Order for Closure
These words and comments and all the countless associated blogs that link to it all form part of the reason this post has been nominated for won ’Most Influential Post’ in The Edublogs Awards
Please click here for more. [By the way .. things are looking up on the miniLegend campus for 2009] :D
http://alupton.edublogs.org/edublog-nominations-for-bouncing-around-the-world/
This blog has been disabled in compliance with DECS wishes (Department of Education and Children’s Services – South Australia)
UPDATE 3 [2/04/08] A MEETING – NOT WITHOUT HOPE (below)
For a global response please read the comments and click here
It seems that this blog in particular is being investigated regarding risk and management issues. What procedures should be taken for the use/non-use of blogs to enhance student learning will be considered.
Please note … I am greatly comforted by the support from many of my parents/care-givers, the staff & leadership at school and the Learning Technologies team at ‘headquarters’.
I absolutely value the support and wisdom given to me from my global social and learning networks – and isn’t that what the whole thing is all about?
Best of all are the kids .. without their enthusiasm, love for blogging and collaboration … well this blog would never have existed .. and now, would not be closed.
Cheers, Al
Please Note … Let’s embrace this as an opportunity to promote the value of blogs and online learning generally. There is no benefit in looking for blame here, there is enormous value and potential in celebrating our voices.
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Sorry that it’s all one one great long page. The comments say it all. 
UPDATE 1 [15/03/08] I’VE NOW LOCKED DOWN ALL STUDENT BLOGS
… Although nobody responsible for the closure of this blog has contacted me directly (all done through my principal) I’m aware that the ‘shut down’ can be perceived as temporary ‘until things get sorted out’. I have meticulously scoured the class blog and all student blogs.
IN THE INTERESTS OF BEING TRANSPARENT I provide what I consider some ‘worst case scenarios’ of what authorities could be calling “too much student identifying information.” Should I be censoring any of these examples? I think not and assure all mentors/visitors that it is not my intention to identify or embarrass anyone.
Mentor: Can we add photos of dogs and pies to your blog?
Student: I will ask mum about it (great “safe and savvy” student response)
I pointed out that this was not possible with our set up and the way we wanted to collaborate.
Mentors saying their full name, job, blog/website, location, number/first-names of family/animals – identifying themselves?? Saying they have been to Adelaide? Could this possibly (sadly) be misinterpreted by the investigators -> “I’m an old teacher.”? It’s my desire to maintain the innocence of the kids – not impose adult perceptions they have no idea of.
Mentor: “Does your school have a website?” – could they come across pictures and maps??? Is THIS a concern?
Overseas Mentor: “Do you remember the name of your class mate who was from my country?” (when student was in Year 1) We have a first name only policy. No response was given.
Minilegend to miniLegend: “to bad u couldn’t come on the computer tonite.” Evidence of home internet use and chat? What does this tell us? Need for education at school?
The 9 year old daughter of a highly valued educator and mentor overseas … “What’s your sister’s name? How old’s she?” Advice was to use first name and age only … ‘No further information.’ The miniLegend has not included this info in any responses. BTW the daughter is learning English – a wonderful shared learning experience.
******
I hope this helps give an idea to those who can’t view the blogs. Although resembling a negative model this was something I felt was needed. I’m very confused about what could be considered ‘too much student identifying information’.
I long for some direct contact from the authorities and something formal giving me the go ahead with the blogs. Something that relates to online communication/blogging generally – not (for example) just a directive to modify my blogs alone. That is not acceptable. To just say to me ‘go ahead – resume’ also is lacking. Something more encompassing and inclusive of all South Australian public schools. Well, not so much the schools but the digital kids learning in this digital age. It would serve a greater purpose to keep the blogs blocked until something of this nature is forthcoming. I’m very happy to work with anyone at any level within the system to see this happen.
I dread and look forward to seeing the miniLegends next Monday. Closing down their blogs has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my professional teaching career. At times tears of joy, laughter, sadness and despair seemed indistinguishable. Serendipity is not always all that obvious. I thank those who set this whole thing in motion. You have unwittingly raised the issue ‘How do we raise our children – through fear or education?’
What a wonderful opportunity … and what wonderful support. How can I thank everyone for all the kind words but more importantly their support for our core business – learning? Perhaps I can’t but I can say this … thank you.
Cheers, Al (Update 2 to follow)
UPDATE 2 [18/03/08] THE DIALOGUE CONTINUES
… Yesterday I had planned to simply write “It’s all good. I’m waiting for something in writing.”
… Today I feel compelled to share what I can as a professional teacher and employee of DECS. My intent here is to clear up some issues, taking the ‘heat’ off the miniLegends, myself and DECS thus distancing my example situation from the necessary broader dialogue and action.
For specific reasons that were never made clear to me, I was asked by DECS officials (via my principal) to close my blog down. [Other methods to shut it down apparently had not worked.] I took this to be wise counsel and did so. I later found out that someone/group/organisation had initiated an investigation of my blog. DECS were informed and they understandably asked for the blog to be disabled so they could undertake their own investigations. During this process I had been verbally reassured by DECS leaders that nothing I was or had been doing could be considered inappropriate. There was no indication or reason given as to why my blog should be investigated. Nothing was found that was inappropriate.
It is not my intent to question here … “Could/should this have been handled differently?” It has happened this way. The dialogue has already begun – exploring approaches, understanding and acceptance of using blogs and the internet for student learning. It is my desire that commonsense based on hard evidence will lead to openness, flexibility and consistency.
I await written feedback and assurance that my students and I will be able to continue with our blog/s with a minimum of risk. As with the use of the internet, teaching and learning cannot be 100% risk free. I await written confirmation that what is allowed/expected of my blog and students is not just being applied to my blog and students.
If “too much student identifying information” is the issue here, then I also await written assurance that this extends beyond blogging and the use of internet technologies … OR inclusive processes are underway to determine broader definitions and recommendations. Without this assurance I feel that my students and I are too much at risk. This includes repeated risk of a similar incident by reopening our blogs.
I prioritise my students learning and safety. I must protect them and myself.
Please Note: I’m happy to share my story, be involved in future directions and help develop much needed clarifications of blogging/internet technologies. This is quite different to ‘driving’ or ‘championing’ any ’cause’.
UPDATE 3 [2/04/08] A MEETING – NOT WITHOUT HOPE
Seeking to avoid bias and to the best of my recollection …
I am not under any investigation; however, a report went to the DECS Special Investigations Unit. The response was to ensure that my blog was closed so a risk assessment could take place. Please note: A report was tabled at today’s meeting of a variety of DECS and AEU (Australian Education Union) representatives, my principal and me. Most of the discussion was centered on my blog and what needs to be done to get the blogs back online. Recommendations (good teaching practice?) from the report and discussion (to assist my principal and me developing an action plan) include …
Consideration of ‘student identifiers’ e.g. photos/names/maps etc … photos can be manipulated … should they all be banned, should non-authentic representations be used e.g. avatars? Should pseudonyms be used? Should maps be included? Different identifiers could be linked in online/on-site scenarios ‘multiplying factor’ – recommendation that this be reduced as much as possible. Some discussion of other instances where ‘student identifiers’ occur. The need for realistic authentic learning environments was raised.
Moderation …. No matter how highly the blog is monitored, everything should be moderated before it goes public. The nature of safe and open (as opposed to safe and stilted) conversation was briefly touched upon. Posts and comments will not appear automatically in this scenario. I also have all student emails forwarded to me.
Mentors/coaches – any communication between students and adults overseas was strongly advised against. DECS and AEU representatives agree on this. Questioned also was a closed community (e.g. a class) communicating/collaborating with another closed community (e.g. another class) in another country. Jurisdiction related differences (e.g. criminal checks) formed part of this questioning.
Permission forms need to be reviewed and re-issued … recommendation to offer many options e.g. permission for … any photo, close-ups, group shots only, blurred/’indistinguishable’ photos, no photos, drawings/art work, self-representation drawings, avatars (needs definition and the variety of avatars would need to be included in options e.g. photo, computer generated/non-‘human’ representation such as cartoon character), no graphic representation… this is not exhaustive but the recommendation is that all options need to be included. The overall aim is to create a comprehensive permission form that clearly allows informed consent. This goes hand in hand with parental education such as information nights.
Consent forms also are not to contain too many concepts eg blogging + permission for online publication of photo, video/audio and learning
Previous year blogs have been recommended to locked – a process to be determined. This includes how we deal with previous year permission. Are images from previous years still okay? This goes well beyond blogging and online learning.
DECS do not have any specific ‘blog’ policies and guidelines. Responsibility (and liability) ultimately rests with the line-manager/principal assuming that he.she has endorsed the methodologies. Professional judgement of the teacher was also discussed and I need further clarification. My current understanding is that once my principal and I have developed an action plan and the investigation has satisfactorily been finalised, I can consider student and personal risks. I hope for something official in writing before I consider re-opening my blogs.
A number of analogies were presented … many stating any risk to students negates learning entering the debate. I raised the “To avoid students drowning, we teach them to swim” analogy – authentic learning.
One response ‘If something bad can happen to even one child it shouldn’t be done’ – paraphrased
Individual student blogs were questioned with a general indication of that not being a good idea.
DECS eStrategy Framework booklet is downloadable under
‘Digital Evolution Revolution’ http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/learningtechnologies/ -
Embedded Implementation of the Vision includes “The site has developed innovative approaches to the sharing of effective practice, coaching and mentoring within and beyond the site and makes use of technology to achieve this. Child and student, peer and/or community mentors are an essential component.” and in ‘Resources – Virtual Learning Environments’ “There is provision for children and students to create their own personal learning spaces.”
I encourage any attendees to correct any errors or omissions – I will reflect such corrections here.
As always, to all visitors, feel free to comment.
Press the ‘End’ key to go straight to the bottom – and ‘Home’ to go to the top.
BTW What we learn could form part of DECS discussion that in turn will inform other site leaders. There are always reasons to be optimistic and therefore constructive. Cheers, Al
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Pardon? Is this for real! Come to Victoria then and bring the students with you. Did they checkout the clustr map and see the authentic audience that your students have? It was wonderful to see them blogging and to see the support given to you worldwide. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help!!
Wow
The benefits of blogging are many and varied, including: writing for an authentic audience, exploring other points of views, composing in different modes and medium, researching and evaluating information and integrating student interest in the classroom.
I am sure the list goes on and on.
I thought your concept of a mentor program was fantastic and it seemed as if you had tapped into something powerful in the world, too.
I hope you can reverse the order (is that possible?)
Perhaps: remove pictures and create pseudonyms and re-launch?
Good luck
Kevin Hodgson
Massachusetts, USA
This is a very interesting and distressing situation!
I would like to know what evidence or data the ‘risk management’ dept of DECS is using when they have come to their decision to ’shut down’ this site.
Al is offering his students the opportunity to interact and learn from a global network of people. He is offering his students the means to learn in a ’safe’ environment of how to operate in an interactive online environment.
Doesn’t DECS have an ethical responsibility to help their students to develop the skills they require to operate in the 21st century through collaborative spaces such as blogs, wikis, and social networking sites.
Where will these students learn the skills to safely operate in an online environment?
The internet offers an opportunity for students to network and learn beyond their locality and time zone through social networking. To date, our young people have been using the internet to connect with others, with little or no guidance from their parents or teachers.
However, educational institutes have the opportunity to help ‘guide’ their students through the ‘unchartered waters’ of online social networking through spaces such as what Al is developing with his students.
He has been open and upfront with his students, parents, colleagues, authorities, and online networks. The people who who have offered their assistance to ‘mentor’ his students are people who have the utmost respect of the online community. People who model appropriate online social behaviour, and are ‘paving the way’ for others in how to share and mentor others online.
I believe the decision to shut down this site is very narrow minded and the decision has been based on a very limited and sensationalised view of what an online environment can offer to young people.
Young people are no more at threat online than they are in the ‘real world’. The skills required to understand ’stranger danger’ apply to an online environment.
Allowing Al Upton’s students to learn in an online environment will allow these students to apply their ’stranger danger’ skills in a safe and ‘controlled’ environment.
Please do not deny these students the opportunity to learn in a rich, valuable and safe environment, to develop the skills they will need to be effective individuals in the 21st century.
Al -
I was so upset when I saw Sue Waters tweet about this this morning – I’m waiting for her post after her Skype session today to perhaps learn more about how other Aussie edubloggers are reacting……I hope to find out details of this that will help all other educators using blogs with our students. Keep us posted, Al.
Al, I am so surprised as I know how much blogging helps students learning. It is practice in writing, it is practice in critical reading and in collaboration. Students need to learn in a safe place and school is such a place. Teachers who can mentor students and make positive comments on the student writing help them know that they have a real audience. It helps motivate students. This seems to be a backward step.
These are both confusing and enlightening times. While trying myself to get similar projects started here where I am, I am now rethinking approach and process and politics. Very disappointed that some have to be those that increase awareness through difficult times as you are experiencing now. But, I hope as we move forward, that education overall will be better and all will not be in vain. No. not hope … I am sure of it! Good luck with these changes and redefining moments in educational history. The 21st Century certainly has given us much to think about.
Al, I am absolutely gobsmacked at the decision to stop this amazing initiative. I can understand the need to ensure that young people need to be safe online, but why on earth there is a problem with blog comments that are left on a page, and therefore TRANSPARENT, is utterly beyond me. Shame on the bureaucratic nincompoop that made this decision.
And if it doesn’t sound sad to say it, It’s the miniLegends themselves I feel sorry for. This is a story that could go global (and if *I* have anything to do with it, it will)!
I was very sorry to see the message above, I have been using the mini legends as an example for my administrators and teachers in our conversations regarding the wonderful opportunities blogging provides for students to reach beyond the walls of their classrooms. All students need to learn how to navigate the online world safely, and what better models than those who use the same world in their own practice and themselvs model appropriate behavior? I would hope this decision to remove the blog will be reconsidered and you allow the students to continue developing the skills which will help to shape their future.
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/03/13/study-encourages-a-less-hyped-view-of-social-networking-risks/
Nuff said.
So a few parents are concerned about a potential threat to their kids from people who live on the OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET!?!
Wondering… (sorry if this information was already collected Al but) would it have made a difference or would parents feel more safe if the educator-mentors had sent “proof/validation” of their employment as educators? (as they do e.g. in Quest Atlantis?), Such a shame for your students.
I wish that my two boys were in Al Upton’s class and had an opportunity to be part of a blogging programme like this. They need to learn how to navigate the ‘net safely. They need to understand how to safely have conversations with people from around the world.
They need to understand how to present themselves online, including how to safely use their own voice and identity. I want them to experiment with their online identity in a safe environment where they are supported. I don’t want them to go underground and experiment by themselves with no guidance from someone who understands the online environment.
My kids have been reading the Minilegends’ blogs and love to see what the kids are doing. They are encouraged to learn about what the other kids are learning.
As a parent and an educator I use Al’s classroom blog as a Best Practice model for classroom blogging. I have shared the site with other parents and educators.
To not continue with this, the Minilegends miss out on learning, their parents miss out on learning about the internet along with their kids, other kids miss out on learning from the Minilegends and a pioneering Best Practice example is lost to us.
I too am flabbergasted by the closure of this blog, and fail to see how comments by educators world wide could be seen as a potential danger.
I am also reminded of a blog post by Dean Shareski “Why Privacy is Moot Point” http://ideasandthoughts.org/2007/01/04/why-privacy-is-moot-point/ – Shareski points out that newspapers regularly publish children’s photos and names without parents’ permission.
It is my belief that working WITH kids to help them find their own, safe path in the digital world involved guided LIVING in that digital world with the support of teachers, parents and yes, other people out in the world. By avoiding this real experience, I believe children are at greater risk.
I understand and respect academic organizations’ concerns about risk and risk management. The problem is, our participation in the world does not stop at the school door. We should not try and legislate as if it does.
Further, children today must have strong digital skills – and that includes social skills – to survive in the job market. I consult with organizations about how they can work/collaborate online and one of the key skills they are now realizing they need to hire and cultivate is online community and social network skills, the ability to write FOR and ON the web, and the social intelligence of how to do this wisely and effectively.
Al, you have my digital support from afar. Please send my best wishes and encouragement to the Mini Legends who have, so far, taught many of us adults so much.
Hm, that makes me realize. This is as much about the world learning from the kids as the other way around. ….
Hey Al
All arguments about whether or not blogging is positive for young people’s learning aside (I believe it is) – it strikes me that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (widest internationally agreed treaty, signed by Australia) speaks to this situation.
I’ve blogged on it over here: http://www.timdavies.org.uk/2008/03/14/article-13-and-minilegends but broadly – Article 13 states:
“The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.”
That appears to pretty well describe what the miniLegends were up to. And it is articulated as a specific /right/ of all under 18s. Taking action to limit the right should require some serious proof that other protection rights and concerns substantively trump it….
Al, check out this link–it’s to a study debunking the cyber-stalking myths. Your kids are in greater danger in the “real world” than they are online!
http://tinyurl.com/3xp5z4
Well, I can’t add any content to what has already been said but I can add the weight of another voice in agreement.
The truth will win out.
Thankyou Al for being in the front line here. I have come close to being shutdown within the last twelve months by conservative forces in my own own local evnironment and I remember the pain with discomfort.
I trust that the conservative elements in the department that have made this decision will soon feel the full force of the educational necessity to allow kids to learn safe online behaviour in the safe environment of school. They can only keep their heads in the sand for so long. I wonder if they know what their own kids are doing right now? I wonder when they last spoke with their own kids about the actual life that they live… a lot of it online… in all likelihood.
Its not the end mate… its just the beginning of another interesting journey. Be of good cheer.
Al Whatever support you need from your network I will try to help. It is so short sighted of the “powers that be” need to have the big stick and shut down powerful educational thinking. It really is a shame that a visionary like yourself and your students are being stifled.
Kids that do not have a positive exposure to the web and are not taught how to be informed web citizens will be ignorant to dangers in the future.
Good luck with your fight.
Al- I am so disappointed to hear of this (word just got to me via twitter). You had created a model project and handled the concerns in the best way possible.
For some government authority to override the wishes and permissions granted by the parents is unfair to say the least and perhaps leaning towards totalitarian. Who is more responsible and gets to make decisions for Australian children- the government or the parent?
If it were me, I might have shied from using the kids photos, but as they are identified only by first name, I fail to see the dire risk.
If there is anything we can do to protest, petition, complain, just shout out.
I will not say that the board is wrong… safety is a concern.
Two options exist:
1. Move this project to a ‘closed’ model in which students can interact, but ’stranger danger’ can not see the site.
2. Ensure that students DO NOT expose personal information on the site that would enable ’stranger danger’ to target them.
I have no visited here before so I am not making a claim that this site did not safeguard the children, but I do understand the concern that parents and administrators have.
Oh my. Another group of administrators who don’t get it! It’s time to move with the times and the value of connected learning. So sorry about this.
Kimberly Brown
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Sorry that such a fantastic opportunity for learning has been taken away from your students. Student blogging has such potential for motivation, for connection with an audience, for furthering communication. After all, that’s what writing is for!
I’d wish for my children to be in Al’s class for SURE!!! He is an educator that is LEADING THE WAY!!! Others should take note! Our children NEED this sort of learning and education!
Al Upton is, without doubt, one of the most committed educators I have ever met – his focus, every time I meet him, is entirely on the children in this class. This decision by the South Australian authorities is monumentally stupid, shortsighted and anti-education – it is also cowardly. Someone, somewhere, has buckled in the face of paranoia and a closed-minded, irrational fear of nothing whatsoever.
For the past 14 months, I have been extolling the virtues of Al Upton, his minilegends, and, as I thought, the forward-thinking education system of South Australia, all around the world. Everywhere I go I mention this school blogger par-excellence – now I will be forced to use this ridiculous decision as an example of a head-in-the-sand attitude that believes we can protect our children best by banning everything that moves. The best protection, in fact, as Al knows, is education itself – an anti-education move such as this simply beggars belief.
Very disappointing. I’ll just add one point, which I haven’t seen made yet, which is this… what is this modelling? You make a mistake in good faith and you get slammed? Why couldn’t this situation have been used to clarify safety guidelines and make whatever changes to the way you were working in line with those? Why shut down your whole operation completely? It seems more like punishing and making an example of than correcting behaviour. Oh wait… this is school.
Just learned about this via an email. Al, and all the mini-legends, I’m so sorry to hear of this and wanted to add my voice of support. I hope your ministry of education officials look through the work you and your kids have been doing online for the last few years and examine there concerns in that larger context. I suspect doing so will open their eyes the sort of careful, considered, and responsible educator that you are.
Looking ahead to that future, the mini-legends will become legends in name and fact as together you all model educational blogging at its best. I really can’t see any other outcome to follow from a pedagogue examining the opus of your work online.
Warmest Regards and Best Wishes,
Darren Kuropatwa
Department Head Mathematics
Winnipeg, Canada
What a shame! I was looking forwards to looking at the mini’s work.
I hope our own local authority are more open minded!
Alasdair Lanyon
http://arisaigschool.edublogs.org/
Al,
I am so sorry to see this happening. The mini’s have been an incredible inspiration to me, and I’m sure to many others throughout the world. My heart goes out to you and the kids. it can be so frustrating to have creative expression both misunderstood and repressed.
Just from what I have seen here, I know you will turn this experience into deep learning for all involved, I just wish you didn’t have to.
Al and the miniLegends,
While I joined the 31-day better blogging challenge late, I was inspired by the minilegends and their projects. We ask students to journal and create portfolios all through education and the new tool of blogging serves that purpose and the purpose of joining a world community. A community that teaches the lessons of diversity, inclusion, and growth; something an education system and parent would want to see accomplished.
The myopic nature of this order shows the hypocrisy of wanting students to grow and limiting there growth to be compliant with arcane policies, procedures, and regulations.
You followed the directions and got the right permissions. Yet, nay-sayers, the uninitiated, the uninformed, and the uninvolved declared it “scary” and “bad”. Shame on them for stifling the creative minds of children. Shame on them for shutting down the growth of children. Shame on them for limiting the exploration of the leaders of tomorrow.
Mike Berta
Buffalo, NY, USA
Hello everyone, Just a quick note to say how sorry I am to hear that your project has been closed. I was going to volunteer to be a mentor but am in a crucial stage of my PhD so decided I’d do it next year. Please accept this comment as a sign of my support and pass on my best wishes to the class.
Sarah Stewart
Senior Lecturer in Midwifery
Dunedin
New Zealand
It has been inspirational for me to follow you down many of the wonderful paths that you have led your young students and
to add my support re the powerful learning of blogging. 20 reasons why students should blog at http://murcha.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/20-reasons-why-students-should-blog/ Your students will be such wonderful life long learners, great community members and model digital citizens of the future. Keep up all your great work!! The global support shown to you is a reflection of the awe you are held in.
Bah Humbug!!!
What is wrong with the powers that be in South Australia?
As a parent I would have climbed over hot coals to have my kids in your class Al and to have been part of the miniLegends. As a teacher I was envious of the real world experiences your kids were getting and the careful way that they were exposed to that world. As an educational technologist I sent many people to the miniLegends blog to learn how blogging can be a fully integrated part of the school curriculum.
The message about the closure was posted in Oz-Teachers by Michael Cridland under the subject “A bad day for education”. Yes Michael it is black day in Australian education – Bah Humbug indeed!!!
Al,
I tried to keep my blog posting informative rather than negative.
I can’t see how education can make any progress when we are so reactive to fear and misinformation. If our students aren’t taught digital citizenship and cyber safety in school, where are they supposed to learn about these vital issues?
My posting is “A Heavy Armor” at http://tinyurl.com/2u7jh4
Good luck – many of us will be following your situation closely.
diane
In the focus of Education for the 21st Century DECS SA have just dropped back to the 19th…the fear held by the digital immigrant sitting in Flinders Street.
I share many of the views of those above. In addition I wanted to say thanks Al for your approach to the issue.
We all rate collaboration and connectivity as one of the key drivers of the work we do on the interwebs… The knee jerk reaction of a govt department contrasts sharply with the collaborative resolution of issues through, for example blogs.
This may well be a catalyst to open robust decision which takes into account opportunity as well as danger.
Good luck – you have my support
)
i meant discussion – not decision above – oops.
Al, I want to publicly acknowledge the very positive impact your online activities have had on my life and to thank the mini-legends for introducing you to me.
- the late night twitters of your social network provide a window into a way forward for Professional Development of educators worldwide (the after hours collaboration using your own equipment and unfiltered internet connection, evidenced by blog posts, wiki entries, podcasts and speaking engagements).
- your care for the online safety of kids is second to none. The blood, sweat and tears you put into developing strategies kids can use to be safe online have caused me to invert my own thinking on the role of technology here. I feel ashamed of the ignorance and arrogance I displayed while designing networks and configuring firewalls and filters. (every time I cross the busy roads at the corner of your school I think of you and my need to take responsibility for my own safety – so close to the ’school fence’).
- while browsing for ‘photos near mine’ on google earth in the early days of geotags I was surprised to see some images of kids art so close to my own back yard. This was of course the work of the mini-legends that led me to their pioneering teacher – Al Upton. Compare that ‘ultra-local’ encounter with the cluster map on this blog and you will learn a lot about the web and the nature of the world the mini legends will grow up in.
So thanks Mr Al Upton and the Mini Legends for letting me peek over the school fence and thru the firewall. I plan to respond with a more considered blog post but feel too tired and emotional right now.
Once again, the read/write web is not understood and those looking at the project have little or no understanding of what students can do, or are doing. The point is not to prevent students publishing … you can’t stop that any more than the average school IT guy can prevent proxy surfing. The need is to ensure that students are aware that publishing is a two way process. That they are aware later what it means to post personal info on MyFace.
As teachers, our duty of care should address all of this. Who else is going to do it – parents? – unlikely, bureaucrats?
This is another dumb move to attempt to be seen preventing the un-prevantable.
As these kids get older, they will be online. They will MMORPG, they will MSN, BEBO and MYFACE. How the hell are they going to know what is okay and what is not?
Firewalls my ….. They don’t teach critical thinking and objectivity.
I defy any politician to guarantee that a kids does not have access to anything they damn well want in school. You can’t win the proxy war … give up and teach them what they need to know.
What a shame …
[Thanks Dean for your passion and commitment. Sorry, I had to censor one thing - kinda ironical. I will get to thank everyone and enter the necessary dialogue more deeply soon. Right now scouring and shutting everything down. Cheers, Al]
Can’t understand. Authorities organize meetings to talk about the 21st century skills and the responsibility teachers have to develop skills related to technological issues. When a teacher finally lead a project according to their expectations, they don’t like the idea…We live some kind of weird times.
What about the option for using avatars instead of photos?
Hugs from Mexico
Al
I am surprised about the draconian reaction, now, after many years of successful work you have done.
Maybe success brings too many eyeballs from people who live in ivory towers, reading policy and procedure documents, fearing for themselves before trusting those “in the field”?
This only highlights the backwards-lookingness of large organisations in an effort to stay safe. Certainly does not show SA off in the best light as an advanced state.
A more positive approach would have been to best-case model what you have already done for others to follow and modify before turning it off.
Most importantly, I hope your students take this the right way. A lesson in how the world sometimes in not fair. But you can think and act in positive ways to effect change.
Al – many of the sentiments expressed in the entries before mine echo how I feel, so I won’t repeat them. You’ve been a pioneer in this field with a model project – always interesting to read and know of the sorts of things you and your students are up to. Regardless of all the validity issues around the decision taken by the DECS it is the manner in which they have acted that appalls me – as you note, what does this model for the very students, teachers and parents who we are seeking to inform and commit to using the online environment in a safe and respectful way.
As a friend and fellow champion of your work and your wonderful minilegends, I am totally embarrassed by this Australian initiative, which ranks as one of the dumbest in the world! The South Australian authorities have taken one of the greatest retrograde steps in the most public arena of all – the world!! You are a passionate and wonderful educator! Those Department henchmen clearly have no idea how to prepare our your children for their digital and global futures.
Al, I have written a post of support over at my blog. This issue has so many implications for all innovative teachers in this state – personally, it has come just as I am starting my own class blogs. I also thought that the mentoring was ideal – bring trusted web-savvy educators in to make real connections – so much that I was ready to launch my own Blogging Coaches initiative. Now I will wait to see what transpires here before my own efforts become reined in. This has huge implications for the digital opportunities any forward thinking teacher tries to provide for their students in South Australia. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
I am sad — but not surprised — by this situation. I think this program has the potential to be extremely powerful for the students and the mentors alike. I was excited about the opportunity to participate in it. I am trying desperately to remember what questions I asked my mentee — hoping that my efforts to make a teacher-student connection, find shared interests, and gain the students trust in order to further the mentor-mentee relationship, hoping that those efforts didn’t trigger these concerns. That’s a sad place to find myself — when I asked about her pets was that interpreted as trying to identify her for nefarious reasons? What a terrible feeling that is. And, my goodness, if I feel badly about it, how are the minis feeling about all this? So, I understand the concerns and I understand that need to protect the children but I wish this had been handled differently.
Al, although you never would have asked to be a “poster child” for a cause, here you are. I can’t think of anybody I’d be prouder of standing behind. Perhaps, as you say, many can learn from this experience.
My hope is that you stay well and strong, that your kids understand in some way, and that the people who made this decision realize they _really_ chose the wrong person to use as an example..
My hat is off to you for your view of the big picture in this! All the best – Mark
Al, this is awful … we are all behind you and this will become a rallying point for teachers and students who want an open chance to use powerful tools in powerful ways.
I feel that all of your friends (and readers) from around the world will be saddened by this reaction .
Chapeau !
I think it’s all been said in the previous 46 comments, but I just wanted to add my support for Al and the mini-legends and student blogging in general. I have recently started blogging with some of my students and am going to start with more this week. I was hoping to start some interaction via comments with the mini-legends and my students. I strongly believe that the many benefits of student blogging far outweigh risk. Internet technologies are the present and the future, and we must teach children (and parents and other adults) to use the technologies cautiously and intelligently, NOT ban the use of the medium. Hope to see the mini-legends back up and blogging soon.
Hi Al,
Sometimes an innovative project can be enhanced by working in closely with the risk management – despite the delay or blocks this might bring. Such a consultative process can strengthen the context of an innovation such that it can provide armour for future attacks from within your organisation or outside (say from parents or the media or other professionals).
A useful tactic can be to define any new activity as a trial or pilot, giving the trial or pilot a substantial amount of time in order to consider risk management and other potential unknown issues, prior to an official ‘launch’. managers respond much more favourably to such an approach and it can mean less hiccups in the long run. it can even be a subtle way to enlighten and win over the managers of the benefits of what you are doing, such that a situation can reverse and they become powerful allies.
while i am a fan of “innovate now and apologise later” (and i’m not saying this is what you did or intended), sometimes it just doesn’t work and we have to reverse the process and jump through what seems like a whole lot of unecessary hoops, at the risk of the project being shelved before it even gets started; and in my experience it can be worth it., despite the apparent inconvenience. And sometimes it can open doors where the next innovation you come up with proceeds quickly without a hitch and without being questioned, because of the track record you have established with management.
So hang in there, this is not the end of the road. sometimes we think life goes in straight lines, but it doesn’t, thankfully. i admire what you’re aiming to achieve.
It is a great pity that such an educationally sound venture featuring creative students and educators around the world has been closed down by small minded mandarins in puffed up office jobs.
My thoughts are with you, Al and your Mini Legends.
I really don’t know what to say Al. I feel your pain and confusion. I’m not sure where this blog went wrong in the eyes of the powers that be and pray that those powers will allow blogging, here or elsewhere, to continue.
I think if anyone can get through this with a positive outcome then you and the miniLegends can. I hope you can fight this for all of us being censored by our authorities and the network sentinels.
Best wishes.
Since we apparently need to shut down anyone who puts kids in a situation where there is even the slightest chance of them being in danger, I’d like to propose that based on the statistical likelihood of a child being put at risk, the following organisations also need to be shut down immediately…
1. The Catholic Church
2. The Anglican Church
3. The Boy Scouts
4. Any family that has an uncle
5. Most families that have a “friend of the family”
I don’t want to hear about any of the good things that churches, scouts and families might do, or the positive influences that they have on the vast majority of people… I think we need to focus on the negative here, just in case.
Seriously though, what a massive over reaction this whole thing has been. It’s obvious that the people making the decisions are clueless and simply don’t get it. Let’s just hope that common sense eventually prevails and they wake up to themselves.
Hang in there mate.
Chris Betcher
Just a quick thought triggered by Liza Lee’s comment at 44.
Is this experience teaching the kids that all adults outside the family who show an interest in them as individuals – even those introduced by a trusted teacher – should be mistrusted and avoided just in case they mean harm ?
Given that most sexual and physical assault of children is from people know to a child within the family home – and that often the trigger for help is confiding in a trusted outsider – what does this teach children about forming trust relationships outside their family ?
I’m not saying that maybe one of the mentors was going to save a kid from an abusive environment – nor that any of the Minilegends are in an abusive environment.
What I am saying is that mentor / mentee relationships between a child and an educator have been around for centuries and are generally beneficial. This is just creating the same relationship via a different media.
Al –
Just wanted to pass along my support. Life at SLA has been crazy lately, so I only just read about this. From across the globe, we at SLA send our best, and should you be allowed to continue your project, the students and staff at SLA would welcome a chance to collaborate with you and your kids.
Best,
Chris Lehmann
Principal
Science Leadership Academy
Philadelphia, PA
Good luck as you fight this!
oh for goodness sake…what century are we in?
Al
You have my support from NZ. I’m am saddened that this has happened in my beloved Australia, an education system I have always applauded as giving its teachers freedom to innovate. I was excited by your project and could not have foreseen these circumstances. It makes me think about the stupid discussion about not be able to seat male passengers next to children traveling alone on airlines. Hey guys, get a grip – this world is not inherently evil, men are not the devil and not everyone on the internet has bad motives. Let’s celebrate the unity of discussion and of learning networks and teach our children how to safely be a part of these networks.
This sounds painfully familiar. My class wiki page project was recently shut down because a single parent was offended and wrote a letter directly to the district superintendent. The wiki host site was a recommendation from the District IT director, and all parents signed a permission letter. Even my Principal gave the initial OK for the project. The parent concern had to do with some of the widget applets that the students were embedding into their pages. They looked pretty tame to me, and I was impressed that 3rd graders could accomplish this. I guess not everyone was equally impressed. The order to shut the site down came with a Letter of Reprimand and a directive to “cease using this type of classroom instruction.” Wow. The story goes on an on, but I’ll spare the details.
Bottom line is that the technology is not going to wait for cowardly, paranoid administrators. We’ll all be waving at it as it passes us by.
Good luck with the battle Al. Keep us posted so we all can learn!
I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I know these times are difficult, but restrictions are never the answer.
I am from the US and specifically Alabama and we are always considered backwards but even here my school system and parents are very supportive of my class blog. I hope that you can become victorious over this situation. I feel that anything that gets students to write is a good thing. good luck.
Al this is terrible! From what I’ve seen on your students’ blogs, it has always seemed to me that you are taking the utmost security into consideration. Comments like the ones listed above (which were all handled very well by such young students) demonstrate the need to teach children about internet safety. Although, judging by the comments you are miles ahead of quite a few teachers.
I certainly wish you the best of luck in this fight! We’re behind you 100%
Al,
Just read about this on my google reader. I have been using your minilegends site as an example to my students who have started blogging this year. I hope the decision is reversed and our students growing up in the digital 21st century are not stifled by bureaucracy of the 20th century.
My fifth graders and I thought we lost ours a month ago and my students blogged about it.
As it turned out it was just a mistake … but here is a link to a post with some of their comments about losing their blog.
http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=412
Hope things work out!!!
Brian
Hi Al,
Your experience is probably the one that most teachers who are trying to extend and expand the learning opportunities of our students dread occurring. The facelessness of the bureaucracy that we have to deal with only compounds the dilemma. Take great heart that you and your students have already by example smoothed the path for so many others.
A suggestion for Monday, could you attempt to involve the students in the conversation, as they are participants in this whole scenario? It could be interesting to have them chat and record their reflections on the happenings. Alternatively having them write on what they have learnt from blogging and how they view this imposition on their continued learning may be both revealing and therapeutic for all involved.
I remember when Bob Sprankle’s students were questioned as to whether they were really the authors of the Room 201 podcasts, Bob went back to his class and posed the problem to them as to how to respond to the suggestion. Their oral responses were particularly powerful and further extended their appreciation of the power of the medium.
Being new to the blogging world, I don’t feel I can offer any words of wisdom for you. I can, however, echo the support of all those who have posted here. I’ve not yet started blogging with my students, but have been so very anxious to try. I have to admit that your story has made me think twice about it…I hate when I doubt myself, however. So now I’ll go to the powers that be and push even harder!
All the best to you and your students!
I want to add my voice to those already here. It is a shame that this has happened and I really hope that you and the miniLegends do not let this stop you from learning in such a fantastic way. Kids should be able to use and critique online learning and encouraged to communicate with others in such safe and positive way.
All the best with your e-learning journey.
I am appalled at this news!
Just as teachers are getting more and more confidence to use blogging/wiki tools etc…..this comes along to undermine teacher’s confidence…..create more paranoia and most importantingly curb a teacher’s initiative to use blogging as an interactive, collaborative tool for his class!
Over to you kids…..use your kid power along with parent power to push for this blog to continue!
Long live freedom and innovation!
Dear Al – I am glad that I had the priviledge of interviewing you a few months back so there is a record of your concern for your students and your intentions for their blogging activities. All the best! KerryJ
Al, we all have to fight the encroachment of the police state in all our lives, so keep the faith.
Compulsory schooling is not about encouraging children to be educated, its all about social engineering and limiting their imaginations.
You are breaking that paradigm and deserve all our support.
Al
You havemy 100% support in what you have been doing
Sue had asked if we had any resources that might be helpful to you in making your case, Al.
I have two:
A blogger’s contract (adapted from someone else)
http://www.box.net/shared/9vpp2d9cgc
A letter that we sent home to all school principals when launching a major blog project ( did a quick edit out of teacher names, so I hope it still clear)
http://www.box.net/shared/rj3tv9k748
Good luck
Kevin
Yes I am also surprised that this has happened in Australia. In my more than 2 years of blogging from Scotland, I have never seen the safety of pupils compromised anywhere in the world. But instead I have visited many blogs, like yours, that have been set up by dedicated teachers who want to create safe and educational learning environments for their 21st century pupils.
Al & Minis,
I am really saddened by what’s happened and offer my support to you all. It was the miniLegends that inspired me and my class 2 years ago to start blogging, and the support and encouragement that you offered me Al is well remembered and appreciated. Keep your spirits up and know that everyone in the blogosphere is standing with you -you are inspirational, committed and thoroughly professional in all you have done, are doing and will continue to do in the future.
KimP and the AllStars
This is quite simply ridiculous. Where has our freedom to share information gone? I am sure that you have a right to be informed of the details (yes all of the details) behind the closure of your Blog(s). Lets start demanding to know the reasons why!
I for one want to say to the beurocrats that they have got it very, very wrong. People who have commented previously have given grest details as to the benefits of using Blogs. We are in 2008, aren’t we?
Hang in there.
I would hope this is only a temporary closure, during which time the Department will be clarifying some clearer guidelines? I can’t see that sealing off blogs as an avenue for student publication can possibly be a successful longterm strategy.
When I designed a website for a NSW primary school way back in 1997, it was only after uploading it – and seeing exactly how much could be scooped up by the always-improving search engines, even in 1997 – that we, as a group of teachers, began to realise we needed quite a few ground rules to ensure student safety (such as “no student surnames”) – and eventually there were official Departmental memos to follow.
At the end of last year, I introduced wiki pages to my new school, and this year blogs as well. I’ve also been trying to ascertain what web 2.0 style will best suit my Principal, who’d like an easy, efficient way to upload the weekly newsletter. It’s almost been like the process of discovery has started all over again; only very early days yet, but I’ve worked hard to make sure we cover all our bases. In my research I did find examples of Australian schools which published surnames of students, floor plans, teacher details, etc, on their websites, which was of great concern.
However, surely the best learning situation for the students is to have modelled the essential self-regulation of what they upload to a blog: following examples which they can use as a set of strategies at home, when the educators aren’t around to support them. (We can’t assume their parents are aware of how Internet savvy their children are.) I’m constantly amazed with what students already know about the big wide world of the World Wide Web.
We are having great success with a NSW Departmental-sponsored book rap – in blog and wiki form – this term, and it’s upskilling lots of teachers, teacher-librarians and students, from NSW and beyond, in the ways of Web 2.0. There’s no stopping these newly-empowered bloggers now, I wouldn’t think!
The very best of luck in getting back online very soon!
A huge shame – seems kids are to learn at home, possibly unsupervised, from parents who would love a hand to guide their child through the Web, and one of the most passionate and learned people in the field is being stopped from doing just that.
Al, tell your kids we’ll be waiting for them to come back online and that there’s a heap of support for them and you out here!
There are over 44,000 open wiki’s for ‘my’ organisation alone and infinite amount’s of blogs which give away all the juicy trade secrets that would otherwise try and scale slippery tall walls.
perhaps that’s an under-estimate.
Al, all I can say is hang in there and keep on keeping on. I’ve referred to your blog hundreds of times as a class act, a piece of brilliance and with Graham wegner one of the most compelling examples of how to truly educate in theis connected world.
Perhaps the recent heat wave has gone to the heads of the otherwise unmentionables ?
Be assured the world is watching….avidly. Your students will always remmeber your leadership.
Cease and desist is an out and out threat…I wonder how it would stand up in an international tribunal these days ?
ps…..my antispam word for the day is human587…..something we need to be to thwart this lunacy.
This is terrible news!
Your blog has been an inspiration to many educators who are trying to make connected classrooms.
Hopefully DECS will address this issue quickly, and provide educators with some clear guidlines (that are not overly restritive) soon so that we can all move forward together.
Hope to see your amazing blogs online again soon!
I am very disappointed and I know your students are too!
I will be following what happens next. Good luck fighting this and I am glad you are holding onto wanting a better answer than what has been given to you verbally so far.
Many districts in the U.S. do not allow elementary students’ names with images of that students on their websites. In addition, Blogs, for example: like Class Blogmeister, are blocked as well as social networking sites, voicethread, teachertube, Utube, and podomatic. The list goes on….
Good luck and I will be looking forward to the updates,
Pam
Surely the sensible thing would have been to simply request the child’s photo was removed. Has an negative over-reaction outweighed all of the valuable interactions that the blogging experience has given the Mini-Legends with the world beyond their classroom?
The parent who in retrospect did not want the permission initially granted to remain, is of course entitled to request this. The assumed leaders, DECS (Department of Education and Children Services – South Australia), are challenged to demonstrate some pro-activity and support the fabulous leadership and teaching Al has achieved, and engage openly in this discussion in same venue the students in their care and 21C teachers are.
Worth repeating is Article 13 that Tim Davies quoted above:
Article 13 states:
“The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.”
While painful and frustrating- this is the kind of thing needed to bring about lasting policy change and awareness of this important issue. (And all without having to go on a hunger strike or something equally insane to draw attention to this important issue. )
Bottom line- the world has changed and education has not. If we are going to remain relevant in our student’s lives and prepare them to operate in their very global future we are going to have to make principled changes in the way we structure our schools, deliver our curriculum, and implement our policies. Otherwise, students will be getting smarter, faster outside your Aussie classrooms (which would be a shame since so many of us learn so much from how you are pioneering these tools and new literacies.)
So let’s celebrate! And everyone continue to spread this story far and wide. I hate it Al that you have to be the example in this case and go through it- but I believe that it is through very transparent cases like this that we will finally see the changes in education that need to take place to be truly meaningful in preparing students for the world in which they will live.
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
School of Education
College of William and Mary
Co-founder
Powerful Learning Practice, LLC.
Owner
21st Century Collaborative, LLC.
Al, I couldn’t believe it when I learned of the closure of your blog. I loved reading what the miniLegends were up to. You have been an inspirational educator and I know that something good will come out of this.
This has opened a whole can of worms as to what is in place out there in CyberBureaucracyLand regarding official guidelines in educational blogging in schools. Let’s see what eventuates and I hope that you and the miniLegends are back on board in the near future.
You have my support from our little neck of the woods, aka, South Australia.
Sometimes I wonder what has happened in Australia. Innovators doing only the very best for all – sharing, caring, learning themselves – inspiring those who may be losing faith and encouraging others to take risks and get into new worlds and give it a go.
I have sent tweets – I have submitted to digg, I have blogged it and facebooked it – TALO where I heard about it.
Al your work is a credit to you. I respect you, acknowledge you and support you.
We are all out here – and I encourage everyone to use whatever online tools they use, whatever networks they have to help stop the rot.
An opportunity I agree to show the world the power blogging has in the world of learning – Lets Go and Make This Right:)
This list of comments is growing to be a who’s who of online learning, blogging and social networking. I was indignant in my first comment but am feeling more moderate now and heartened by Sheryl’s comment and think maybe yes this is the friction we had to have. The closure is amassing a lot of great commentary about and support for educational blogging and validation for the miniLegends themselves even if not able to offer voice at this time (take heart kids you are very much appreciated). Yes by all means let’s make kids as safe as we can but let’s have frank and open discussion about what that means today and how we can actually motivate, inspire and innovate too!
Al, as a school district administrator myself, but also, as a citizen of the United States, I have to confess that I’m a bit grateful your blog has been shut down and Australian children denied the opportunity to engage in global collaobrations and learning. Here’s why:
In the United States, blogs are distractions to the real job of educators to improve student achievement on accountability measures.
Blogs, as tools for online publishing, engage students with access to an authentic audience–that sometimes, let’s be honest, can be TOO authentic if you get what I mean–and may result in divergent learning that is, to be frank, unsuitable to preparing children for yesterday’s workforce. We want children who are literate, but lack that attitude that would hurt their careers and survival in our workforce…it is our goal to establish (and we’ve done an excellent job aside from your blogging efforts) a, what Paulo Friere calls, “domesticating” educational experience.
Secondly, you’ve no doubt read of books like Wikinomics, The World is Flat, and A Whole New Mind…these are books that speak to the interconnectedness of world affairs, peer productions–companies working in tandem across the globe to create a new product marketed to millions on the web–necessary in the future.
I’m honestly grateful that Australians will be barred from this world, prevented from joining peer producers in the world. To be honest, in the United States, there’s been a bit of concern that you Australians (not to mention New Zealanders) have been engaging too rapidly in this new virtual world. It’s a relief to know that you’ll be “dummed down” to join the United States in a slower realization.
Some argue that we need to distinguish between using technology as a way to empower students, facilitate communication/collaboration at a distance rather than using technology to domesticate our students, helping them achieve basic skills that won’t get them much farther anyways. But you see, in this competitive, global economy, disempowering YOUR children may allow mine to do well.
Al, take a hit for the opposite team. Rejoice that my students will whip your’s when it comes to working online, and that you won’t have distractions when drilling students in basic skills.
With appreciation for the lack of leadership in your part of the world,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net
U.S. School District Administrator
This is really disconcerting. I acknowledge that my information about the circumstances of the closure, and frankly the details of the way in which the exercise was actually conducted, are limited to the blog comments I’ve read about this project from around the web. However, nothing I’ve read so far justifies the response of closing down the site and investigating the creative influence behind it. If anything, partnering with Mr. Upton to address whatever perceived risks were thought to exist (and these themselves require critical scrutiny) may have been a proactive rational approach. But when it comes to heavy authoritarian intervention, it appears that DES has established a sadly common model.
This is and should be a serious concern for the citizens and families in Australia. It is their rights that apparently have no representation in such legal considerations. I’m no expert in Australian family law but this doesn’t pass the “duck test” which is universal.
Phillip Long, MIT
I only picked up on this blog because it was featured at the top of the edublogs site. Shutting down the site is going against all the things I am currently learning about the site! I do teach internet safety in my classrooms and based on what you’ve read and illustrated, I don’t see the issue. I sincerely hope it works out for you and your students.
I think the thing that disturbs me most about this, apart from the appalling example it sets, the terrible lack of respect for both the miniLegends and Al, and what appears to be the obvious knee-jerk childishness of the response by the authorities (presumably as the result of some sort of complaint, or sudden realisation that blogging ws happening), is that the quite predictable response of most school children I have ever known to such a despotic intervention is to use other means of continuing to do something they clearly enjoy and value.
So, now you have a situation where they are more likely to be accidentally putting themselves at risk using 3rd party tools than they were previously, and probably only with themselves as editors of the content. Not that there is much of a risk, but I do understand the administrative mindset which leads to closing things down to be on the safe side – where it actually results in greater safety, of course!
From around the world this issue has, painfully, raised awareness of the disparity between what educators are trying to achieve with their students and the pressures on institutions to manage their community. It is a great pity that Al has had to take the brunt of this but hopefully some good will come from the shared awareness of the issues raised. I do hope that he and his miniLegends will be back online as soon as possible.
As educators, surely we are supposed to teach students how to use these resources safely and responsibly. Blocking and shutting down seems counter productive. Al, I hope you and the minLegends are back on line shortly.
Patricia
PS: It is still 16th March here!!!
I am in total favour of ‘open’ systems where individuals have the freedom to expresses their views in a mature, polite and constructive way.
However in the real world we find individuals whose sole purpose is to case harm and distress.
As educators we need to ensure that content posted upon a blog or website, that we have posted, is monitored daily to ensure any such offensive material is removed as quickly as possible.
I believe we need to educate our young people about responsible behaviour when using the wonders of the virtual world, just as we have done with ‘information’ for hundreds of years.
It’s not censorship its teaching morality.
Keep up the good work, but be vigilant or should I say, use your common sense.
Cheers from sunny Orkney.
I stand with you, Al, even though I don’t have anything to say that most haven’t said. I want to commend you on asking for this shutdown of the minilegends to be the beginning of a standards based, official use of interactive resources in education for the 21st century.
I believe that this probably will be a good opportunity to educate administrators and government officials that a bit of change can be healthy.
I live in the USA, but one of my favorite movies is a spoof that so accurately fits your situation. Remember Scott and Fran, the young dancers in “Strictly Ballroom” who tried to compete in the dancing contests with Scott’s NEW dance steps. Hopefully, there will be people who will help develop educational practices to encompass the NEW interactive, educational opportunities.
I had only just discovered your blog and added your site to my links! I’m trying to encourage the use of blogs in my school and local area, and this was a great example. I hope you can get things sorted out and will be up and running again soon!
Hi Al and all of the minilegends – I just wanted to echo all of the thoughts above (and below) but also to say that your blog was one of the first that I ever came across. It inspired me to blog with my class and I just wanted to thankyou for that.
will be thinking of the minilegends this morning
How does a teacher explain to his students about this blog being shut down? Do we tell our students we don’t trust you, that you should be afraid of “what’s out there”, that sometimes “grown ups” overact. When I first heard about the mini-legends project I was so impressed that a teacher was giving his students the opportunity to have a “real” voice and say something important. Now I am left confused.
Minis – I am so sorry. I hope this situation doesn’t sour you to blogging. Find your voice and keep it strong. You have something important to say and the world needs to hear it. Thanks!
Hi Al,
I’d like to extend my support all the way from Brazil and add that many of my EFL teenage classes have been blogging since 2003.
Through blogging, they have reflected on their learning process, engaged in conversation, projects and international exchanges .
How are kids going to learn to view and relate to the world if they are prevented from learning how to be responsible, innovative, open and critical?
Hi Al & miniLegends
My thoughts are with you at this difficult time. Thanks for all your work in raising the bar in real world learning for many, many educators around the world.
I was looking at the DECS guidelines for schools on appropriate learning resources recently, and thinking these really need to be updated to reflect current realities. Perhaps a project that Computer Educators and Teacher Librarians should be discussing with DECS.
Some bits that seem relevant to this situation, although I suppose it hinges on a fine balance between freedom of expression and duty of care.
“Decisions about selection and access are best made within the individual preschool or school, where local issues can be taken into account. Staff, parents, caregivers, children (where appropriate) and students should have the opportunity to be involved in determining the selection and access policy of their preschool or school.” (p.7)
There are five basic premises that underlie selecting and providing access to books, films, computer software, online resources, videos and other learning materials in preschools and schools.
* The right to freedom of expression
* Duty of care
* Safe and secure environment
* Rights of parents and caregivers
* Balance and sensitivity
(p.8)
DECS, 2004. Choosing and using teaching and learning materials: Guidelines for preschools and schools
http://www.schools.sa.gov.au/policy/files/links/Choose_use_booklet_FA.pdf
I’m so sorry to hear of this. I’m just getting involved in the online education community myself. From all I’ve read, you are a dedicated teacher who has the best interests of students at heart. Online learning is the future of education, whether administrators like it or not. They can react in fear by shutting down the leaders such as yourself who are at the forefront, and reap the result of what follows; or they can work with educators like you to make sure that our children are ready for learning and participating in the 21st century. I hope they choose the latter. If they have the best interests of students at heart, they eventually will.
Hi Al,
I have been inspired by your work and the work of the mini legends, particularly the six word stories which you blogged about. The educational community and the minis themselves have obviously benefited from your creativity and commitment.
Hopefully this situation will sort itself out and some new inroads made into policy and risk management. It was never going to be easy to be a pioneer!
I have added a blog post on my blog to the support and eagerness for resolutions to these issues being voiced in the educational community.
Regards
Anne Paterson
I am very sorry to hear that the minilegends blog has been closed – I hope that it proves to be temporary. I have wondered about the use of student photos in a blog that is identified by school – it does make indiviual students identifiable. I know some teachers who have used things like Vokis when they want a visual or oral presence from the students on their blogs and wikis. Perhaps that is the identifiable information they are referring too? All the others you listed seem totally harmless….
I hope it all get resolved asap and the minilegends are back to blogging very soon. Make sure they know how much this global edublogging community is missing them – good luck.
hi Al I was almost in tears when i heard my blog was shut-down.i was so sad and dissenpointed. i realy enjoyed bloging. i absoulutly loved my cluster-map. i somtimes might say all that work for nothing. The vokis are cool. i start thinking that we wouldent be able to talk to our mentors. it uset to be fun cheers mini17
.Hi al iwas abit sad when I heard that the blogs were closed.
Blogs are good becase you can couminicate with people in the world.
I like the vokis they are cool
If I had don a bit more I would be abit angery.
I would be safe if mr apton is in charg.
It is fun to have a blog.
when my blog went off i felt sad
i wud love to have my blog back
the best thing is you ar getting new frents
also i love getting red dots
When I first herd my blog was shut down I felt sad,upset and woryed about my blog and what would happen to my blog.How I cant look at my comment’s and how I cant look at ather people’s blog’s.And how I cant see my cluster map.The best is the comunicating with people I dont know.I get freind’s. You can put on pictuer’s and poster’s. I learn faster on the computer’s and blog’s.Our new form is called Article 13. I love bloging.
Hi Al.
When I found out that our blogs were closing down, I felt confused, sad and angry. I felt really sad because I felt that all Al had taught us had gone to waste. We had a vote on a name for our new forum. The new name for our forum is Article 13. It means Rights for the Child.I felt better with my blog in many ways.
>Writing and reciving comments.
>Cammunicating with other people.
and lots of other reasons. By mini22
When i found out my blog was shutdown.
I loved my blog.
I was disopointed because i put so mutch work into it.
I realy like having a clustermap.
I like comiticating with people i do no and people i dont no.
I like my fake on my blog.
I realy wont my blog back.
It is fun to go on my blog.
I like it when i get red dots on my clustermap.
My blog was cool because i could comiticate with people.
Hi Al
When i first heard about that the blog was shutdown I felt unhappy
sad.but we all have to get use to it.and becuese that happend we have ARTICLE13.
Hi Al when I heard that the blog was closed I was sad because the blog was like everything in my life . But now it is closed so we just have to do samething that is like the blog . The blog was great and fun I loved my blog it was like my home . And I like are fourm name
when I first heard that our blogs I was very sad.
Ioved my blog.
my blog was cool becase you can do cool stuf.
I love my clastar map.
I like my mentor.
I like sending stuf to my mentor.
the blogs are fun.
my mentor is fun.
my mentor helps me alot.
when I tound out my blog was shutdown
I was so so sad.
I did not feel safe at all .
I really wont to have my blog back.
I love geting new friends on my blog.
I Love the work i did. I love geting dots on my map.
when i found out no longer we could youse our Blogs.
I thort it was a wast of time.
yer eneway it was fun doing the wigits and writing the story it was cool the draft first.
When I hurd that we arent aloud to go on my blog I was angry because I wanted to talk to my mentor, I love to go on my blog, I like my clustermap and my pitcher, IT IS FUN!!!! We can always do something on our blog.
Hi Al
when I first heard that are blogs was closing down
I felt sad because you can’t see your coments .Are new
forum is called Article 13 it’s about right of the child.
On are blogs we have done lot’s of things in it.It is verey fun
and cool cause the writing is more fun then before
i like my blogs because.
>you can cammunicate with others people
Bye
I felt very sad and unhappy and it was horbl and was it’s save and sabe .and it’s is fun and it is not fun with out my blog and it is horbl when you need the thing you need.
hi al
I liked my blog and I am sad that we have to cloze it down
than are relly fun
I like my red cluster maps
are fourm is the rights of the child
are new forom is article 13 we are learing about rites of the child.
Hi Al
When I first found out that our blogs had been shut down, I felt very upset. We just found out today the 17-03-08. I loved doing all of the things we did. Our forum is called Article 13 Right of the child. I liked talking to our mentors, friends, family and buddys. Our class theam is potatos. We didn’t do alot of work on them, but the work we did on them was fun.
Bye, !!
Hi Al
When I first heard that our blogs were going to be shutdown I felt
depresed, frusstrated and sad couse I realy liked going on it and writing posts on it. Now we have a forom called article13 rights of the child.I love my cluster map and photos and you get new friends. Its cool that we learn lots of tricks and doing it in our is boring but on the computer its lots of fun.
Hi Al
. you get new friend’s
. you can put up photo’s and moves
. I LOVE my clustrMap they ar cool
For heaven’s sakes !!!
I have heard of your plight.
EDUCATION not fear is the key. Train the children up in proper use of the blogs and how to spot unsavory characters. I homeschool and my son (almost 10) has a blog. I CLOSELY monitor it.
Man, how frustrating for you.
A response from a friend in OZ I emailed last night.
You said it was bad, this is unbelievable,its not that long ago that teachers were put in jail and books burned,do you know who is responsible for this………………..
Now this is one comment from the general public – someone not connected with any of our networks – an Australian citizen working in a different arena who is horrified.
Go The Minis, such eloquence and honesty, It makes you wonder what education as perceived by politicians, bureaucrats and society at large is supposed to look like if it is not students earnestly engaging in practices that they enjoy and learn new skills via. Even better if they are exposed to the thoughts of more than their teacher.
Love your work kids, (Al is Chapter 13 available for others to peruse?)
Dear Minis,
Thank you for voicing your opinions about your blogs being shut down. I can imagine you feel horrible. Please know that there are teachers who support you and want you to have your voice back.
This is the 21st century …. policies have to reflect technological change and work with it, not impose bans.
Hey Mini’s, it was great to see all of you telling us all how you feel about the closing down of you Blogs.
Hang in there Mini’s, there are a lot of people fighting for you.
Good on you Minis.
This was a tough way to find out about Article 13, but now you do! I wonder how many adults know about the UN declared rights of the child?
Spread the word about the rights of the child, ask adults what they think of it, and make us even prouder of you.
Pupil voice is a powerful thing … well done minis… it is excellent to hear your voices.
Around the world you and Al have an enormous amount of support
Great comments minis. I know that the students in my school would feel exactly the same way as you. My students also love the dots on the clustrmaps and we are just getting our vokis organised. Let us hope that in time and quick time at that, the issues can be resolved so that you can continue on with your authentic audiences and global communication and become wonderful community members and digital citizens for the future.
hey you MAXI legends
I was smiling all the time I was reading your comments here. We are all watching and waiting to see you guys up and running again. Al must be really cool to think of Article 13 – have fun and learn LOTS
Not much to add really except that I would feel EXTREMELY irate if anyone tried to tell me that I couldn’t manage my own classroom blogs when they clearly did not pose any threat at all to the children in my class. I only wish I had been able to find other more powerful material to tweet you the links to that might have slapped some commonsense into these people! I still get angry if I think about this for any length of time. The best of luck on your fight for change.
DECS in their document Professional Standards for Teachers in SA (DECS 2005) states in the section on Practice that teachers “negotiate and construct, with learners and colleagues, challenging learning experiences which utilise a range of current information and communication technologies to connect with local and global communities”. That is what Al has been doing. He should refer the people who have requested his shut down to that document.
Saw this on my twitter feed today, however it’s not until I have read all the comments, especially the minis themselves that I have realised what a seminal moment it is in education. I think you are spot AL on when you say “How do we raise our children – through fear or education?” I sometimes wonder who we fear more the imagined “predators” or the lawyers. We are failing our children when we trap them behind firewalls, as we have seen with the genealogy of the school since the 18 cent. walls serve to protect those who harm children by providing them with a veil of authority and secrecy. It is through openness, honesty and transparency that we best protect the vulnerable. I look froward to common sense prevailing.
http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=South_Australian_educational_blog_shut_down&action=history
Add your comments please.
Better just make that 135 – I wonder if any of the following Bloggers have experienced the same > http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
Mini-Legends,
I learned of this last night in the USA and was sad to know that you were being told of this change about that time.
I did really enjoy telling my friends and co-workers about my mentor role with T’s blog. One of my friends just got back from Australia and we were looking at the clustr map to see where she was and where all of the other blog visitors were from as well.
I know how much I enjoy my blog and I am sure you felt the same about yours. Hopefully, you will be able to continue blogging soon.
After reading the comments left by the mini legends themselves, let’s hope their voices are heard by the “authorities” making the decisions in this case. And I would just echo those who are wondering what this teaches the students? On one hand, it teaches them that the adults in charge really haven’t figured out what blogging and publishing online is all about, and that the kids are suffering because of it. On the other hand, they’re learning that there are a lot of folks from every part of the planet who care enough to lend their support to Al and his work. If nothing else, I hope the power and scope of the response will linger longer.
I call this phenomenon the fear factor. It is not unusual for administrators to tighten the belt when children seem to be at risk. Having been on the perceived other side as a school board trustee, I know the anxiety attacks that befall administrators when controversy hits. The media does not help either. You are using the Internet to show your support but the unschooled are not on the Internet. Following along with that thought, in my experience many administrators do not use the Internet; are not comfortable with computers and like any child are afraid to ask for fear of feeling foolish. Newspapers don’t sell newspapers based on good news stories. Cyber-bullying and online predators are all over the place. If one parent complains, the school board is at risk for any and all legal ramifications. I listen to the frustrations of educators trying to deal with administrative shut downs but I have also heard the other side whose job it is to maintain discipline – staff and students. Blogging in our supportive community – in my opinion is not enough. One hundred and thirty some comments written here are not going to change the way school boards feel when threatened. I suggest creating a media campaign across the planet to raise the awareness of blogging benefits. Imagine the impact, if all the shining examples of educational bloggers and their supportive community all wrote a letter to the editor. Make newspapers do the job for you. I am going to take this discussion to the Parents as Partners webcast to-night at 9:00 PM (GMT-5) at http://www.edtechtalk.com/live
Fear + Ignorance = kids w/o a voice
Nice work, Australia. Best wishes to the MLs in beating this!
I can’t believe that Al has had to take his site down! What a loss for education! Al’s work showed great leadership and innovation in the creative use of ICTs.
To be honest, I think most of the hysteria in the debate actually comes from those who haven’t done any investigation or research into how things such as blogs and wikis work — let alone how they can work in education. This really places those people in a difficult position, because it means that they can’t have an informed opinion on the topic. With a little education I’m sure that parents and administrators would see the value in teaching our kids about good online citizenship and safe internet behaviour, rather than disabling (and there’s a lot to that word …) ICT use in education, as has happened to Al. Perhaps to get around it, Al could make his blog private? But that will cut out the community/mentor engagement he is trying to foster.
This is really an outrage. Surely we can come up with a better, less reactionary solution than this?
What century are we living in? Would we teach our kids how to add, multiply or divide without demonstrating and letting them play with maths equipment? Would we teach them to write words without teaching them the alphabet? Would we teach our children to swim without getting into a swimming pool?
How on earth are children expected to become digital citizens with a sense of safety, collaboration and communication if we take away a valuable resource such as blogging? Our children need to be able to make the right decisions by learning why wrong decisions are wrong? We can’t just say DON”T and expect them to not…
The fact is that the classroom walls now no longer exist – children can share science experiments across waters, time zones and continents without so much as a blink of an eye…..When will those who preach the digital era of education realize that theory needs to be but into practise…
Al and mini’s – keep fighting for your rights to digital in this digital age. I will follow with fingers crossed.
Robyn
ICT specialist
New Zealand
Educational policies need to reflect technology facilitation in the 21st century, not impose bans.
Marie
Nicholas Negroponte has a name for the folk that take these kinds of decisions: the digitally homeless. Given the proclivity for Departmental apparatchiks in many Australian states to further limit/restrict/cruel what is generally an already crippled experience of the online world in many schools, I’d suggest an annual award of the same name. DECS in Sth Oz is clearly a strong contender for the 08 awards!
I’ve seen student blogs shut down before, and blogged about it. I hope your students will have a more positive outcome from all of this.
I’ve been offline and just caught up!!
Sorry to hear it .. the forces of conservatism rule…
I will have to let a few other people who have thought this was great know what can happen!!
It’s heartening to see that our social networking communities really ‘come into their own’ when support is really needed. What Al has gained is an affirmation that he IS on the right track and that he has a global support network behind him. But I wonder how many instances like this go unnoticed? How many innovative teachers walk away, or are forced back into internal spaces?
I agree with Sean who commented that innovation comes at a price – risk taking – sometimes best intentions go awry. But if we are to move archaic practices forward taking risks is what we must do. We will make mistakes but we deal with them via critical debate and insight, not by burning down the building in which we work. Without seeing the blog, it may well be that a parent had concerns but I’m sure they could be sensibly and sensitively dealt with.
And what have the Minis learned here? That creativity and innovation are punished? That true public voice is a dream? I’m sure the event, and the conversation that has followed will be remembered by them. It’s things like this that are life changing. I hope that the majority of parents in support of the blog are voicing their support but I also hope that they are engaging with their Mini in conversations around their position in a changing networked world.
I note Lorna’s comments above that the comments here will not change the system. Maybe not totally, but they certainly will demonstrate the nature of a contemporary global community and how inappropriate the knee-jerk reaction has been.
Best wishes Al and Minis. Let us know how else we can support you.
A typical response from people who don’t understand and need to get our more!
Although – I’m going to stop saying that: “you need to get out more” – one of my corporate/adult education Ning communities has just been shut down by the IT police because they think our learning community appears to be a dating site!!!
ABB ;-(
You have full support from all us adult educators too Al – whatever you need – just yell out!
As a parent of a mini legend I am very upset/angry about the closure of the kids much loved blogs (as is my child).
One parents’ decision to act on getting it closed down has taken away my decision to let my child participate in this fantastic learing experience. Do those who are happy with it have any rights. It would have seemed fairer to me that if they weren’t happy for their child to participate to pull them out, but DONT make that decision for me and my child. Now they are at a disadvantage for not having this learning tool. My child is certainly not going to learn about IT/blogging/etc from me, I was hoping that my child was going to teach me!
It is very sad to see something taken away that my child was so proud of accomplishing. Kids need everything they can to be pround of these days, they don’t need people who probably are ill informed dragging them down.
I hope that the kids can have their blogs up and running again soon.
They are very lucky to have a teacher that is so knowledgeable in this area and has a real passion for it. The kids will be miles ahead of others who aren’t so fortunate to get such a teacher.
Al has my full support.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989
Article 13
1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.
2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.
Who speaks for Article 13? Is it Al or DECS?
The mini legends are now legends
Cross posted from http://edorigami.edublogs.org
In response to Miguel Guhlin and Derek Wenmoth Posts
Miguel,
Like Derek I agree with you and your sentiments, I have watch this debacle from the sidelines, I don’t know Al, but what I have seen of his work shows care and understanding, consideration for safety and most of all, and most importantly a passion for leading his minilegends forward, eyes open, in to our brave new world.
Most countries suffer at some stage from that affliction known as Political correctness. This is a classic example of Political correctness, there is a chance no matter how small that a student maybe, might be, could possibly named, seen or heard – its unacceptable and must be closed down. What about the joy of publishing, the feeling of ownership, of seeing your name in lights? Will school production programmes be limited to first names and students wear masks to protect their anonymity? Publicity photos for the program blurred to prevent the students being identified.
The only benefit I can see from this is an increase in the sales of cotton wool to wrap each and every student in Australia in.
Pity about the immense environmental damage cotton causes
Another Cross posted from http://edorigami.edublogs.org
Risk management
Amongst other things I am also an outdoor educator, and as an Outdoor educator I manage risks. In the outdoors I have to balance the risks and benefits of any activity I undertake with my students. When undertaking an activity I have a clear goals and benefits to be derived from this.
Before undertaking an activity I complete a RAM’s Form or Risk Analysis Matrix. This is a process where by I examine the risks these are pretty straight forward – they are Loss, injury, death, psychological loss etc. But the focus shifts from the risks to the causal factors – these are the mechanisms which will cause the loss. Then having identified these I look at managing the causal factors and putting in place emerengcy procedures that will enable us to cope should the risk management be unsuccessful.
Once I have worked through this process of risk identification, establishing mechanisms that cause this, procedures to avoid it and how to manage the extremes. I then balance the risks and benefit, and decide whether I want to proceed.
For the student standing at the top of a cliff waiting to abseil down, the risks seem huge, they are beset with fear, mostly fear of the unknown. They want to be sure they are safe, that the rope wont break, the anchors will not rip out and that they won’t fall. The fear for them is real, but this is a perceived risk, its what they think may happen. The instructor has worked through the process, checked the system and tested it, checked the harness and helmet, briefed the student, attached the safety rope. They are trained in how to manage this and effect a rescue should this be required. They are aware of the actual risk.
If we only looked at perceived risk, outdoor education or ICT would never occur.
To often Boards, district administrators, Principals and Admins only look at the perceived risks. Yes, there are predators out there, Yes there are hackers and phishers, yes there are unscrupulous people but are the ACTUAL risks as large as they are perceived? Are all of the factors going to line up to actuate the risk?
When the Education Department In Australia closed down the minilegends was it Actual or perceived risk? Had they done a risk analysis? Do they have a clear idea of the benefits to be derived from this activity? Had they spoken to the instructor and looked at the process he was to undertake and suggested changes?
Risk Management is a tool I use everyday whether its at the climbing wall at lunchtime, the beach after school, teaching my students and leading them into new activites like blogging, social bookmarking, electronic communications etc. I identify the benefits, look at risks and causal factors and manage these. If the risks are to great or too difficult to manage I don’t do it. But I look at ACTUAL risk based on analysis, training experience and advise, rather than standing at the top of the ICT cliff and looking at perceived risk based on urban legend, misconception, and paranoia.
Incredible.
WOW. I am in SHOCK!!!!!! I really am!
It really upsets me to see how people can be that narrow minded.
My Goodness, Kids were interacting with other teachers …not gang memberss or pedophiles!!!
How is the image and reputation of teachers to survive???
This is very annoying.
You know what? sometimes I think the problem are the adults and their little, narrow minds.
WEe have been talking so much about doing 21st century teacher training for teachers and how so many are still reluctant to engage with the present … I think it is high time we started proving parents with some mentoring sessions too.
Al, you hand in there … this is not about you…it’s obviously about them.
In my country we would sigh and say “Holy ignorance” … In this case I know it is ignorance…not so sure about the rest.
It is a shame to see such an inspiring work being censored! I can only show you all my support and admiration as a teacher.
Cristina
More here: http://tinyurl.com/32m8vd
This just shows that we are living in a world of fear – how will we ever teach our children to collaborate and expand their cultural understandings?
How will we ever keep them safe if we cannot teach them the methods and skills necessary. I am really sorry to see this happen and hope you are given a clear explanation of why.
I too am very disappointed that the kids blogs have been shut down. The kids have embraced the blogs with terrific enthusiasm and it is great to see my child can’t wait to get to school. I believe Al Upton is doing everything in his power to make it as safe as possible while the kids learn and explore. This is their future and they are in good hands.
I am so sorry to hear that your initiative has been quashed. I think that the skills that can be picked up in this moderated environment could potentially help your students protect themselves when they are online in other less “safe” situations without anyone looking over their shoulder. Your program looks like a wonderful idea on so many levels and I hope this gets sorted out for you and your miniLegends.
Hello all – I do not think that I was clear in my comments about communicating in this fashion – making comments – pseudo petition. Of course this is all fear and narrow thinking and I support the concerns voiced here. I was trying offer a solution – so we can make difference. As well as spending the time and energy to write our comments I was suggesting another way to change public opinion. If enough voices use a medium that the non-techie world uses to communicate – the newspaper – the awareness is raised and this message can be conveyed to more people – more opportunity for change and a respect for a teacher whose views can make a difference for students. 154 + newspapers around the world will attract some attention. And I add this other piece of advise do not target any one person or any one school board in your protest. This is an issue for teachers around the world not just in Australia. My opinion as a former trustee – I have seen too many petitions go nowhere.
you can also find my thoughts and comments at http://www.classroomblogging.com/but-i-need-permission.html
and http://www.classroomblogging.com/think-before-you-ban.html
Al, I believe you have identified a very important question, “How do we raise our children – through fear or education.”
I firmly believe it is through education we can reduce or remove fear. I think the best way to raise children to be safe in cyberspace is to mentor them in their use of it. Educators like yourself and others who are teaching kids using cyber tools are doing a wonderful job.
You have a “world” of support out there.
Canadian Mom
Al, There’s always an opening for you in Scotland! Your work has been truly revolutionary (just look at the reaction!) I hope that common sense will prevail, but then again, in the world of education that is not always a given. I can’t really add anything to the excellent and eloquent responses above, but I do assure you that your current situation is being watched very closely by educators around the world. I suspect that the final decision will be picked up and discussed and cited by many educators and authorities for a long time to come…
Mini Legends – You rock! I hope you are allowed to use your blogs again soon. You have a voice, and as you are no doubt learning, you also have a world of people who care that you should be allowed to speak out…
Mini Legend Parents… you have every right to be indignant! It is obvious that something your children value has been denied them… here’s hoping your support will help overturn this dangerous decision. The world is changing, and we owe it to our children to give them the very best education we can. If we don’t embrace and learn to use the new tools then we can hardly complain if we are left behind. As Eric Shinseki so rightly said, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
Hi Al & Minis
I am truly saddened to hear that your blog has been shut down. I understand the need to protect children. That is the first priority.
I also understand the need to teach kids how to use the tools of today so that they can thrive as adults. Protecting children doesn’t have to mean shutting down the blog. There are safeguards that can be utilized in this technology such as approving all comments before they are put on-line and reading the children’s posts before publishing so that identifying information is not distributed.
I know no one wants to hear this, but you can’t effectively protect children 100% of the time. That’s the goal not the reality. What can be done is to empower children by teaching them how to protect themselves AND putting systems in place where adults are monitoring what is happening on this blog.
I do hope the Australian authorities are reading the comments here and that they will reconsider their decision and allow the blog to continue. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a global discussion on how to introduce a new technology that enhances learning AND how best to protect our children.
Best of luck to all of you.
Al, and The MiniLegends,
This whole issue came to my attention not long ago during my first period pre-calculus class. As a student whom is currently/has participated in blogging programs it is extremely distressing and saddening to hear about what has transpired in your corner of the globe.
Although I cant speak from experience of how things must be now that your blog has been (as far as I’m concerned, unjustly) shutdown, I can imagine. As a gr.12 pre-calculus student (a somewhat difficult course) I find the benefits that come from being able to communicate with other students, teachers, and people in general from around the world, has FAR outweighed the potential dangers of doing so. With the correct safety precautions and policy I feel (and have experience to show) that blogging is an exceptional learning tool, and has helped me TREMENDOUSLY, throughout this course, and my previous courses.
As Australia is a First world country also under the commonwealth this makes me wonder about the possible future of my own blog here in Canada, and the future of student blogs well…everywhere.
It is a sad day in education when fear overshadows the need/desire for learning, especially when all necessary precautions have been taken to make the experience as safe as both possible, and mandatory.
Hopefully things turn around for you Al, and the blog is allowed to return. I support Al and the minilegends entirely, not only for the sake of the mini’s learning, but for the sake of education everywhere.
This is such a powerful learning opportunity for the minis, your community, our online community, and for educators. You started by giving your kids a voice and now they have a purpose for that voice.
As unfortunate as this may seem, this may be the best thing that could have happened to these children.
To Al and the Mini-Legends,
Sometimes, it is difficult to discover the reason something occurs. Time and distance often give clarity to a murky situation. I can see, as an outside observer reading these comments, that you have touched more people with this story than you might ever have been able to with your blogs about your life. You are an inspiration to teachers and student bloggers around the world. You are perfect examples of dignity in the face of disappointment and confusion. And you have helped many of us to step things up with blogging in the classroom simply because we must keep things going.
I hope your blogs are returned and up and running soon. And maybe then we can connect through our classroom blog. In the meantime, take some comfort from the support you are getting from around the world.
Al and Mini Legends… we are with you. A hug from Venezuela.. Schools are the places where children learn… Schools must be the places where children learn to use the Internet in a safe way.
Keep on blogging and shining!
I’m broken-hearted. My daughters and I hadn’t done much commenting yet (we planned to catch up during the long weekend starting tomorrow), but their “cyber-friends” were part of our nearly daily discussions at home… and a great encouragement to their learning English!
I find it really off putting to learn a teacher takes all the trouble to go out of the ordinary to enhance his students’ learning, and this is the official response…
( If something’s wrong with the blog contents, then the teacher and his class should be supported so that it can be worked out (though I must say I have a hard time trying to figure out what that might be). But their work should never be endangered…
I hope this is actually a “temporary” situation, and that solving it does not take so long that it kills the students’ enthusiasm…
Please let your class know, our hearts are with you all!
LOL,
Gladys (mother of Andrea and Rocío, both friends of mini-legends)
When a teacher is willing to take a risk with blogging, I guess we have to be prepared for even unimagined consequences. Even though this story makes it easy to imagine the sad faces of primary students, there are countless thousands of students (and teachers) out there, who have yet to discover the blogosphere.
I’m wondering with 160+ comments in only a few days, how these supportive voices might be harnessed to help school districts develop reasonable policies/guidelines around blogging…
After a brief think, I’ve started a wiki for this purpose. If you have suggestions for what a good policy might include, or if anyone knows of policies that can be shared, your contributions would be most welcome! http://tinyurl.com/2c2kkn
Hi Al,
I blogged about this yesterday and I just got word from theapple.com, where I am a featured writer, that the post is going to be featured on their homepage tomorrow. Hopefully we can motivate people to do something about administrators overreacting in such a way.
Best of luck!
I just want to add my voice to the throngs in support of Al and the Minis. Don’t lose heart!
I was listening to a Ustream discussion with Sue Water and some background on how this situation has come to pass and I wanted to wish the miniLegends good luck. I hope the student’s ability to express their thoughts and ideas with their blogs is restored.
Thank you for all the wonderful support that has been extended to my class and has comforted me. Thank you also for your enthusiasm and commitment to enter into broader dialogue and actions.
These are two distinct arenas of what is currently occuring.
It is very important that my students, parents, site and employer (DECS) are in no way made to feel responsible. Support (not negativity) for us all will be more effective in determining mutually beneficial outcomes regarding student learning using 21st Century technologies. Respect, trust and empathy is what will triumph.
Thank you for all that has been afforded to me here.
Cheers, Al
Bingo !
Al, you and a billion others know that there is a time and a place for everything.
We are all on a learning curve with the use 21st century technologies in an educational and life based context and these have have brought about collosall change and in the process have left many others fearful, bewildered and not in the least threatened by this rapid change . Anything that can bring about awareness and thwart unfounded anxiety will help in that demystification and will as you suggest bring about triumph through respect, trust and empathy.
It is also about negaging in frank and open debate, about putting faces to the virtual domains and carefully teasing out what steps forward to take that protect the rights of everyone involved.
I’ve blogged my thoughts openly having read your comment – http://alexanderhayes.com/2008/03/20/symposium-of-reason-blogging-in-the-21st-century/
I’ve also called upon others to provide their perspectives in a symposium that explores how best we can inform this complex ( and yet so simple ) topic and provide anyone with a picture of how important this issue is for tens of thousands of educators just like you.
I’ll either be standing alone on a soapbox in central Adelaide come May 2nd or there will be others who will also sit in the conversation circle along with us both – http://talo.wikispaces.com/symposiumofreason
Either way…hold in there mate
Hang in there and remain positive. You are providing students with a great opportunity to learn. This whole process is a great learning experience (even though it is unfortunate).
I along with all other Edubloggers lend by voice in solidarity for your efforts. We also have to go against the current sometimes. Perhaps a day will come when we ARE the current.
Dear, Mr.Upton’s class I am a student in Mr.Crosby’s
class. My name is Tyler and I live in Sparks, Nevada in the U.S.A. I wanted to say that your classes parents are
just scared that kids are going to leave some kind of information like a name or a address and more too. I think the parents are over exaggerating just an little bit. I think your kids should have a blog because it will help you learn how to read, and also help you with your language. It is also a good thing because it is fun to leave comments. I like to blog because you learn lots of stuff and you can make friends.
Dear Mr. Upton and parents,
I am a student in Mr. Crosby’s class in Sparks, Nevada, USA. I am sorry that your blogs are blocked, but it’s all about being safe. Blogging helps me to write, spell and a lot of other things. Blogging is all about writing, spelling and reading. I hope you get your blogs back soon!
Dear Mr. Upton’s class and parents, I feel bad because your blogs are blocked. Im a student in fifth grade that lives in the USA, Sparks, Nevada. I know they blocked your blog but it’s for your classes safety. I know your students are upset. They should allow your class to blog because it helps students learn how to spell, write, read, and speak better English which helps in school a lot. For the safety of your class I would tell them to not put there last name, parents name, phone number, address, or any personal information. I do hope your class gets your blogs back.
Dear Mr. Upton’s class and parents,
Hi, I’m Cesar and I’m from Nevada, USA. Mr. Crosby is my teacher.
I know what happened to your blogs, that happened to us once.
Your blogs might be blocked because you might give to much information about yourself. You need to give less or none of the information about yourself. Some of the information could be like where you live, what time your mom or dad get home from work, what your first and last name is, etc.
About 3 weeks ago we went to a class about internet safety, it talked abouthow they could trick you by saying that they are 10 years old and that they live in Texas for example, etc.
The End
Blogging Being Blocked
Dear parents and Mr. Upton’s class, I am a fifth grader in Nevada, USA and my name is Karla. I heard they blocked your blogs, that is too bad!!!! That has happened to us for like eight hours. But the reason they did it is because they are doing it to keep us safe and keep bad people away from our information. We can learn many things from blogging like getting better at your post because you find the mistakes, learn how to write stories, find mistakes and learn where people are blogging from. I have improved in writing my stories, reading comments and editing my writing. Be safe by not putting your information like not putting your last names, where you live, don’t put parents name, don’t put phone numbers and don’t put what school you go to OKAY!!!!!We hope you guys get your blogs back so we can blog.
Dear Mr. Upton’s class. I know that your class and ours can’t blog no more but we could try to vote for blogging I know that your kids are disappointed but you just got to tell then to not put there last name in there story or they will be endanger. They are not supposed to tell in there story want time there friend get out of school or how they say with or want is there phone number is or there friend last name. Like one of the kids put the first and last name of someone in the class and that can tell some bad guy some information and if they see him they can tell him thing that are not true then the bad guy or woman can kidnap them and that’s why I think they block blogging.
By Victor
Hi I am Everth, I am from Nevada, USA, I think that your blogs getting blocked is not cool but I think your blogs got blocked because people worried that somebody was going to find out stuff about you. I think that your blog should have not gotten blocked because it helps you in alot of subjects like reading, writing and punctuation. Blogging has helped me in those subjects alot. It has helped me in reading because I know that alot of people will see it so I read it more carefully. Another thing it has helped me in is writing because when I read other comments I sometimes learn a new word and then I use the word I learned to make my writing even better. Now I now where to put commas and quotation marks. I really hope you get your blog unblocked because I would like to read what you wrote and leave you guys comments.
SORRY FOR YOUR BLOG
Roberto
Hi I’m from USA and I heard that your guys blog got blocked. they are not trying to be mean to you they are trying to make you be safe on the internet. I hope you guys get it back so we can blog with you guys. It wont be safe because you guys can leave a comment and leave someone’s last name in the post. Don’t give anyone your friends or family names. Also what time you get home or address number or phone number.
They should put your blog back because you guys learn how to read and write better. That’s what your parents want to do. Then you guys can meet more people around the world.
THE END
Dear Mr.Upton’s class and parents,
I am from the USA in Sparks, Nevada. It was really bad that the school district blocked your guys blog. I think they did it to help you be safe. It might only be temporarily.
I think they should get there blogs back because it helps kids in subjects like reading, writing and to help them read more fluently and to learn more English. Kids also learn more about technology and how to use it.
If you want to have a blog you have to learn how to be safe. Some ways to be safe is to not give any personal information on your blog like your last name, phone number, adress or any parents names.
I hope you guys get your blogs back.
I’am a 5th grader in the USA I have something to tell you so here I go. People want your kids to be safe on the internet. People want your kids not to give away any information. I think your kids should have a right to blog because they will learn how to read, write,spell and what ever you wanting right in front of them and you are taking that chance away from them.
PS. As third graders I hope you get your blogs back because you might never get another chance like this.
Introduction
I’m a student in fifth grade from the USA. I’m a student in Mr. Crosby’s class. We have blogs too. Once they blocked our blogs but it was an accident. I want to help get your blogs back.
Information About Being Safe On The Internet
It’s very disappointing that you kids don’t get to blog, but they didn’t block it because they are mean people but because they care about you.
A Message To Parents About Blogging
Blogging is important because you learn to read because you read your comments and learn from the mistakes you did. You also learn to write stories because you are also learning from the mistakes you did and you can spell check and edit them. You can learn to spell better because you leave comments and write story’s because you make mistakes and somtimes your teacher corrects them and explains your mistake. You can also be safer by telling other people what happens around your neighborhood and give people and kids advice of what to look out for.
Safety Tips For Children On The Internet
Blogging can be safe and it can be dangerous but for children in classes its safe. Its safe because your teacher can block anything that has any personal information. Just don’t give any information like your name, address, the schedule when your alone, your phone or last name.
Conclusion
I think kids really need blogs for their education!!!
Blogging can be safe for anyone!!!
BLOGGING
Dear, Mr.Upton class and parents
Hi, my name is Gissel and I am a student in Mr. Crosby class. I live in Sparks, Nevada, USA.
I think blogging is fun because we can read stories around the world. Blogging also helps you on reading, spelling and writing. I really learned a lot because I used to be a bad speller but now I think I got much better. I don’t really think blogging is bad because we don’t give our information. Instead we learn. I don’t think adults should forbid blogging from kids.
Helping Other People
Dear Mr. Upton’s Class and Parents. I live in Sparks, Nevada, USA, and my name is Miguel. I’m sorry that your blog is blocked. I think Blogging is really important because you get better at writing like punctuation, capitalization and spelling. I hope you get your blog back.
When I moved to the USA from México I only spoke Spanish, but now my English is really improving.
Dear Mr. Upton’s Class and parents.
I’m a student from Sparks, Nevada, USA. We had our blogs blocked too. We wrote a story about how they blocked our blog and how blogging could help us learn more about reading, spelling, writing and a lot more things. We also told how fun blogging is. Blogging is fun because you can read other blogs from around the world and leave comments and communicating with other people. Then the next day it was not blocked and we got to go on it. It turns out it was just a mistake that the blogs were blocked.
Comment For Australia
Camila
Dear Mr. Upton and parents, I’m Camila and I’m a fifth grader from Mr. Crosby’s class in the USA. I’m really sorry that your blog got blocked, but it got blocked because your parents want all of you guys to be safe on the internet.
I think that the parents should let their kids have a blog because it helps them with their writing spelling reading and even learning more about technology. Your kids just have to be careful with putting last names on their blog and not putting any personal information on their blog. But it is ok to say that they walk to their house with their friend. Here on our blog we put things on there like that all the time and it never harms us.
I hope you guys get your blog back, and if you guys do I will try to leave comments on your guys blogs.
Dear Mr. Upton’s class and parents. Hey I’m Luis a student from Sparks, Nevada, USA. It’s bad that your kid’s blog is blocked. I would tell teachers and parents that blogging is a good thing. I say that because it helped me in many ways. Also the kids in your class can learn how to write better, read, and how to edit there work like I learned how. Also the great thing I thing about it that great is that we can know story’s about other kids. This are the things your kids shooed not do when they write there story’s like there last name, phone number, parents name, address. I hop your kids don’t do what I just said. I hop your kids get you blogs back.
Dear. Upton’s Class and Parents, Hi I’m in Mr. Crosby class in Sparks, Nevada, USA. I bet the reason they blocked the blog is for your safety. “Better safe then sorry”. The reason I like blogging is because it helps me learn more Reading, Writing, Spelling. It makes everybody learn more. It is safe because when you post a comments it goes to the teacher that has laptop or desktop computer. I hope you guys get your blog back too. Blogging is really fun.
Dear Mr. Upton’s and parents
Hi my name is Lorenzo I am a student in Mr. Crosby’s class in Sparks, Nevada, USA. Our class had the same thing happen. But it was for for a few hours. But in that time I thought that we were never going to blog again. I felt sad. But Mr. Crosby told us it was a accident. Their are lots of things you can learn from blogging. Some people get better at things from blogging. I got better at my English and words that I’ve never heard before. My vocabulary has gotten better. In the beginning of the year I wasn’t that good at spelling. But got better each day at writing. And if you get your blog back on I will try to comment you.
Dear Mr. Upton’s class and parents
I am a student from Mr. Crosby’s class in Sparks, Nevada, USA. I think that blogging shouldn’t be prohibited from kids because blogging can really help them a lot in school. Blogging could help them on writing because when your going to write a story or comment you usually write it down and then type it. I learned how to write because our class blogs and every time we are going to write a story we have to write it down and so now, I don’t write down my story’s anymore I just go ahead and type my story right on to the computer because blogging helped me to write. Blogging can also help them on their reading because if they leave comments they have to read the story and actually get the meaning of it. I know I learned how to read better because back then I used o read little chapter books but now I read pretty thick chapter books I even finished a book that had 102 pages. Blogging can really help kids later on in life and in school. Blogging is really fun, So I don’t know why people are trying to forbid blogging from us.
Dear Mr. Upton’s Class and parents,
My name is Leticia and I am from the USA and I live in Sparks, Nevada. I just wanted to say that I am sorry that your blog was blocked. I hope you get your blogs back so you can learn more things about blogging. You learn your spelling and the other things you do at school. You can get bad comments that the teacher won’t let you read because it will hurt your feelings.
Al: When my 5th graders heard about what was going on with your class they really wanted to help. Most of my students are second language learners … originally spoke Spanish or Vietnamese so blogging is a great opportunity for them to work on their English. I hope they kept their comments on a positive encouraging note and that in some way their words help with your situation.
Brian
I really appreciate that so many of the comments here have been so positive and uplifting, yet not too reactionary.
Science fiction author, Arthur C Clarke died during the week, and some online science fiction friends of mine have been discussing his “Laws of Prediction”. Someone mentioned that while the third law is well known, Clarke’s second law was “pretty obscure”, and considerably lesser-known than the other two. I just realised it is very useful summation this whole debate:
2. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
Looking forward to a positive outcome.
I don’t get it… I’m a teacher of foreign languages, which is supposed to be targetted at communication. How can I teach my class to communicate in a foreign language if posting anything meaningful on the Web will be understood as a threat to their privacy or safety? What’s the point of “hiding” information which is publicly available in so many formats in black and white (school boards, school magazines, notebooks that can easily get lost or even stolen)… Don’t children write personal information in their school notebooks any more in countries where this kind of control is carried out? Don’t parent share telephone lists (with kids and parent’s names) so that they can keep in touch? If they do, why should the Internet be more dangerous than people around? I can’t imagine how isolated individuals and families can be in a society where people don’t, but perhaps that’s just because I come from a culture where this is common practice. Of course, we need to learn our data is not private anymore, but the solution is not closing down Web 2.0!
As an ICT educator I am in the process of extolling and encouraging teachers at my school to use blogging with their classes for all the good reasons people have mentioned. I am embarrassed to say I used to teach in South Australia and just cannot believe that there are people in DECS that are so tunnel visioned! My students are into MySpace and FaceBook outside of school. No one restricts them from accessing these sites when it would be far safer to be involved in a controlled educational blog! Teaching kids about blogging is teaching safety!
For what it is worth Al – you and the ‘Legends have my support.
Pat
Cygnet
Tasmania
Hi Al and the minilegends
We enjoyed your six word stories last year and hope that this whole mess gets sorted out for you really quickly.
You have our support!
Jane Lowe
Area 11 Bullcreek
Hi Minilegends and Al,
I hope you will get through this, and if you don’t I will miss you guys.
I think you should still be able to blog.
Yours sincerly
Naomi
There is little I can add to the wisdom already expressed other than my support for the project and my dissapointment at the present situation. I look forward to being able to things being back on track in the future
Sharon
Wow! What a stunner!
I’m writing from the UK, where we too have had to be very careful about disclosing the personal information of minors. For some time now I have been aware of the Mini Legends and Al Upton’s most exciting work.
I have been impressed by the obvious training the youngsters hav had and with the total lack of ‘disclosure’ and am thus as perplexed by this action as all the others.
I am sure that we can expect a positive outcome to this sorry situation and trust that we all, throughout the world, will have a clarification of any issues that might cause concern.
Just another voice of support! I agree with the sentiment that any examination of your work will undoubtedly result in a positive confirmation of the work that you are doing. Best of luck and I look forward to reading more of your insights into this unfortunate event. I do eagerly await how you are going to process this experience and how it will affect your use of blogging and internet tools in the future. It is an unfortunate experience, and I hope that you will continue to teach your students well in an open and transparent way. Thanks again for all that you do!
The GOOD news is that this has drawn so much attention from around the world that those responsible for this decision will FINALLY learn the power of the tool. It’s unfortunate that those folks who have the authority to make these kinds of decisions lack the UNDERSTANDING to make a wise one.
But, I HAVE to believe that they will come away from this much better educated and will step aside to allow the teaching and learning to continue.
The world is watching. Good luck.
I have experience of this situation.
’twere ever thus; institutionalised dinosaur bureaucracy vs. professional teachers who are innovators and leading-edge practitioners. The bureacrats nodded sagely in the wings as if to condone this blogging phenomenon when it started and was successful (if they knew it was going on), but now sitting upright and wide-eyed with the jolt of realising the potential dangers, they shut down the blog while they “investigate” what the dangers might be.
Sigh.
Why don’t they ask the man at the blogface, the person who has assessed all the dangers, all the risks? The man who is a professional (underlined and emphasised) educator who has only the interests of his studetns at heart and would never have embarked on this venture if there had been any risk that he couldn’t reduce to zero?
Seems the ‘education’ about blogs is required more urgently in the Department’s offices rather than in the classroom. (I have found this to be the case at school and district level).
It remains to be said though, that in the hands of a less risk-aware practitioner blogs can be an extremely dangerous application if not managed properly. Blog managers need to be educated (or nannied) so that children are not placed in danger.
Fear not; my prediction is that once the bureaucrats have worked out what risks exist, there will be a consensus that this particular blog was managed correctly and I would hope that it will be a model for guidelines of future blogging practice in the locale. The benefits of a global voice on the web are obvious to the initiated, but the dangers are too-often undersold and should not be ignored.
Sorry, first line should have read “experience of this KIND of situation”.
To the Department of Education and Children’s Services – South Australia:
My condolences to your education system. It was a lovely education system, as I had admired it from a far in the past. But if the present situation, is indicative of the future …. well good luck to you. I will not be looking across the ocean to South Australia for inspiration.
Best wishes Al and Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim
Big Best Wishes to Al , and Class ; more support needed for kids and parents within the Classroom
And I thought things in the US were draconian. Geez.
Al,
This is a real shame as it shows just how out of touch with pupils’ lives educational managers are. We need to be using these tools and promoting their use in a safe way not trying to close them down. It seems to me that this site was a case study in how to manage children’s use of these tools and one to be lauded not closed down.
There are clearly legitimate concerns regarding the use of the popular social networks and blogging tools (MySpace, Bebo, Blogger, etc.) being used by pupils both within and without the classroom: it is surely the job of educators to explain these risks and how to avoid them – that is a given. But how can you do this without access to safe versions of these same tools? But just as important is the power of these tools for education and learning itself – and this was a shortsighted move against an exemplar.
I hope this does not come across as overt advertising but I have set up a social network for schools which tries to address these concerns and offer a safe environment (through schools registration and controlled accounts) for students and staff to be comfortable in so they can explore these tools. For more information take a look at http://www.ll4schools.co.uk & http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/overview/.
so..the bureaucrats have established new rules…
it won’t be the first time..certainly not likely to be the last.
have you been banned forever?
or just that blog?
start another!..with no ‘real’ names..they will never know the difference.
unless the point of all this is to make a point, also well worth doing.
AEU has policy on this…so it may be worth enlisting some industrial muscle…
similar bureacratic impositions have been tried in Victoria, but were short lived as the DEECD had hosted blogs with names and pictures!!..not any more though.
a learning moment for us all.
best regards
garyb
Carlton, Victoria
Dear Al & the MiniLegends,
I share your disappointment as I checked my Bloglines account several times a day to see if blogs had been updated. I had put the long period without an update down to a school holiday until I listened to the WOW67 podcast today and heard mention of your problems by Vicky Davis.
What you were doing was an inspiring and bold example of how web2.0 can be embraced in education to stimulate creativity while developing literacy and awareness of web safety. I truly hope that you are able to resolve the issues and move forward without losing your enthusiasm for showing the rest of the world how to education can be enriched by the technologies available to us in the 21st century.
Good luck in your attempts to meet the requirements you have been given.
Hi,
I found an online copy of the permission slip you sent to the parents. It doesn’t mention anything about mentors. How was this subject brought up with the parents?
Could you please post the contents of the form here? I cant remember where I found the link to it.
Walter
Dear Al and the mini legends,
Your experience seems to show that peace of mind at pupil/ parent / educator community level is key to sustainability. Really sad to read the dissapointment expressed by the children. If we can help in some way to fill the void of creative expression, collaboration, educational benefit for your mini legends then we would be delighted to help at no cost.
There is a case study here http://www.edujam.org/cic/news.php?article_id=22 and a recent article here http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/web_articles/Web_Article952
kind regards
Andy Preston
Co-founder
edujam community interest company
“An administrator must always approve the comment”
This is something I have had to do (in this instance) to protect my students, my professional integrity, my site and employer.I also had to unfortunately unapprove a comment – which may have been received by previous commenters. This comment was probing into an investigation that is still underway. The comment suggested internal knowledge of my regular class routines and procedures. Parental questions and concerns regarding their children’s education are asked and as a professional I welcome and continually answer them. Very specific knowledge of an incident/learning opportunity (that led to very powerful evidence of students being protected through education) was also in the comment. I stress this did not relate to my class or student’s blogs.
Please RESPECT that I cannot disclose the ‘full story’ – these are my kids and this is my job. Please read Update2 above
“During this process I had been verbally reassured by DECS leaders that nothing I was or had been doing could be considered inappropriate. There was no indication or reason given as to why my blog should be investigated. Nothing was found that was inappropriate.”Reminder: “An administrator must always approve the comment” so please feel free to comment but be aware that they will not automatically appear.
Cheers, Al
What is disappointing Al is that you are not enabling an open and frank discussion of the issue at hand. From my perspective, and I suspect many others who have actively engaged in this issue, I am quite conscious that there are always two sides to a story. As professionals we are able to cut through the emotion (and of course there will be some) to the underpinning issues and then grapple with how we can address them to establish constructive, fair, transparent processes that balance the needs of multiple standpoints.
What I have found odd in this debate is that it has been totally one sided. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally supportive of what you are trying to achieve, but I also know the dangers of not knowing the full story.
Sure delete comments that are inflammatory, abusive or defamatory but I urge you to allow a more balanced debate on the topic than you currently are.
As I suggested above, we can all learn through this. We can also attempt to establish dialogue that will set in place systems and processes to handle issues quickly, fairly and efficiently with the childrens’ needs foremost. The open web in which we all now live and work is exciting but challenging to conservative systems. This is an opportunity for real change to occur; to influence how the uptake of new technologies are sensibly managed.
You have engaged the interest and passion of a powerful, global network (lobby group) on an issue that affects us all. By doing so on the open web you are now in the (perhaps unenviable) position of dealing with that – farming that in an open professional way. Given the size of the issue globally it was always unlikely that the comments you sought would ever be restricted to simple commiserations; and nor they should.
Very valid point Robyn. This should be a forum for all points of view on the issue – that is healthy.
What it shouldn’t be is a forum for specific discussion of what happens in a specific classroom. Nor should it be a place where kids / parents involved in the issues should be identified *without their consent*.
I’d love to hear the general concerns and the ideas of the parents involved, both pro and con – if they choose to share. I don’t really want to hear a “she said, he said” account about specific instances. That can get really destructive.
I think it would be fine for a commenter to say something like “What about if x happened in a classroom with an open blogging policy” – rather than “I know x happened in your classroom”. The latter is none of our business.
This from PBS’s Frontline Growing Up Online (on their site, in the What We Learned write-up):
“One of the biggest surprises in making this film was the discovery that the threat of online predators is misunderstood and overblown. The data shows that giving out personal information over the Internet makes absolutely no difference when it comes to a child’s vulnerability to predation. ”
Facts, not fear.
I totally agree that this is the place for an open and reflective discussion. I would like to suggest that we not limit the discussion about parent input to this specific situation. There numerous school blogs in existent and the common thread is already there. Perhaps the followers of this issue can post what they find are repeating and valid concerns. Are there other parents whose views we can request?
If not here, please consider taking the parent input to http://www.ourschool.ca
I hope you can restart your work with the minilegends.I hope those who decided the closure don’t have the power to close the Internet.
I’m sure your students were fully protected!
Best regards
josemelo
braga,portugal
Hi mate!! Well what can I say…. Everyone here has expressed most of what I feel about this whole situation. I think I am about to face it myself soon – as the school has appointed a “committee” to form “policy” on blogging, podcasting and wikis. That I am not a part of…. Mind you I am the only one in the school that has any idea!!! Go figure!!!
was so upset when I saw Sue Waters tweet about this this morning – I’m waiting for her post after her Skype session today to perhaps learn more about how other Aussie edubloggers are reacting……I hope to find out details of this that will help all other educators using blogs with our students. Keep us posted, Al.
I’m surprised no-one’s brought up the similarity of the argument with sex education.
You can either teach children the risks and appropriate safety measures, or you can leave them to experiment for themselves in their own time and let them take their chances.
Protection through education vs head in the sand.
Great to see new initiatives coming out of Adelaide.
I am dumbfounded that your blog was just shut down. This should have become a conversation about digital citizenship, not a heavy-handed end of a great learning tool. I have to add my voice to the wave support here. You were developing great learners in your classroom by having them blog for an authentic audeince. By shutting down Minilegends, they have made it into a full legend in the history of the edublogosphere.
Hi Al,
I think it is safe to assume that not all parents would have an understanding of blogging and its related issues.
What information did you provide the parents so that they could make an informed decision about their childs participation.
Con
Bonjour !
I was very sad to hear that you were having difficulties with your blogging. I hope it is all sorted out soon
amitiés
Elizabeth Anne
Lecturer
Université Joseph Fourier
Grenoble
France
Hi Al,
Good news.
Confirmation by phone tonight that Education.au will host a structured and open networked event to explore and inform the issues regarding networked and open education in the 21st.
Discussions /conversations / debates etc. all with guiding light from Janet Hawtin bless her soul.
Check your contact list. I hope it ’s all ok your way.
Lets use that energy and steer it into a bigger accord that will change the way eduactros are treated.
Keep an eye on that wiki page
The history tab tells all.
http://talo.wikispaces.com/learninginthe21stcentury
Once again the nefarious actions of a few baddies (the real pedophiles out there) get all the attention, and all the policies built around, and supercede the much much larger number of people who want to do good– these stories attract no tabloid media coverage or attention from committees.
As one of the “dangerous” overseas mentors (ow) I’d be more then willing to present a background check, blood sample, a note from my mother…
Still trying to figure out which century we are in
Please use this voice thread as an opportunity to help parents understand.
http://www.ourschool.ca/parent-workshops-developing-their-21st-century-classroom.html
Hi Al
I have followed with concern and sympathy this closure. Our Grade 5’s have made wikis this last term on early man in Africa and I have chosen NOT to link them to the school web page. However the girls are keen now to use their skills to make their own wikis (mostly for study-sharing possibilities). I understand and share your problems and look forward to positive outcomes for all involved.
Thanks for the update Al. The quotes you’ve included from the ‘vision’ document seem to indicate that the South Australia is embracing ‘the concept’ of evolving tools. We need to share some expertise in assisting this organization and others to realize such visions.
The reality is that around the globe, many classroom bloggers are likely doing so without the guidance, scaffolding, and backup that specific guidelines might provide.
Do we have examples of successfully implemented policies. Links to guidelines, policies, or other existing resources, are still welcome… http://thecleversheep.wetpaint.com/page/Educational+Policy+Development
“If something bad can happen to even one child it shouldn’t be done.”
Um…that leaves out about everything in life.
Sad.
We need to be there with kids when they encounter “bad” things so that we can help them respond appropriately. I would ask that person who is teaching them? How is that keeping them safe? They are bound to be at more risk once they leave us if we try to “protect” them in this way.
Keep the faith, Al.
G’day Al,
It’s interesting to note the range of ‘register’ that people speak in this thread and contrast that with the manner in which they address an audience on almost the same matters in their own blog.
it differs sometimes markedly however if we leave the cynical and helpless comments to the side we can see some amazing things growing here.
I’m really heartened Al that so many people world wide have been taken with your plight and are now offering really constructive comments to help develop an action plan for the manner in which you can proceed doing the brilliant things you do as an admired and respected professional educator.
The idea is I’m sure to extend upon the best examples in a global context that really address the broader implications for using open education (for want of a better term…what does that really mean ?) , with students and learners of all ages.
I know for a fact that the greatest challenge I face as an adult educator in the vocational training sector in Australia is demystifying the benefits of being ‘open’…..that is, using networked technology and letting interaction and connection be king, growing relationships and exploring things inviting others to join and be part of the learning experience.
From my side of the fence I can begin now to see a wonderful garden emerging on your side and before long the gates that have been closed will be again open for the world to transverse the paths of the wonderful creations that have grown under your expert tutorage.
Like Will, I found this comment in update 3 most chilling:
‘If something bad can happen to even one child it shouldn’t be done’
All learning involves risk of some kind. (Think of swimming, rock climbing, biking, or even teaching a baby to walk.) But we watch over them, guide them, care for them and nurture their growth to recognize and manage the potential dangers.
Many teachers in this thread are probably aware of the work the good folks over at pbwiki are doing in collaboration with the global educational community. You can see how they are discussing how to “protect your students online” and are meeting monthly to further the conversation (http://tinyurl.com/38bmg3).
This sounds like such a step backwards. It reminds me of a series of posts from my own blog … 2.5 years ago:
The Fear of Transparency: http://tinyurl.com/35dptk
The Fear of Losing Control: http://tinyurl.com/2rcyto
Distrust Breeds Fear: http://tinyurl.com/2su3vy
I hope the folks from the DECS, particularly the person who made the chilling comment I quoted above joins in this conversation. I think they are well intentioned. But they are doing more harm than good.
Best Wishes to you Al and all the minilegends. Their voices are sadly missed.
Darren Kuropatwa
I feel like this is twitter with Al Upton
The post http://www.ourschool.ca/parent-workshops-developing-their-21st-century-classroom.html created yesterday did not engage folks in a conversation about teaching parents. Thus I created a wiki http://parentaspartners20.wikispaces.com. It is a collection of ideas to help teachers educate parents on the benefits of Web 2.0 tools. Please collaborate with me in creating a depository of ideas to promote yourselves and help remove the barriers you encounter with closed blogs and blocked sites.
Keep at it mate!! You are doing a great job. Unless we address the issues of true learning requiring risk we really will do our students a disservice. Many schools now are minimizing school camping activities for this reason, and it is so sad to see the same thinking being applied to the digital pioneers like yourself and your students.
All the best mate!!
Al,
I am so impressed with how you are handling this challenging situation. I apologize for taking so long to comment here. I think mostly I continue to be shocked that this is really happening, yet at the same time, I am so conscious of being overly cautious because I’ve always been concerned that the backlash would come eventually (I started teaching in Munich, Germany which has very very strict laws about posting information publicly in any format). I’m so sorry that it had to happen to you, especially when you are so clearly doing so many amazing and authentic things with your students.
I’m wondering about the traditional education/parenting analogies that we could use to help explain some these new experiences that students are engaging in – along the lines of your statement above, about teaching students to swim so that they don’t drown. Are there more ideas like this we can compile or demonstrate so that the community as a whole understands that although the tools are new, the concepts and learnings are not?
We do quite a bit of parent PD here and one of the concerns that always comes up is parents feeling like they know less than their children, and therefore they don’t know how to educate them to be safe online. In the end, I always explain it the same way, parents already know everything they need to know, they just need to apply that knowledge in a new situation. We all know not to talk to strangers when we’re walking around in a public place. We should be therefore be able to apply that skill in a virtual, but equally public, place.
Safety online mirrors safety in real life, right? So teaching students to hold scissors by the handle, or to drive a car, or to participate in sports, all involve exactly the same kinds of skills (and risks) as teaching students to participate in an online learning environment – just in a different place.
Keep up the excellent work Al! Whatever happens here will effect all of us, I’m sure.
It was with great joy that I was able to hear the voices of the mini-legends from an old VoiceThread. I showed it to teachers who are interested in promoting student work and building a community of learners.Their drawing and enthusiasm touched all the teachers. Your work is an inspiration to us all.
We look forward to the return of the mini-legends as soon as possible.
New research in the UK reveals that 49% of kids between the ages of 8 and 17 use social networking sites.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2008/04/nr_20080402
Al,
I’ve only recently read about your minilegends site and the associated problems. It’s such a shame that an obviously talented and passionate teacher is being stopped; not to mention your students missing out.
But I also have to say thank you. Thank you for your willingness to be so open about all that is happening. First of all, I admire it. Secondly, it has provided me, and other ‘newbies’ like me out there, with valuable learning.
Good luck. I look forward to seeing minilegends back as soon as possible.
What is best ?
– That students can be educated to blogging in a safe and motivating environment
– Or that they open them self their own blog on whatever free platform and this without any educations/guidelines/control ?
Online life is a “reality”. There are strong benefits and risk there.
As with any topic related to the social life, education (parents AND teachers) is key to get students to understand the risk and the proper behavior.
Looks like as it happens sometimes, when the authorities do not have a “clear understanding and procedure” for something, the first reaction is to go into “panic mode”. Maybe a lack of anticipation here…….
Al, your strength in this moment is inspiring. Take care of yourself, teach your students and savour each day one at a time.
Best wishes,
John
Hi Al and Minis,
I’m sure common sense will prevail and the Minilegends will live again.
We live in a Web 2.0 world, our kids need to learn how to live in that world. This probably is the fight that had to happen and will pave the way with sensible guidelines for the rest of us, preferably before I head back to Oz.
On a personal note, I wish my kids were in your class
Cheers,
Megan Williams
Kuala Lumpur
I had an interesting experience this week that made me think of your situation, Al. I was at a pub quiz which was in aid of a local kindergarten. The pub was packed full of people, many of whom had nothing to do with the kindy ie were not parents or teachers. There were lots of raffle prizes, and with nearly every prize came a kindy calender with photos of the children. So if I was a weirdo, I could pick out which child I fancied and go along to the kindy and…
Your situation has implications that goes way beyond blogging. best wishes, Sarah
New Zealand
No real comment– I just feel sorry to see anyone and any group of kids have to go through an ordeal… Best of luck to you and the minilegends…you all will prevail…
Hi Al,
This blog and idea can be such a great tool for teacher/student/school collaboration. Who knew this would be so hard. As a 22 year-old, I wish that I had this kind of guidance when I was in school.
With the current dangerous aspects of the Internet, this actually is a safe place for kids to go and get guidance from real educators with positive messages.
The Internet is a place where kids can abuse their rights and get into dangerous situations or find safe places where they can exercise their voices in the blogosphere and learn how to trust and express ideas with other writers. This blog is a perfect example of what that can be. I had to learn this myself the ‘hard way’ and was dupped and often times abused in comment forums because I did not have the proper guidance.
Al, I do not know what I can do to express the importance of your project and keeping it alive, I hope your principle is willing to fight for you on this issue.
Best of luck
Vanessa
Hi Minilegends,
I appreciate all the hard work you have put in to ALL your post and best wishes for future achievements! I had some friends from MiniLegends and hope youn keep your spirits high! I will really miss commenting on all your new posts and really miss all your comments back! MrsP and all of the Allstars will really miss you !
With your Blog Cancelld does that mean you can’t comment as well?
Bye
I will really miss you! Have a great future! Mr Upton i hope you and your class keep being HAPPY!
MIkhaila
“Mentors/coaches – any communication between students and adults overseas was strongly advised against. DECS and AEU representatives agree on this”
I find this very disappointing, it takes a (global) village to bring up a child
Keep up the good work Al.
“Mentors/coaches – any communication between students and adults
overseas was strongly advised against. DECS and AEU representatives agree on this”
This is very silly. Surely if DECS and AEU had thought through this
properly, mentors could easily have been vetted and approved etc.
I am a Year 3 teacher in Sydney. Last week I found out that five students in my class have personal email accounts. These are used by the students at home and some students also have pages on Facebook. What concerns me is that none of these students knew not to leave their computer unattended while they were logged into a site with their username nor did they know not to divulge their passwords to anyone else. Why didn’t they know about these simple safety precautions? I have since talked to my class about these issues.
It is important for these tools to be used in class so all aspects of safety and behaviour can be addressed by the teachers. Students must learn to use these tools safely and appropriately because they will be using them at technical college, university and at work.
I’ve been learning about these tools since January this year and have noticed a few issues already. Do we want our children’s prospective future employers to enter their names in Google and find inappropriate content they have left behind on the internet? Do we want our children to meet up with strangers they have met on the internet with whom they have begun an online relationship? If my students were not taught basic online safety at home and teachers are not allowed to teach these important skills at school, how will our children know how to stay safe? Blocking and banning internet doesn’t work – children will find other ways to get online and they’ll do it without the awareness of consequences.
I really think it is more dangerous to keep kids in the dark about their own personal safety. Knowledge and awareness is power. Cotton wool is fluffy.
Just as an aside, I posted a photo of a clay model my eleven year old niece made on ‘the blog weemade’. Her face lit up – she said liked it and what she liked the most were the comments that were left for her. Positive and encouraging comments about her work made her feel great about her work and reinforced her confidence.
Grace
Can anyone share a link to a document where I can learn about the rationale for advising against mentors overseas? I find this so puzzling…
Gladys
Quote “One response ‘If something bad can happen to even one child it shouldn’t be done’ – paraphrased” Unquote.
If that were really the case, there would be no children to worry about, as being born creates harm to some children, many more than one.
Children have to be allowed to learn in a supported environment in order to develop into confident and capable members of their society.
I hope the news on the MiniLegends in the future will be much more forward thinking.
“Almost three dozen students at Luther Burbank High School are communicating via the Internet with 200 other students across the globe who, like them, are learning English as a second language.”
http://www.sacbee.com/220/story/846880.html
“ESL/EFL teachers from seven countries (Kuwait, Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Sudan, Hungary, and Romania) have brought our classes together online to correspond and to develop joint projects. You can see some of the first efforts by our students in their introductory slideshows, VoiceThreads, animated movies and videos at our Student Showcase. ”
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/26/eslefl-sister-classes-project/
Better close this one down too!
Bertolt Brecht noted that after the Church showed Galileo the instruments of torture then subsequently scientific development in Italy languished for decades, perhaps even for hundreds of years.
It took the Church 400 years to apologise to Galileo.
Hey Al and the minis, so interesting to read all these comments, particularly from the minis and their parents. Has inspired me to get back into it. Will keep watching and supporting from afar.
Regards,
Alex
I think maybe the “one thing bad” could easily have been … DECS closure of a realistic learning experience in the hands of a passionate educator.
Re Gladys Baya’s comment of April 11: Child Protection laws in Australian states usually require that all teachers, teachers’ aides and other people working with, or in proximity to, children and young people in schools undergo a police check. I guess it’s impossible to standardize such a check for short-term, online, volunteer adult mentors living overseas.
It is increible to see how much this helps students. I have learned so much from this exercise (I myself am a student). It really hits me why the authoritites would take away such a big opportunity from these students.
http://www.antodebedout.edublogs.org
Hi! I am Nathaly, from Ms. Rumford’s class. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments specially the ones that expressed the miniLegends’. I would really like to know what you think about freedom of speech, because I don’t know if you read my blog, but I think that is a good way to communicate but can also be very easy to make a mistake. This is because people form very diverse cultures can visit your blog, and you can be hurtful without even knowing it. I think the fear of this shouldn’t stop us though. Blogging is a fascinating way to share your thoughts and read what people think about them. It is also a good way to connect with people from all over the world and see what THEY have to say. I really look forward to connecting with the miniLegends. If you are interested in reading about my passion for the 1960s and people that were active throughout it, check out my blog!
http://nathauribe.edublogs.org/
If you like it, Katie’s blog might also interest you since she writes much about other countries and cultures. Check out http://chompie.edublogs.org/
Dude I would feel so bad if I had to shut down my blog. I feel really bad for your minilegends and I know that blogs and blogging and the internet and stuff is all a really good oppurtunity to learn, if they are used safely. It would be a great way to teach them to be safe. That’s too bad that you had to shut them down. Too bad.
Check my blog: http://zincskateteam.edublogs.org/
I think that they had to take a decision and in order to be safer they chose to close it down, they coulda done other things though, or contacted you when they saw things that weren’t “safe”.
Daisuke-from Costa Rica Rumford Writers
I believe that this shutdown was not necessary. The DECS should have thought of other alternatives to investigate the site. The internet, in particular is an excellent learning environment for the children living in this age. Without the correct use of the open world, the children will face strong consequences afterwards. By using the blogs and wikis, students would be able to learn the skills necessary to protect their identities and use the internet wisely. Nowadays, many kids have their own email accounts which is really terrifying since they may use it inappropiately. Recently, our teacher had told us that the wrong use of these email accounts are creating certain kinds of problem that people before the internet age couldn’t think of. Some childs don’t have the sufficient knowledge to control their own accounts. These kids could go to internet and just log in without signing off aferwards. This information could easily be read by third party people who have nothing to do with the actual child. For this reason, I believe that by applying the extensive availability of the blogs, these problems could be solved. Why using this in education? Teachers, in my opinion should teach all the required abilities that are needed in the adulthood. Teachers are here to help us and get us ready for the future. Without the use of the internet type of education, what would happen to us after graduating. We would simply live in this terrifying outside world that we have no idea on how to live. In order to succesfully live in a safe way, children should learn the skills required in the internet world. The DECS should have identified the importance of the application of blogs in the current 21st century education.
Daisuke Papipupipu from http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org
rumford writers at rumfordwriters.edublogs.org
Hello, I am a student/blogger at Country Day School in San Jose, Costa Rica. After reading your post about the closure of the blog, I instantly became sad because of the really nice technological education that you have been providing to your MiniLegends that has been shut down. I believe that your closure of the blog was because of student identity? Well, I think that the closure of the blog should have been avoided but I think that the DECS should have given you a warning. Although I know that in real life, sometimes warnings are not acceptable, this student identity problem shouldn’t have caused a major effect such as the closure of the blog. Fortunately as you mentioned, the blog is temporarily closed so I, crazykid(my username/identity), hope that your blog re-opens as soon as possible. I also really hope that you continue your excellent technological education to your MiniLegends.
-I recall that you have visited my blog however, I hope you continue to visit now and then and see if my blog has anything that may interest you.
http://www.crazykid.edublogs.org
Greetings from the UK!
This has gone on long enough! Is it not time that we had some constructive feedback from the authorities?
It is obvious that this is not a local or even a national issue, but an international issue. Whether mistakes have been made or not is not the main concern. Surely we should have had some interim report by now that responsible people throughout the world can consider?
Whatever the outcome, the world is waiting. Certainly, here in the UK any wise and constructive policy suggestions would be carefully considered by teachers’ associations etc.
Best Wishes,
Ray T. (PS As a support teacher I have been Police-checked and the Australian authorities are free to check my UK credentials if they wish!)
Hey! I’m Natalie, a student at the Country Day School in San Jose, Costa Rica. Ms. Rumford told us that you had taken the time to read our blogs, so I started to read yours. I find it very unfortunate that they had to close this blog. I haven’t been blogging for that long, but so far the experience has been very fun, interesting, and satisfying. Being able to express myself is probably one of the most important things to me, and having this opportunity taken away from the MiniLegends is sad. Although it seems unfair, it can also be a lesson for your students that the internet is not a safe place, and the things they put on their blogs and what they write should be appropriate information. Hopefully, this blog will reopen, and I would really like to connect with your MiniLegends.
If you would like to read my blog (it’s about my music passion, but there are other things in there that I’ve shared my feelings about) it’s”
http://nat194.edublogs.org
Looking forward to blogging with you!
G’day Al, I’ve only just tuned into the issue from Baku, Azerbaijan, where I’m at an international school.
The issue is obviously at the cutting edge of finding an agreement on the issue, but I fear there will never be agreement as the lenses worn are fundamentally different. Lack of agreement means no blogging. Sadly, as you’ve pointed out, no blogging at school, which presumably is seen to relieve the Dept’s liability, may well increase the possibility of child abuse occurring from internet usage at home. If any abuse of a child could be shown to have been more likely because of this, ironically it puts the Dept at risk of litigation.
I look forward to reading the set of conditions that is established to allow the blogging to recommence.
Leigh Newton
Good to see your still in the ‘A’ list – http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/school_theme_pages/pid/542
Thanks for being an innovator and doing so much that educators from all around the world are learning from. The length of this investigation is quite extraordinary and as a Queensland teacher who is just starting out with blogging, I eagerly await any sign of resolution, policy, and the resumptive tap, tap, tapping of the Minilegends.
Hi my name is Isa and I love in Costa Rica and my blog is a part of a class activity of my English class. It is very similar to what you did with your class so I feel simpathetic to what happened to you blog and I really hope it all gets better. I am amazed by how optimistic you are about all this and I feel like we should all learn from this and be able to handle situations like these the way you do. Even though we all have the right of freedom of speech, it clear that we some boundaries to that freedom and we should be warned of these boundaries. I am sad that you and your students weren’t given these warnings and that your blogs were so suddenly closed. To be able to express yourselfs however you want is something very special and these blogs allow other people to appreciate your writing. I think that it is very helpful for you that people all over the world are interested in your situation and are supportive. If you are interested in my blog, it s isapp.edublogs.org.
[...] that will enable his online collaborative projects to continue! The long list of supportive comments from his readers and fellow educators, plus student bloggers the world over, has been preserved for [...]
[...] mini-legends blogging program was halted by the South Australian Education department, to a howl of protest. This experience reminds me most of the Japanese Story analogy – where a very “out there” [...]
[...] influential blog post: Order For Closure – Al Upton & The MiniLegends (What other post gathered 271 posts and created such a ripple in the edublogosphere this [...]
[...] Most influential blog post 272 comments and counting – the closure of Al Upton’s mini legends’ blogs provoked a worldwide response http://alupton.edublogs.org/order-for-closure/ [...]
[...] 5. Most influential blog post – Al Upton’s Order for Closure [...]
[...] Upton’s Order for Closure in the Most Influential Blog Post [...]
[...] Upton’s amazing post – Order for Closure at and the important debate it generated in the Most Influential Post [...]
[...] Order for Closure [...]
Hi you wonderful people who have followed the closure of ‘Al Upton and the minilegends’ class blog debate. I thank everyone who have partcipated in this huge dialogue and contributed in so many ways and initiated the various actions that have taken place. This post is up for a ‘Most Influential Post’ Edublog award. I hope many of you will consider voting for it (and the kids’ blog/s) as it really has had considerable impact and influence. My main interest in the award is being able to hold it up high in front of the minilegends and the world to see. What a powerful acknowledgement for all that has passed and will be. The 2009 miniLegends will be a strong reinvigorated force believe me
Please go to this post for more details http://alupton.edublogs.org/edublog-nominations-for-bouncing-around-the-world/
Cheers, Al
Hi Al – just spent some time re-trawling this – still gobsmacked a year on quite frankly.
Lets put every one on the planet in a bubble – we might stub a toe
onwards and upwards mate – keep at it – worth the effort
bother – wrong email addy – sorry
[...] elearning action hero President-elect Barack Obama The truth is Out There The New Digital Divide? Order for Closure Getting our Knickers in a twist? The Macgyver Project: Genomic Dna Extraction And Gel [...]
lol love the competition we have (in comment/ping 281) – “elearning action hero President-elect barack Obama” .. I hope its not the name or the influence of the man himself that people will take into account when voting
see my comment (278) for more Cheers, Al
Hi, I’m the mother of a former student in Al’s 2007 class and a friend to many of the mothers in Al’s 2008 class. I have heard the debate from both sides and acknowledge the sensitivity of the issue. As mothers we are so protective of our children, understandably, that we somethimes do all the wrong things, for all the right reasons. These are good people looking out for their kid’s welfare, however, times change and we need time as parents to adapt to the rapidly changing technological world.
I think Al put it best in his opening paragraph, quoted below:-
“Let’s embrace this as an opportunity to promote the value of blogs and online learning generally. There is no benefit in looking for blame here, there is enormous value and potential in celebrating our voices.” And later when we when we wrote: -
“I thank those who set this whole thing in motion. You have unwittingly raised the issue ‘How do we raise our children – through fear or education?’”
After being in Al’s class in 2007 my daughter came to me and told me I was not looking out for her on-line safety, as I had no filters or passwords on my home computer. I asked her to show me how to protect her? And she was able to! Pretty cool for a 9 year old.
I want my children safe when they are on the computer, but truth be known, I’m not capable of providing that protection.
In 2009 I’m lucky enough to have my son is in Al’s class, and after all the controversy, I’m looking forward to a a wonderful year, where the Minilegends will prosper from all the wonderful debate that has occurred since 14 March 2008.
miniMum, Adelaide
[...] (and who also took third place in the new blogger category). Congratulations to Al Upton who’s Order for Closure post won in this category. I just want to state for the record that should Al be unable to perform [...]
[...] Order for Closure [...]
[...] Order for Closure [...]
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[...] Order for Closure [...]
[...] Order for Closure [...]
[...] Order for Closure [...]
[...] elearning action hero President-elect Barack Obama The truth is Out There The New Digital Divide? Order for Closure Getting our Knickers in a twist? The Macgyver Project: Genomic Dna Extraction And Gel [...]
This is probably a lesson learnt too early for the minis,
- life is unfair
- adults can behave stupidly
- that a life ruled by fear is no life at all
This attribute is included in the IB learner profile (my school teaches PYP and MYP) –
Risk-takers
They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.
The knee-jerks in DECS should be ashamed of themselves.
Oh good lord. It’s a sad world we live in, really. I think it’s admirable what you’re doing with your kids online. We’re meant to be bringing children into the world to be self-sufficient and intelligent individuals who can function in society. The Internet is becoming increasingly ’staple’ in society as we know it. Well done for your perseverance!
[...] Al Upton. Order for Closure http://alupton.edublogs.org/order-for-closure/ [...]
hey al hows it going