A Resource for Academic Mobile Learning Initiatives at Northeastern University

After setting up the ipad to use in the classroom and for research purposes I realized that I am unable to lock individual programs from student view. I looked into secret folder and found this is great to hide pictures and videos but not programs and documents. So far the only solution to hiding my mail and calendar is to book mark the web log in and log in using this cumbersome process. For documents I have also bookmarked the drop box as well but find I can not download the applications and control access

Has any body else come across solutions to control privacy?

Lately I’ve been thinking about my online reputation. Perhaps it’s because very soon I will be applying for a number of faculty positions and the people on the hiring committees are more than likely going to google search me if I make it past the first round of applicants. Perhaps it is because I am, time and time again, reading facebook status updates that are really not appropriate. In any event, I plan on talking with my students about their online presence and ways in which they can secure “good reputations” in the virtual world, before they go on things like coop and job interviews. Here is an interesting article that discusses some of the issues with faculty and students being friends on facebook. Also, the article links to other articles about one’s online presence and how to clean it up. For my part, since I am apparently the only person with the name Genie Giaimo in the country, I am thinking about how to opt out of the white pages, and how to make all components of my facebook profile private or friends only. You now need to individually select the privacy level for things like interests, fav. books movies etc. If you don’t list yourself as private (even if your profile is friends only) your fb profile will come up in google searches with that information (or comments you post on other people’s walls etc. This might not seem like a big deal–but when a person has limited publications and other more “official” links attached to their names, it is a good idea to get rid of as many of those unnecessary or non-reputation boosting links as possible–but I think it makes a difference.

Here is another link to a similar article about managing one’s fb profile.

As it turns out, I am not teaching any classes this semester. Instead, I am offering a series of academic workshops to students in the Ujima Scholars program. Consequently, I am having to re-think how I incorporate the iPad into my work for the time being. My initial project was based around elements of HipHop culture. That project will continue in its full form in the Fall 2012 semester, when I teach a course focused on HipHop. In the meantime, I am exploring having students use the HipHop related apps in smaller group settings, rather than in the full classroom. Additionally, I have been exploring other ways to use the iPad in a workshop setting. One potentially good application in this type of learning environment, is using an app like Sketchpad as a whiteboard. Using this to both take notes myself and to have students add notes/commentary, all of which can then be sent to students after the workshop is useful. It creates a kind of group mind-mapping effect, which works well in a more informal workshop setting. I hope to come up with new ways to use the iPad in these workshops until I can get back into working with the HipHop apps.