I recently attend a workshop on understanding the the effects of social media on our children.  It reminded me that I should check my privacy settings in facebook to see if they slipped some changes in with the recent interface change.  While the changes made in early December clarified the options for many users, those who had open profiles before the changes and clicked through the default choices presented with the new privacy settings  ended up with more open profiles than before.  This meant that uninformed users often left much more of their information in the public arena than they know.  

With this in mind, here are some tips for facebook privacy settings.  

Finding Privacy Settings

Click on the Account drop down in the upper right corner of the facebook interface.  Choose Privacy Settings.  Note that Account Settings has many important to consider, but the most important privacy settings are not found there.  

 5 Privacy Settings

There are 5 categories to look at.  I am going to walk through options for "Profile Information".  The others include some important information that I hope to post about on another occasion.    

10 of these settings (note 1) include a options as open as "Everyone" and as closed as "Only Me", the greatest levels of privacy (more below).  The Photo Album (note 2) button allows you to set privileges for each of your albums separately.  Notice that there is a box (note 3) that you uncheck to prevent friends from posting on your wall.  

Finding "Only Me"

This option takes more clicks to find than the others.  

Start by choosing "Custom edit" from the drop down.  
                                  

         

            

            

In the pop-out, select "Only Me" from the "Make this visible to - These people" menu.  

Then click "Save Settings".  

The other categories Contact Information, Applications and Websites, Search and Block List each include valuable options for managing your privacy.  I don't have time to walk through them now, but I hope to get to them soon.  

Last week while attending the Midwest Educational Technology Conference I discovered a vendor that truly stood out.  With so many "clown noses" that turn teachers and content into entertainment and software developers who are still building with plaster and lath in a drywall world, I look for the rare vendor that offers something relevant and modern.  

Schoology meets this criteria.  

In there words

Schoology is a free and fully hosted course management system with an integrades social network for K-12 and higher education.

Features

• UI - facebook style interface uses many familiar and intuitive features
• Emailess Users - No email address required
• User Information Letters (PDF) - Generates downloadable user information letters for parents
• Closed Network - content viewable only to members
• Permissions - Administrator can set permissions for teachers and students
• Email Notification - updates sent to teacher when student posts
• Blocked Word List - fully customizable list helps you to define acceptable language
• Search Box - users, groups, courses and assignments
• Drop Box - Students turn in work in any file format 
• Drop Back - Teachers return work after adding comments and grading
• Quizzes - multi choice (auto graded) and open response (teacher graded)
• Integrated Grade Book - Teachers can enter and change any grade including grades for assignments outside of the schoology.com system
• Attendance - mark student attendance and include comments
• Digital Report Card - with real time grades available to based on your permission settings
• Assignments - post files to for users to download
• Free - pay only for school branding if you want it

The Big Picture

• Social Networking & School - Schoology is a relevant application of social networking in schools. It provides solutions for basic classroom needs (grading, quizzes, attendance), realizes that class discussion can be achieved in a social networking setting and provides the security necessary for a safe learning environment. 
• Intuitive User Interface (UI) - The Schoology UI provides you the information and choices you need without getting in the way. I have seen few websites that manage this well. Looking at Ryan Hwang's (the founder of schoology) website and and followed some of twitter posts leave me only more interested by the study of User Interfaces. 

While educators may not be interested in how social networking websites can change their lives, we can no longer ignore their presence in our student's lives and their futures. Our students are already logging in and unfortunately they are learning the hard lessons without us there to help them. Schoology gives us "social networking training wheels" to help our students to learn these lessons in a safe learning environment. 

In his I Have A Dream Speach, Dr. Martin Luther King said:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. 

Is this not being lived out in Twitter (and other) communities where a members merit is based on their contribution to the community?