Quick Tech Tips
Stop Instagram Tagging
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy a lot of the benefits that social networks afford us, but you’re wary of giving away too much information and losing all of your rights to privacy.
That’s why I was slightly dismayed to hear that Instagram, much like it’s mother Facebook, recently added a feature to allow tagging that is ON by default.
We all love our friends, but it’s probably not in anybody’s best interest to allow anybody else to tag you in photos without your explicit consent on every photo.
Here’s how to make sure that you have control:
There’s a big part of me that’s disappointed here. I know the majority of people will like this function and it will do a lot to help boost sales and everything for Instagram, but darn if I can’t say it seems like one more step away from the love of photos.
Maybe that step is too far gone, already.
I supported the kickstarter program of Pressgram for this very reason. It might not be popular, but it’s the right way to go.
What do you think? Do you feel like your privacy is something worth protecting? Am I over the top? What would you do if your students started tagging you in photos without your permission?
Leave your thoughts below!
How to Set Up a Gmail Account [Tutorial]
![How to Set Up a Gmail Account [Tutorial]](http://edtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/GmailTutorial.jpg)
If there’s any one online service you’ve got to be connected to as a teacher, it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter, and it’s certainly not any of the new sites you’ve heard about in the last few weeks or months.
If you’re going to do anything productive as a teacher, you must be connected to Google, and that means you’ve got to have a Gmail account.
If you’ve already got a Gmail account, I suggest you look around the site for some other useful tutorials. For those of you that are still using Yahoo or Hotmail, now is the time to get in the game. Others might think they’re “ahead” of the game by having a custom e-mail address such as jaime@escalante.com – but you’re only doing yourself a disservice by not connecting to google. Watch this tutorial to learn how to set yourself up. It’s pretty self explanatory, but after the video I’ll explain more about why you need to have an account.
As you can see, the basic set-up is really simple. You can get more in depth, and in the future we’ll explore more about some of the finer details, but for now let’s look at some of the reasons why you need Gmail.
The Basics
Gmail provides you with an ever-expanding amount of storage, clean and easy to use organization, and access to all the other Google Apps.
Accessibility
No matter how you’re trying to access it, Gmail makes it easy to get your mail. Their apps for smartphones are outstanding, and it’s just as easy to connect to your mail client (programs like Outlook express or Apple Mail) as it is to access through your browser (Google prefers you use their own browser, Chrome).
Services
Once you have a Gmail account, you’ll also have access to creating and working with all of Google’s other services. This includes, but is not limited to:
- YouTube
- Google Drive
- Books
- Maps
- Google+
And the list goes on and on. To be honest, I could dedicate all my time to only giving Google-related tutorials and never run out of things to talk about. Google has a massive list of available services, and they’re always working on more.
Even if you don’t plan to use it quite yet, set yourself up with a Gmail account, and when we get into their services in the future, you’ll be ready to go!
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A quick note about choosing your address:
Make sure that you consider your audience when choosing your name. bananapuddinglover@gmail.com might not be as appropriate as MrSmithsAstronomy@gmail.com. Often times it’s most appropriate for teachers to simply choose their names for the e-mail addresses, but whatever you do, make sure that your address is “future-proof”. That is to say, whatever you choose now will still be relevant 5-10 years from now. You never know who might try to contact you, and changing your address as little as possible is going to reward you in the long run.