Content filtering

Re: Content filtering

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:52:31 CST

by Kerry J.

That is a very sharp observation. There is a lot of tension between educators and IT people and much of it stems from a lack of understanding about what is trying to be accomplished.

I think decisions are made too high up as regards policies relating to IT use in schools and that educators and IT professionals need to get together to talk about what is going to be of most benefit to their joint client: the students.

I'd personally rather seen money spent on leveraging what already exists than reinventing the wheel to satisfy firewall and safety issues.

It goes beyond school walls, state and territory borders and international borders -- imagine how educators and students could collaborate on an international level if sites like YouTube and Flickr, if tools like blogs and Wikis were open to the world's educators.

Re: Content filtering

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:12:36 CST

by Violeta Cautin.

I have to say that this problem (misunderstanding between educators and IT managers) comes from the training of both of them and I think that it is there (in the training) where it should be attacked.

Both of my brothers study IT engineering, plus my best friend is about to get a PHD in IT (artificial intelligence). My older brother and my best friend came home last november for an IT conference. I told them about moodle and IT applied in education and I was shocked to learn how little they understand about that. Of course they are not studying to be IT managers in a school, but still.

If we want to reverse this, I think that agreements should be made between Education and IT faculties in universities in order to promote both, a better understanding of technologies from the part of the teachers to be, and from the part of the students being trained in IT.

I have seen a lot of training and emphasis on teachers learning new technologies, but I haven't seen the same enthusiasm on the part of IT people to understand what education and learning are, and how technologies fit there.

The price of technology-Five things we need to know about technological change

Wed, 28 May 2008 12:41:21 CST

by Claire Brooks.

I appear to have turned into someone else- maybe I'm just filling in time and presenting an opposite opinion, but here's an article that made me think the spineless ones do at least give us an opportunity to think about the impact of technology on our lives before we take on every new thing:

Neil Postman: Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change

and his

Conclusion

And so, these are my five ideas about technological change. First, that we always pay a price for technology; the greater the technology, the greater the price. Second, that there are always winners and losers, and that the winners always try to persuade the losers that they are really winners. Third, that there is embedded in every great technology an epistemological, political or social prejudice. Sometimes that bias is greatly to our advantage. Sometimes it is not. The printing press annihilated the oral tradition; telegraphy annihilated space; television has humiliated the word; the computer, perhaps, will degrade community life. And so on. Fourth, technological change is not additive; it is ecological, which means, it changes everything and is, therefore, too important to be left entirely in the hands of Bill Gates. And fifth, technology tends to become mythic; that is, perceived as part of the natural order of things, and therefore tends to control more of our lives than is good for us.

Re: Content filtering

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:11:42 CST

by Claire Brooks.

If only it was easy and clear cut...
I really loved this article on the very topic of Risk by the wonderful Kathy Sierra.
Yet I'm also aware of what happened next- after writing lots of wonderful blog posts Kathy eventually had such a profile that she got hate mail and even death threats against her family- just because- well, for a start she was wise, witty and a woman. She decide not to bother with the blog or public speaking engagements any more because it was not worth the *risk*.

Having been mauled myself, including in AFLC communities now gone, I don't think it is risk is such an easy item to resolve.We don't really know what impact some of the decisions we make now are going to have in the future and I certainly revise my ideas about the advice I should be giving to students about web 2 tools, digital identity, security and the like.

Look at Bill Henson- is it art, experimentation or exploitation? What might be reasonable and legitimate research or 'education' now, might be seen a few years down the track to have been foolhardy at best.
And how many claims of copyright infringement, IP, defamation and the like does any educational institution really want to face? In the most recent course where I supported the 'innovation' of blogging with tertiary level students we decide we couldn't afford the risk of allowing/encouraging the students to blog openly due to the nature of their blogging topic, the copyright officer preferred we keep the blogging within the bounds of the class ( 250 students). While some of the opportunity for authentic learning was lost, it also meant we knew the students were able to learn and try out new approaches and experiment in a safe environment( using a tailor made tool and hosted in house- a whole other story of different IT/strategic risks).

Re: Content filtering

Mon, 26 May 2008 20:35:58 CST

by Miriam Scurrah.

It's no different in corporate Australia, this is the only social network I can access - no ning, no exploring games which can educate, no second life (even if my poor pc could cope with the graphics), no you tube etc etc - and there are no kids in sight!! I am an elearning coordinator of a national retailer and I have to do my research and professional development at home on my own computer in my own time. I even take my own laptop to work so that I can use open source tools as it takes months to get them loaded onto my work PC (can't download either!).

Re: Content filtering

Mon, 26 May 2008 19:38:36 CST

by Kerry J.

I'm with John Harris.

Best practice means doing what everyone else does. Even if it means running around like chooks. IT people are only interested in the back end and get really angry because you don't understand the technical implications on services provided by the school/organisation. Having once been the IT Guy, I understand that. That did not stop me from making it work for my clients.

As an educator and designer, I get very frustrated with the blocking and banning of external resources. I understand the fear of being sued and duty of care issues, but with the normal evaluation of resources, we should be instructing the gate-keepers to unlock the resource for use.

After all, it was risk takers like us who:

turned on the first computer in the school
used email for the first time
Accessed a list server for the first time
Used the 'internet' to find information and images
Used a Wiki, Blog, Flickr,.... in our teaching area
Used Virtual Worlds and Interactive Whiteboards (together!) (www.edusim3d.com)
Moved from paper to Glogster (www.glogster.com)
Used professional video tools like Animoto(www.animoto.com)
and now investigating My Art Space (http://www.myartspace.org.uk/web/index.php) and Augmented Reality (http://www.hitlabnz.org/wiki/Home) and Croquet Virtual Worlds (http://www.croquetconsortium.com/index.php/Movies)

It should not be a slog, IT and Management employed us to do what we do best, which is to use appropriate technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experience and be on the cutting edge, using and shaping technology to teach, learn and communicate.

Oh, hell. There goes the neighbourhood; now I'm a contributor, not a lurker.

aAron

Re: Future of this Community

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:28:29 CST

by Harriet Wakelam.

to sit on the fence here - I wholly support openness in organisations - see Blocking You Tube: A short fairy story about access However, IT management is complex and underfunded. IT managers often have the legal responsibility of compliance and of legal action on them if children are exposed to unsuitable content.

While we continue to make scapegoats in our organisations it will be difficult to change the situation. Viruses are rampant, SPAM is a huge and costly issue which can bring down blogs/networks etc.

to me, the issues are underfunding of IT capability forcing 'crisis management silos', plus this focus on compliance and someONE's responsbility. Until we make security a responsbility of hte indivdual as well, and we change the way we view corporate liability, then we have some issues.

There are certain standards that an IT system has to comply with - that's why we have Web Standards Groups to ensure internet sites are uniformly accessible. A free for all would be incredibly expensive to maintain, and would be very confusing for staff new to IT to navigate.

I'm not advocating the current locked doors, but I think there are many more changes required than just educating IT managers.

Re: Future of this Community

Mon, 26 May 2008 14:58:42 CST

by John Harris.

Risk is part of progress - and progress is made by individuals prepared to take the odd small risk. But lets not get paranoid. Jail ! Do you really think so ? Australia has not gone mad. 'Risk averse' is another way of saying spineless.

Kerry - if you are trying to promote IT then you should be encouraging teachers to take personal control. The centralized, wisdom from above, expert driven, scaredy cat approach isn't working - never will.

JJ

Re: Future of this Community

Mon, 26 May 2008 14:12:16 CST

by Christopher Harvey.

In my experience working in a few state secondary schools and a special school, a teacher is given the role of IT manager. The rest is social politics, if you were that teachers friend you would get the newest equipment etc.

Re: Future of this Community

Mon, 26 May 2008 14:08:36 CST

by Kerry J.

It's an issue that people can and should lobby their jurisdictions about, start discussions about in their schools and move it forward. I've talked to teachers in several states and some perceive it's happening at the jurisdiction level, some it comes from the IT people and the principals.

Teachers it seems to be get the lucky role of being in the middle. You get cases like that one in the US where a teacher was put in jail for accidentally explosing kids to porno -- and people get risk averse very quickly.