Moving at the Speed of Creativity

My 8 year old daughter recently googled something like “cool games for girls” and came across the website GirlsGoGames.com. We had a discussion this morning about the site and this is something we need to talk about more at length, because of all the issues it raises. I asked Sarah to blog about this, but wanted her to include a screenshot of the site in her post. She practiced doing this last Wednesday when we presented about our family learning blog at Oklahoma City Public Schools’ annual Tech Day conference, but this isn’t something she could do by herself yet. Instead of using Skitch to post to my Flickr account, I asked her to create her own Flickr account, but that required her to create a new Yahoo account that I had to authorize as her parent. (COPPA compliance in action.)

This was the screenshot she took after getting her Flickr account setup, and Skitch configured to upload / post to her Flickr account.

There are a lot of things to discuss here. First of all, from a media literacy standpoint, Sarah needs to understand this website is ALL about advertising and marketing. Before playing any game, visitors are subjected to a short 30 second video advertisement.

The site reinforces some stereotypical sex-role ideas that I do not entirely agree with. This isn’t a site I’d want her spending hours and hours on each day. She showed me the model/runway game (really it is more of an interactive simulation with feedback) and the room makeover area. I can see where this is fun, in a KidPix click the stamps and fill-in the “color me” blackline master sort of way. This site doesn’t promote and support activities which I would regard as truly creative, however, or constructive from a developmental standpoint. I’m not saying everything we do online has to be developmentally constructive, but if this site is a waste of time similar to how watching a TV show is a waste of time, then there should be some limits and boundaries on how often and how long she uses this website.

This summer the girls have been playing both Club Penguin and Webkinz a LOT. Rachel, especially, has been playing lots of Club Penguin but also uses Starfall and other sites. She just earned her “brown belt” on Club Penguin last week, a feat she was very proud of.

I want Sarah to blog about this GirlsGoGames website to encourage her to think critically about the site and what she is learning and consuming, consciously as well as unconsciously, as she “plays” on the site. I am not going to overreact and tell her not to go there at all, because the site does not look “dangerous” from a predator standpoint, but there are lots of important conversations we need to have here about cultural messages embedded in the site, its games, its advertisements, etc.

We are what we eat, both physically and intellectually.

Technorati Tags:
games, online, girls, clubpenguin, webkinz, ethics, values, conversation

It is a sad day indeed when everyday citizens of the United States actually debate whether or not torture should be blessed by the U.S. President, our military, and our various security forces operating abroad and at home. Having served in the U.S. military, having studied the U.S.-led war in Indochina extensively (including the plight of our POW/MIAs who were never returned from Laos) and firmly believing not only in the values embodied in our Constitution but also in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I reject unequivocally the claims by Richard Cheney and others that torture is acceptable and a good thing for the United States military, for the foreign policy of the United States, or for anyone. Having spent many hours listening to and learning from survivors of Nazi death camps, it is almost incomprehensible for me to realize that former leaders of our nation then secretly, and now openly, defend the use of torture methods by our soldiers and security agents. I’m not entirely naive. I have an incomplete understanding of the difficulties of war and armed conflict. But as a former military member and officer, I also understand without question that the sanctioned use of violence has and must have limits. When I studied U.S. foreign policy in Latin America during 1992-93 in Mexico City, I (and others) wondered if an outcome of the “unipolar” political world following the breakup of the former Soviet Union would be a U.S. military and foreign policy agenda which would exercise its power without restraint. Sadly, the administration of George W. Bush realized that fear (at least in part) and the Bush-condoned torture policy is case study number one of that saga.

I have written previously on this topic, and my views have not changed. See my May 2004 post, “Unexcuseable inhumanity / the dark side of the human psyche,” my October 2004 post, “POWs, Geneva Conventions, Guantanamo, and the Supreme Court,” and my January 2009 post, “Iran, Sovereignty, Colonialism and the Values of the West” for additional perspectives and background on these topics.

Whatever your political opinions about George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, and the topic of torture in the “war on terror” (renamed “Enhanced interrogation techniques” by those who wish to obfuscate the reality of these methods)– I encourage you to watch the following two videos.

The first is a 4 minute, 44 second video of Chicago radio personality Mancow Muller, who agreed to be subjected to waterboarding to share an opinion about whether or not this “interrogation technique” constitutes torture. His answer is unequivocal.

Can you believe our President, Vice President, and other leaders gave sanction to this form of torture to be performed by U.S. soldiers? Can you believe one individual, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was waterboarded 183 times in March of 2003? (Source: Bush-era memo dated May 30, 2005, quoted in 19 May 2009 CNN article, “Questions of torture, abuse rooted in Bush-era decisions.”) Who, I dare to ask, has become the evil villain in our supposed righteous “war on terror?” Our former executive branch leaders took our nation down a dark path, and I for one rejoice that our democratic nation spoke and took them out of office.

Please take time to also watch this 3 minute, 37 second video featuring interview commentary by Matthew Alexander, who:

…was the senior military interrogator for the task force that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and, at the time, a higher priority target than Osama bin Laden. Mr. Alexander has personally conducted hundreds of interrogations and supervised over a thousand of them.

Matthew’s message is clear:

Torture does not save lives. Torture costs us lives… And the reason why is that our enemies use it, number one, as a recruiting tool… These same foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight because of torture and abuse… literally cost us hundreds if not thousands of American lives.”

Thank you, President Obama, for banning torture and working to uphold U.S. Constitutional values. You are right to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. You are right to ban torture. Our nation, our servicemen and women, and the values of our country were shamed by your predecessor in office and his leadership team which gave torture their official stamp of approval and blessing. Thank you for acting as a President and chief executive of which I can be proud. The mess which the Bush administration left you and us, as an American people, is extremely difficult, but together we will overcome and work to restore the actions of our nation and the actions of our people to the high standards to which they should conform.

Technorati Tags:
video, youtube, torture, cheney, bush, obama, guantanamo, waterboard, waterboarding

Yesterday was a first, but this was a situation I’ve anticipated for many months.

My 11 year old son was at his grandparents house, and was using the Internet independently. He typed in a URL directly into a web browser and was accidentally forwarded to a pornographic website.

Later in the day, he told me about this first by asking, “Dad, can you set up a content filter at granddaddy’s house?” I asked him what had happened, and he explained the story. He had closed the web browser when this happened, and then told me about it when he could. We had discussed that this could happen many months ago, but this was the first instance of it actually happening to him. Unfortunately this is something that can easily happen on today’s Internet, but as he knows there ARE simple and free ways to setup a basic content filter which can prevent some of these situations from happening.

This afternoon at granddaddy and grandmother’s house, I setup a free, basic content filter on their high speed cable modem home network using OpenDNS. I’ve written about and explained how to use OpenDNS previously multiple times, including the posts:
- Reflections on home content filtering and OpenDNS after a year of use (Jan 2009)
- Adware blocked by OpenDNS (May 2008)
- A Common Sense Approach to Internet Safety (April 2008)
- The Value of OpenDNS (free) content filtering at home (March 2008)
- Home Internet Content filtering needs: Solved with OpenDNS (January 2008)

The entire process of setting up OpenDNS content filtering on my in-laws network this afternoon took less than ten minutes to complete. Our steps were:

1. I used the OpenDNS website to set the DNS numbers for their network router/WiFi access point to use OpenDNS numbers. The router then had to be restarted. (By putting these settings on the router, then their computers as well as any laptops/wireless devices we bring over to the house automatically have the same content filtering protection.)
2. We created a free OpenDNS account for my in-laws. We selected the types of content to filter. There are LOTS of choices, and we didn’t want to get carried away, but we did want basic protection. We selected the lowest level of filtering which protects against phishing attacks, and added filtering for pornography, nudity, and “tasteless” websites.
3. We waited three minutes for the settings to propagate to the OpenDNS nameservers.

That was it! I then tested the filter by typing in an address which should now be filtered (playboy.com) and verified the filter was active. My son then went back in his Safari web history on the computer he had been using yesterday, and we found the website he had visited accidentally. He clicked on that site again in his web history, and it was also filtered by OpenDNS.

As I’ve noted previously, I am a firm believer that there are NOT any technological solutions which can completely address the challenges and issues which come up with inappropriate content online. OpenDNS can definitely be bypassed by users who want to get around it. That is not the point. No filter is going to be able to completely block all content which could be deemed inappropriate or offensive, particularly when/if someone is actively searching for that type of content online. What OpenDNS does provide for free, and quite well on ANY device connected to your home network (regardless of the operating system or device type) is a basic level of content filtering which can be customized and tweaked readily as desired.

I first learned about OpenDNS when I was at the Apple Store here in Oklahoma City, because at the time (and I assume still today) they use it for content filtering. Because OpenDNS is free and so easy to setup and use, I think it should be configured on every home network.

That said, however, I’ll again emphasize the critical need we have for “digital dialog” and ongoing communication about issues like this. I’m thankful my son was willing to immediately talk to me about this situation, and was confident that I would understand and not overreact when I heard what had happened. Open and regular communication is the key. I’m sure this isn’t the last conversation we’ll have in our family about objectionable Internet content, and the fact that we had this discussion yesterday and today is likely correlated strongly to the fact that it wasn’t the first time we’ve discussed this.

What are you using at home to provide a basic level of content filtering for everyone? Have you found anything that is free and as good as OpenDNS?

Technorati Tags:
opendns, dns, content, filter, filtering, parent, communication, safety, isafety

Storychasing is using digital recording devices to create, archive and share digital stories on the web. Story Chasers, Inc. is a new nonprofit, educational organization incorporated in the state of Oklahoma which presents the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices oral history project in partnership with a variety of other Oklahoma organizations. In this podcast, recorded on the road with a Sony ICD-UX70 mp3 audio recorder, I provide an overview of ten reasons learners of all ages should consider becoming storychasers in their local communities. These ideas will be presented this coming Friday, May 1, 2009, at the PodStock conference in Wichita, Kansas. If you have feedback, ideas, critiques, or suggestions relating to these ideas, please let me know so I can incorporate them in my presentation Friday! The top 10 reasons to be a Storychaser discussed in this podcast are: 1- Touch hearts and win over parents, 2- Develop literacy skills, 3- Develop critical thinking skills, 4- Provide a window into learning, 5- Preserve family and local history, 6- Model constructive uses of digital and social media, 7- Develop digital citizenship, 8- Develop digital literacy and 21st century skills, 9- Inspire creativity, 10- Catalyze the learning revolution locally. Overall, of course, another great reason to be a storychaser is to have FUN!

 

 Podcast313: Top 10 Reasons to Be a StoryChaser [37:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (853)

Show Notes:

1. Story Chasers, Inc.
2. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices
3. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Videos
4. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Learning Community
5. Speaking of History Podcast by Eric Langhorst
6. Sony ICD-UX70 MP3 Digital Audio Recorder
7. The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander
8. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson

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The CNN article, “Parents, police monitoring kids’ cell phones” references several commercial services being utilized by parents in an attempt to monitor and control their children’s activities and interactions via cell phones. Referenced services include “My Mobile Watchdog” and “Mobile Spy.” The marketing teaser for “Mobile Spy” is:

Need to silently record SMS (text message) and call information of your child or employee? Learn the TRUTH with Mobile Spy, a completely stealth program! Mobile Spy records every SMS and logs every call including phone numbers with durations. View real time results in your private online account.

When parents, employers, and authorities suspect criminal behavior is taking place, there may be just cause for extreme measures to be taken to monitor and document behavior. I cringe to think parents may be resorting to commercial services like this, however, when their teen most likely needs more opportunities to communicate and develop a supportive, functional relationship with their parent(s) instead of a monitoring/stealth spying service.

Equally troubling on these commercial websites is the misrepresentation of “Internet safety” statistics to build a case to justify the purchase of offered services. On the “Child Safety Resources” page of “My Mobile Watchdog” we find the following sidebar of “research findings” purportedly related to cell phone use dangers:

Note these statistics are from a 2005 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children survey and a 2004 iSafe Survey. That means, for starters, these statistics are FOUR AND FIVE YEARS old. Should that be a problem for a marketing pitch purporting to highlight CURRENT trends? It should be, but apparently the “My Mobile Watchdog” folks are assuming consumers won’t read the fine print or care.

The larger issue with this “research” citation, however, is that there is no indication either of these surveys had anything to do with cell phone use or cell phone Internet dangers at all. In reading the titles of the surveys, it appears they were focused on issues arising when young people were online via desktop or laptop computers, not via a cell phone. The marketing department of “My Mobile Watchdog” apparently believes consumers should make the enormous assumption that because students in 2005/2004 were reporting high levels of “bad” encounters online, that means kids today are encountering at least equal levels of “bad stuff” on their cell phones. Certainly the mobile web does offer plenty of offensive choices today, for those who go looking, but this leap of faith / analysis encouraged by this marketing example is not supported by the presented research and should not be accepted by consumers.

Interestingly, the i-Safe official website does not provide any links on its homepage to its own survey and research results. If i-Safe was really interested in sharing and disseminating objective data to help people make better decisions, they would provide ready links to those “research studies” which do NOT require a login to their protected site content.

Are students using cell phones today in ways which put themselves and possibly others at risk? Most certainly. The recent articles on “sexting” from ABC, CBS, and CNN (all linked on the current “My Mobile Watchdog” homepage) highlight the same thing we’ve known forever: Teenagers frequently make bad choices when it comes to relationships and friends. Can commercial products like “My Mobile Watchdog” or “Mobile Spy” offer a solution to the problem of teens sexting with cell phones? Will a school policy banning cell phones solve the problem? Absolutely not. This problem, like many others, is an issue of CHOICES. It’s about ethics. It’s about decision making. It’s about helping kids recognize the importance of carefully managing their digital footprint, encouraging them to dream big in their lives and work to make their dreams become a reality. A young person who has goals for the future and is being supported in their drive to achieve those goals is far less likely to make personally destructive choices and decisions than someone without goals.

Expensive mobile phone surveillance and monitoring plans, purchased in addition to the already VERY granular cell phone usage reporting included with monthly mobile phone bills, would be a waste of money for most families today. What is needed instead is more digital dialog.

To the marketing department of “My Mobile Watchdog” I offer the following advice: Please get your facts straight and don’t mis-represent research study findings in your fervent effort to fan the flames of parental fear regarding Internet dangers. At least find studies to cite in your marketing ads which actually focused on cell phone usage. The PEW Internet and American Life Project’s reports on mobile computing might be a good place to start.

These are my notes from a COSN 2009 session, “Preliminary Report of a National Survey of School Leaders on the Use of Web 2.0 in Schools” on March 11, 2009, in Austin, Texas. MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

Key question for CoSN: “So What?”

from Cheryl Lemke
- this is very interesting data
- next year will be even more interesting, because we’ll have trend data

Partners CoSN has invited for this
- MacArthur Foundation
- ASCD
- Common Sense Media

US has over 14,000 school districts
- we did a stratified random sample by locale: urban, suburban, town and rural
- overall return rate was 24%
- sample included 1,189 district admins (389 superintendents, 441 tech directors, 359 curriculum directors)

What reasons do you have for moving toward web 2.0
- top reason in all locales: Keeping students interested and engaged in school

INTERESTING BECAUSE THIS ANSWER IS CONSISTENT WITH THE IDEA OF MAINTAINING OUR EXISTING SCHOOL SYSTEM, FORMAT AND PARADIGM

2nd response: meetign the needs of different kinds of learners
3- develop critical thinking skills
4- develop capabilities in students that can’t be acquired through traditional means
5- provide alternative learning environments for students
6- extend learning beyond the school day
7- prepare students to be lifelong learners

in 1:1 projects we’ve found critical thinking is the #1 thing schools are looking for

“Global Awareness” did not make it into the top 7
- it was for superintendents and suburban respondents, but not for others

2nd main finding: The majority of district admins believe that student use of web 2.0 should be limited to participation on approved educational websites

51% of schools said they were more restrictive than CIPA requires

I THINK THAT NUMBER IS MUCH HIGHER IN OKLAHOMA

3rd major finding: The majority of school districts ban social networking (70%) and chat rooms (72%) while allowing prescribed educational use for most of the other web 2.0 tools

4th finding: While reporting low levels of general use, curriculum directors did describe significant opportunities for use of web 2.0 tools in curricula and teaching materials
- sharing visual media files
- creating polls and surveys
- participating in online projects
- blogging
- sharing music or sound files
- site-building (FreeWebs)
- playing interactive games
- participating in virtual worlds
- social networking

We found those web 2.0 tools that would require a change to be made in the ways teachers taught and students learned have been adopted LEAST

5th finding: Curriculum directors reported that web 2.0 will be used most effectively in the content areas of writing, social studies, and reading at all grade levels

6th finding: While there was broad agreement that web 2.0 applications hold educational value, the use of these tools in American classrooms remains the province of individual pioneering classrooms

THIS LAST FINDING IS SO TRUE. IT IS NOT HAPPENING SYSTEMATICALLY. VERY SPOTTY. INDIVIDUAL PIONEERS. NOT SYSTEMIC.

finding 7: Few district leaders have systematically begun to research, plan, or implement effective uses of web 2.0, nor have they yet restructured their schools to enable participatory reform

THIS IS NO SURPRISE, REALLY.

generally we found urban and suburban schools were much more open and much further along with understanding and utilizing web 2.0 technologies

we are continuing to write this report, will be formally releasing it in April to COSN and the MacArthur Foundation

Now comments from Jennifer Barrett from ASCD
- last year ASCD signed on as member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills
- P-21 framework highlights problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking, and others as essential skills

Story from yesterday’s pre-con with Marco Torres, took a photo of a menu and had someone in his learning network help him order
- also shared example of Japan who had taught himself guitar and 3.5 million viewers and had shared their own video

I ACTUALLY THINK THERE WERE MORE VIEWERS THAN THAT! I ALSO THINK MARCO DOES THE BEST JOB I’VE SEEN OF FRAMING THAT STORY. SOMETIMES ADMINISTRATORS AND TEACHERS HEAR THAT STORY AND THINK, “SO WHAT. THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SCHOOL.” INTERESTING THAT JENNIFER IS QUOTING MARCO FROM YESTERDAY SEVERAL TIMES. CLEARLY HE MADE A BIG IMPRESSION. GOOD JOB MARCO!

ASCD feels that by integrating 21st century tools, including web 2.0 tools, to change our educational systems and schools

we need to begin by empowering our communities and educational leaders

EXACTLY. I AGREE. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF CELEBRATE OKLAHOMA VOICES.

teachers need a network of support

ASCD is committed to do this

JENNIFER IS NOT USING ANY SLIDES AT ALL TO COMPLEMENT HER COMMENTS. INTERESTING. THIS COMMUNICATES “DO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO” WHEN IT COMES TO MODELING AND MANY OF THE IDEAS SHE IS TALKING ABOUT.

ASCD is establishing podcasts and providing free/open access to presenters and ideas

Now comments from Linda Burch from Common Sense Media
- a year ago we did a study comparing parent views to teacher views on learning potentials of social media
- worked to use a similar research tool this time
- what I think is profoundly important about this research, is I think it’s the first time this group of school leaders have been asked these questions with this type of depth

I AM THINKING THESE QUESTIONS WOULD BE GREAT FOR OKLAHOMA SDE TO ASK ALL SUPERINTENDENTS

I believe our President in the US is now focused on 21st century skills
- is talking about new assessment tools around critical thinking and problem solving

Keeping students engaged should be our top priority

IS SHE TALKING ABOUT KEEPING KIDS ENTHRALLED OR KEEPING KIDS ENGAGED? SO OFTEN WE’RE HEARING PEOPLE USE THE WORD “ENGAGE” WHEN THEY REALLY MEAN “ENTHRALL.”

Our study found critical thinking skills is one of the top things parents saw about web 2.0 tools, from World of Warcraft to other games/websites

exciting innovations about alternative learning environments
- in Chicago and New York: connecting schools to libraries
- virtual worlds and games
- new school in NYC, will be focused on games: quests and challenges
- we can pick up on that finding too

LINDA IS NOT USING ANY SLIDES OR IMAGES AT ALL IN HER PRESENTATION EITHER. SO INTERESTING TO HEAR PRESENTERS HERE NOT USE MEDIA AT ALL, TO TALK ABOUT THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA. KNOWING THE POWER OF VISUAL LITERACY AND VISUAL MEDIA, WHEN A PRESENTER COULD BE USING IMAGES TO ACCENT AND SUPPORT THEIR IDEAS/POINTS AND THEY DON’T, I ALWAYS WONDER: DO THEY REALLY WANT ME TO REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE SAYING? ARE THEY REALLY TRYING TO MAKE AN IMPACT ON MY BRAIN? IT’S ALWAYS EASIER TO JUST LECTURE AND NOT SUPPLEMENT WITH MEDIA. BUT IN MANY CASES THAT IS LESS EFFECTIVE.

We are looking for better research on what is the learning which is happening with web 2.0
- real effort to create a group to work on assessment
- until there are evidentiary standards for this type of learning, we won’t see broad adoption in our schools
- we need professional development, and need it to be defined “bottoms up”
- we need a parent awareness campaign about digital learning across the country
- lots more curriculum development to be done in local schools
– people trying things, really getting creative, like we heard from Marco Torres yesterday

Common Sense Media does 3 things
1- rate and review all kinds of media from a kids and families perspective (for consumers who are parents and educators, so adults in kids’ lives can understand what they are engaged with and why they love it)
2- create “recommended lists” of websites, movies, about different topics and for different purposes (websites for tinkerers and adventurers is an example)
3- we educate with simple, 3 minute videos for parents
4- we are an advocacy organization promoting “digital literacy” and “digital citizenship”
– reframing discussions about internet safety, directing kids to sites which involve civic engagement

I LOVE COMMON SENSE MEDIA FOR ALL THESE REASONS!!! THEY ARE GREAT!!! THIS IS WHY I HAVE THEM LINKED IN MY BLOG LEFT SIDEBAR!!!

james [dot] bosco […..

From James:
- the tragedy of these meetings is that we never have enough time for these Q&A times and conversations

MY RESPONSE: THIS IS JUST A FUNCTION OF SCHEDULING. THERE IS NO REASON A “CONVERSATION WITH THE PANEL” SESSION COULDN’T BE SCHEDULED TO FOLLOW THIS. THIS HAPPENS AT SOME CONFERENCES. WHY NOT COSN?
- ACTUALLY MANY OF THE SESSIONS I SAW AT COSN LAST YEAR IN WASHINGTON DC WERE SHORT PANEL

MY QUESTION: WHERE ARE BEST PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAMS ON DIGITAL LITERACY AND DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN THE COUNTRY?

Linda’s answer:

Common Sense Schools program was launched in November 2008

State of Virginia has been doing good work on parent education
Kansas City schools have also been doing good work

MacArthur Foundation is supporting “Good Play Project: Digital Ethics”

Also see the Spotlight blog from the MacArthur Foundation

MacArthur Foundation 21st Century Learning and Assessment project (can’t find a link)

Technorati Tags:
macarthur, foundation, cosn, #cosn09, commonsensemedia, common, sense, media, web2, technology, school, education, research

This podcast is a bit of an ecclectic mix of ideas, song snippets, and educational project ideas. Foundationally, these relate to the idea that we’re going to have an enduring need to help younger students as well as older learners use digital tools in powerful, appropriate, and constructive ways. Whether we use the words citizen journalist, digital witness, storychaser, or ethical digital citizen, the ideas of responsibly using media to publish at will on the global stage of the Internet are included. The prospect of the Heartland Flyer Amtrak train being extended from Oklahoma City to Kansas City in less than two years will open up some exciting possibilities for a summer digital media travel experience for teachers and students in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The Storychaser’s Peace Train would begin in Saint Louis and end in Fort Worth, providing opportunities for student-teacher teams to develop and refine their own storychasing skills alongside others from around our nation. Stopping in small, rural communities along the way to learn local history and interview community members, to videoconference “live” back to home communities via satellite-based videoconferencing units, and “sharing the journey” with others via photo sharing, video sharing, and blogging would all be part of the Storychaser’s Peace Train experience. Who knows where these dreams and our digital connections will take us in the months and years ahead? Perhaps the Storychaser’s Peace Train will be passing through a small town near you soon.

 

 Podcast299: Dreaming of the Storychaser's Peace Train [21:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1181)

Show Notes:

1. Railroads and virtual connections
2. Roads of Learning in the 21st Century (v 1.0)
3. Roads of Learning in the 21st Century (on blip.tv)
4. Storychasing the 2008 XIT Rodeo and Ranch
5. 72 Years of Free Barbeque (StoryChasers video)
6. Lessons Learned from two more Ustream.tv remote webcasts
7. RoundTrips: Interactive Video Conferencing from Anywhere (Lewis and Clark trail - roundtrips.org)
8. Reflections about old jails, land appraisal, and high speed infrastructure in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas
9. An Oklahoma City to Kansas City Amtrak Connection may be coming!
10. Cottonwood Falls Kansas (Flickr Set)
11. Heartland Flyer Train (Amtrak)
12. City of New Orleans (song)
13. Storychasers.org
14. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices
15. The Digital Citizenship Website
16. RoundTrips.org
17. Contact Wesley Fryer

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I have an 8 year old “American Girl” doll and movie series fan in my home, and today she showed me the “Pledge to take a stand” campaign against bullying on the 2009 American Girl of the Year website.

After clicking the link, click “Take the pledge” and then click on your home state:

You are then prompted to enter your name, and click “I Pledge” at the bottom:

After taking the pledge and seeing some “stop the bullying” animated notes, users can print their certificate and also email friends they know about the campaign:

Users are not required to disclose personal information. A first name works fine for the pledge, and an email address is NOT required.

The acronym SHINE in the American Girl anti-bullying pledge stands for:

1. Stand up to put-downs,
2. Help those who are being bullied,
3. Inform adults when I need to,
4. Never use my computer or cell phone to hurt others,
5. Encourage my friends to stand up against bullying, too.

The pledge closes with the statements:

I promise to stand strong, speak out, and be a good friend. I will let my inner star SHINE.

I know Sarah was attuned to this because of a conversation we had about bullying and cyberbullying earlier this week. When I had my laptop connected to the computer one day before school, I showed my kids the “Hero in the Hallway” video, which had been on my mind since I posted about it recently. My own children had never seen this video before, and it led to some good discussion about what we can do about bullying.

I’m delighted Sarah was interested in taking this anti-bullying pledge on her own today, and it led to more conversations about how we can stand up for ourselves and our friends when we face bullies. Bullies are everywhere, unfortunately, and they are not something we are generally able to completely escape when we leave school. We have to learn to deal with bullies. Watching a single video or taking a web-based pledge will not, by themselves, likely make much of a difference in a child’s perceptions about bullying and how to respond to them. They can, however, be important elements in an ongoing conversation and dialog about respect, ethics, courage, and friendship.

If you have young girls in your home or classroom, consider showing them this American Girl anti-bullying site. The site also includes a good set of suggestions, links and resources for parents and teachers which can help catalyze anti-bullying dialog. These include:

1. Review advice from experts and recommended reading.
2. Watch the Chrissa movie with girls, and use the discussion questions to open up a conversation about how bullying affects them.
3. Sit down together to explore activities for girls that empower them at home, at school, and at play.
4. Find more activities in the Stand Together, Stop the Bullying school curriculum. We developed the curriculum in partnership with The Ophelia Project, an organization dedicated to helping schools create safe social climates. Review the curriculum and pass it on to teachers and schools in your area.

I also recommend checking out The Ophelia Project, which:

serves youth and adults who are affected by relational and other non-physical forms of aggression by providing them with a unique combination of tools, strategies and solutions. To achieve long-term systemic change, we help build capabilities to measurably reduce aggression and promote a positive, productive environment for all. We are dedicated to creating safe social climates.

There are lots of great resources about relational aggression on the Ophelia Project website as well, AND that site is not focused primarily on selling dolls, movies, etc. as the American Girl website is as a for-profit website and organization. (You can have a good media literacy discussion with your children and students about that.)

My 8 year old reported that she and a friend recently saw the movie “Chrissa Stands Strong” when she spent the night, and they picked it out from the movie choices at a nearby BlockBuster. I’m impressed they made such a positive movie choice.

For more resources relating to bullying and cyberbullying prevention, see my wiki page for the presentation “Proactive Approaches to Address Cyberbullying and Digital Social Networking.”

Technorati Tags:
bully, bullying, prevention, american, girl, stand, up, chrissa, movie, school, education, ethics, dialog, communication

This evening I had the privilege of participating as a panel facilitator and web-streaming technical consultant for the Oklahoma A+ Schools “Watch Party” preceding and following the statewide broadcast of the documentary “Crystal Darkness.” The documentary focused on the scourge of methamphetamine (crystal meth) across the state of Oklahoma.

Following the documentary, a panel of distinguished experts on counseling, substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and law enforcement discussed the issues raised in the documentary. Guests included:

1. Dr. Bruce Lochner, UCO Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Student Counseling
2. Sunshine Cowan, UCO Community Health Instructor and Healthy Life Skills Coordinator
3. Dr. Debbie Traywick, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Health & Physical Education
4. Detective Jeremy Biggs, UCO Department of Public Safety

This is the Ustream archived recording of our 30 minute post-documentary panel discussion.

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

I also recorded a 20 minute interview and discussion with Dr. Lochner prior to the broadcast of the “Crystal Darkness” documentary:

Free TV Show from Ustream

Prior to either of these recorded discussions, I answered several questions about the documentary “Crystal Darkness” and the UCO watch party posed by a reporter for the UCO television news channel. This recording is about 3.5 minutes long.

Video streaming by Ustream

Refer to the “Oklahoma Resources” page of the Oklahoma Crystal Darkness website for information about specific resources available in your Oklahoma county. The national campaign website, www.crystaldarkness.com, offers a variety of resources including facts about the problem, true stories about the effects of addiction, ways to get help, and suggestions for getting involved.

Some of the biggest takeaways for me from this evening’s discussions were:

1. Anytime you have a question about suspicious activity in your neighborhood or elsewhere that you think could be criminally related, CALL THE POLICE. If a crime is not in progress, do not call 911, instead call the main administrative number for the police station. It is much better to and report something that turns out not to be a problem, than to turn a blind eye to a situation which could be affecting and harming others in your community.
2. Meth addiction is a treatable condition and help IS available. Meth addicts are rarely able to initiate the process of getting help themselves. They need assistance. Identify local resources and reach out to them for assistance if you know someone affected by meth or another substance addiction.
3. Open communication and dialog is key. This starts in families, but also involves schools, churches, community groups, sports teams, and other organizations. Substance abuse is tied closely to self-esteem and perceptions of identity. When people feel isolated, alone, and disconnected, they are most susceptible to self-destructive behaviors like drug abuse.
4. We must be proactive in our local communities. Share information from the Crystal Darkness documentary with others in your area, and find ways to start conversations about this issues and needs. As Dr. Lochner reminded us during our discussion, “You are your brother’s keeper.” We’ve got to take the responsibility of taking care of others in our communities seriously.

I found the discussion about “social norms education” education at UCO particularly interesting during our panel tonight. Often the perceptions we form based on the influence of media, peers, and others is inaccurate. This type of educational initiative seems both reasonable and much-needed on our college campuses like UCO today.

Many thanks to Oklahoma A+ Schools for facilitating this “watch party” event and post-documentary discussion. I’d also like to extend a special shout-out to Jean Hendrickson, Dawn Danker, Stacie Morgan, and the crew of other technical assistants behind-the-scenes who worked to make this event a success. I hope to continue working with Oklahoma A+ Schools staff and educators on similar initiatives focused on improving the lives of our fellow Oklahomans and making positive differences together in our communities. It was fun and a real treat to be able to lend some of my expertise to this worthwhile project this evening.

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Crystal Meth, aka “methamphetamine,” is a highly addictive drug. Addiction to meth is epidemic in my home state of Oklahoma. Tuesday evening, January 13, 2009 at 6:30 pm CST a special 30 minute documentary called “Crystal Darkness” will simultaneously air on multiple Oklahoma television stations as well as online via the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services web site. At the invitation of Oklahoma A+ Schools, I will be attending the “watch party” at the University of Central Oklahoma here in Edmond and facilitating a post-show question and answer session to be broadcast live over Ustream.tv from the UCO campus.

Our post-show coverage via Ustream will begin at 7:00 pm CST (01:00 am GMT) on 13 January 2009. We will be broadcasting on the Oklahoma A+ Schools Ustream channel:

Live TV : Ustream

We’ll be getting thing setup early, and will go “on the air” at 6 pm CST for some pre-event discussion with educators, students, and others gathered at the Broncho Sports Grill.

For more details, see the UCO press release from January 7, 2009, “Oklahoma A+ Schools and UCO To Host Oklahoma ‘Crystal Darkness’ Watch Party.” I’ll tweet updates and links when we go online Tuesday night on Ustream. I hope you can join us! A+ Schools staff members will be assisting with the videography and chat room moderation, so we should be able to “give voice” to any questions which are posed in the chat room for our face-to-face Q&A guests.

The recorded UStream of the pre- and post-show discussions at UCO will be posted on the Oklahoma A+ Schools’ website: www.aplusok.org

For more information about this campaign, go to www.crystaldarknessoklahoma.org.

For immediate assistance, please contact 1-888-METH-AID or 211 in Oklahoma area.

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Here in the United States, we live in a relatively free society compared to some other nations. North Korea and China come to mind first in this regard, but there are many others too where individual freedoms are more sharply limited and restricted. I highly value and treasure those freedoms, and try not to take them for granted.

Online, learners young and old often have a great deal of freedom as well. I think this is an inherently good thing. User-created content (UCC), also known as User-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM), allows degrees of freedom which often make teachers, principals, and other traditional caretakers of students in schools very uncomfortable and nervous. The basic reason for this, in my view, is that schools are typically organized to support the value of CONTROL over the value of FREEDOM. Digital technologies, and the Internet in particular on the other hand, tend to support the reverse: Freedom over control. This tendency is something Robert Bork identified in his book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah” several years ago, when he quoted another author (whose name I don’t recall, unfortunately) who observed that “technology tends to be on the side of anarchy.”

This is a philosophic way to begin sharing a few reflections on the subject of virtual vandalism. Virtual vandalism is, of course, not new and I think it’s here to stay. It’s a part of life in a free society and on a relatively free Internet. (Barring many K-12 school networks, of course.) The fact that learners of any age can use digital communication tools in constructive or destructive ways should be at the heart of many conversations in our homes and classrooms about digital citizenship and ethics.

Before sharing the examples below, I’d like to preface my comments with several important observations.

1. I love the web-based, interactive digital storytelling environment which is VoiceThread. I am not affiliated or financially connected/renumerated in any way by VoiceThread, my passion for using this tool and sharing it in presentations and workshops comes strictly from the great value I think this environment has for learning and interactive communication.
2. The VoiceThreads I have created along with my own children and others I’ve helped in workshops over the past couple of years have been commented on by hundreds of people. Amidst these comments, VERY, VERY few have been negative or objectionable. When I have contacted VoiceThread staff about a concern, they have been quick to respond appropriately.

With those statements in mind, I’d like to share some reflections about an example I think points to our need to encourage constructive media creation in our schools and homes. Yesterday and today, for some reason VoiceThreads on my account received many more comments than usual. This Safari RSS bookmarks bar screenshot shows 23 new VoiceThread comments for today. There were actually a few more which I viewed today before deciding to record a screencast and post these thoughts:

Students and learners in general are so UNFAMILIAR with the experience of creating and authoring content online, in many cases I think, that the opportunity to “scribble” on a VoiceThread digital story strikes them as a fun, funny, and desirable experience. This is a screenshot of one of the comments I deleted this evening from my then-3 year old’s VoiceThread, “Getting a New Haircut.” This is a very popular VoiceThread online, showing up (currently) on the first page of results when you click “Browse” on the VoiceThread homepage. Since I still have comments open for this VoiceThread, sometimes people like to scribble as this person has:

My first thought is that parents and teachers should turn kids who want to do things like this on VoiceThread loose for hours on TuxPaint, a free / open-source drawing and painting program for kids. There kids can scribble to their hearts content!

Of course one of the most exciting and attractive things about the Internet today and the social web is the fact that what we do can be seen by others, so the experience of drawing on a private, non-web-based drawing on TuxPaint is likely very different than the experience of being able to comment and potentially vandalize a VoiceThread digital story created by someone else.

There is another thought which comes to mind when I see virtual vandalism on a site like VoiceThread, however, which is the point I want to strongly emphasize in this post. We need to encourage and guide our children and students to constructively use their powers at the keyboard rather than destructively hurt or vandalize. I recorded a 3.5 minute screencast this evening and uploaded it to YouTube using SnapZ Pro X to demonstrate and discuss this idea, in the context of a recent VoiceThread comment my son’s “Washington DC Experiences” VoiceThread attracted.

This is the description of the video screencast I posted to YouTube:

This is a brief reflection on something which is inevitable with user-created content: virtual vandalism. I believe as educators we need to provide opportunities and guidance for students in the constructive uses of media, so they can channel their creative energies in edifying and beneficial ways. Of course it’s ultimately up to individuals to choose how to act, but we should try to guide them toward constructive commenting as well as content creation.

I am not whining or complaining about relatively harmless comments like this on VoiceThread. I do want to make the point that we need to give kids more opportunities to constructively create and share media. This is a key element of our statewide “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” oral history and digital storytelling project. We need more projects like this in our schools and communities.

If you are a teacher connected to any of the students who left any of these scribbled or rude VoiceThread comments, please DO NOT interpret the message of this blog post as a request or suggestion that you stop using VoiceThread! Quite to the contrary!

Rather than stop the conversation, I encourage all teachers to use situations like this as teachable moments to discuss the importance of representing ourselves and our schools/organizations positively on the open web. We also should discuss the real effects our words, drawings, and actions can and do have on others with whom we share them.

Let’s take the need for conversations about digital citizenship, safe digital social networking, and cyberbullying prevention seriously. If you don’t start the conversation with your children and students, who will?

Internet users as well as cell phone owners have TREMENDOUS powers literally at their fingertips today. Just as the holder of the keys to this sports car could choose to make wise or foolish choices, we all can do the same at the keyboard or on our cell phone.

photo credit: chorwedel

What are we going to choose to do with the amazing powers at our fingertips today?

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The video “Hero in the Hallway” is one I often like to use as a conclusion for presentations with students about cyberbullying prevention.

I’m sharing this blog post and question primarily for students at Howe High School in Mrs. Parks’ journalism class following our recent videoconference, but the following questions are open for anyone to answer.

How do you think the themes and messages of this video connect to what we need to be doing in our schools to address bullying, cyberbullying, and other issues together?

What action steps can you begin taking NOW at your school to make a positive difference in the lives of those who are victims of bullying?

For more links related to this topic, see my wiki page for the presentation “Proactive Approaches to Address Cyberbullying and Digital Social Networking.”

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cyberbullying, bullying, safety, school, schools, education

Like a large number of North American households with Internet access and elementary age children this holiday season, our home was the scene of many hours logged on both Club Penguin and Webkinz the past couple weeks.

After Christmas, we made a momentous purchase for our five year old: A new Webkinz Penguin she’s named “Sparkle,” which has provided her with the virtual keys to experience the online world of Webkinz along with her older brother and sister. It is amazing to watch our kids teach each other different things about these virtual worlds. They are acquiring more than motor skills: There is a LOT of reading and problem solving going on, not to mention personal finance management as they decide how to use or save the virtual fortunes they are amassing in these online worlds.

My son explained to me yesterday why he would never consider running Webkinz as a separate webapp with a program like Prism– he always has other webpages open (as tabs) when he’s playing Webkinz, where he gets tips and tricks for what to buy in the store, what to play, etc. When I asked him how he found those websites to use, the tone of his answer when he said “Google” communicated something like, “Geez Dad, what planet do you live on?”

This evening we had an important teachable moment involving Webkinz, which highlights multiple things– including the importance of parents having regular discussions with children about what they are doing online. While my 11 year old son was away from his laptop, but still logged into Webkinz, my 8 year old daughter used his account and sent herself a 50% discount coupon for the Webkinz store from his account. She hadn’t obtained permission to do this, and she knew it was wrong. This led to several discussions tonight, apologies, and a consequence that she can’t use the computer at home for the next two days.

Things that happen in the virtual, online world DO matter just as things we do in the real, face-to-face world matter. Perceptions shape reality. I explained to my daughter that her act of going into her brother’s Webkinz account and sending herself that coupon without permission was just like him going into her room and eating a box of chocolates that she received for Christmas, without permission. It was stealing, taking something that did not belong to her without permission, and it was wrong.

Sarah was testing the boundaries of what she could do online and get away with, and testing boundaries is a very natural thing for kids to do. Overall I think our discussions about this were very constructive. She actually wrote my son a note and tried to give him a large part of her Christmas money that she’d received as compensation for this “Webkinz wrong,” so this situation provided a good opportunity to also discuss forgiveness and grace. Lots of good discussions about ethics.

During 2006-2008 when I worked for AT&T as a state education advocate and presented frequently on the topics of Internet safety and safe digital social networking, I was often amazed how conversations with students about Webkinz could tie directly into important lessons about password security and digital citizenship. In a large group of elementary students, typically there would be at least one student who had lost control of his/her Webkinz password and had all their Webkinz possessions sold as a result by a malicious Webkinz account thief. When I invited students to share their stories about Webkinz thefts, it was amazing to see how RIVETED other students were in listening to these tales. These were not “pretend” or “just virtual” experiences that had happened to the child’s Webkinz account: These were REAL experiences that were VERY traumatic and led to some important lessons learned.

When I was growing up, I didn’t have opportunities to interact with others and amass virtual possessions in online worlds like Club Penguin or Webkinz. While kids as well as adults can certainly waste a lot of time online playing games as well as consuming media in various forms, I think there is much more comparative value to my children participating in interactive, online environments like these rather than simply watching television passively. The advent of more streaming video shared on websites means passive TV watching CAN and does happen frequently when kids are online, but I’d say they spend at least 90% of their time online interactively DOING things rather than just “watching.”

I saw tonight that Nick Jr has launched a new commercial enterprise, MyNoggin, which is subscription-based and encourages kids to remain active/engaged on the website by earning virtual marbles and exchanging them for furniture and toys to put in their own virtual rooms. Sounds a lot like Webkinz and Club Penguin. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the pattern and recipe here.

It’s amazing to compare the level of self-directed learning and engaging online learning opportunities available to my children here in our home, to the traditional, textbook and worksheet-based classroom learning experiences to which they’ll return tomorrow at school. Strange ironies of our 21st century existence.

Home:
- Everyone has a laptop they can use
- Everyone has access to filtered but very open high speed WiFi Internet access
- Everyone has access to an iPod, iPod Touch or my iPhone to watch movies, play games, or access other web applications

School:
- No one has a laptop (even the teachers don’t)
- No WiFi Internet is available for anyone to use
- iPods and iPhones are banned

My son was shaking his head tonight as he said several times, “I can’t believe tomorrow is school.” Yep. Back to school. Get out that paper and pencil. It’s going to be time for another spelling test.

photo credit: elginwx

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webkinz, clubpenguin, ethics, school, home, internet, learning

While negative stories about destructive uses for online technologies continue to attract attention, I continue to find it amazing what CONSTRUCTIVE things you can teach yourself these days if you’re connected to the Internet and can use Google. I’ve recently used a variety of free, online tutorials to learn more about using Final Cut Pro video editing software.

This Metacafe video (unfortunately preceeded by a short advertisement) addresses the basics of adding text with Final Cut Pro:

Adding Text With Final Cut Pro - Funny blooper videos are here

This ExpertVillage video addresses inserting and overwriting transitions in FCP:

Lastly, this video from DVDcreators addresses the common “Insufficient content for edit” error when attempting to add a transition between clips in FCP. Because it is a QuickTime Movie linked via the PodPress plug-in for Wordpress, it is not embeddable.

I’ve also used some of Creative Cow’s free video tutorials for FCP in the past. After I tweeted about finding some “just-in-time” video tutorial help for FCP this evening, others suggested commercial / subscription-based tutorial sites Lynda.com and AtomicLearning.

Personally, I’m finding the need for commercial how-to guide sites like these is less as more free tutorials proliferate online. Still, it can be nice to have a more comprehensive resource for specific software programs, and I may give commercial options more serious consideration in the coming year as I seek to further develop my FCP skill set. It’s fantastic, however, to be able to access high quality, free tutorials like those I’ve linked above when I have a technological learning need. YouTube alone today has over 650 video tutorials for Final Cut Pro.

This is ALMOST “learning without limits.” It’s too bad such unbounded learning has a dark side as well.

photo credit: lassassino

For better or for worse, I think that “dark side” is part of the price of digital freedom. In a world where online learners CAN choose to learn about almost anything, ethical decision-making is more important than ever. We have fewer natural boundaries to our learning than ever before, so our need for “digital discipline” is great. It’s too bad so many schools are still pursuing a myopic vision of strictly banning web content to address the needs of digital citizenship today, rather than encouraging the responsible and appropriate use of Internet resources during and after school.

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fcp, finalcut, final, cut, pro, apple, video, tutorial, lesson, learn, online

I posted the following memo to our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community this afternoon, in response to questions raised by a school district official and a company providing content filtering services for some of our Oklahoma school districts. This is also available as a PDF file. See my November 11, 2008, post “Making the case for a safe, moderated learning community for Oklahoma schools” for part 1.

To: Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Project Participants
From: Wesley Fryer
Date: November 17, 2008
RE: Learning Community Website Issues – Part 2

Some members of our COV advisory committee have had additional discussions with Oklahoma school district personnel as well as commercial vendors who provide content filtering services for Oklahoma schools about whitelisting our COV learning community websites per the Nov 11th instructions and memo published last week. This memo is a response to those new questions which have been raised.

QUESTION ABOUT OPEN SOCIAL AUTHENTICATION

Our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community currently uses (along with other websites created with Ning.com) the open social authentication protocol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSocial

One of the commercial vendors serving Oklahoma school districts participating in the COV project has pointed out there is a “fairly obscure vulnerability” which permits users once the http://api.ning.com domain has been opened/whitelisted to access content from other social networking websites like Friendster, Myspace, Orkut, Ning, and other social networking websites using scripts/hacks for the open social authentication protocol. The following question came up: “Given this obscure vulnerability, should our school district keep all Ning.com websites blocked including Celebrate Oklahoma Voices?”

EXPLANATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Use of this exploit is analogous to student use of a proxy service to obtain access to websites which are blocked via the school’s content filter. Here are several things to think about and keep in mind with regard to this question and situation.

1. Recognizing this exploit is analogous to student use of a proxy service and is (according to the commercial vendor who raised this issue) a “fairly obscure vulnerability,” COV project facilitators recommend that school district personnel weigh the tremendous benefits and value of providing teachers and students in their district with access to the moderated content and moderated learning community which is COV in contrast to the limited potential of this obscure vulnerability to be exploited by students to access inappropriate/officially filtered web content. We recommend school officials continue to monitor student Internet use and deal with students utilizing web scripts/hacks which exploit this vulnerability in the same way other students are disciplined who use web proxy services to bypass the school content filter. We recommend school officials continue to permit access and use of the moderated COV learning community by whitelisting http://celebrateoklahoma.us and http://api.ning.com.

2. If an Oklahoma school district’s administrators are adamant that the risks posed by this “fairly obscure vulnerability” is excessive and not tolerable, there is a content filtering work-around which can still provide teachers and students with access to the COV learning community. This access can be handled in two ways:

A. If the school district has implemented authentication for web access (also referred to as “differentiated content filtering”) where teachers are permitted different/more permissive access rights to Internet websites than students, then port 443 (ssl) access to the https://celebrateoklahoma.us and https://api.ning.com domains can be authorized/permitted on the content filter for teachers, but denied for students. Students, however, can STILL be permitted to have port 80 (standard http) access to these web domains. Unauthenticated port 80 access to these sites still permits students to view videos and other content on the COV learning community, but does not permit the posting of new content or commenting.

B. If the school has NOT implemented a scheme for differentiated content filtering, then read-only access to the COV learning community can still be provided by permitting the port80-only access to the above cited websites and prohibiting port 443 (ssl) access. This is NOT the preferred/recommended access COV project facilitators recommend for school districts, but compared to “completely blocking / banning” the COV website from all educator and student access, this limited read-only access IS preferable.

3. From the perspective of legal mandates (CIPA, COPPA, FRCP, etc) schools are NOT required to block student access to all social networking websites. While many Oklahoma schools do block access to social networking websites, this is not required by law. Schools CAN therefore (as also addressed in our memo from 11 Nov 2008) legally permit access to our COV moderated learning community.

4. It is important to remember there is no substitute for face-to-face relationships and conversations with students to address issues of digital ethics and citizenship. In virtually all our Oklahoma schools today, some students are utilizing proxy websites and services to circumvent district-imposed content filters. Schools are required by law to have a content filtering policy in place and enforce that policy. These good-faith efforts comply with the mandates of federal and state laws regarding Internet access on school networks. No technological policy or procedure for content filtering Internet websites is guaranteed to be 100 percent effective, however. When users are granted ANY access to the Internet, some risk is accepted for those users accessing content which may be inappropriate or undesirable.

As leaders and officials in our schools and organizations, it is important that we move forward in helping equip students with the skills they need to become responsible and ethical citizens in our community, state, nation and world. In many of our Oklahoma school districts today, the level of censorship enforced and authorized by school administrators is more severe than that imposed by the Communist, totalitarian government of China. School district officials must walk a line balancing the expectations of citizens in our free society on the one hand, and the need to protect students, teachers, and the organization itself from harm and liability risks on the other. This is a formidable challenge.

Our focus in our Oklahoma schools must be not only on protecting our people, resources and organizations, but also facilitating the processes of creating, collaborating, and communicating with digital tools. Our schools should be digitally relevant learning spaces for teachers as well as students. By providing access to the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community as well as project, school officials can take important steps forward in meeting these challenges and priorities alongside other Oklahomans committed to the best interests of our students, their educational future, and our shared future as creative Oklahomans.

If you have questions regarding these issues or recommendations, please do not hesitate to contact me toll free at 888-501-2059, or by email at wes [at] oklahomaheritage [dot] com.

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ning, opensocial, vulnerability, oklahoma, school, technology, socialnetworking, friendster, myspace, leadership, ethics, citizenship