"The Cloud" becomes Vanishing Fog

Vicki Davis, co-creator of the award winning Flat Classroom project, recently blogged here about problems with Google forms.  She had a Google form removed without warning.  She was tracking logins for a collaborative project with the form.  Google has offered no explanation or apology for the removal. 

Davis' researched the problem and found similar reports by others.  Google's 'Terms of Service' explicitly says that users should NOT include userids and passwords in their documents.  One of the people who commented on Davis' blog hypothesized that the problem stems from phishing campaigns.  She suggests that removing documents with userids is one way that Google protects its users.

I believe that Google could protect its users and provide a much better service to its users by alerting them before removing their files.  However, this does serve as a reminder to all of us.

The cloud is not foolproof.  You should have a backup of you data.  Don't rely on the magnanimity of a corporate entity to secure your data.  They will not be up all night retyping your paper if it is lost.

Missing ISTE

One of the blogs I read is Cool Cat Teacher by Vicki Davis.  She just posted about missing NECC, the national technology conference, because of a family situation.  I can really sympathize with her situation.  (You can read more about that in my comment to Vicki's post that I linked above.)

I am going to try to attend virtually though.  Here is a link to some of the content you will be able to access on the Web, http://www.isteconference.org/ISTE/2011/glance/simulcasts_and_webcasts.php.   I am also thinking about signing up to do a virtual workshop, http://www.isteconference.org/ISTE/2011/program/virtual_workshops.php.  Remote ISTE is $99 for a whole day of sessions.  There are two tracks with lots of great sessions.  I am interested in the several - Google forms, mobile learning devices, iPads and I would love to see Steven Covey talk about his new book, The Leader in Me.  It also looks like you can observe the wiki (http://digiteacher.flatclassroomproject.org/) for a session Julie Lindsay will be conducting about digital citizenship.

Anyone else going in person or virtually?

Students Envisioning the Future

Vicki Davis, one of my favorite bloggers, is working on the Horizon project. Students are envisioning the future. Watch this video about the future of cellular phones.



Can you imagine all the things that Atif, the creator of this video, learned in creating this video? Now that is authentic learning and awsome use of YouTube! It makes the world seem a lot smaller when I am inspired by a student in Bangladesh.