Why bother with web 2.0?

[Michael Arnold]

I'm concerned about web 2.0 and the state of our schools. To the best of my understanding, resistance is building to students doing much of anything other than Powerpoint on the computer. Sites are locked down, students have varying levels of permission, teachers have to ask for sites to be opened...it's all getting in the way of education. I'm beginning to think that there is no longer a need to invest in technology in schools because we are basically turning labs into typing classes, like when I was in high school. I recently had a techie (no offense!) tell me that Flickr would not be opened because there was "bad stuff" on it. The same with Photobucket. I can do a similiar search in Google and get similar "objectionable" material. Do we ban Google now?

[Frank Miracola]

Mike, there is some good news. I just talked with the co-founder of PageFlakes yesterday. I was worried about that site becoming blocked as well. He told me that they dropped the ball when they developed the site and should have had an option from the start that would allow objectionable material to not get through. What was surprising is that they have a teacher version in the works. I am also happy to say that he asked my opinion and he is going to incorporate a couple of my ideas. One is to eliminate the social networking feature on the teacher site.

Where I am going with this is that corporations have to step up to the plate too and allow educators the ability to bring a much more open web to the classroom. I applaud PageFlakes for doing just that.

[Michael Arnold]

Frank: That IS good news. And I agree that corps need to add their obligation to the mix. My question is this: why should schools invest in technology (computers, networks, people) if they are going to ban site that have educational use? Where does the responsibility of the teacher begin and end?

[Frank Miracola]

Mike, another question is who will come to the aid of the teacher who gets sued for allowing objectionable materail? If we can say they are not liable then we are on to something. Honestly, I think there are a number of great sites out there that are not blocked. I guess I am seeing it half full. I also think that we should invest and to a point of one-to-one. I think (if we could figure out a way to get power and eliminate cords) that we could go as far as requiring a student to arrive to school with one. Kind of like the graphing calculators I had to purchase for my kids. Why not make it part of the backpack. I do believe that there is enough on the web now that is not blocked (and many more to come) that makes the investment worth it.

[Danielle Letter]

It was conference week at our school this week, and so I tried to meet parents of my technology kids with no AUP forms. One dad that I spoke to told me he refused to sign because his son (a 6th grader) would "look up naked women and order stuff online" if he had access to the internet. When my students are with me in the lab, they are monitored constantly. I create links to sits that I have chosen, and make sure when we are out it is safe. The internet can be a dangerous place, however it is also a place that has endless possibilities if monitored and utilized correctly. If kids are unable to access sites such as Flickr because there might be 'bad stuff' in it, then we are tying our hands, so to speak. The key is education for students and staff, monitoring, and being aware of what is happening in the classroom. Isn't the perception of 'taking the danger away' actually making our kids more susceptible to questionable sites?

[Dale Ehrhart]

I'm sure districts have stated procedures for handling suspected misuse and locking down computers.

If we suspect that a student is getting through the filters and looking up objectionable content we can use the built-in browser tools to find out what's been happening on the computer fairly easily.

[John Tanner]

Back to Mike's question, where is the teacher in this discussion? I think filtering gives teachers and supts and principals a false security blanket. NO filter can keep students away from places they have a desire to go, NO filter. We filter for all schools in our county and we have remote access to many labs and we can see student computer stations in labs using strategies to get around our filters. We watch them do it. Once we take over their computer they close windows and open their Word document assignment. In our office we look at each other and ask where is the teacher in that computer lab? Then our field tech comes to home base and tell us things they see in the classroom, like teachers sitting at their desks while students sit at their computers playing Halo.....Where are the teachers? One teacher said to me that is not my job! Yes that is what he said. I don't want to make assumptions based on these anecdotes but they come to my attention every week. As a professional educator I believe there are reasons these things happen but as a parent, tax payer, and community member I am outraged.

[Danielle Letter]

There are fantastic educators, not a question in my mind. The problem is that there are also those who answer John's questions with, "That's not my job". We all know them, we all see them, and sadly their shoddy work ethic reflects upon us all. There's also those that believe that letting their students go to websites (which to me are glorified games) is a lovely time to get math papers graded. So what is your suggestion, John? How do we make changes? I've begun to get so tense when others come into the lab because the level of freedom that students are given makes me crazy! What do we do to create a happy medium?

[John Tanner]

Danielle
We are talking more about these kind of issues in our office these days. It used to be where we would discuss what are the areas we need to address for teachers professional development now we are talking about how teachers can't access Web 2.0 tools so now what do we do? I think we as a training institution need to step up and help teachers develop strategies on how to incorporate Web 2.0 into their lesson planning and how can teachers enforce their own school policy on AUP because in most cases your school district has the power to provide consequences for students who violate their computer use but I am surprised how teachers are not clear on this. But we can't get into a fight with boards or principals or supers because we lose that one ..we need to be smarter and create a community/team/ of educators who meet with each other and discuss these issues outside of their own school culture. My idea is to create this community in our area so we can meet and share problems and ideas. Then we need to educate our bosses and our boards and our communities. You will definitely be invited to join this group, I hope you will be free to join us.

[Dale Ehrhart]

How about a stepped certification process, almost like security clearances. Teachers who put in the effort and can demostrate their competence are given greater latitude to bring digital tools of their choosing into their classroom.

[Mitch Fowler]

I agree with all that is being said here, but first and foremost I think that modeling and discussing appropriate computer use is the number one factor in creating responsible students who use technology. It has been said several times in this post that there is no way to block all objectionable content. Good luck to the teachers, administrators, and parents who think that they can. Nonetheless, if we can teach children how to use computers in an ethical way and limit the possibilities that they will run into objectionable content, I think that we are well on our way towards a population who not only uses the computer responsibly, but also contributes responsibly to society. Finally, what about the fact that kids can see objectionable, sex-filled advertisements on television, billboards along the road, or in magazines? I feel that this print media is just as in their face as an objectionable pop-ups or a random picture on Flickr.

Okay... I said finally up there, but one more thing: I agree with John above. I think this issue should almost be dealt with similar to our sex ed. committees in our districts. A group of educators, parents, and community members need to come together and figure out what the community's vision of "appropriate content" is. I would be interested in seeing how this process turns out. Please keep us posted on how this model develops.

[Kevin J. Galbraith]

I can't see this happening in a strong teacher-union environment. Reminds me of the merit pay for teachers debate.

[Mitch Fowler]

Danielle,
Does your district have any type of student monitoring software like Vision or Lanschool? These programs allow the teacher to monitor the students internet activity as well as upload specific URL's that the students can access. I know that there are also open source versions of these programs. Obviously this solution does not teach the kids to correct any devious behavior on their own, but it is helpful when managing several students at once.