Dealing with the Perception of Inappropriateness
I remember listening to Doug Johnson on a Women of Web 2.0 show, and there was a discussion about filtering and what case you should make about that. His point, Administrators do not have a lot of time. Do not waste time arguing the merits of filtering with them [E-rate schools have to filter, so it’s pointless too]. I guess I’m putting these case studies up to add some real examples to this discussion, and show some of the wrinkles you run across in high crime area schools with these issues.
Alice is chatting about challenges she’s encountered. She shares a few “case studies;” I’ve summarized them below:
- All video sites have porn on them, and use up precious Internet bandwidth.
- Blogs are evil MySpace clones.
As I reflect on the banning of YouTube, TeacherTube, I always wonder if Alice’s district also blocks GodTube. How about it Alice?
What about SchoolTube?
SchoolTube is a network of students, educators, and industry working together to foster video production & internet publishing in a safe online learning environment. SchoolTube gives you the ability to safely upload your video onto the internet to share with other educators or students.SchoolTube videos have been moderated or Teacher approved for viewing.
A good leader, I have always read, asks questions. Some questions I’d like to ask in Alice’s district include:
- What are the top 3 reasons that the District provides Internet access to faculty and students?
What instructional uses of the Internet coincide with developing students’ ability to work at higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (revised)?- Are these uses in alignment with the District’s curricular goals? School to work goals? SCANS Report goals? Other research-based reports?
- If Internet bandwidth is consumed when videos are streamed/downloaded from OUTSIDE the District, could videos be hosted INSIDE the District for streaming?
- What in your experience has led you to believe that video sites like TeacherTube, SchoolTube have porn on them?
- What’s the worse “porn video” that can be found on one of these video services? How does that video compare to modern movies that are displayed for instructional purposes in schools?
- Is there an appropriate age-range for the types of video access to be provided?
- How can the network bandwidth better be handled to maximize use for instructional purposes?
- What steps have you taken to ensure that “traditional” videos used in schools now are aligned to instructional purposes? How could those steps be extended to Internet-based videos?
I don’t know…these are just a few questions…maybe you have better ones?
