The most disturbing aspect for me is the lack of guidance, and this is an old problem. How else do we expect adolescents to act, particularly when given free reign in the technological playground of social networks, when they have no clear or firm guidance from school administrators or parents? This is by no means a pardon for the students, but the strongest rebuke should fall on the shoulders of the parents for trying to shelter their children from the thing most likely to help them succeed in the world: the trimming down of the ego (a societal problem, really). Second in line should be the administration for failing to issue that rebuke.

The new problems are the more difficult ones, and require more time, thought, and research than I can put in right now. Questions about privacy, online identity, safety, censorship, and the like all bear heavily on these events … events that are, to different degrees, happening in every school.

She felt violated. It was like becoming the victim of a crime, Stokke said. Her body had been stolen and turned into a public commodity … Teen Tests Internet’s Lewd Track Record – washingtonpost.com

The easy lesson here is a warning to students who voluntarily post images of themselves, many of them more revealing than any of Stokke (none of which she took or posted herself). The harder lesson is the new level of vigilance we must take in protecting our online reputation as diligently as our offline one. In both cases, the way we are perceived and “imaged” by others is often out of our control, which argues for careful attention to whatever aspects we can control.

From the other side of the lens, this also calls attention to the need for direct instruction on the ethics of information, as David Warlick and others have been discussing for a while now. It’s good to know that in the Stokke case the photographer of the original image demanded that one blog stop posting the image illegally, and that Facebook closed down a fake “Allison Stokke” account, but these efforts can’t fight the questionable behavior of a large portion of the internet world. (Though, to be fair, and as others have mentioned, granting a lengthy interview with the Post is probably not the best way to quell all the attention.)

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of parents to impart a strong ethical base, but more and more that job falls to the schools to institute and the courts to enforce. In the Stokke case, nothing illegal has occurred, and admiring a young woman for her beauty isn’t, prima facie, unethical. But when a young woman’s sense of privacy, security, and reputation is put at risk, there’s certainly a problem somewhere. How should we, as participants in the online world and as educators, respond?

I’ve written some notes on Joomla before, and have been talking to a few teachers in other districts about its potential for the classroom. For me, Joomla (along with WikiSpaces and ELGGSpaces) delivers much of what I’m looking for, but it’s not perfect.

What I’m more excited about is finding some way to create a “killer educational application” that combines all the best, relevant features from Joomla, Moodle, ELGGSpaces, Explode, Drupal, WordPress MU and so on into a software solution that allows students and teachers to take full advantage of “web 2.0″ tools, but within a controlled, leveled, safe environment. (A balance between “walled garden”–which provides safety–and true openness–which takes greatest advantage of being online–would have to be controlled on a user-by-user, section-by-section, item-by-item basis. This is the only compromise I can think of that could do both, and seems in line with Vicki Davis’s proposal of on-the-fly filtration.)

The “product” would be open-source software, so others could still customize it to their liking. Importantly though, it would be software, so that schools can install it on their servers and maintain control of the content.

I’m drafting up some ideas of what this solution would look like. I don’t have the skills or the time to create it, though. But I worry/wonder …

Is is worth trying to do this? Would we just be “reinventing” what other companies (Google, Think.com, tteach, etc.) are starting to do? Is this issue already a dead horse (something Stephen Downes would shoot down in a matter of words)? I know that others (like Miguel Guhlin and Chris Lehmann) have written about similar issues, but has there been any real progress along these specific lines somewhere? And if it is a good idea worth doing, who would be able and willing to do it?

Here are my thoughts [update-this list moved from my wiki to this post]

• Safety & Openness -Admins need to be able to set access levels for users, items, and sections that other users cannot override. This allows for a leveled approach to safety and strikes a balance between safe-but-disconnected and open-but-unprotected.
• Administrative Control
  • SuperAdmins should be able to control all aspects of the site and view the history of all site activity
  • SuperAdmins should be able to decide which components (blog, calendar, forum, etc.) are available for each user
  • Admins can give parents “read-only” privileges or select “write” privileges by component/section
• Community
  • Users should be able to find all other users [like most social networks]
  • Users should be able to set privacy levels for every item (private, connections, registered, public) [like ELGG]
  • Users should be able to create their own groups (for projects, etc.) [like ELGG] and each group should be listed in a centralized “groups” page.
• Groups
  • Users should be able to create their own groups (for projects, etc.) [like ELGG]
  • Groups can be set to “open, request, or invitation only”
  • Each group should be listed in a centralized “groups” page (along with whether or not the group is “open”)
  • Groups should be created using user fields as a starting point (i.e., all users in “English 10 – Hoefler” or all users reading “The Great Gatsby”)
  • Groups should be disposable … easily created and removed
• User Space – Users should have their own customizable space that goes beyond a static profile. In this space, they should be able to collect all their work on the site (posts, comments, forum entries, wiki changes, rss feeds, etc.) as well as develop an e-portfolio and build pages that display and discuss some of their best work … a “showcase” space.
• Assignments
  • Teachers can post assignments that aggregate to students based on class enrollment [like Moodle]
  • Assignments appear on teacher/student calendars [like Moodle]
  • Students can discuss each assignment (through comments like a blog post), and all discussions are aggregated by class (creating an immediate “forum” around each assignment)
• Aggregating
  • Taking a cue from Yahoo’s Pipes and extending it: all items are easily tagged with user, class, and assignment information, which is then aggregated and redistributed through discussion forums, groups, and wiki pages. This way, all information related to a given item can be easily found anywhere on the site.
  • All site activity relevant to a user (by group, grade-level, class, etc.) is automatically aggregated on the user’s profile page [like FaceBook's "News Feed"]
  • Off-site RSS feeds can be turned on or off for each section and tag, controlled by SuperAdmin
• Blogs
  • Each user should have an individual blog, and others should be able to subscribe to the blog, the comments, or both.
  • All blogs should be able to be grouped by class.
  • All blog entries should be listed together on the main blog page, by category/class, or by tag
• Wiki – a working wiki, with wysiwyg and media/file uploads that are easy and that can be displayed in various ways
• Forum – a discussion forum that links to student profiles with entries that can be tagged
• Messaging
  • Users should be able to send private messages on the site, emails through the site, or text messages through the site
  • Users should be able to send to groups and to create their own groups (withouth having to work through the “groups” section)
• Chat – On-site chat and IM capabilities … and all correspondence should be archived
• Integrated tagging – all content should be “taggable” and then viewed in a tag cloud, clicked-through, or searched
• Integrated search – all aspects of the site should be searchable, with advanced searching that lets you choose which sections will be searched

Leave your thoughts in the comments section. If you have specific ideas about what the product should look like. If I’m crazy or already behind-the-times, let me know. If you think it’s a good idea, spread the word … collective wisdom and effort is better than scattered.

Norwich, Conn seventh grade teacher, Julie Amero has been convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor after her classroom PC displayed pornographic pop-ups in class.

Slashdot | Teacher Found Guilty of Endangering Kids Due to Spyware

Amero faces up to 40 years in prison! Consider this: the computers were running Windows 98; she reported the incident as soon as it happened; the people involved in the trial, from what we can tell from the original story, seem technologically challenged as well.

This entire event is clearly a case of district negligence, yet a substitute teacher is going down for the district’s technological incompetence. Read the story and the comments in the Norwich Bulletin. Also see BoingBoing’s comments on this issue.

This is terrifying and beyond ridiculous. All educators using any form of online technology should be up-in-arms about this case. Unless some other information comes to light that will show Amero acted intentionally (which seems highly unlikely from what I’ve read so far), it seems clear there should never have been a charge, much less a trial and conviction.

Have you ever been subject to unwanted pop-ups, even on updated and protected computers? Have you ever tried to regulate the sometimes-mindless clicking of students with internet access? If this trial stands, how can we ever use technology without a constant fear plaguing us?

I’m deeply concerned about the trends I see in our government: NCLB has inspired mindless teaching and a culture of stress, the Patriot Act and other moves have seen the government violate more and more rights to privacy. And in the rest of the world: Australia deciding that links to copyright material are illegal, teachers in the UK calling for internet censorship, Canada questioning fair-use rights.

What’s next, firing teachers for their artistic expression, pursued in their off-hours?

I think I’m confused: what country am I in? what century is this?

Part of these reflections are driven by the “Choose Your Own Resolution” post by Lucy Gray on the infinite thinking machine blog.

Transparency – A Window into the Classroom

Keep:

• SchoolFusion pages for each class provides information about assignments, calendar of deadlines and events, documents, links, and explanations of standing assignments or larger projects.
• Flickr group collects pics of and by students in my classes.
• My blog allows parents and students to see my thinking about education.

Change/Add:

• I want to use the WSHSBeyond blog as a way to offer updates on what’s happening in class, and re-post those entries as items on a mailing list for parents.
• I want to remember to use some of the Flickr pictures in the blog/newsletter

Digital Literacy – Expanding the Curriculum

I think educators should now be just as concerned with digital literacy as with its more standard forms. Here are some goals:

Keep:

• Students have blog readers (and learn about RSS) in which they read some blogs that I suggest, some blogs of other students, and some blogs of their choice that relate to their interests
• Students share items of interest through “Google Shared Items” and through a social bookmarking service (like del.icio.us or diigo).
• Students reflect on what they’re reading by posting in their personal blogs (using ELGGSpaces).
• Students continue the conversation of the classroom out into their lives by discussing related issues on the course forums.

Change/Add:

• I would like to get students working more with image and audio, first by including images and audio in their blog posts, and eventually by working with video and podcasting.
• We haven’t worked much with the course wiki yet, but in the spring, I plan to have students using the wiki to build pages and resources for their end-of-course projects
• I also plan to have students develop ePortfolios of their work for the end of the course.
• I want to make clear to students the idea that they are learners, and that they can and should use the tools available to them to make their learning more efficient, more subtle, and more in-depth. This relates to concepts like eLearning, Learner Generated Contexts, eLearning 2.0, School 2.0, etc. (about which I need to learn more).
• I want to better prepare students to use the internet and related tools to conduct research, including: understanding copyright and related legal issues, finding helpful tools (like diigo and Zotero) to assist their research, evaluating resources, and finding items through search techniques, databases, and the “deep web.”
• I want to work more with the social networking capabilities of the class website to demonstrate to students how these can be used for more than just making random comments and posting the latest pics.

Despite all these goals, I don’t want to become a “technology teacher,” whatever that might mean. First of all, it seems that most of the “how to” of these tech tools can be picked up through play and require little direct instruction. Instead, I want to introduce helpful tools to students, suggest ways that they can be used to increase their ability to learn, and then bring it all back around to what’s important (see below). Secondly, what I do understand of School 2.0 seems to be “about the pedagogy,” not about the tools themselves. In the words of Jeff Utecht:

School 2.0 needs to be about creating knowledge, analyzing information, and evaluating both. It’s about understanding a world in which connections and communicating with others is at the foundation of how we learn, that through creating our own knowledge not from what a teacher tells us, but rather from what we read, listen to, and watch ourselves is far more powerful. A teacher is a guide … answer questions when we have them, and stay out of the way when we want to experience something ourselves.

Pedagogy defines School 2.0 at The Thinking Stick

Flat Classroom – Connecting to Students Elsewhere

This is a “too new to know” topic, but I have been talking with teachers outside of my local area. Though we haven’t started any real collaboration between these classrooms yet, the plans are growing.

Staying in Focus – Remembering What’s Important

Despite all these goals, I don’t want to lose sight of what’s ultimately important. In the words of Roger Schank:

Preparedness for any class I ever taught would mean knowing how to express oneself in an articulate manner, being able to write clearly, being capable of an original thought, being able to reason logically, and the willingness to work hard to accomplish something.

Roger Schank : Preparing for a Fictitious College

In all of the “things” we do, I want to keep the focus on those skills, and I want to be sure to provide my students enough leisure time to process what we’re doing and reflect on it. I think the technology makes this easier, breaks down barriers and widens the audience, and allows each student to better understand their role as learner.

Hearing the Still, Quiet Voice – Preserving Privacy in a Public World

While I love the possibilities technology affords, agree with the direction “school 2.0″ and “flat classrooms” seem to be taking us, and want my students working in a more public place with an authentic, world-wide audience, I also believe in the importance of learning to hear the “still, quiet voice” at the center. Community and collaboration is key, but a community is made of individuals, and collaboration is a “laboring together” of individuals. “Hive mind” can be dangerous, and without voices of dissent or the ability to view things from different perspectives, those dangers can grow into consuming beasts.

I want to open the world to my students, but I don’t want to strip them of their own identities. We all need a safe place to retreat and listen to that voice.

So, they will choose whether their posts on ELGGSpaces are public or private and will be able to make smaller communities that aren’t open to others. We will still do some of our writing in a journal, with pen and paper. We will still read from books. We will take time to be quiet and reflect. We will discuss the important (and ageless) concern about the border between public and private.

And sometimes, when the weather is nice and the light is just so, we’ll go outside for no discernible pedagogical reason at all.