Comments on: Hiding behind privacy concerns?

By: FERPA

FERPA — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:02:15 +0000

I like the way the article is been organised with such important information, i would like to thank the author for the posting.

By: Jon Becker

Jon Becker — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:47:47 +0000

Those fax machines can be cheeky.

By: Charlie Roy

Charlie Roy — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:42:56 +0000

Sometimes the excuse of privacy helps people who are change averse justify their stagnation. I hear the security concerns all the time from administrators who don’t want to change. I always share with them my fear of being sexually harassed by the fax machine.

By: Jon Becker

Jon Becker — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:28:19 +0000

That’s a good point, and I agree, Dave. I think the real concern here, however, is about students publishing work products to the Web. And, to John Hendron’s point, I don’t know if students can “waive” their FERPA rights by publishing something to the Web and opening it to the public. This school law professor needs to look that up…

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:22:59 +0000

The truth is, if you have teachers posting things they shouldn’t, then you’ve got a much larger problem. If we are trusting teachers to teach and interact with students, then we have to be able to trust them to use the Internet responsibly.

Blocking any site that a teacher could possibly misuse only punishes teachers who would use those sites effectively and appropriately to teach. Teachers who are going to misuse websites will always find a way to do it.

By: Harold Shaw

Harold Shaw — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:21:41 +0000

Jon – The students might be able to talk with one another without teacher supervision and plot to overthrow the school if they aren’t blocked out of google docs. (tongue in cheek humor) I was lucky and the It types are more reasonable where I teach (thank you Luke & Craig) But it is simply about who has the power and control, not about good pedagogy or allowing professionals (us teachers) to use the appropriate tools to ensure that our students are prepared for their future.
Harold

By: John Hendron

John Hendron — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:43:06 +0000

The reason given (excuse) sounds like a generic boilerplate answer. I’m not the school law professor, but don’t the kids have the (copy)right to their own work done in school?

We have begun investigating and using Google Apps for Education. I haven’t tested or found out what kind of control I might have as an administrator over student accounts.

At any rate, I wrote on a similar topic as I was leaving work today.

While this doesn’t address the larger concern I mention myself, if I was in that school district, I’d ask the IT department:

“Who is this filter for? Me? Or the kids?”

By: Jon Becker

Jon Becker — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:45:50 +0000

I wouldn’t be surprised if WikiSpaces is blocked too. I couldn’t access my Bloglines account there either. How would I learn if I were an employee there?

By: Robert Rowe

Robert Rowe — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:28:42 +0000

Is there any difference between students using Google Docs and using WikiSpaces? Thankfully, our Intermediate Unit (who controls our filters) allows Google Docs, and I’ve been suggesting it’s use more and more recently.
Our Disney trip itinerary (for the music dept) has been emailed, edited, emailed, edited, email…bah! You get the point. How nice would it be to give the directors and travel agents all the invite to contribute to the Google Doc!
There is a better way.