Predictions for Internet in 2012 ( infographic)

You might have already made a generalised statement about this post just from  reading the title.It is pretty obvious that internet has become viral in most of the industries now. People are using it  more and nore to do their daily tasks and some are even making a living out of it. Thanks to Internet, several jobs and wok opportunities have been created, many couples have been united, many degrees and diplomats have been earned, and several presidents have been ousted.

Just a decade ago nobody would have ever predicted this huge shift towards the digitisation of human life. The boom in the mobile technology industry have even increased this use of internet to the point that  it becomes normal to see people walking in the street with their attention completely sucked into the internet on their smarphones. Will this lead us to be just digital creatures living in virtual wrolds ? I hope not but I am against any excessive use of anything be it internet or anything else.
Anyway what I want to share with you today is an infographic about Internet Prediction and since you are educators and teachers and all of you use internet then I think the data included in this infographic might be of some interest to you. Read and share please.




Internet Usage Predictions for 2012 infographic created by SlotsofVegas.com © 2012

Free Tools and Resources about Internet Safety

Today ( Tuesday 7 February 2012 ) is Safer Internet Day ( SID ) that is organized by Insafe every February   to promote responsible, secure, and safer use of online technology and  mobile phones especially among teens and tweens all across the globe. This year SID will foucs on the following theme `` Connecting Genrations and Education each other ``. Head over to Safeinternetday.org to learn more.

Since you are educators and teachers then you might be probably looking for materials to include in your lessons about internet safety. I have already reviewed several websites that provide internet safety tips and I am going to list the most important resources you need to check for this topic.

1- Tips for Internet Safety
Here is a list of websites to provide you with tips about using internet safely

2- Google Good to Know :

This is Google`s official section where it provides pieces of advice and tips on how users can stay safe online. It includes videos and images. check it out it is a great resource.


3-  Google Digital Tour

This is another webpage created by Google just recently to inform and teach teenagers how to protect their online privacy and fight off against cyber bullying.


4- Webnauts Academy

This is a great web page by PBS Kids which offers elementary school students tips on how to stay safe online. It teaches them how to behave responsibly while using internet and upon finishing their missions in the Academy, students will graduate. There are also resources for teachers on how to include the topic of online safety in their classrooms.

5- A Thin Line

MTV has released a resourceful platform called A Thin Line where it provides teenagers with a range of materials and lessons on how to monitor what they do online. It basically teaches them about the potential results of misbehaving online. It covers topics such as sexting, digital spying, instant messaging and over textmessaging.

6- Minor Monitor

MinorMonitor is another web application that helps in  monitoring kids activity on Facebook. It can :
Provide you with your kids' details such as status updates, friend lists , photos, and checked in places
Automatically analyzes and identifies possible bullying, drug use, sexual references, solicitation, profanity and more.

6- Google Safety Centre

Google recently the launch of an online safety centre for teens on Goolge+ in an attempt to ease out the worries of parents. These new safety enhancements are meant to protect teenagers, "encourage safe behaviour through appropriate defaults and in-products help, and make abuse reporting tools easy to find and use."

7- Parents Guide to Facebook

This is a thorough guide of Facebook privacy setting. Parents and teachers can read the guide to learn more  about Facebook privacy setting, profile settings, group settings and much more. It can help educate kids and teenagers on how to safely use Facebook.

8- Safety Land

This is an awesome game that is played virtually in the city of Safe Land. The aim is to teach teenagers and students how to recognize dangers while using the internet. As users start to move from building to building, a set of questions are posed to them that they need to answer and upon each correct answer they get to catch a cyber criminal and send him/her to Safety Land jail and at the end get a certificate that they can prtin out.

9- Own Your Space

This is a great ebook that includes a wealth of resources and materials on how teenagers can be safe while browsing the internet. It has 16 chapters and each one of which deals with a certain topic starting from teaching  teens about the different malware and spyware and the importance of having security patches to providing lessons about the potential dangers of unsecured networks and how to lock them down.

10- Tools to manage your inbox and fight off spam

This is a collection of free tools to control your inbox and kepp it clean and away from scammers and spammers.

Here is a Google Docs Presentation I made and  that includes all these tools.





Here is the same presentation but this time in Issuu

Open publication - Free publishing - More web tools