Sentiments On Common Sense

Having worked in two schools in the past 9 years that are behind significant firewalls run by the government, I feel I have enough experience to write this blog post…. at least from the educational leadership side of the conversation.  In surveying the countries around the world that filter and block the internet, Saudia Arabia and my current location here in Shanghai are near the top.  In Saudi it was a bit easier to operate as we were able to get some satellite systems put in place to speed our upload and download speeds, and provide our students with access to the information systems that were blocked. A well placed dish behind the A/C systems allowed us just the right amount of access for our little school. There is a different access issue in my current country.  But, no matter where you are and what the mission and vision of your school is, there is ways to give your students access to Web 2.0 tools that are now present on the read/write web.  Now that g0-0g-le has left the country of my residence, I am getting more and more questions about how we run our student services.

To me it is like playing on the beach with all of that sand, or in your own sandbox. The sandbox, while a bit confined, allows you to build castles, dig holes and feel the grit in your hands just like you do at the beach. That sand is just like that at the beach and people on the outside of the box can reach in and touch the sand too, but whatever is inside that sandbox cannot be blocked by those problematic firewalls. When I have spoken to my community about dealing with the firewall and access issues, I always say, “We are just going to build our own virtual web 2.0 sandbox and give our kids access to similar tools, and access to a global audience.

Thus we have done or are in the process of doing the the following:

• Student email: We established our own domain name which allows us to monitor, administer and maintain a email webpresence. The key is the domain name which, if monitored carefully will not be a problem for the firewall.
• A blog installation at a local level.  We currently use WordPressMU and have found great success with the installation. Our school built this from the beginning and now has hundreds of students and teachers blogging as a part of the educational process.
• Web publishing space for teachers and students will soon be the norm. As a Mac school, the students and teachers will begin using iWeb to create their own sites.  It is easy, fast and allows for a global audience.
• In place of Flickr and YouTube we have established our own installation to serve and share our own videos and photos. This customize installation was based on some opensource software.  The key here is having strong technical support.
• Moodle- by serving this installation on-site with strong technical and educational support has helped launch many classroom programs toward a blended learning environment.
• Social networking alternatives such as Elgg can provide schools with that all important methodology that engage students in an online social environment.
• Up next—our own wiki installation.  There a many alternatives out there, but this is something that you will likely want to spend somemoney on to make work well.
• Locally hosted academic databases are the norm, not the exception. This gives the student access to online data but without the challenge of slow or filtered access.
• Locally hosted student information systems and parent communications systems, we use PowerSchool, but there are many alternatives. With the exception of our school’s webpage, everything is hosted locally so we don’t deal with the issues of access and internet reliability. If there is a problem, generally we have only ourselves to blame.
• Calendar servers and internal email systems with more than ample storage. Again, strong technical support is important, but even more important is a vision based committment to providing resources to the professionals in the school.
• Off-site backup and mirroring setup. This seems so natural and important, but interestingly enough this sort of setup is not considered essential.

The key to the list above is targeted staff development with an adopted set of tools. With a variety of tools like you see above, it is about choices, continual support and technical expertise. Living in a firewalled country is a challenge, but I also feel like our students are getting a great educational experience that allows them to learn the skills of web use and practice digital citizenship in our sandbox of tools without the intervention of a government entity.

Technorati Tags: shanghai, Saudi Arabia, internet access, web 2.0, digital literacy, student learning

Photos courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/55934520@N00/32962238 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/55934520@N00/33546752

Let’s apply a little common sense to our blogposts!

I am sure I am preaching to the choir but…  let me make this clear. You really have to be careful what you write!  It can get you in big trouble and could possibly ruin your career.  On my recruiting trip I found this article in the February 9 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with this lead:

(02-08) 17:04 PST –
The Web 2.0 movement, which ushered in an interactive Internet, sought to put power in the hands of the people by tapping the so-called wisdom of the crowds to change the world – and to keep such a digital democracy in check.

This is all pretty heavy handed languague for some common sense if you ask me.  Doug Johnson has written about this, I have have even tip-toed down this path as well.  The fact is that our professional reputations and now our POCKETBOOKS are on the line when we decide to take on a individual or an organization.  Libel, as defined means:

An untruthful statement about a person, published in writing or through broadcast media, that injures the person’s reputation or standing in the community. Because libel is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement. Libel is a form of defamation , as is slander (an untruthful statement that is spoken, but not published in writing or broadcast through the media).  Thank you Nolo.com

The Cronicle article notes:

Just last week, Juicy Campus – a Web site that was banned from some colleges for its postings of vicious anonymous gossip – abruptly shut down, its traffic redirected to a site called College Anonymous Confession Board, whose owner said he hosts “a higher level of discourse.”

One has to wonder what will be the result of these measures on those websites out there who slander international schools. I won’t name any names, but those of us who wander the circuit know what and whom I am speaking about. All these so-called professionals, cloaked behind avatars, and citizen’s band radio-like handles slamming schools, administrators and their colleagues.  How long will it be before these websites are taken to court or asked to edit and review the content of their own site which was posted “anonymously”.  The definition of “anonymous” in the Web 2.0 world also probably needs to be defined.  I am pretty sure just about anybody could be tracked down with the right resources.  Kinda makes you think doesn’t it?

The key concept here: Stick to the facts.  Just the facts.  The words of Jack Webb in Dragnet need to ring in your ears.  “Just the facts ma’am. Only the facts”. And then you need to be careful whose facts you are using.

Perhaps Thumper‘s words should really stick here…. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

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