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acceptable use, apps, cell phones, digital devices, nothing is permanently erased, parents and technology

SnapChat: Instantly Deletable Images? Sort of…

Posted on May 5, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Snapchat: the free mobile app that promotes itself as a disappearing act. Parents and educators need to know just enough to understand its attraction to children and adolescents and the potential problems that may occur

Teens and, yes, some tweens are now playing with Snapchat because it’s designed to make pictures disappear at their destination — in ten seconds or less.

I’ve tried to use the app, and pictures really do disappear. Voilà! The content is gone. So does this mean a child (or an adult) can go ahead and send all sorts of pictures?

Well, not exactly. Read A Warning about SnapChat, Teenagers, and Online Photo Sharing, appearing on February 11, 2013, over at the Forbes website.

After downloading and installing the Snapchat app on a mobile phone, a user chooses a picture, text, or drawing and decides how long to allow the picture to reside on the recipient’s screen — anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds. For Snapchat to work the sender must trust that the recipient will allow the picture to delete and that the recipient will be trustworthy and respect the wishes of the sender. Any user is supposed to be 13 or older.

So yes, the content does disappear, but even a picture residing for just a few seconds gives an unreliable recipient enough time to take a quick screenshot, preserving the image. Read this April 10, 2013 New Yorker article, Delete This Picture When You’re Done, by Matt Buchanan, who points out that the Snapchat site is handling over 60 million images a day. Another informative article is SnapChat: Sexting Tool or Next Instagram, a CNN report by Doug Gross. Continue reading “SnapChat: Instantly Deletable Images? Sort of…” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, apps, digital devices, digital parenting, parents and technology

More Apps, More Experimenting, More Tween-Teen Public Mistakes

Posted on April 6, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Read Washington Post reporter Cecilia Kang’s April 6, 2013 article, Instagram Beauty Contests Worry Parents, Privacy Advocates, a piece that brings teachers and parents up to date on the current Instagram beauty contest craze among tweens and younger teens.

It’s all so simple. Combine normal growing up with unsupervised digital device apps and add in kids’ occasionally poorly thought-out decisions — and you have a recipe for problems. Many educators, who are aware on a daily basis of the increasing difficulties created by kids’ freewheeling app use, will tell you that it’s predictable. Also, it’s destructive to 21st Century learning communities.

An April 4, 2013 post, Beauty Is Only Skin Deep but Instagram Is to the Bone, by Huffington Post blogger Holly Actman Becker, offers a chatty but detailed romp through the current beauty contest experience from a mom’s perspective and with an interesting result. (Note: I enjoyed reading this post, but if you prefer your prose formal and straight-laced, this isn’t for you. I also wonder just how the author did not know that the minimum age is 13?)

Make no mistake –I love my digital devices. I enjoy using them, talking about them, and sharing information about how they work with my students. Moreover, I do not believe that children and adolescents should have their mobile devices taken away. (OK, a few of these children do need to have an old-fashioned time out from their new-fangled gadgets.) Continue reading “More Apps, More Experimenting, More Tween-Teen Public Mistakes” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, apps, QR codes, quick links, quick resource codes

Short QR Code FAQ

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Marti Weston

(A follow-up to the post on QR codes.)

After posting my most recent piece on quick resource (QR) codes, a number of questions reached me via e-mail and the blog’s comment section. So here’s a short FAQ that answers these questions

Q: Are QR codes an app of some kind?

A: No, a QR code is not an app, but it is a new way to connect — without an actual address — to Internet content. A quick resource symbol can appear anywhere, but you are most likely to see one on paper or signs — non-digital locations — making it easy for an individual to open the app on a smartphone, aim, scan, and connect. Quick resource codes are a bit like bar codes, found everywhere in daily life, except that right now QR codes are less common than bar codes.

Q: Can I control my child’s access to QR codes? Continue reading “Short QR Code FAQ” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, apps, parents and technology, QR coder, quick resource codes

QR CodeTutorial: Updated Post With Illustrations

Posted on April 1, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

QR Codes. You’ve probably seen them around — on everything from cereal boxes to magazines to advertising banners on the bus or in the subway.

QR is short for quick resource code (QR code), the scannable geometric-looking design that connects a person via smartphone to digital information such as an e-mail site, a video, a website, or even a telephone number. QR codes are similar to bar codes, but the QR image contains far more encoded information — thousands of times more, in fact. Learn more about QR codes at the Common Craft video tutorial site.

A QR code is essentially a shortcut that leads to digitized information. It might be, for instance, at the end of a book chapter, linking the reader to more content on a topic, or on a billboard. It could link conference attendees to a workshop handout or schedule. Continue reading “QR CodeTutorial: Updated Post With Illustrations” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, apps, QR codes, quick links, quick resource codes

All About QR Codes

Posted on March 26, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

QR Code Parents — This QR code leads to a digital parenting wiki site that my colleagues and I created.

QR Codes. You’ve probably seen them around — on everything from cereal boxes to magazines to advertising banners on the bus or in the subway.

apps, cell phones, digital devices and gadgets, digital parenting, mobile phones, parents and technology, social media, social networking, tweens and technology

Getting to Know Instagram – Links to Bring Adults Up to Speed

Posted on September 16, 2012March 19, 2019 by Marti Weston

In a matter of weeks last spring quite a few older elementary and middle school children whom I know jumped on the Instagram bandwagon, and they continue to have fun with it. The social networking photography app, now owned by Facebook, lives on their wireless devices, making it easy to use without getting encumbered with computers.

The minimum age for the Instagram app is 13, but that hasn’t stopped the site from attracting many children younger than that. While I tend to be someone who takes age requirements seriously, many parents, after checking out various sites, are more comfortable than I am with letting their children use sites when they are a bit younger than 13 years of age.

The biggest challenge for adults is keeping an eye on the content and quality of the photos that their children are uploading to Instagram. Problems can occur when children err in judgment as they make decisions about what to share (and what not to share).

In any event, all of us — parents, teachers, and any other adults in children’s lives — need to learn more about Instagram. I’ve added the app to my phone and plan to get acquainted with it. The list of articles below offers parents and teachers lots of information — how Instagram works and how children socialize when they use the social networking app with their friends. Continue reading “Getting to Know Instagram – Links to Bring Adults Up to Speed” →

apps, digital devices and gadgets, digital parenting, parents and technology, privacy

Lots More People are Using Smartphone Location Services

Posted on May 11, 2012March 19, 2019 by Marti Weston

Pew location services — Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just published new survey results finding that 74% of smartphone owners — that’s three-quarters — appear to be using location services on their phones.

This statistic is double what it was when Pew conducted a similar survey in May 2011. The increase in location services occurs despite privacy concerns about tracking and data collection. Check out the report to look at the data by age, gender, and ethnic group, depicted in a range of charts and graphs.

I am still minimizing or turning off the number of location services that I use on my phone. While some of us use more location services than others on our smartphones, it’s critical for parents to know how location services work and how to limit access on the phones that their children around each day. Many apps ask to turn on location services during the installation process.

Do you know about Foursquare ? If it’s on an adolescent’s cell phone a parent needs to learn about it. Find out more about location services by reading a post that I wrote about location services, Location, Location, Location – Services that Is.

Each adult needs to figure out how much privacy is necessary or desired in his or her digital life and also in the digital lives of children. People seeking one right answer won’t find it, however, it’s best to take the time to understand the devices that family members carry and apps that they use.