What are your Personal Networks

If you saw my last post, you know I was trying to decide if and how to post notice of my father's death because I was struggling with even being on Facebook in recent weeks.  Well, I decided to post before going to church on Sunday so I would not get a lot of questions about his condition. 

Well when I posted, I was again amazed at the different groups of connections I have and how they all seemed to connect through me.  In all these comments and reactions, there are only eight or ten connections that could be in more than one category.  The table below only accounts for the first 24 hours after the original post.  It does not account for a few texts, IMs, and e-mails.  I added when I physically left those communities, even though I stay connected through social media.

What does it all mean?  Well, obviously I am well connected through my church, where I have been a member for 29 years.  It is a very engaged and multi-cultural community that really cares.  Beyond that, maybe that I need to get to know my neighbors more?

Community	Start	End	Comment	Reaction
Hometown/High School	1976	2003	17	5
Navy	1984	2004	9	8
Neighbors	2000	2020	1
Church	2001	2020	29	40
Extended Family	2001	2020	6	11
Former Work (BW)	2006	2016	12	7
Living Waters Ministry	2015	2020	4	3
Current Work (CSF)	2016	2020	1	4
2nd Job (Spartan)	2018	2020	1
Totals			80	78

Social Media Obituaries?

If you read my last post, you will see that I am struggling with Facebook right now.  I am no longer comfortable reading all the opinions and issues that friends and family post.  It seems to be so full of opinions and anger that it is no longer fun to read.
At the same time, this is where we have been sharing our lives with our extending networks of past and present friends, coworkers, and family.  And when a significant event occurs,  shouldn't it be shared with as a major life event? 
So here I am...I got the call last night that my dad had passed.  It was not unexpected.  He had Parkinson's for years, then the Covid isolation accelerated the disease.  Two weeks ago he was admitted to the hospital as Covid positive.  Three days ago he was not eating, had high sodium, and fluid in the lungs.  His personal doctor, the hospital doctor, and I all agreed that it was time to just make him comfortable.  No feeding tube, no resuscitation. The loss is not as significant as some would think because the man I know as my dad had been gone a while.  And yes, there is relief at his passing...and guilt for feeling the relief.  But death is familiar to me...it is a well worn path that I have traveled before.
But now the struggle is how to share this with that extending community of family and friends.  If I share it on Facebook, I will get hundreds of comments that I will have to look at and respond to, even if it is only to "like" them.  But with that interaction I will get sucked into looking at other posts on Facebook.  Those posts that I am actively trying to avoid by not looking at Facebook as much as I used to.
It is strange to struggle with a decision, because I am known as a decisive person most of the time.  I have dealt with critical decisions frequently and have an instinctive way of choosing the correct path every time.  I have to consider this one for a few days. Since we are not doing a funeral or memorial service, I may wait until the burial and just publish a link to the obituary.

Stolen Facebook

As my Facebook family is mostly Christian, I recently posted a request that people think about what they post and post with love instead of trying to cause strife and anger.  I worded it very carefully to not push against any side on all of the various volatile issues running rampant on today's social media.  In return I ended up in a 'discussion' of my own because one Christian woman (friend of a friend) felt I was trying to silence her when she was trying to provide truth to illuminate issues.

After gracefully bowing out of the back and forth posts, I sat and wondered how my post could be taken that way after all my careful thought and wording.  I wondered where the Facebook I joined was.  The Facebook about connecting with friends, celebrating life's accomplishments, and occasionally sharing life's sorrows.  It has been high-jacked by political agendas, anger, and self-righteousness. To me, it seems like the original purpose of Facebook has been lost to all this aggravation.  I am reminded of Jesus throwing the moneychangers out of the temple.  To paraphrase Andrew Lloyd Webber in the temple scene from Jesus Christ, Superstar (Ted Neely in screech rock singing style): 

My Facebook should be a site of fun.
But you have made it site of strife.
Log-Off!  Log-OFF!

Leader for Exploration

Last night I was driving up into the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.  The roads became very twisty as we got closer to our destination.  There were times I was following another car, and found it very easy to follow the tail lights and brake lights of someone else.  I could anticipate directions, braking needed, and amount of steering input.  But then that car would pull off and I had to be the lead, trying to see where the road would be taking us, not sure about the sharpness or banking on every turn.  Being the explorer with no one in front of me was very stressful, and I had to consciously relax myself so I was not too tense to drive effectively.  And of course the 450 pound black bear running across the road did not help.
This morning, I realized that it was not unlike the Web 2.0 explorations we are doing in this course.  Being a private person, I do not explore social media much, and that exploration make me uncomfortable.  The risks of leaving too much of my footprint on the web, or getting hooked into material that captures my interest and time (that I don't have).  But with someone to follow and guide the exploration, it does make it slightly less stressful.  And it is ironic that as I do research for this course and try to learn more about the relationship between online learning and Web 2.0, on name keeps popping up in published papers.  We are very fortunate to have Vanessa Dennen leading us through this exploration.

Network Knowledge Activity - Ancestry.com

After I had posted my example of an activity, I visited my Ancestry account to get some information.  As I got distracted and cleared a few hints, it occurred to me that this was a huge knowledge network.  Think about how the user works within the Ancestry site.
After setting up an account (membership), you name your family tree (or trees) and you start entering the data you know.  This usually involves collection of data from the family to start.  The data you have is entered into the web site in an organized fashion (curation) that provides data points where the data you have input can them link to other data within the archives.  Those data point come up as hints which you can add to your data or reject as irrelevant.  This repeats the the collection/curation cycle in a loop as your family tree grows.
Some of the hints will link to family trees that other users have built in the database.  You can choose to not link to those trees, but if you do, then your information on the data point has now shared with others linked to that person in your tree.  When you review their data, you can see the source of their data to judge its validity and compare it to your own.  In effect, you are brokering your own and their data when you accept to link you data to each of these others.  It becomes a joint data project, where, as you add data to the shared data point, the other users see that new data and hints they can add.  When data is questionable or confusing, you can contact the other users through the web site to negotiate what data points are trustworthy enough to save.
In my personal tree, I have traced my family back to Bridgewater, MA, when the land for the town was purchased from the local Indians.  And my family married Mayflower passengers, making me a son of the Mayflower.  The negotiation process became important as well when there are eight men named John within four generations of my family.

Cybersecurity

At this point in my life, I been involved in the security trade for many years.  I was a training sales coordinator for military and law enforcement training.  I am a registered security officer and personal protective specialist (think executive protection).  I write security force and law enforcement training for the military.  But am I secure enough in my online life?

I get training every year on cybersecurity and I know I am following most of the protocols.  I try to not let the internet see too much of me.  I have less on my Facebook than many people.  Yet I do worry about what I don’t see or know out there.

You see, with static security, the concern is what is coming in to your area.  In a bank or a store, you are watching the people for signs they may be a threat.  You may also be responsible for checking the perimeter to maintain locked doors, etc.  In the cyber world, this is would be checking incoming emails and files before opening them and maintaining your antivirus and other protective software.

But when you venture out into the world of the internet, it is more difficult.  During protective service, before we move the protectee, we do an advance survey to scout the routes, look for places that could difficult, and plan to mitigate all the risks we can.  In the cyber world, you cannot ‘test drive’ a site before you visit.  Yes there are certificates on site, but even government and military sites do not keep their certificates up to date.  And there are spoof sites that can mimic actual sites.

So I come to the point that I do the best that I can, and try not to worry about the rest.

Some links:

 

https://medium.com/@nickrosener/an-in-depth-guide-to-personal-cybersecurity-be98ba47c968

https://www.naic.org/documents/consumer_alert_cybersecurity_identity_thieves.htm

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/08/02/cybersecurity-101-practical-tips-to-protect-your-personal-data/#7f3fca49220d

Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome

Social media has become the way of the world today.  And nearly every law enforcement and fire agency has an official social media account. Additional, nearly every employee, both sworn and not, have personal social media accounts.  If leveraged properly, an official social media account can really aid an agency’s reputation.  Of course, a poorly worded post can explode to destroy any trust the agency builds with its community.  And an employee’s personal opinion on a private account can be misconstrued to be an agency’s official stance.

Most agencies have fairly robust social media policies that direct both kinds of accounts.  And controlling the official account is not that difficult.  Written policy, controlling access, and oversight should prevent issues with the official site.  But what about those personal accounts?

Most law enforcement agencies have policies about how employees reflect on or comment on the agency that tries to balance the individual’s First Amendment rights with protecting the agency.  The bottom line on that balance really is that you can publish anything you want, but the agency can fire you or even take legal action against you. 

Dave Statter (www.statter911.com) has coined a phrase for this:  Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome (SMACSS).  He frequently posts links to stories about first responders making these posts and suffering the consequences.  If you are not a victim of your own SMACSS, most of the stories will make you wonder how they can be so #$% stupid.  Unfortunately for those agencies, damage to their agency's reputation in the eyes of the public as already occurred, even if you fire the offender.

The solution may be example training.  Regularly sharing stories of these Social Media Assisted Career Suicides keeps the subject fresh in the employee’s mind and makes them not want to be the subject of these posts.  The Navy/Marine Corps does this with safety by publishing a “Summary of Mishaps” listing incidents where service members made “errors in judgement” that resulted in injury or damage.  Many times during on or off duty events, one of us would look at the other and stop, saying we did not want to be in the summary.  Such a solution should work for any agency.

GroupMe

What is GroupMe?  Is is a mobile messaging app that allows the group or group administrator to control the membership of the group.  Once set up, group members do not have to download the app as it works through the SMS on the phone without the app.  When a group member posts a message, everyone in that group can see it and comment or reply.  The messenger can attach pictures, documents, video clips to posts as well. If both users have the full GroupMe app, they can also message privately.  It actually works somewhat like a mini Facebook.
Spartan Investigations is a small, multi-state investigation and security company that uses the app extensively.  There are three groups within the company:  1) the leadership team that includes the company officers, directors, and legal team;  2) the personal protection specialists that conduct protection details; and 3) the security group that includes security officers armed and unarmed security services at various posts.  There is overlap between the groups (I'm in all three) but it provides excellent communications within the company.  Because the business is run in a family way, GroupMe serves as both a business communication and as a social place where birthdays and family accomplishments are posted.
This app would be excellent in a distance learning environment.  Classmates can communicate in a timely manner, yet a group administrator, the instructor can communicate privately with learners.  With the private communication option, the same app would allow direct turn-in of assignments.  For institutions with tools already in place, this may not be useful, but GroupMe might be a valuable ad hoc tool for a class that has to shift to distance learning.

ISLT in the Real World

Sorry folks but this blog post is a vent.  Rest assured is has nothing to do with current events that are consuming news and social media. 

I am just a couple courses away from completing my Masters degree in Instructional Systems and Learning Technology.  Over the last few years on this path, I have learned about interesting technology tools that can help create good curriculum.  Most importantly, I have learned to develop materials that engage the learner in the higher Bloom levels to maximize the opportunity to improve their ability to do the tasks required of them in the real world.  It has been exciting to look for ways to apply this to my work in the courses I have in my portfolio. 

Part of our work is to review material for other developers before it goes up to final review.  Recently I have been reviewed other material and have been very frustrated.  They are rote learning, with supporting presentations that have lots of words and very little imagery.  Even the testing is knowledge based with questions that are at the lowest Bloom verbs.  It is everything that I have been learning not to do. 

The most frustrating part is that leadership at the very top of the organization says they want to use new methods, get learning out of the classroom, challenge our learners.  But the lower level management guys that actually supervise us, direct the course content, and approve our work are stuck in the classroom methods they experienced 20 years ago or more.  So I review the material to my standard and they all say “Yeah but my team leader said...” 

In the end, it is a disservice to the learners at the end of the process.  They are digital natives, ready to learn in innovative ways that are not being produced.

Thus ends my rant for the day.