Beyond School

…the USA is so free?

More from Save the Internet dot com (and watch the comments for the corporate lobbyists’ responses - they’re apparently paid to find posts like this, hit reply, and leave a tossed salad of obfuscations, red herrings, and straw men. Logic and debate teachers, help yourself to this real-world example.

I’d apologize about being political, but gee, doesn’t democracy sort of demand it? Anyway, my future as a teacher using web 2.0 sort of requires that web 2.0 stays around. Free citizen radio didn’t a century ago - and corporate history is trying to repeat itself.

Here’s the latest from Save the Internet:

Dear Clay,

Tell Congress: Stop the Gatekeepers

You’ve probably heard that Verizon censored text messages sent by the pro-choice group NARAL. They claim it was a glitch. And they feel really, really bad about it.

Sorry, Verizon. That’s not good enough. This is just the latest example in the long list of phone company efforts to block, filter or interfere with the free flow of information over 21st century communications networks.

Take Action: Protect Free Speech Everywhere!

In August, AT&T censored a live webcast of a Pearl Jam concert just as lead singer Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush. AT&T said it was a glitch.

Both Verizon and AT&T illegally handed over private customer phone records to the National Security Agency. The phone companies first denied it and then started a secret campaign with the White House to gain immunity from any lawsuits.

This pattern of abuse shows that powerful phone companies cannot be trusted to safeguard our basic freedoms. The democratic principles of free speech and open communication are too important to be entrusted to corporate gatekeepers. Whether it’s liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, pro-choice or pro-gun, the phone companies can’t pick and choose what messages get through.

Censorship by AT&T and Verizon shows us what we can expect in a future where these network gatekeepers gain control over the free flow of information. Congress must reaffirm its commitment to free speech on the Internet, on cell phones, on our airwaves — everywhere!

Tell Congress: Stop the Gatekeepers

We’ve had it with phony apologies from phone companies. Congress must act now to protect free speech and the free flow of information.

Thank you for all that you do,

Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net

1. Spread the word. Tell your friends about this important campaign.

2. Support our work by contributing to the Free Press Action Fund today.

3. See what people are saying about Verizon’s recent efforts to block text messaging at the Free Press Action Network and SavetheInternet.com.

4. Read about AT&T’s efforts to cover its tracks after blocking a Pearl Jam live concert webcast and the latest on the phone companies’ secret campaign to stay above the law.

Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/verizon/forward

If you received this message from a friend, you can click here to become a Free Press activist.

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I’m in Korea, and so out of the loop about much of American culture. Maybe you’ve already heard about the Yes Men, but they’re new to me - and they’ve blown me away.

If you’re a regular reader, you may know that I’m a huge fan of satire, especially that of Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Both of these masters, if they were alive today, would surely marvel at what the Yes Men are doing with satire, identity, websites, YouTube, filmmaking, and the mainstream media. They’ve fooled Exxon, the BBC, the WTO, Dow Chemical, and more. Unbelievable.

Here’s how YouTube describes them in its blurb about the following clip from a Bill Moyers interview:

Bill Moyers interview with Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, two impersonators who use satire to make serious points about media consolidation, journalism, business ethics and separating fact from fiction in a world of spin.

And here’s the video itself:

Here’s part 2:

The full interview is at Moyers’ site. And don’t miss the Yes Men’s own website, with links to some of their wizardry.

Yes, it opens up all sorts of ethics questions. But so do the targets of their assaults - which are never themselves questioned by the mainstream news.

Fascinating. I’m seeing some adaptations for a satire unit this year in my classroom.

Cooler still - in reality, these guys are both, you guessed it: teachers.

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An interesting issue: A student posts a reflective entry including YouTube video on a class history blog. The video creator is an anti-Semitic apologist for Germany in WW II. The student wrote two remarks that offended him. First,

Today, there are still some racists believing in anti-Semitism just like Hitler. We cannot say they are wrong but we need to be aware of resources they make. Don’t be brainwashed by them! We really should have our own thoughts towards Hitler.

And second,

A video clip that shows about a racist idea towards Hitler. It makes me sick. If you look at the comments, it’s so funny.

Two comments from the videomaker have popped up recently that sent a bit of a chill up my spine. The first came last week:

what the [expletive deleted] you, using my video just for an attack.

Since school is out and this blog is now an “artifact” anyway, I experimented a bit when I saw the comment. I wrote,

[note from the moderator: the above message would have been deleted for its language and lack of any substantive ideas, but since said author claims it’s “his” video, maybe the conversation can move in interesting directions. Mr. “[Name],” if you would limit your profanities, it would be appreciated.]

The author responded with this second comment today:

Alright, you know people have there limits but this is extremely unacceptable for this attack on me and my video.

So much for “interesting directions.” I made the blog post itself “private” after this one. The student had actually written a preface saying “Don’t read this until I fix it” anyway, so I don’t feel unjustified.

[Update: You know, the second comment is so ambiguous, maybe the guy is trying to admit he shouldn't have cursed. Also, his opinion is justified. The student was uncivil and ad hominem in the remarks above. It all goes back, for both of them, to clear and civil writing, in a way. Interesting.]

But to me, this clearly raises some interesting issues about classroom blogging. I’d really appreciate feedback to help make some policy decisions before school starts again next month. Here are the issues I see:

1. The student’s innocent embedding of a neo-Hitlerian video from YouTube created a “teachable moment” about information literacy, source evaluation, and the ubiquity of the Holocaust revisionist movement on the internet. How would you have dealt with it?

2. Ping-backs are enabled on the blog to foster that “real-world connectivity” we value so much as adult bloggers. The rationale is, if students are linking to other content-creators interested in similar subjects, those pings will show up on their Technorati accounts or elsewhere, and potentially invite them to join the conversation. But here’s an example of it getting uncomfortable. Would you disable pings to avoid disturbing possibilities like the one above, or use a different approach? What approach would that be?

3. Free speech issues and “teaching the controversy.” How would you deal with comments from people in the world with unpopular points of view on your classroom blogs?

4. Moderation. Any teacher who has actually done classroom blogging will tell you that moderating before publishing is an enormously time-consuming task. But to not moderate before publication invites incidents like this. So what’s the solution?

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Pageflakes - your free student and teacher start page

• I am a complete idiot for not reading Will Richardson religiously. Pageflakes for students and teachers is powerful stuff.
  - post by cburell

Weblogg-ed » Using Pageflakes as Student Portal

• A gem from Will Richardson on classroom use of Pageflakes. I see a migration coming.
  - post by cburell

Extracurricular :: For technologists who do their homework : July 2007 : THE Journal

• From the article:

  The benefits of integrating technology into K-12 education are being demonstrated nationwide. Here is an illustration of the quantitative impact Texas’ Technology Immersion Pilot has had on the Floydada Independent School District. - post by cburell

Borderland » Blog Archive » Teaching the Controversy

• Note the “habits of mind” approach to ‘teaching the controversy” instead of “indoctrinating.”
  - post by cburell

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[Update: Ouch, that title bit me when I revisited this post after moving more boxes into my new apartment. I want to make it so clear (and try to below) that, as I've said before, I admire Karl immensely. Not only is he brilliant, he's also one of the few giants in this field who did more than look on with interest when I was trying to turn the 1001 Flat World Tales idea into a flat classroom reality. He helped turn "talk to action," to quote one of my favorite blogs, by lining me up with Michele in Denver, my first flat classroom collaborative partner. Quite possibly, that project would have remained an idea without Karl's contribution.

So the focus here is on ideas, and on extending them. To allude to "Did You Know?" is just shorthand - and I know that Karl knows that it's more than just economics. I hope the post below makes it clear that this is about ideas, and about one more unintended consequence of the dizzying effects Karl's "viral" video.]

Diane posts a thoughtful extension of the “student voices” conversation taking place (and here) lately on her new-ish (and worthwhile) blog, Journeys. She starts with this definition of “student voice” from Wikipedia:

“the individual and collective perspective and actions of young people within the context of learning and education.”

After summarizing the conversation amongst Karl Fisch, me, Scott Schwister, and Carolyn Foote, Diane reflects:

All of these conversations have led me to reconsider some of my plans and strategies for next school year. I had intended to encourage students in my class to share their projects with our Board of Education, both to demonstrate what they’ve accomplished and to advocate for more technology tools being made available in the district. But if I, as teacher, choose what they present, is this truly “student voice”? Should I let them decide what to request and how to do so?

Diane then closes with one very pregnant, very relevant (my new shibboleth for education) quote from Piaget:

The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.

Diane concludes, “Our students need to find their voice, and we need to learn how to listen to it.”

I left a lengthy comment on Diane’s post that readers on aggregators won’t see on my CoComment widget, so I’m going to paste it here (I’m getting more and more frustrated with this and other shortcomings of blogging). It concerns the proper role of teachers and educators in relation to “student voices,” and argues that “student voices” are, without teachers as “futurist guides,” simply the voices of the status quo cultural forces, and the opposite of what Piaget envisions. Here it is:

What jumps out at me in your post are, first, the inclusion of the word actions in the Wikipedia definition of “student voice.” I’m currently ambivalent about creating more blog-talkers as the ultimate goal of this initiative. Talking and writing aren’t enough, though schools typically seem to think so. No wonder citizenship is dead. We have to change that.

The second thing is your closing quote by Piaget. The next generation, which we’re teaching now to be replicants of our own problematic lifestyles, are damned if they’re not equipped - or even conscious of - the world of their future. It’s been said a million times: “Our past is not their future.”

The one wrinkle I see in letting students decide what to present is this: they are only aware of what their community - parents, teachers, preachers - make them aware of. And that community is generally not cognizant of the shape of the future, busy as it is with its own daily round and daily diet of soft news.

So I still see a role for adult educators to serve as sort of “futurist guides” to the next generation of adults.

Karl Fisch is already an example of someone playing that role, however unintentionally, by virtue of the viral reach of his “Did You Know?” video. According to that vision, largely a condensation of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, the future to prepare for is one of economic competition with China and India.

But there’s more to our young people’s future than economics - especially when most of those economic practices are unsustainable. All this talk about “21st century workplace skills” disturbs me to no end for its trancelike oblivion to the unsustainability of that workplace.

Friedman actually mentions “green innovation” as one of those skills, incidentally, but that’s not mentioned in “Did You Know?”, so educators are largely not thinking of it. This isn’t Karl’s fault, since that video wasn’t intended to be anything more than a district edtech professional development presentation. But it’s taken a life of its own, and educators are so wowed by the flash of the animation they don’t seem to think beyond it to what else awaits in the future.

There are other futures we need to alert this generation to that are more fundamental, in my view. Global Warming and Climate Change, combined with the Peak Oil situation, top the list.

If we adults don’t use our capacity for being more informed, beyond the media, about the future we’re creating for our young, they have nobody to educate them in what is relevant to their future. We’ve surrendered our role to the larger forces of culture and media that are stuck in the status quo.

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