The issue of Al Upton’s “Mini Legends” blog closure by DECS has been well followed on the edublogs. The total ability to understand what Al was doing with the technology by bureaucrats at higher level is by no mens new, but Al’s case has certainly highlighted the failings.
This morning Sue Waters posted an update of progress on this issue on her own edublog.
Here are a few quotes from her detailed post
Al Upton and his Principal meet today with representatives from DECS (Department of Education and Children Services) and AEU (Australian Education Union) to discuss the report prepared by DECS Special Investigations and what needs to be done to get the Al’s students blogs back online.
From the meeting a series of issues was raised that included:
- Any communication between students and adults overseas was strongly advised against by both DECS and AEU representatives. Appears there were also concerns with even the idea of closed collaboration with classes in different countries
- Student identifiers e.g. photos/names/maps etc are a concern/risk. Student photos can be manipulated. Recommendations were that these need to be reduced as much as possible.
- Parental consent forms need to reviewed and reissued with a range of options for use of student images or avatars
- Individual student blogs were questioned with a general indication of that not being a good idea
So it is good to see that while the process is certainly not complete, there has been some positive movement to try and get this fabulous blog back online.
For the full post by Sue click here and please make sure you post on Al’s blog and provide your support. This I believe will effect all educators using Web2.0 tools and I am hoping we can set a positive precedent through this process.
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This post is tagged Al Upton, blocking, blog, DECS, mini legends
4 Comments
I hate this wishy washy language they use to give guidance…
“…strongly advised against…”
“… are a concern…”
“… reduced as much as possible.”
“… a range of options for use of student images or avatars”
“… a general indication of that not being a good idea”
I’m still none the wiser. If I was Al, or any teacher wanting to do blogging with my kids, I’d be ticked off that after all the crap I’ve just been through with DECS, having my students work pulled offline because it didn’t meet their high expectations for security and safety, and that there were bugger-all guidelines in place to meet in the first place, these new “recommendations” are just as vague.
I need to know… can I blog with kids or can’t I? Simple as that.
To be “strongly advised” and told to “reduce as much as possible” and that there is a “general indication” of it not being a good idea is just a total joke. In other words, “we’re not sure what to tell you, so use your judgement”, which is what he did to start with.
In the absence of guidelines to start with, Al ran the project well using a good deal of common sense and professional judgement. He was canned for crossing a line that never clearly existed in the first place and now that line has been formally issued with almost as little clarity as it had in the first place.
What a joke. The authorities have left these new “rules” full of gray areas, lots of ambiguity and no real directives one way or the other… which is exactly what they started with.
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They “gray” is just a way of attempting to absolve responsibility without actually taking action..especially in this case action that may be unpopular.
But we all work in education, bureaucracy of this kind should be a stranger to no-one here.
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Exactly. Drives me crazy.
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