.  They read through the pool of ideas, select the three most personally appealing and send them to the Facilitator.  The task for Round 3 is to predict from the original pool the three ideas on top of the group popularity list.  The player with the closest prediction is the winner!  A bulletin board is then used to debrief the game.

What players have said about playing e-mail games

I understand the use of e-mail and lack of contact with other players being useful in terms of not being 'influenced' by each other until the next step and making it 'safe' to be extreme.

"Depolariser I thought showed how the aims of opening out perspectives on a subject could/should be achieved in new ways with new technologies. It was also pleasant to see someone actually use technology in a new way, rather than theorize about it, so cheers too for Thiagi and Marie, from me.  This was an inventive and effective experience."

"The anonymity did not worry me.  The role playing helped make things more objective. It is more difficult to take offense to an anonymous statement without a real person behind it.  The role playing also allowed for extreme statements without the protective social barriers that might otherwise be raised."

"Many thanks.  I finally managed to get involved and your "games" were fantastic and gave plenty of food for thought."

Observations and feedback

The following are the emerging success factors we have observed so far and are in the process of exploring in greater depth.

These observations, and feedback from our players, have been encouraging enough to keep us playing and start us writing!  We are currently putting together a training manual on the design, facilitation and debriefing of virtual games.

Designing E-mail games

Like any other training method, e-mail games require a significant level of planning to ensure successful outcomes.  Our e-mail games are designed as frame games.  Frame games are generic templates which have been thoroughly field-tested to ensure the process works in a range of contexts.  The key advantage of a frame game is its "tried and true" formula: a facilitator can take a game, plug in their own content and use it with confidence.

However, there is much more to a successful e-mail game than plugging in new content and knowing that the process will work.  Besides choosing the right game, there are different design components that must also be considered when deciding whether an e-mail game is appropriate for a training context.

The task: What to do want your learners to do?  Will a game be appropriate strategy to achieve a learning task?

The technology: Do your learners have the appropriate hardware, software and technical support to enable them to effectively participate in an e-mail game?

The media: Is a text-based media like e-mail an appropriate way to achieve the learning task and a suitable technology for your user group?

Players: Does the learning context enable players to effectively participate in e-mail games?  Issues to consider include voluntary versus mandatory participation, learning location, computer literacy, and type of support provided.   People have different learning preferences and this can be a big challenge for some.  Some free spirits get irritated by the contrived and artificial rules of the games.  They'd prefer an uncontrolled discussion.

Facilitation: Do you have the time, commitment and skill to facilitate a virtual game?

Facilitation

The heart of the matter for a successful virtual game is effective facilitation.  Although players generate and process the content, the facilitator orchestrates the game.

To provide a seamless virtual game, facilitation requires technical, administrative, interpersonal and instructional design functions .

We'll have a quick look at these in turn.

Technical

Facilitators need a working knowledge of the communication technologies they will be using to play virtual games as well as spreadsheets for data management.

Administrative

As responses to e-mail games arrive they must be processed quickly and accurately in preparation for the next round of play.  Accurate and systematic record keeping, like player tracking, collation of input and sending out of next rounds are critical to the smooth flow of e-mail games.

Interpersonal

While the templates provide you with all the steps you need to play a game, facilitating a game is more than a mechanical process.  Setting the scene, sustaining motivation and debriefing relies on the human factor and a fair degree of interpersonal skill.

Facilitators need to monitor the progress of a game and determine when to change pace, contact individual players and change the tone of the play.  Player participation patterns vary.  Some players reply promptly, others leave it to the last minute, some miss rounds but contribute to others and some will register but never contribute.

Instructional design

Virtual Games require a dynamic instructional process. You are close to your players and in a position to be responsive to feedback.  As the games are played in rounds, this makes instructional design a dynamic, iterative process.  If something is not working, it can be readily changed.

The game is an excuse for the debrief

People don't always learn from experience!  Players can have a great time participating in an e-mail game but learn nothing.  To ensure that the games have maximum impact on performance improvement, debriefing is perhaps the most important component of an e-mail game.  Debriefing provides the opportunity for reflection to take place which hopefully will facilitate the transfer of learning from the game to the work context.  We tend to use a bulletin board for debriefing.  It provides an opportunity for players to meet and share their experiences.  We have developed a debriefing template which can be adapted to each context by the facilitator.   Typical debriefing questions include: How do you feel?  What did you learn?   What three issues stood out?  What could be done differently?  How does this apply to your workplace?

Virtual games are serious fun and offer a challenging way to quickly and effectively process open-ended divergent questions that require application, analysis and synthesis.

About Marie and Thiagi

Marie Jasinski,  B.Ed, Grad Dip App Psych, Grad Dip Clin Hyp, Psychologist

MindMedia, Douglas Mawson Institute South Australia.

E-mail: mariejas@dmi.tafe.sa.edu.au

Marie's brief in MindMedia is to explore and model innovative practice in the design and application of new learning technologies to achieve more flexible learning.  Marie is well known in the Australian VET Sector for pushing the boundaries in the design and facilitation of online learning environments.  Marie manages the LearnScope Virtual Learning Community at www.learnscope.anta.gov.au

Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan PhD
Adjunct Professor, Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University.  Thiagi is also the founder and president of Workshops by Thiagi, Inc. whose mission is to improve human performance effectively, efficiently, and enjoyably.   A designer of more than 200 training games and simulations, Thiagi writes a monthly newsletter, the Thiagi Game Letter, published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.

Email: thiagi@thiagi.com   Web site:  www.thiagi.com
© Marie Jasinski and Dr Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan,   April, 2000

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This is not a delayed April Fools' Day joke.  It's all too real, and I assume that you're already sitting down.

Picture a world where information about your every move on the Web, including the sites that you visit, the keywords that you enter into search engines, and so on, are all shipped off to a third party, with the willing cooperation of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). None of those pesky cookies to disable, no outside Web sites to put on block lists--just a direct flow of data from your ISP to the unseen folks with the dollar signs (or pound, yen, euro, or whatever signs) gleaming brightly in their eyes behind the scenes.  You'll of course be told that your information is "anonymous" and that you can trust everyone involved, that you'll derive immense benefits from such tracking, and that you have an (at least theoretical) opt-in or opt-out choice.

But just for some frosting on the cake, also picture that if you avail yourself of the opportunity not to participate in such tracking (via opt-out or opt-in choices), that you either cannot use the associated ISPs at all, or will be faced with paying significantly higher fees than persons who are willing to play along with tracking.

As you have no doubt guessed by now, this is not a theoretical scenario.  We're on the verge of starting down the slippery slope to this end right now, with the imminent operations of Predictive Networks (http://www.predictivenetworks.com) and other similar businesses also in the works.

When I recently learned about Predictive (which has apparently been established for some time and seems to be well funded), I naturally visited their Web site, which was sadly lacking in obvious specifics such as an actual posted privacy policy.  (I've since been told that this is a temporary condition which will shortly be remedied.)   I spoke briefly with the firm's president and had a much more detailed chat with his V.P. for Business Development, and received an e-mailed copy of their privacy privacy.   Both of these fellows were polite, cordial, and willing to provide me with the information I desired about their plans.

Unfortunately, the more that I learned from these sources, the increasingly concerned I became.

In brief, Predictive's business is to engage ISPs (not just "free" ISPs where usage tracking has become typical, but conventional fee-based ISPs as well) in arrangements where the ISP will directly feed Web usage data to Predictive.  The firm also claims to be working with Internet backbone providers.  To quote from Predictive's privacy policy:

"Predictive Networks uses Digital Silhouettes to match Internet content and advertising with appropriate subscriber recipients. As a result, subscribers receive information that appeals to their current needs and interests.  To develop a Digital Silhouette, The Predictive Network analyzes URL click-stream data, such as web pages visited, and date and time of visit. URLs are then evaluated against more than 120 affinity and demographic categories, and assigned a score between zero and one.  The resulting Digital Silhouette is simply an anonymous set of numerical probabilities inferred from subscriber behavior. URL histories are not permanently stored and the data in the Digital Silhouette is not personally identifiable."

and:

"To provide subscribers with content most relevant to their current interests, The Predictive Network may retain key words from Internet searches.  These key words are attached to the subscriber's anonymous Digital Silhouette and, like the Digital Silhouette itself, are not personally identifiable. The Predictive Network also gathers data about a subscribers' response to messages and content, which is used to fine-tune future messages and message format."

It is Predictive's contention that they do not maintain an ongoing history of sites visited (URLs), and that the Digital Silhouettes are maintained in an "anonymous" fashion--so they feel that there is no violation of users' privacy.

But outside of the fact that keyword search terms *themselves* can often contain personally-identifiable or other sensitive data, also note from the Predictive privacy policy that:

"To optimize the format of the content delivered to subscribers, the anonymous Digital Silhouette may include specifications about the subscriber's computer, such as processor type, browser plug-ins and available memory.  For some of our ISP partners, Predictive Networks may provide a built-in dialer system.  Should an ISP select this option, The Predictive Network may require subscribers to furnish their ISP user name and password.  This information will be used strictly for account authentication purposes and will not be associated with the subscriber's anonymous Digital Silhouette.  Our ISP partners can also the leverage the power of The Predictive Network for customer service purposes.  Should a subscriber's ISP select this option, the ISP user name may be matched with the Digital Silhouette ID number.  This will allow The Predictive Network to send specific individuals important customer service information.  In addition, some subscribers may elect to have email service from their ISP. Subscribers on The Predictive Network that choose this option may be required to supply Predictive Networks with their email address.  This information is used for email notification only."

In other words, there is a variety of personally-identifiable information that you may need to provide to Predictive at various times, and you are expected to trust Predictive not to purposely or accidentally misuse this data.  You also must trust that Predictive will not associate this information with your "Digital Silhouette" in any manner--nor let anyone else make such an association.  One wonders what would happen in the face of a court order to provide associated data for a civil or criminal proceeding or investigation.

Most of the familiar problems we've seen in the past with so-called "anonymous" tracking systems are present in this case.  Privacy policies can be changed at any time (e.g., the recent DoubleClick fiasco).  Detailed data that is theoretically discarded in the process of building "anonymous" profiles could be preserved at any time, simply through software alterations.  The very *existence* of these sorts of data collection and tracking infrastructures is of great concern.   Even with the best of intentions, the possibility for abuse is impossible to ignore--and as we know there is a vacuum of laws to provide consumers with useful protections in these areas.

Predictive claims that all of this effort is to bring better services to Web users.   Their apparent view is that tracking people's usage to figure out what sorts of ads to send them is far better than simply *asking* people to select the sorts of materials that they might wish to receive.

Of course, whenever you use automated techniques to try figure out what people want based on the Web sites they happen to visit, there is the possibility of embarrassing errors.  For example, people may be suckered into pornography sites by misleading banner ads, and not be at all interested in receiving adult-oriented advertising.   Similar errors relating to other topic areas can occur from any number of the inadvertent Web sites that all of us hit in the process of typical Web browsing.   Predictive will let people see the profiles that have been built about them--but sometimes you'll have to *pay* for the privilege!  There are other interesting catches as well:

"In developing our anonymous subscriber Digital Silhouettes, Predictive Networks captures, analyzes and then discards URL click-stream data.  While we do not permanently retain a record of each subscriber's usage, we can, upon request, make their Digital Silhouette available to them for review.  Any subscriber on The Predictive Network has the right to view their Digital Silhouette free of charge twice during the calendar year. Subscribers will be charged $50.00 per request thereafter. Subscribers can obtain a copy of their Digital Silhouette by emailing Predictive Networks at silhouette@predictivenetworks.com. The email request must contain the subscriber's anonymous ID number, which can be found on their computer by holding down the shift key and right-clicking on about.  The corresponding Digital Silhouette will be emailed back to the subscriber within approximately ten business days.  Subscriber should note that by emailing Predictive Networks, they may be "identifying" themselves to the Company.  While we do not incorporate this information into our Digital Silhouettes, we do maintain a separate record of Digital Silhouette requests for accounting and billing purposes.  Should a subscriber object to any or all of the information contained in their Digital Silhouette, they can opt-out of The Predictive Network permanently, or opt-out and re-register, which will erase the existing Digital Silhouette and begin a new one.  Again, Predictive Networks urges subscribers to consult their Internet service provider before opting-out as doing so may affect their Internet service and/or their Internet service rate."

The last sentence above is of *special* interest to the question of how "optional" this tracking really would be.  It is apparently Predictive's intention to encourage ISPs, both free and the conventional fee-based types, to partner with them to create new revenue streams for the ISPs (and for Predictive, of course).   It would appear to be the plan that in most cases any use of free ISPs who have associated themselves with Predictive would be predicated on your acceptance of the tracking.  You can opt-out, or refuse to opt-in, but then you can't use the ISP.   Not much of an option! The details about the tracking may also be buried within an ISP's own privacy or other policy statements, making it even less likely that most people will ever bother reading or understanding all of the detailed ramifications of their using these systems.

It also appears to be Predictive's intention to encourage fee-based ISPs to offer lower rates to users willing to be tracked.  This can rapidly degrade into a coercive situation where users who do not wish to participate in such tracking will be forced to pay ever higher rates simply to maintain the same level of privacy and non-tracking that they had in the first place (as the immortal Alice learned, "running faster and faster to stay in the same place"...)  Can ISPs resist this temptation?  If not, the *fundamental* structure of the Internet and Web will be permanently changed in a manner that could make reasonably-priced, non-tracked Internet access a rapidly fading memory, and make all of the abuse potentials of these tracking technologies the status quo engrained within the Internet infrastructure.

After Predictive gets their privacy policy online at their Web site, I urge everyone interested in these issues to read the entire text. There are many other interesting sections, such as how they're dealing with the issue of tracking children under the age of 13 (vis-a-vis the new Federal Trade Commission regulations on this topic).   Basically, Predictive says that you either must keep such children away from the computer, or must agree that it's OK for the children to be tracked. It's all or nothing.

Predictive of course says that they are very concerned about privacy. They told me that they're forming a "privacy advisory board"--and so on.

I have a different suggestion.  How about if the users of the Internet and World Wide Web, the millions and soon billions of individuals, take a stand while we still have the opportunity?  We still have the chance to say that our personal information is our own and that our Web browsing behavior is private.  We may yet be able to successfully assert that we won't be manipulated, coerced, or otherwise "bribed" into allowing our Web activities to (as "The Prisoner" put it) be "pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered!"

The Internet and Web have tremendous commercial potential.  But it can be achieved ethically and without the use of obnoxious technologies that are being shoved down our throats like feed for animals destined for the dinner table.  The firms who view the Internet as little more than a "cash cow" are already placing the software rings in our noses in an effort to see us made easier to manipulate and control.

The stink of the slaughterhouse may not be far away.

Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com
Co-Founder, PFIR: People for Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org

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TOP TEN MISTAKES IN EDUCATION:

Education reformer Roger Schank addresses what he perceives as mistakes in education, from an excerpt in  his book, Engines for Educators.  See if you agree!

found on http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/nodes/NODE-283-pg.html

Obviously, I believe that the school system is making a great many mistakes. Here are my ten favorites, favorite not because I like them but because eradicating them would go so far towards helping kids learn:

Mistake #1: Schools act as if learning can be disassociated from doing.

There really is no learning without doing. There is the appearance of learning without doing when we ask children to memorize stuff. But adults know that they learn best on the job, from experience, by trying things out. Children learn best that way, too. If there is nothing to actually do in a subject area we want to teach children it may be the case that there really isn't anything that children ought to learn in that subject area.

Mistake #2: Schools believe they have the job of assessment as part of their natural role.

Assessment is not the job of the schools. Products ought to be assessed by the buyer of those products, not the producer of those products. Let the schools do the best job they can and then let the buyer beware. Schools must concentrate on learning and teaching, not testing and comparing.

Mistake #3: Schools believe they have an obligation to create the same material. Let children choose where they want to go, and with proper guidance they will choose well and create an alive and diverse society.

Mistake #4: Teachers believe they ought to tell students what they think it is important to know.

There isn't all that much that it is important to know. There is a lot that it is important to know how to do, however. Teachers should help students figure out how to do stuff the students actually want to do.

Mistake #5: Schools believe instruction can be independent of motivation for actual use.

We really have to get over the idea that some stuff is just worth knowing even if you never do anything with it. Human memories happily erase stuff that has no purpose, so why try to fill up children's heads with such stuff? Concentrate on figuring out why someone would ever want to know something before you teach it, and teach the reason, in a way that can be believed, at the same time.

Mistake #6: Schools believe studying is an important part of learning.

Practice is an important part of learning, not studying. Studying is a complete waste of time. No one ever remembers the stuff they cram into their heads the night before the exam, so why do it? Practice, on the other hand, makes perfect. But, you have to be practicing a skill that you actually want to know how to perform.

Mistake #7: Schools believe that grading according to age group is an intrinsic part of the organization of a school.

This is just a historical accident and it's a terrible idea. Age-grouped grades are one of the principal sources of terror for children in school, because they are always feeling they are not as good as someone else or better than someone else, and so on. Such comparisons and other social problems caused by age-similar grades cause many a child to have terrible confidence problems. Allowing students to help those who are younger, on the other hand, works well for both parties.

Mistake #8: Schools believe children will accomplish things only by having grades to strive for.

Grades serve as motivation for some children, but not for all. Some children get very frustrated by the arbitrary use of power represented by grades and simply give up.

Mistake #9: Schools believe discipline is an inherent part of learning.

Old people especially believe this, probably because schools were seriously rigid and uptight in their day. The threat of a ruler across the head makes children anxious and quiet. It does not make them learn. It makes them afraid to fail, which is a different thing altogether.

Mistake #10: Schools believe students have a basic interest in learning whatever it is schools decide to teach to them.

What kid would choose learning mathematics over learning about animals, trucks, sports, or whatever? Is there one? Good. Then, teach him mathematics. Leave the other children alone.

This list does not detail all that is wrong with school, neither do the teaching architectures we propose fix all that is wrong with education. Nevertheless they give an idea of where to begin. And, I believe that high quality software could help make these changes possible.

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Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
neilshel@icon.co.za
www.saide.org.za

* To view an archive of previous updates visit:
www.saide.org.za/tad/archive.htm
* For resources on distance education and technology use in Southern Africa visit:
www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm

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