Re: [DDN] The Word that Will Get Your Blog Censored by Texas Schools Districts
Miguel has even started to organize an online protest campaign. Um... how effective is an *online* campaign going to be, when the school won't even see it because of the content? Is an online campaign going to reach the people it needs to, or, will it be oh-so-easy to ignore in this particular case? Perhaps *offline* (gasp) efforts are needed as much, even more, in this particular circumstance as online efforts to change the minds of school officials and parents. Outreach via postal mail might be a start, followed by phone calls. Recruiting parents, who understand online safety and how [EMAIL PROTECTED] can be used safely, to visit onsite, face-to-face, with administrators and newspaper editors, is also a very effective avenue. And volunteers offering their services to help schools create effective online safety programs that would be an alternative to simply banning [EMAIL PROTECTED] would be very appealing. A low-tech, non-confrontational approach that offers alternatives -- it would probably change the minds of lot more school administrators than just an online campaign. This misguided move by the school administrators isn't being done out of mean-spiritedness, by my assessment -- it's being done out of fear, and out of seeing an easy, cost-effective, albiet Draconian solution. In the school's mind, they don't have the time, resources and expertise to do anything else -- it's a simple solution that goes overboard, but it's cheap, and as soon as you throw in a few [EMAIL PROTECTED] horror stories, most people will agree to such a policy, without thinking through the overall consequences and exploring other solution -- and without being aware of alternatives to ensure child safety online. Think about the audience you need to address, where they are coming from/why they are doing what they are doing, and the best way to reach them -- in this case, the old-fashioned avenue may be a better route. -- Ms. Jayne Cravens MSc Bonn, Germany Services for Mission-Based Orgs www.coyotecommunications.com International Development Studies Work www.coyotecommunications.com/development Contact me www.coyotecommunications.com/contact.html www.ivisit.com id: jcravens.4947 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] The Word that Will Get Your Blog Censored by Texas Schools Districts
Hi everyone, I've just posted a blog entry in response to recent posts by Wesley Fryer and Miguel Guhlin regarding online censorship in schools. Some school districts in Texas and elsewhere have started blocking all Web content that uses the word [EMAIL PROTECTED] (replace the @ with an a and you'll know the word I mean - I don't want this message blocked by filters either.) This website has become a magnet of controversy as of late, and it's reached the point where mere mention of it is taboo. This filtering is preventing educational bloggers and teachers from discussing [EMAIL PROTECTED] in any context, whether it relates to child safety, media literacy or another topic. Miguel has even started to organize an online protest campaign. A bit from my blog: As Miguel notes on his blog, important educational blogs like Wesley's site and the techLEARNING blog are getting censored arbitrarily because they are trying to raise awareness about sites like [EMAIL PROTECTED], encouraging critical examinations by educators and a greater emphasis on media literacy. To engage in a constructive debate about sites like this, you have to mention them. And preferably link to them. And these acts are getting bloggers banned by schools. While I strongly am against any form of censorship, I am thoroughly disgusted by school districts that allow their filters to prevent educators from engaging in professional discourse. I have lost track of the number of times that I've posted a message to my WWWEDU discussion list and received a bunch of autoreplies from school districts saying that teachers there won't be reading my post because they contain inappropriate content. Usually, these posts have to do with cases of school filtering censorship, controversial sites like [EMAIL PROTECTED] or other media literacy-related challenges faced by the modern educator. The filtering software used to supposedly protect children is preventing educators from taking an active role in understanding and discussing the complexities of Internet use in the classroom. Schools may claim in loco parentis when describing filters used to protect children. But what are they trying to protect teachers from? Being better users of technology? Being responsible, informed educators? ...The whole thing reminds me of Those We Don't Speak Of, the mysterious creatures in M. Night Shyamalan's film, The Village. The parents of the village were so paranoid about their children coming to harm's way that they wouldn't even say the name of the creatures that were supposedly lurking in the local forest. We seem to have reached that point in education - where politicians and administrators are so paranoid that educators can't even speak the names of things that may lurk in the virtual forest, lest their students be corrupted by mere mention of them The Internet is indeed our civic space - my space, your space. *Our space.* How can educators educate our children to use the Internet as responsible 21st century citizens when we can't even speak about the things that might affect them? Read the full blog entry: http://www.andycarvin.com Permalink: http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2006/04/the_mword_that_will.html digg link: http://digg.com/technology/The_Word_that_Will_Get_Your_Blog_Censored_by_Texas_Schools_Districts thanks, ac -- -- Andy Carvin acarvin (at) edc . org andycarvin (at) yahoo . com http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.andycarvin.com -- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] The Word that Will Get Your Blog Censored by Texas Schools Districts
Hi Andy, When those schools administrators block the blogs of their students (my space) I also think of what kind of message we are giving to the childrens about the use of technology. Here, in Brazil we also have some messages from school administrators with a lot of roles of Dont do this or don´t do that in the computer labs that seems that even get the chance to think about the use of blogs and technology in general in a more properly, critical and positive way. For example, there were some strange deaths among teenagers in the city of Sao Paulo related to their personal blogs that were noticed in the newspapers. Because of that, the director of the school that I worked in Sao Paulo decided that we should not teach the students how to use blogs in school because of child safety. I did not agree with that position of my boss and decided to teach my students how to use this tool. He respected my position and I had a wonderful experience with my students personal blogs. It was also a wonderful way to get more in touch with their lives and themes that they were concernet about. I used to give them some ethical issues related to blogs and had no problem with my students. I think it is important to be concerned about this issues of child safety, but also give them the digital opportunity to use those tools (blogs) in an ethical and responsible way. I also had an experience of exchange with a class in a school from New Jersey and this group of children, but the experience was not successful. The reason was not the language barrier but the fact that the majority of my students did not wanted to comunicate with the american students because of the position of the Bush administration in the Iraq war during that time. We discussed this theme a lot in class and I also tried to show them that not all americans agreed with the war and so on, but I had to respect their critical view and political position about this theme. Best regards, Ana Maria Moraes. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://br.geocities.com/bibliotecamicromundos Andy Carvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] escreveu: Hi everyone, I've just posted a blog entry in response to recent posts by Wesley Fryer and Miguel Guhlin regarding online censorship in schools. Some school districts in Texas and elsewhere have started blocking all Web content that uses the word [EMAIL PROTECTED] (replace the @ with an a and you'll know the word I mean - I don't want this message blocked by filters either.) This website has become a magnet of controversy as of late, and it's reached the point where mere mention of it is taboo. This filtering is preventing educational bloggers and teachers from discussing [EMAIL PROTECTED] in any context, whether it relates to child safety, media literacy or another topic. Miguel has even started to organize an online protest campaign. A bit from my blog: As Miguel notes on his blog, important educational blogs like Wesley's site and the techLEARNING blog are getting censored arbitrarily because they are trying to raise awareness about sites like [EMAIL PROTECTED], encouraging critical examinations by educators and a greater emphasis on media literacy. To engage in a constructive debate about sites like this, you have to mention them. And preferably link to them. And these acts are getting bloggers banned by schools. While I strongly am against any form of censorship, I am thoroughly disgusted by school districts that allow their filters to prevent educators from engaging in professional discourse. I have lost track of the number of times that I've posted a message to my WWWEDU discussion list and received a bunch of autoreplies from school districts saying that teachers there won't be reading my post because they contain inappropriate content. Usually, these posts have to do with cases of school filtering censorship, controversial sites like [EMAIL PROTECTED] or other media literacy-related challenges faced by the modern educator. The filtering software used to supposedly protect children is preventing educators from taking an active role in understanding and discussing the complexities of Internet use in the classroom. Schools may claim in loco parentis when describing filters used to protect children. But what are they trying to protect teachers from? Being better users of technology? Being responsible, informed educators? ...The whole thing reminds me of Those We Don't Speak Of, the mysterious creatures in M. Night Shyamalan's film, The Village. The parents of the village were so paranoid about their children coming to harm's way that they wouldn't even say the name of the creatures that were supposedly lurking in the local forest. We seem to have reached that point in education - where politicians and administrators are so paranoid that educators can't even speak the names of things that may lurk in the virtual forest, lest their students be corrupted by
