Blurts

The companies collecting your personal information and the companies attempting to protect you are in an arms race. It is easy enough to identify cookies set by the sites you visit, but are the cookies really the responsibility of what the cookie name might apply? This site from nextdns identifies cookies that are inappropriately labeled. Enter the URL for sites you visit and the service will search for misleading cookies.

The network effect proposes that the value of goods or a service increases as more individuals use the goods or make use of the service. The network effect is the challenge to a new service that is similar to a large existing service. This can be the case even when the new service has the potential to be superior to the existing service. When a service leverages the contributions of those who use the service, the network effect is particularly powerful. The infrastructure provided by wt:social and effort to avoid surveillance capitalism may not be sufficient to overcome the user base and the content generated by these users on Facebook. This is why WT:Social struggles to compete with Facebook and new users of WT:Social struggle to attract participation. 

I watched an interview with the fifteen-year-old editor of The Cramm on today’s Today Show. Her idea is to rewrite news stories for younger readers. Not a bad idea and a great resource. Readers can visit the web site or receive a newsletter. The resource has been gone international and the founder offers the opportunity for participation through local social media.

NPR story on The Cramm and its founder.

PBS LearningMedia has created an online access point for educational materials based on Ken Burn’s documentaries and media resources. The free resources for middle and secondary classrooms consist of video segments (250), images, documents and lesson ideas aligned with standards. I own the Ken Burns Jazz and Blues videos and Burns has a gift for contextualizing a topic (e.g., music, war, baseball, dust bowl) that offers great material for history and social studies teachers. Assignments can even be shared to Google classroom.

A sample from the environmental catastrophe of the dust bowl. Video segment with related study guide.

Amazon has announced a program, called Amazon Ignite, that will allow teachers to sell educational resources to fellow teachers. Amazon had a similar site some time ago that ended up dealing with copyright issues so the new venture will require that educators go through a vetting process and Amazon will review submissions from those selected. Amazon will take its 30% cut of revenue generated.

The EdSurge release explaining the new Amazon venture also notes that the popular Teachers Paying Teachers service has also been accused of hosting content that violated copyright. Amazon’s commitment to taking more responsibility for the content hosted will differentiate its effort.