Kevin Brookhouser

Carl Hooker is right. Email should die . He’s also correct in his assessment that it’s not going anywhere any time soon. I celebrated the future demise of email the moment Google announced Wave. We know which platform triumphed there. So, as long as our hate relationship love/hate relationship with email continues to survive, may I propose one little recommendation? Whenever possible, link, don’t attach. Every time you attach a file to an email and then send it off multiple people, you’re actually making many different copies of that file. For example, when someone sends an image via attachment to our faculty and staff, they’re actually creating over 60 copies of that image and hosting them all on our email servers … not to mention each machine that downloads the image. If that user, instead, were to upload that image to a photo sharing site and then link to that image in the email, hundreds or thousands of megabits would be spared from servers and hard drives. Images Rather th...

Below are some slides I'm using to present to York School parents. Most of my talk will be about Facebook safety and based on this great resource from Common Sense Media .

A recent article in Business Insider has many people on the internet justifiably concerned. In essence, if you're logged into Facebook, Facebook is collecting your browsing data. To be fair, many web services do this as well, but among all of the corporations who do, Facebook is the one I trust the least. If you don't want Facebook collecting your data, there are two very simple solutions.  This guy is in charge of the company that is watching you. Photo by Elaine Chan and Pricilla Chan released with a Creative Commons License Don't use Facebook. According to The Onion, only four people in the world actually enjoy using Facebook . If you're like me and you're not yet ready to quit Facebook, then here's a very simple way to prevent Facebook from collecting your browsing data.  Download Chrome . With Chrome open, click "File" > "New Incognito Window." Log in to Facebook.  Keeping Facebook in a separate incognito window...

Photo licensed for reuse by mahalie on flickr According to my Facebook news feed this morning, last night was St. Patrick's Day, and it looks like some folks had a good time. Other folks? I don't judge. Much. Not long ago young people could mostly escape indiscretion's ephemera. Now, we all leave a permanent digital footprint, whether we want to or not. Even if your students have mastered Facebook's arcane privacy settings (they probably haven't) anything posted digitally can be duplicated again, again, and again. Students today need to know that the web holds all kinds of personal information that college admissions officers and employers access and use to make judgements. This "digital footprint" can help them or hurt them. Managing an online reputation is much more than avoiding cameras at parties. Students also need to know that they must present themselves as an authentic good citizen. Some may go so far to argue that an empty digital foot...

I just returned from two lovely days in Palm Springs, not specifically to get away from the dreariness of Monterey County this March, but it was a welcome bonus. A dozen or so other educators and I met there to receive training on Common Sense Media's Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum . Their mission: Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.  We exist because our nation's children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.  CSM offers a K-12 Curriculum on Digital Li...

Last month, the editor of Mbaykids.com asked me to write a piece on social networking and kids for their print magazine, Scoop !  Here's the, um, scoop. What is a social network?  All humans have engaged in social networks for as long as they have been, well, human. These are the groups of people, family, friends and colleagues that make our lives rich and engaging. Online social network services like Facebook provide a convenient means for us to interact with these people, who are increasingly spread out around the world. While Facebook is the largest online social network, it is intended only for those over 13 years old and while some parents turn a blind eye, Facebook is not a safe place for youngsters. However, there is a wide variety of social networks available where kids can interact with their friends online safely and where they can learn to become ethical digital citizens. A great resource is Commo...