139 comments on a blog post and scores of blog posts and Tweets. The order of closure regarding year 3 teacher Al Upton’s blogs set up for students has been a hot topic of discussion in the blogosphere and Twitterverse.
The modest man at the centre of the storm doesn’t want publicity or to be the standard bearer for a cause. His main concern is that children are educated about how to cope with the real world issues that internet users face.
The miniLegends as they are called are taught internet safety first, then given their own blog. Each student put up a photo of themselves and used their first name only. Before being allowed to participate, parents signed permission forms.
To accelerate their learning, Al recruited educational bloggers from around the world to act as mentors to the kids and to leave feedback on their blogs.
Last week, the ISP hosting the blog was sent a closure request. The Department of Education and Childrens Services in South Australia have been investigating Al’s miniLegends program.
Rather than beating up on the acts of a department or individuals, this situation can and should open up constructive dialogue regarding what policies and procedures can and should be implemented to create effective, real-world education for children.
Doing a blanket ban on images of children on the internet would only make sense if one also banned the use of images and names of kids in newspapers, television and other communications outlets.
Education is essential for the community, institutions and students involved in using the internet.
Here are some resources relating to these issues - please add your own along with your insights and comments - either on this post or on Al’s site:
Al Upton’s site: http://alupton.edublogs.org/
This Wiki attempts to synthesize the conversations going on in the blogosphere and Twitterverse:
http://aquaculturepda.wikispaces.com/Al+Upton
This article - http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080306/sc_livescience/studydebunkswebpredatormyths outlines just-released research done by the University of New Hampshire on internet predators.
This post from Sue Waters is an update to include information from Al’s permission forms that all students sign.
4 Comments
I think the issue here is the public nature of the kid’s blog and perceptions of duty of care - it’s vital that kids get to experiment with, participate in and understand the nature of the digital environment that they are part of. In this case, it’s probably the case that a protected environment is more appropriate for an education-department implementation. A first name and a photo (and probably some school identification is probably too much information to be made public as it’s probably enough to identify the child. There’s a lot of good stuff from the US (and from NetAlert in Australia about internet security for kids - general agreement is no photos, no real names, don’t use any username or password that contains identifying information. I think the desire of this teacher to use the blog is a great idea, but this needs to be balanced with the broader issue of internet safety and digital literacy.
Hi Jen
Thanks for your comment. It’s so important to discuss these issues.
I think it’s worth remembering that kids names (both first and last) often appear in newspapers and television in relation to plays, concerts, awards and sporting events. If we apply the same standards to these communications outlets as we do the internet - then no more media references of any sort to children.
NetAlert’s research last year suggested that kids as young as 8 were using internet chat rooms and other public places — and not always the ones geared to their age brackets.
Rather than creating an artificial environment, by teaching them safety and putting them into a real world situation yet still maintaining a look over their shoulders, kids can learn real-world skills. Just as we don’t teach kids how to cross the street or be safe on a walk to school by setting up a simulation in our backyards.
A report from the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Centre http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/ is well worth looking over.
The internet is not better nor worse than the real world. It IS the real world. Parents need to remember that and not rely on filters alone to protect kids. They need to get in there with their kids and be part of the education process. They can only do this effectively if they are given a balanced view and the right information themselves.
Kerry - Vicki Davies has written an interesting post which shows the ages of students in here school that are allowed to use private vs public spaces. Wondering about your thoughts?
Hi Sue - thanks for commenting! That link you published to the UNH research was great stuff. I always enjoy your thought provoking posts and Tweets.
Regarding setting the sorts of age limits that Vicki suggests and putting the rest of the kids behind walls –
It’s my understanding from an interview with Lara MacDonnel when she was with NetAlert last year that kids as young as 8 are using public chat rooms. Kids as young as 4 are getting online for the first time. So these kids are already out in wider cyberspace.
From what I’ve read from danah boyd, kids may use the walled garden environments set up for them for school — but they will do their own thing on more open sites after hours. danah’s research suggests kids don’t want to be where authority figures are.
So I put those two bodies of research together and come up with a picture of kids who are doing their own thing on the open internet from a very young age. During their school day they are restricted to what they can do and how they can do it. At night they go home to parents who aren’t as internet savvy as them and they often have computers in their rooms where they can muck around unsupervised.
If these kids have a negative or uncomfortable experience online at home rather than in an environment where they can get constructive advice - will they wait until the next day and ask what to do? Or will they do the best they can based on their experience of a protected, artificial environment?
Don’t think I am playing both sides of the argument here and referring to paedophiles. There are all sorts of negative online experiences such as flaming, cyberbullying, troll posts on blogs, etc. that can come from any age group. Learning how to appropriately deal with these experiences is important to developing 21st century communications skills.
As well, the incredible potential of the internet is to harness international conversations, collaboration and understanding. Kinda hard to do if kids’ blogs are restricted to their school or country. And being a federation like Australia is, I don’t see us coming to an aggreement any time soon on an international network of IDs.
2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] Al Upton published his students’ photographs and their christian names on the blog, with parental approval. Kerry J raises the point that every day the printed media and television issues this information without restraint yet the Internet is viewed as onerous. He perhaps displayed more caution than some other enthusiastic educators who will no doubt be taking heed of this action. […]
[…] Colleague KerryJ commented a couple of weeks ago on a local case that has generated a lot of discussion ever since the forced closure of the blog of a grade 3 class. Her blog posting was by-lined “time to open discussion”. Since then others such as Mike Seyfang, and Graham Wegner have commented too. […]
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