Question of the Day: Filtering? Meh.

Question of the Day:

While filtering software might be a necessary CYA for many schools, in reality how does the spread of http://www.internetfreedom.org/UltraSurf and other ubiquitous and undetectable anti-filter and anti-censorship tools change the way school leaders need to think about blocking and monitoring access? And how do such tools fundamentally alter the kind of conversation we need to have about access?

Summer Assignment for Teachers

Here's a list of 5 things you can do over the summer to prepare your paperless classroom for the new school year.

1. Start a blog. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. You have something to say. So say it. Say more of it everyday. A blog is the hub around which a paperless classroom rotates. The more comfortable you are at blogging and reading blogs, the more comfortable you will be teaching in a paperless classroom.

2. Start a Diigo account. I've been following the Diigo-ing and Diigo-speak of many folks and finally decided to take the plunge myself. I plan on spending all summer learning everything I can about how to use social bookmarking. And in the fall, I am going to make it a mandatory practice for students in my classes.

3. Tweet, Tweet, Tweet. Forget what everybody has told you about Twitter. Forget everything you've read about it. Hype is hype is hype. Just sign up, follow some ed techies, and enter a new world. It will prove to be a Professional Development experience unlike any other. You will kick yourself for not having signed up earlier.

4. Follow the debates concerning traditional media and social media. As regular readers know, this is something which has very much been on my mind lately. My current thinking is this: the #IranElection feed changed everything. It didn't 'replace' mainstream media, rather it forced a critical eye onto the inherent problems within it. And -- most importantly -- in a way that took popular imagination by storm. Are professional journalists necessary? Absolutely. But are the top-down corporate organizations which provide them with jobs singularly necessary? That's the question that's up in the air. That's a question they are asking in Seattle. And in Boston. And in Chicago. And in Baltimore. What's the future of media? Well, I think the type of synergy we've seen in the last eight days between professional savvy and amateur ingenuity marks the way forward. Because the best thing that that synergy can create is a more engaged citizenry; and the more engaged the citizenry, the higher the quality of the output of social media. We have the opportunity here to organize and educate a more sophisticated and engaged society.

5. Prepare your talking points. There are two major obstacles to starting any paperless movement: blocking and access. The events of the last days, as well as the plethora of examples of Twitter in the classroom that have been popping up across the blogosphere, should aid in bolstering your arguments against the former. As for the latter, it is our duty as educators and citizens to advocate for free universal Wi-Fi and universal mobile hardware in all of our schools and public libraries. Movements in major cities such as Philadelphia and Minneapolis have demonstrated that universal Wi-Fi does not have to be a dream. The dropping of the prices of Netbooks and Smart Phones below the cost of textbooks has mooted the cost argument; now it's just a matter of the allocation of resources and the educating of teachers in how to best use this stuff.

Have a fun, safe, and productive summer. There's plenty to learn between now and the new school year.

Debate at NECC 2009: Ask Them About Blocking in a Post-#IranElection World

Interested in hearing what the ISTE sponsored NECC 2009 Oxford Debate has to say about Internet and Social Media Blocking post-#IranElection?

Me too.

They are currently collecting ideas for questions to be asked at the debate. Click here to support their asking a question regarding blocking.

It's too important an issue to let slide.

Think about it: this is all about making authentic connections. And so long as Web 2.0 is blocked to students and teachers, we will never be able to give the kids an authentic 21st century education.

And what would that mean to our future?

Implications of #IranElection for Social Media in the Classroom

For the last several days, I've been consumed by this Iran story. I apologize if any of you think I've just been wasting blog space. I realize that in the heat of the moment I have not always been the most discrete concerning my statements on the media, but regular readers of this blog will long have since recognized that shortness of tact is just part and parcel of my prose.

Getting to the matter at hand: I just want to state for the record that I believe that two things have happened this week, give or take whatever the end result is in Tehran.

First, the Iranian people have protested their government in ways that seem unimaginable not so very long ago.

Their lives have changed.

Second, the use of Twitter to get information into and out of Iran -- being so important that the US State Department even got involved -- has demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt the legitimate importance of social media to societies.

All of our lives have changed.

As a teacher, my thoughts rest on what this all means for my students. And in thinking about it over the last few days, I see this as possibly a watershed moment in terms of what it means for the blocking/access debate.

I've posted in the sidebar to teachpaperless.com a section compiling all of my posts on #IranElection and what that feed means for the future of social media in education.

Read through; digest; and comment back with ideas, suggestions, and criticisms. As with most things these days, this blog depends on your continued generous sharing of ideas.

A Teachable Moment: Scottish Community Bans Twitter for Teachers

This is a story that's been out there for a bit, but only recently in the big press:

Teachers banned from Twitter after indiscreet tweet

Basically, based on a parent complaint about a teacher's 'indiscreet' Tweeting, the ed leadership of one rural community in Scotland has banned the use of Twitter by all teachers.

Never mind that 'indiscreet' here can be taken as a relative term. Never mind that the teacher may very well have been 'wasting time' on Twitter. Never mind whether or not what she Tweeted was 'appropriate'. The crux of this story concerns the nature of transparency and the inability by the authorities to handle the situation without resorting to draconian (and very 20th century-style top-down) limits on professional individual engagement with the global network.

In other words, the reaction of the authorities to the questionably questionable use of social networking by an individual has resulted in the suppression of individual freedoms extended to all.

This is the perfect example of why we need more and not less engagement with social media in the workplace. Because this is a case that stems from social-media-ignorance.

While for many Twitter amounts to a simple way to waste time, in the right hands and put to educational and professional development purposes, Twitter is the most powerful medium for the maintenance of a personal-learning and idea-sharing network that the Net currently offers.

We have the obligation to teach our communities the value of this network.

Rather than ban Twitter, the higher-ups in the Scottish case would have done better for themselves and their community by asking the teacher to educate the parents, students, and admins on how Twitter works and what its benefits are to education and professional development.

And I stand by what I stated in comments to the article:

There are lots of opportunities to waste time on Twitter. Just like there are lots of opportunities to waste time in the faculty lounge. But there are also many ways to use social media to connect to a much larger conversation.

Rather than blocking and filtering, we should be engaging and sharing in the conversation. It will at times be mundane; but it will at times be inspiring. Get with it, this is the 21st century; we're connected. That's just the way things are.

We as teachers are the ones whose role it is to educate communities, families, authorities, administrators, teachers, peers, and students about the value of social networks, social media, and participatory engagement with the Web. We are the only ones who will make the Scottish case an aberration rather than the norm.

A 21st Century Dilemma

Interesting question from Ann Darling popped up in the comments of the Blocking discussion over at ISTE:

Is it ethical to use web 2.0 tools in classrooms knowing that our students must provide personal information to create their accounts?

Hmm. Talk about ethical dilemmas!

We all know that an alias and an alt Gmail account pwn any Web 2.0 log-in without giving away any personal information. We also know how annoying it is to have to deal with anons on blogs or discussion boards.

So, the dilemma: Do you let kids alt their way around outmoded firewalls and proceed anonymously through Web 2.0, or do you teach them to approach social media in an open manner and risk whatever consequences?

Discussion on Students and Internet Blocking at ISTE Connects

The discussion at ISTE Connects concerning Students and Internet Blocking has been remarkable.

In the past week, we've had discussion between teachers and admins on all sides of the debate, IT and tech workers whose job description entails doing the actual blocking, and even executives from the filtering industry.

I'd like to thank the folks at ISTE for giving me the opportunity to guest blog on their site; this has opened up a wonderful conversation.

Blocking Internet Access: the Conversation

The conversation about what Internet blocking suggests to students continues at the ISTE Connects blog. I urge you to contribute to the discussion: we want to hear your opinions!

Most recent comment, from Anthony Della Rosa:

I understand the need to block per CIPA compliance but that needs to be amended. I believe children 13 and over should be allowed the web with little or no restrictions. The problem is then we have to police what they do and teach them how to be socially responsible. Things haven't changed only the medium has. 3 years ago we taught students social responsibility but the Internet didn't exist. You didn't just go to school to learn how to read and write but how to act and behave and become an adult. Somewhere along the line that changed in and that why now we just block stuff, instead of teaching them responsibility, acceptable behavior and appropriateness. What will they do when they get to college or the real world???

What Does Internet Blocking Suggest to Students?

Did a little guest blogging at ISTE CONNECTS this afternoon.

Topic: What Does Internet Blocking Suggest to Students?

The idea for the post came to me after a student emailed me this morning about the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In the subject line of the email: Looks like schools aren’t the only place Facebook is blocked.

Don't Block: Educate

A reader writes:

Went through a painful time getting the school's ISP to unblock Wetpaint. They were blocking it because there were some pages with inappropriate content. Hello! The internet is full of inappropriate content, as is T.V., the movies, books, and the sleazy person down the street. Parents' and teachers' jobs are to educate the students about how to deal with it...

Here's a plan: have a parent night at school.

Put all of the parents in a room and ask them: Would you rather your child occasionally run into questionable content on the Web, or would you rather your child have little to no chance of managing their life and future career in the real world of the 21st century?

Follow up with this one: Would you rather your child encounter questionable content alone in their room or in a classroom mentored by a trained professional?

We are educators. Nobody said education was going to be comfortable.

Don't block: Educate.

Blocked Sites = Blocked Minds

We need to talk openly with the communities we serve about the role of social media and Web 2.0 in the classroom. We need our admins and tech departments to understand how and why we use participatory media. Otherwise, you wind up with situations like this.

And this isn't to speak poorly of Bill Ferriter. He's working his tail off.

Rather, it's to suggest that the fear that compels admins and districts to block sites is in direct proportion to the lack of an authentic and large-scale outlet for communication between tech savvy teachers and the communities and families they serve.

We need to talk.

Because blocked sites equal blocked minds.

Let's get beyond this. There's real work to be done. Good luck, Bill.

Nothing to Fear: Communicate Your Way through the Blocks

Reader Knaus Tweets:

IT services wants me to talk with them about unblocking Twitter & uses: school page, prodev, parent contact, homework posting. Other ideas?

This is the key to unblocking social media: talking.

I've noticed lots of teachers complaining about admin and school and district rules blocking student access to social media. Questions came up earlier today in the Friday Chat.

The only thing I can say is that creating free access to social media in school is absolutely vital to running an authentic classroom and broader educational environment in the 21st century. I've given countless reasons why in previous posts. Now what I'd like to do for a second is just to describe what's happened with the process here where I am.

First of all, it's not as though teachers and admins here have always been accepting of social media. As I recall, our first introduction as a school to the matter came years ago under the banner of the 'dangers of MySpace' and 'threats on the Internet'. We were moving to a 1:1 computing environment, and, as a high school, fear of anything described as 'social' was part of the territory.

Well, that was indicative of the time. Very few of us in education knew much of anything about MySpace five or six years ago. And to believe the media, it was primarily a site where perverts stalked teenage girls.

That was then.

Social media today is working within a changed paradigm. Everybody and their grandpappy has a Facebook page. Photos of families and school events are shared on Picasa and Flickr. We now get our music via Pandora and Last.fm and Blip. And YouTube? Hulu? Not to mention the amount of news and opinion we devour from blogs.

And there ain't an industry on earth that isn't experimenting with Twitter.

That's the reality of today. Yet so many folks in charge of running schools still, for myriad reasons, harbor the idea that social media is still that scary thing that the speaker from the police department warned us about five years ago.

I've been happy to see that things can change. Our admins, who have been the ones who had pushed us towards tech from the start yet who were wary of social networking, opened up to the idea of blogging and Web 2.0. They saw how well students responded to interactive tech no matter what academic discipline.

Furthermore, our IT guys and gals are in favor of experimentation; I just talked to our lead tech guy yesterday and he told me about being at a meeting of educational IT coordinators and the amazement with which many of them puzzled over how Skype could possibly be used in a classroom. This after he had received word from PARENTS thanking him for be ahead of the curve.

Things are changing.

We don't hear about fear of the Internet so much anymore; now, we're more used to Oprah embracing it. And, street cred be damned, that's a good thing. Because Oprah and other media bigshots have the power to change culture. And that's the key: if you want to get your admins and faculty on board with social and participatory media, you have to help them understand and become part of the culture of social and participatory media.

You need to arrange meetings with your admins and tech departments and present the facts to them. Demonstrate to them why it matters that the kids in their school be allowed to connect to the world. Get them Twitter accounts.

You need to talk to parents. They are such an untapped force for potential change in schools. Demonstrate to them the value of Web 2.0. Heck, many of them will probably be able to show you even more than what you now know!

Most importantly, talk to your fellow teachers and talk with the students. They are the ones who make up the living thrust of what education is all about. Teach them what this is all about. Explain why it is so important. And give them a fair opportunity to explore and experiment on their own. Give them the tools and then give them the autonomy to use them.

That, in my experience here at school, has been the source of all of our innovations. When teachers and students are given the opportunity to experiment, they produce brilliant results. And culture begins to change.

And it's the reason I am so happy to drive into the faculty parking lot each morning.