Teacher Bytes

I don’t want to start an argument about First Amendment rights protecting freedom of the press but there is a paradox brewing. Interesting how one set of rules and values works for one group but is strictly taboo for another. Take my Web Media Class for example. I could only imagine what would happen to me if my students where to publish their full names, class schedules, and where they live on their blogs, podcasts, and (soon) wikis. Parents would riot outside the school, burning me in effigy, a group breaks into the school (or the principal lets them in) who takes me out to the nearest tree. There I will be hung, burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, stoned, and beheaded. At the end of all this, the principal comes up to me and says “You’re fired!” in a more condescending manner than Donald Trump could ever muster.

Let’s take these same students and sign them up in a you-name-the-sport recreation league, school or club team. All of the students do great (at least in their parents’ opinion, coaches’ opinions don’t count) in their sport. The same group of parents who would be facing lynching charges after what they did to me will descend on the offices of our local newspapers threating sports editors and reporters with the same fate that befell me if, get this, newspapers does not write stories with pictures of how their budding stars got that game winning hit, scored a hat-trick, and set a world record all in the same game (according to parents, again coaches don’t count). Heaven forbid there should be a a college athletic scholarship or professional prospects in the future and the exploits are not recounted in minute details. How will the college coaches and pro scouts find their 8 year-old prodigy? Let some academic achievement or arts event go by without press coverage and the outcry is almost as loud. Recently, both local papers wrote stories about my Web Media class which printed the full name of a few of my students.

The paradox is most newspapers post online copies of their articles everyday. Newspapers, like all businesses being affected by technology, must move to the online world to stay competitive. However, I pick up a paper one day and in one section there is some student poetry published with students names, ages and pictures. In another section the paper is printing “trading cards” of players in a local baseball league with names, picture, team name, position, favorite team, and favorite player. Again, all of this information, a potential treasure trove for predators, can be found online. I asked a sports reporter about this last year and he admitted that he never thought about it that way but said he would report report what he thought was news worthy. Personally, I have few problems about how our local media reports the news. I have worked with reporters on the local, state, national, and even international levels in my role as teacher, soccer coach, and technology intergrationist. There are a few reporters and editors I consider friends. Yet, at the risk of sounding anti-press, it sometimes irks me about how the media shrills about how online predators can find all kinds of information about children online in an effort to sell newspapers or get ratings but don’t realize they help contribute to the problem they warn people about. Again, it makes for an interesting paradox.

Note: Normally I would insert links to annotate my points but since that would mean posting information about children online you will have to trust me on this one. Thanks.

Update: Here is a link to an example of a news story designed to scare people about online dangers. Thanks to CNET’s Buzz Out Loud for the link.

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Yesterday for my Podcasting Class, I sat down and recorded my first podcast in months. There were many reasons I put it off but it boiled down to laziness. I would tell myself I just don’t have a good place to do it where I would have no interruptions. Yesterday, I just sat down, started the record function on my Sansa Clip and went at it. Here are the show notes with links.

Kid-Cast.com: A kid-friendly site for students to upload their own podcasts. All podcasts are reviewed before they are put on the site.

Blog post “Should Video Games Replace Classroom Learning?” Nice post by Andy Carvin in his Learning.now blog about a discussion at South By Southwest Interactive on whether gaming should replace traditional classroom teaching.

Another Andy Carvin blog post on Learning.now about a student who was expelled for using Facebook to do an assignment.

Adobe has released Photoshop Express online.

An ARS Technica post about where online safety belongs. The article argues it should start at the home.

Brazil and Chicago are moving along with plans to place technology into the hands of students without waiting for the OLPC.