E-safety: Knowing your digital rights

All Rights Reserved*The place: A classroom

The time: Now

Teacher: So, class, that’s your homework for today.

Boy at the back: You can’t do that, Sir. I know my rights.

T: Er, sorry, I can’t do what exactly?

BATB: Set us that homework, Sir.

T: Why not?

BATB: ‘Cos it will take about half an hour, Sir, and you’re only allowed to give us 20 minutes. I know my rights.

T: OK, do 20 minutes this evening, and 10 minutes tomorrow evening.

BATB: You can’t tell me that, Sir.

T: OK, and why not?

BATB: Cos I have a right to a private life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, Sir. I know my rights.

Lights dim as the characters continue arguing. Exeunt.

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Reasons to have a blogging team

quill-redIt took me an hour and 29 minutes to write a blog post this morning. Actually, it took me over two hours, because I thought about it last night. Fortunately, the amount of time I spent, which was about 1.5 hours longer than I’d intended, didn’t have too much of an impact on my work schedule, because I did the thinking last night whilst watching TV, and this morning I was the computer by 6am in order to get lots done before I started work.

But why am I telling you all this?

Because when I think of what I need to do to keep my blog updated every day, I realise what needs to be in place for a school blog to thrive. The answer is: a team.

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Why schools should have a hyperlocal blog

SilSpgErlVtg_0053 Blair ReporterMany years ago there was a television series in Britain called “The Cres”. Short for “The Crescent”, the series followed the day-to-day lives of the fictional residents of a street somewhere in England. Most episodes were engaging and humorous, and made compelling viewing. An article I read this morning reminded me of this, and made me think that a “hyperlocal” blog could work really well for a school.

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3 ways of maintaining privacy

silhouettesHer Majesty The Queen of England serves as an inspirational role model in terms of personal privacy. Despite being in the public eye for 60 years, she has managed to keep her personal opinions to herself. Almost nobody knows, for example, what her favourite tea is (although Smokey Earl Grey has been hinted at). Yet there are many people who seem to announce to the world each time they blow their nose!

The balance between public and private is, of course, a personal choice, and one made more difficult by other people openly talking about one’s activities or tagging one’s photos, and much standard business advice. But if you do want to be fairly private while maintaining a strong online presence, here are some suggestions. You may like to share and discuss these with students, who are also striving to get this balance correct.

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An example of how technology changes things

P1000244I have found the Never Seconds debacle quite interesting. Story in a nutshell, in case you missed it: nine-year-old Martha Payne writes a daily blog in which she uploads a picture of her school lunch and reviews it. Argylle and Bute Council has some sort of nervous breakdown and issues an edict telling Martha that she isn’t allowed to take photos of her lunch, because catering staff are now in fear of their jobs. As a consequence, Martha’s blog gets over 5 million page views in just a few days, the number of comments on her posts soars from around 30 to over 2,300 in two days, and Argyll and Bute rescind the ban.

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Interesting times in ICT

ICT RIPThe phrase “May you live in interesting times” is usually cited as a sort of curse, but can you imagine the opposite, ie living in boring times? Fortunately, especially here in England there is no danger of that for a while, at least in the world of ICT. Here are a few snippets of news which I won’t comment on at the moment because I like to cogitate, reflect, and then cogitate some more before pontificating. As I said in a previous article (10 Obligations of Bloggers), quoting Salvator Rosa, I believe in the adage “Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence”.

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Mobile phones in education revisited

cell phoneThe most popular article on the ICT in Education website is one by a 17 year-old student called The Importance Of Mobile Phones In Education. To give you an idea of its popularity, I would estimate that it has been viewed at least 30,000 times since it was published back in July 2010. So the question is, why is it so popular?

Is it because it was written by a student? Well, there is no doubt that student articles receive a lot of attention, but not usually this much.

Is it because it is about mobile phones? I don’t think so: I have written about mobile phones before, and again, the articles haven’t attracted 30,000 views as far as I know.

I think the answer lies in the combination: an article about mobile phones written by a student who appears to be surgically attached to one.

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Computer programming and the trouble with collective nostalgia

cameramanLord Puttnam said something every interesting at an E-Learning Foundation Conference. Having been a film producer, he said that up to about ten years ago, to be a successful cinematographer you had to be able to take a camera apart and put it together. Now, none of those sort of skills  are required: you need a whole different set of skills in order to find employment in that occupation.

I believe a similar thing is true in the realm of “digital education”. Almost nobody needs a gasp of computer programming, and even fewer need to know how computers actually work.

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What is the appropriate form of address in email?

Letters backHere is the text of a note from the Post Office, quoted in “Berry and Co”, which was written by Dornford Yates and published in 1920:

Sir

I beg leave to inform you that your telegram handed in at the Grosvenor Street Post Office at 10.2 am on the 26th June addressed to Reply paid Hamilton Smythe Fair Lawns Torquay has not been delivered for the reason indicated below.

ADDRESS NOT KNOWN

I am, Sir, Your obedient servant,

WB

Postmaster

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Some notes on failing with ICT

FailFailure seems to be the zeitgeist  at the moment. At several conferences I’ve attended recently at least one of the presenters has displayed the Samuel Beckett quotation:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

At the Pelecon 12 conference there was even a “Confessional”, in which delegates could go in and record themselves talking about one of their mistakes. Here are a few of my thoughts on failure, especially as it pertains to ICT.

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What makes a good ICT role model?

Teen Tech Week QuizIn England we have a weekly soap set in a school called Waterloo Road. This has everything you would hope not to find in a school: inappropriate behaviour, theft, even attempted murder – and that’s just the staff. The kids are pretty OK by comparison: teenaged pregnancy, illegal drug-taking and gangs. Strangely enough, there doesn’t seem to be more than 30 kids on roll, judging by the number of people who attend whole-school assemblies. But my main interest is this: what (good) use of technology is shown in this programme?

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7 reasons to incorporate digital photography into your course

photographerIf I were running an educational technology/ICT course now, I’d make taking and sharing at least one photo a week a requirement for remaining on the course. If booting someone off the course was not an option, I’d tie in a significant proportion of the marks to those activities. All this is impractical, of course. Even if I were allowed to get away with such draconian actions, I wouldn’t want to penalise a brilliant student for not taking a few snaps now and again. But think of the benefits to everyone if digital photography were a key component of a course – any course.

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Don’t blame the technology

Technology can help a good teacher do wondrous and wonderful things – but bad use of technology is worse than no use of technology, in my opinion. There is, possibly, one exception to this general rule, which I will get to in a moment. What has brought on this sudden dazzling insight (well, it isn’t really instant, and it probably isn’t dazzling, but this is my blog so I can say what I like). An anti-ICT dogma diatribe by the behaviour guru, aka Tom Bennett.
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