Information Privacy

Friday night is movie night. I unfortunately had to open a new account at a video store only to find out that they require me to reveal my deepest secrets in order to borrow a DVD...well it felt that way. When I failed to complete the section on my next of kin and their contact details I was asked to please complete it. I was concerned...how many of these accounts have I not completed during my lifetime? How many competitions haven't I filled in at supermarkets freely divulging information about myself, only to be bugged later by an inordinate number of unsolicited telemarketers? And of course the information is always being treated with the "utmost confidentiality", right? More often we are being asked to part with this kind of information about ourselves on the premise of creating a safer more orderly society (The Information Secrecy Bill as a case in point). We have recently been asked to register our cellphone (RICA) and that none-compliance will result termination of your number. All this to curb cellphone theft. More recently,...this morning in fact, I heard that Gauteng will launch a pilot project whereby number plates will have to be replaced every 5 years to the tune of R1600. This will coincide with driver's license renewal. This new micro-chipped plate will avoid illegal duplication of plates and will hold the individuals personal details. If successful the project will be implemented in other provinces. Since I started writing this post it hasn't happened yet.

Concerned? I feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of having access to my personal details burried in a chip on my numberplate. Would I place the key to my car or house in my numberplate?
If criminals can clone credit cards what makes us think that they won't be able to do the same with numberplates? Anyway, it just got me thinking about where my personal information is going...who has access to it but probably more worrying that I have very little control over its use...What freedoms are we sacrificing for the sake of our "safety"?

I started with this post a while ago but thought that I would add this bit to it as it is on the same subject viz Information Privacy. It's been a topic in politics and always in the media. By now most of you may have seen Google's new privacy laws. Well I give you this link so that you can decide for yourself what to make of it, well...perhaps this is more along the lines that I view the privacy issue. For me this is a constant reminder to be ever vigilant about what information we make accessible or public as we have no idea when and how this information that is gathered on us might be used for less than honorable purposes. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27681/?p1=blogs

Unsung Heroes

I would argue that elearning support or perhaps most support staff at tertiary institutions is for most part a pretty thankless job; we often run around arranging for training venues, search for information to be trained on, equip ourselves with both the theoretical knowledge and practical skill, support both staff and students through one-on-one and telephone consultations. The lecturer gets the benefit of all the knowledge shared and writes an awesome academic paper and does a presentation where all the accolades are bestowed upon him/her with little mention or recognition of key individuals who helped make the process possible. So for most part we remain the unsung heroes of the teaching and learning world. We are not recognised as academics as most of us come with technical qualifications and therefore do not enjoy a lot of the academic freedoms. For most part we have a wealth of knowledge since we deal both with staff and academics across faculties and have time to think and problem solve a lot of the challenges that lecturers may not have the answers for. Isn't it perhaps wise to invest in the development of such staff members in order to bolster the importance of teaching and learning in our institutions. Are there not ways to further incentivise our contributions to teaching and learning. I am not necessarily speaking of in monetary terms but perhaps through other affordances. Perhaps a recognition of such support as important to the daily successful teaching process will enhance the infusion of technology and lend itself to the professionalisation of teaching and learning as a whole. Perhaps someday that there might be no more need for an eLearning Division as digital literacies increase amongst our student cohorts. What would then happen to our skilled trainers who have never shared platforms with other academics? It think it would be wise to prepare for such a day.