A} EDITOR KYLA JONAS

of college students
owna digital device

FAAP uy —
‘ id “nei

Average Minutes/Day
181.43

Teacher@email.com

Student@email.com

91% of students use
email ta seek extra help
from teachers

contact their
teachers with
cell phones

TIES tap.

Peet be

STUDY HABITS

oe es %

students say they wouldn't be able
to study without technology

students uses videos of podcasts
as study materials.

say theyd be more likely to
read an assignment if it was
in digital format

THE RISE OF TABLETS

Nearly 3/4

of students who own tablets prefer them

to traditional textbooks

Nearly 90%

of students think they help students study

more efficiently

Almost 1/2

of all college students believe tablets will
replace textbooks completely within 5 years.

|} | }
|

Pry

|

Techn Talk |

New technology is evolving th

Facebook Users

beware, youre

betne watched

Users are confronting the
popular social network
for spying on web time.

By MARTIN WISSMATH

acebook is being sued for vio-
in: privacy laws by track-

ing users’ internet browsing
even after logging out.

Several users in the United States
have filed a class-action lawsuit
against the social media giant after
the company was shown to have in-
stalled software - in the form of
browser cookies — that track internet
activity without consent.

“Even if you are logged out, Face-
book still knows and can track every
page you visit that has Facebook inte-
grated,” wrote Nik Cubrilovic, an
Australian blogger and self-described
hacker, in a post on his website,
nikcub.appspot.com, last week.

“The only solution is to delete ev-
ery Facebook cookie in your browser,
or to use a separate browser for Face-
book interactions,” said Cubrilovic.

A representative of Facebook
claims the software cookies stay in
the browser due to a “bug,” and that
the problem has been fixed.

Cubrilovic posted an update ex-
plaining that the fix might remove
personal information, but Facebook
still tracks activity that could poten-
tially identify a user.

Jesse Miller, the founder of the
consulting group, Mediated Reality,
discussed the use and risks of social
media at a workshop on Oct. 3. at Lan-
gara.

“Facebook is an ever-changing
beast,” Miller said. “It’s an amazing
communication tool, but it’s on par to
you leaving your cell-phone on, and
[anyone] being able to tap in.”

Miller said students should treat

Facebook as a public space, and not
expect any information they put on it
to be private.

“That’s really creepy,” said Angela
Demynn, a publishing student, when
asked about the Facebook tracking.
“T think about quitting [Facebook] ev-
ery week.” So far, she still has an ac-
count.

“Thate to admit it,” said Olivia Dal-
ton, also studying publishing at Lan-
gara, “but it doesn’t really affect me
much.”

Dalton said she uses Facebook to
keep in touch with friends and family
far away. “I think everyone is gonna
switch to Google+ anyway,” she said.

Reuel Elenzano, a Langara philos-
ophy student said, “I can’t really do
anything about it.”

Elenzano’s had a Facebook ac-
count for several years and doesn’t
plan on deleting his account anytime
soon. “If you’re on the internet, you
gotta take risks,” he said.

Business student, Asacia Biln
agrees. “I understand that the inter-
net is not a secure area,” she said. “I
don’t post anything that I don’t ex-
pect to be full public [information].”

Biln has
been using
Facebook for
about five
years. Al-
though her
account has
been hacked,
she said she

doesn’t blame — gaTHERINE LEVINSON

the company Computer science
and sees it as instructor

“just a_ busi-
ness.”

Catherine Levinson, a computer
science instructor at Langara, said
she doesn’t trust sites like Facebook.

“Your generation is very different
from mine,” she said. “’'m much
more fearful of Big Brother.”

From left: Iri

As cell

By JEN ST. DE

get mad, they
In one situe
dent Carlen E
mate’s consti
behind a ceil:
58 lounge.
“We starte
and it took he
she...was able
carraga. Afte
turned her ph

Tablets Decomine

Products like the iPad and
Kindle are helping students
with their studies by stream-
lining reading materials.

By EMMA CRAWFORD

tudents now have more tools avail-
SS « to assist with their education,
thanks to technologies that are
transforming the way we learn and study.
iPads, Kindles, eBooks and eTextbooks are
a few of the options currently available to stu-
dents.

Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, which will be
released in the U.S. on Nov. 15., is a great ex-
ample. It has a colour touchscreen and ac-
cess to millions of Amazon’s books, maga-
zines, songs, movies and TV shows.

Unfortunately, there is no Canadian re-
lease date announced, and the apps that will
be available to U.S. customers will not be ac-

cessible in Canada right away. However, the
current version of the Kindle is still available
to Canadians at Amazon.ca. This tablet has
Wi-Fi and access to a collection of over
850,000 books, magazines and newspapers.

The iPad 2 is another device that can assist
students, and may find some competition
with the Fire.

Apple’s tablet offers optional 3G, for broad-
band internet browsing, and over 90,000 apps.

However, the Fire only offers Wi-Fi and
fewer than 20,000 apps. The iPad 2 has 16-
64GB of storage, while the Fire has 8GB.

The Fire wins with pricing, however, as it
is pre-selling for $199 U.S., while the iPad 2
starts around $500.

Peter Baker, an instructor in Langara’s
computing science and information systems
department, has no direct experience with
the Kindle Fire but, through research, has
come to the conclusion that the Amazon Silk
browser gives it an edge over other Android
devices because browsing is faster.

The Silk technology “assembles a web

moo