Teacher Bytes

Last week one of my students sent me a message via Pownce about a problem with our school’s YouTube channel. One of our videos had a video about Sex Sexy Girly Girls XXX Porn in the Related Videos section of the webpage. You can imagine the thoughts running through my mind when I saw this. No, it was not those thoughts! The thought I had was getting called to the Principal’s office with news someone saw the offending video and called the school or worse, the district office. I knew I was taking a chance using YouTube because of the varied content. However, YouTube is also the most popular and the easiest when sharing videos on blogs, wikis, e-mails, etc….

The first thing I did was to research how to make a complaint with YouTube about the offending video. Once I found it, I wrote a note explaining the situation and requested the video be removed from our site. Next, I flagged the video as inappropriate. I don’t know if this did anything but I did it anyway to draw attention to the video. A view of the tags on the video did not have anything remotely related to our videos, which I noted as well. Another action I took was to notify the Principal, the (as he puts it) good looking and buff guy in the attached video. Along with the Principal I also notified his secretary and our community relations liaison as well to let them know about the problem and I was working on it in case anyone called.

Fortunately nobody called and YouTube quickly removed the offending website from our page which I was grateful for (but the Miss Teen USA – Miss South Carolina video replaced it). YouTube’s actions raised their stock in my estimation. This incident was also a time to reflect on how to handle inappropriate content on school related websites. It is not a question of if but when an incident will happen. How will you handle it to keep the site running? Communication is the key element. Notify everyone who you think needs to know about the problem so they can tell the public the problem is being worked on. Another thing is to have backup websites ready in case you are forced to make a change. I have accounts with both Teacher Tube and School Tube in we have to change video hosts. Finally, make sure to let people know they should not panic when they see offending material on a school-related website. Schools and there webmasters jealously guard their reputations so let it be known you will deal with any situation quickly. Also businesses such as YouTube make money by having people click to their websites and see the ads. They would not want offend anyone either.

I started using Twitter this past summer but very heavily in the fall. My original purpose was to Twitter my daily activities for my principal. This soon became impractical as I started getting followers. As much as I like to think I lead an exciting life this was getting a bit ridicules so I had to move that project to another place. My newfound friends, people like me who are involved with education technology, kinda became an extended family, support group, advisory committee, sounding board, co-conspirators, and possibly even a shoulder to cry on if needed . However, this past week I got to see two new sides to Twitter or any other micro blog you care to use.

First the good because when I coached I always talked about the positives first (unless the team was really screwing up). I had heard from either Buzz Outloud, or This Week in Tech (TWIT), I can remember which, about how Twitter was used to provide up-to-the-minute news about the wildfires in California this past fall. This seemed like a good use for Twitter to me and I put it in the back of my mind. This past Saturday night line of strong storms, with the potential to spawn tornadoes, passed through my area. Normally storms don’t bother me but after seeing what they did in Atlanta these made me wary. I did all of my bad weather preparations including tuning into the Weather Channel and pulling their website too. Don’t ask me why but I logged on to Twitter too. As the wind, rain, hail, and weird sounds surrounded my house through the night I kept banging away on my laptop, updating what was going on with the Twitterverse. Old friends kept tweeting me back constantly asking if I and my family where ok which made me feel better during the worst of it. Another thing happened that fascinated me later. I kept getting e-mails notifying me new people where now following me on Twitter. Was what I was doing that compelling?

On the bad side, Twitter became the hot topic at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Texas recently. The audience in a keynote interview between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg and journalist Sara Lacy got out of hand. Apparently both Zuckerburg and the audience did not like the line of questioning Lacy was doing. Lacy sensed the crowd’s displeasure and started getting defensive. What Lacy did not know was the crowd was getting worked by Twittering each other while Lacy was blowing the event. This event shows how Twitter, in the wrong hands, could become disruptive in situations such as classes. While applications like Twitter could be a benefit to educators, teachers will have to monitor what students are doing if they have those laptops, cellphones, and iPhones out.

Recently I was notified that my presentation proposal on Cyberbullying was accepted by the South Carolina Association of School Administrators for their Summer Leadership Institute. The district I work for has also requested I give this presentation as well. While I am honored that I will be presenting before my peers and school leaders on this subject, I feel it is more important to get the word out about Cyberbullying and its potential consequences to schools.

For those of you who don’t know, cyberbullying is using technology to harass, humiliate, or otherwise cause harm to someone else for fun or some other kind of gain. It was the tragic story of Megan Meier that led me to do hours of research and propose this topic to SCASA to begin with. Megan was a middle school student who communicated with a boy on MySpace who professed to like Megan. Eventually, the boy turned on Megan calling all kinds of names. There were other messages attacking Megan as well. After a message was sent from her MySpace boyfriend that Megan would be better off dead, Megan committed suicide. It turned out Megan’s boyfriend on MySpace was the creation of a girl who had a falling out with Megan and was orchestrating attacks on Megan to get back at her. To make this story even more shocking, the mother of the girl in question allegedly participated in the incident.

Hopefully, this tragedy will have some good come from it. First, it has brought awareness to cyberbullying, hence my presentation. Second, I got an e-mail today from someone in our district about The Megan Pledge. A group of Tweenangels from Ridgewood, New Jersey have created a three-part commitment for tweens to not engage in cyberbullying. Part one is individuals sign a pledge not to engage in cyberbullying. Part two is where the entire student body would sign a banner displayed in public pledging not to engage in cyberbullying. Part three is those who pledge not to engage in cyberbullying would wear black with white polka-dots ribbons to show their support. For more information you can go to StopCyberbullying.org. Hopefully at the beginning of each school year or at least on Megan’s birth day, November 6th, schools will take time to educate their students about cyberbullying and take part in Megan’s pledge activities. Taking the time to educate people about the dangers of using the Internet and how to avoid them will turn the Internet into place where great learning can take place. For more information you can visit Stopcyberbullying.org or the wiki I am creating for my presentation for more information.

Last week our school held two meetings about raising student achievement. One meeting was with students who were in danger of failing two or more classes or what could be termed a “Come to Jesus” meeting (no religion was actually preached). The other was with parents and community members to discuss the problem. To promote the parent/community meeting I was commissioned to produce three videos which were placed on a community blog via YouTube. The videos featured our cluster’s Academic Improvement Officer, a school board member, the local high school principal, and our school’s principal. Video themes included what is the problem with student achievement, what are some ways to raise student achievement, and why should the community come and offer their input. I will only bore you with the first video on this blog, you can click here to view the rest. The meeting was also videoed and posted on YouTube.

The ideas mentioned in all the videos and meetings have generated a larger discussion that will, hopefully, turn at-risk students around. Here is a sample of some of the things said. Students and parents need to get over the notion that students do not need to feel totally comfortable because facing challenges should not be comforting. Here is an old cry, parents need to get more involved in their child’s education (my mother would counter that educators chased parents away years ago). Get rid of televisions and video games so students can focus more on their studies. A stricter retention policy with mandatory summer school for students with up to two failing grades and being held back with more than two failing grades. Another summer program for rising 9th graders who are struggling before being allowed to enter high school. One participant did mention students need to prepare for careers that have not been invented yet.

However, I was disappointed no one brought up the idea that today’s students may learn or even think differently than in the past. Nor did anyone mention today’s students work better with more technological tools than the ones used in schools. In other words the Digital Native – Digital Immigrant divide. Since I was not invited I am going to mention it here and now. Over the last three years or so I have unscientifically observed students, including my 13-year old son, and have come to the conclusion today’s student learn better using technology. One challenging World Geography class I had were always a pain when I lectured. Yet, when I got them on to computers to let them do projects I assigned the change was near miraculous. They worked hard and I never had to write a discipline referral. The projects they would produce were actually very informative and creative. I always wonder what might have transpired if I had more access to computers. My son has used a, gasp, video game to help point him to a career path that will hopefully have him gainfully employed, out of the house, and able to help his parents in their old age. Also, he and a classmate produced a really good video (others said it so its not parental bragging and you can see for yourself) for his reading class. The amazing thing, I did not have to help him very much, just show him how to get the video from the Flip to the computer and the basics of Windows Movie Maker. My Web Media Production Class is working very hard, especially when they realized their work was actually being viewed by people outside of school. It may take a little bit of time for students to get used to using “their tools” for educational purposes but when they get it – watch out!

I know every large and political organization needs a press relations person to put the district in the best possible light to people who vote for bond referendums or spin bad news to make sound good. To borrow an old gag from the movie Airplane, if (God forbid) a school burned down, he would probably tell the press “fire makes way for a glorious new state of the art, high-tech, middle school.” So when one of our representatives on the district’s leadership forum told me the Press Relations Director sent out an e-mail regarding blogging, I cringed. This is the same person who wanted me shot (really, he was checking into a getting a firing squad from Paris Island) when a anti-profanity filter failed on a discussion board that had not been used for a long time. I could imagine the thought of teachers blogging their hearts out would give him insomnia not even Ambien could cure and an ulcer the size of Texas. In my mind the only message was no blogging in any way, shape, or form.

When the e-mail finally got to me I was shocked. He was actually suggesting a policy that made sense. The main concern was teachers participating in so-called blogs in local newspapers and using school-time and equipment to post to them. Teachers were also asked to choose a nome de plume that would protect their identity and be careful about what they write. I love the quote he used as a warning about newspaper blogs, “Playing in the blogosphere of the local papers is like running through a field of rose bushes and then deciding to swim with piranhas.” The community blog on the website of a local paper, Bluffton Today, is full of bloggers who will attack anyone remotely associated with the school district. Personally, I don’t participate very much in the newspaper blogs because I don’t consider them true blogs but more forums or discussion boards.

Reading from the book of Warlick (Classroom Blogging: A Teacher’s Guide to Blogs, Wikis, & Other Tools that are Shaping a New Information Landscape 2nd Edition by David Warlick. The Landmark Project, 2007) pages 94-95, David Warlick says blogs, “are about publishing….Blogging is about communication. It is about delivering a message, in order to affect that audience in some way, and receive response from that audience.” What Warlick says of discussion boards, “They are meant to be a conversation, a way of building ideas by sharing, assembling, and reacting to concepts.” In my opinion, the newspaper blogs are the latter, a free-for-all discussion on almost any topic with a few honest blog postings. At the time of this writing, the Bluffton Today blog had these topics: How do you get rid of a cold, a Bible scripture quotation, someone ranting about South Carolina not having vehicle inspections, some complaining about a teenage mother who abused her child being pregnant again, and a couple in Florida who always says good morning and good night to us in Bluffton.

At the risk of sounding like a snobby purist., I rarely every post to the newspaper blogs because of they way some bloggers treat others. The Education Reporter for Bluffton Today, Sara Wright, recently chastised one community blogger, “I know many wise, kind intelligent people who have given up bloggin on this SUPPOSEDLY community forum becuase of your venomous attacks in particular.” So if you venture into the blogs of your local community newspaper follow some common sense rules.

1. Don’t violate your school or district’s AUP by posting to these blogs on school time or school equipment.

2. Remember what you learned about writing in school. You will be under a microscope if other bloggers know you are a teacher. You might think you have annonimity but things slip out. Be professional.
3. A personal recommendation, don’t post unless you feel you absolutely must and make sure you have a thick skin. Do use the blogs to highlight good things happening at your school or special events. However, most of the world does not realize the amount of time and energy it takes to be a teacher and will never be convinced otherwise. Correct inaccurate information with documentation but don’t get dragged down into the gutter. Again, be professional.

4.  Have fun with it and laugh.