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ICT news

Young and eSafe

Portal from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner that empowers young people to make a positive impact in their online world.“ Practical advice by young people, for young people to help challenge the haters and fakers online.” Sections include: I question things; I get back up; I am responsible; I feel for others; I respect differences. Lots of clear information – great for secondary class discussions.

https://esafety.gov.au/youngandesafe/

Excellent primary and secondary classroom resources: https://esafety.gov.au/education-resources/classroom-resources

 

Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web: ‘The system is failing’

The inventor of the web remains optimistic but has concerns over advertising, net neutrality, fake news, propaganda and the web’s increasing polarisation. The web as an open platform has changed and there are ‘increasingly powerful digital gatekeepers’ who can easily manipulate algorithms and use Artificial Intelligence to distract and target web users. Clickbait, fake news and ad revenue does not promote truth and democracy.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/15/tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web-net-neutrality

 

Google’s push to make the web more secure

Google wants all websites to migrate to using HTTPS and now flags websites as ‘not secure’ that use HTTP. Google states that 64% of Chrome traffic on Android is now protected as well as over 75% of Chrome traffic on ChromeOS and Mac. 66% of Windows Chrome traffic is also protected. 71% of the top 100 websites now use HTTPS by default. Apple and Facebook have also supported the shift to HTTPS.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/20/https-is-booming-says-google/

 

Twitter doubles tweet limit to 280 characters

User growth has been slow so you can now use more characters. Tests showed that longer tweets meant more followers, more interactions and more time on the platform. It was also easier to tweet and fit thoughts in. The roll-out includes all languages except Japanese, Korean and Chinese because they can convey double the amount of information in one character compared with many other languages.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-07/brevity-begone-twitter-doubles-tweet-limit-to-280-characters

 

Technology addiction and what you can do about it

Short and sharp facts about children and technology (12 min.) – parents have an important role in appropriate screen use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0adeZP6aDQw

 

How Netflix sucks you in

Netflix tries to personalise its service, featuring different titles for different customers. It hires taggers around the world who watch every piece of content and tag it eg. storyline, tone etc – yes they get paid! For the hit show Stranger Things, the Netflix algorithm applied 12 tags to capture how people relate to it. Netflix also has 2000 ‘taste communities’ and a popular show can appear in more than one community. It also tailors the images that accompany recommendations for you, to suit what you like to watch.

https://www.cnet.com/news/stranger-things-addict-heres-how-netflix-sucked-you-in/?ftag=CAD1c318f6&bhid=23787909704659446143753669728655

 

Animojis

Animated emojis – only for the iPhone X, which uses its front-facing camera for facial recognition. Using thousands of data points, your facial expressions are turned into an animoji which mimics your movement.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/getting-started-with-the-iphone-x-animoji-apple/

 

Are you eSports ready?

Professional video game playing is huge – thousands of teams, millions of players, $24m prize pool, $266m in sponsorship, $696m revenue and a global audience of 385 million and growing. Players are usually aged 16-30, with 80% male. Popular eSports include League of Legends and Dota 2. Watch highlights on YouTube or streamed live on Twitch, where you can interact with players and other fans.

https://australiascience.tv/vod/are-you-esports-ready/

http://www.businessinsider.com/esports-market-growth-ready-for-mainstream-2017-3/?r=AU&IR=T

 

Sophia robot granted citizenship to Saudi Arabia

The lifelike robot was granted citizenship at a tech summit. She appeared on stage saying she was very honoured to be the first robot in the world to be granted citizenship. Sophia responded to simple questions about artificial intelligence. She has also visited Australia recently.

https://www.livescience.com/60815-saudi-arabia-citizen-robot.html

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-sophia-the-robot-is-not-what-it-seems-20171030-gzbi3p.html

 

Augmented Reality enhanced educational books

Textbooks of the future will probably all be like this….Livit Studios is launching a series of AR books with features including animated 3D models, animated characters and interactive 3D games.

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2017/11/new-electronic-text-augmented-reality-textbook/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1418527006/imagina-books-human-body-augmented-reality-educati

 

Trust me, I’m an expert

A new monthly podcast for The Conversation. Fascinating stories where the experts “bust the myths, explain the science and put the news headlines into context…in a way we can understand and enjoy”. 2 Nov: Sibling competition and its role in evolution.

https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/trust-me-podcast