5 Similes

How can teachers use technology in their classrooms when their access to it is so restricted?!

It's like asking a bricklayer to build a house with a $0 brick budget.

It's like criticizing a baker's bland cookies when he has a 1/2 cup sugar ration.

It's like making a race car driver jog the Daytona 500.

It's like auditioning for the philharmonic with a kazoo.

It's like eating spaghetti with chopsticks.

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Internet Filtering - Restriction or Protection?

I still believe we should be teaching Internet responsibility and digital citizenship to our students instead of trying to hide all the bad things behind a big iron curtain. But the fact remains that the Internet is a complex and sometimes seedy beast. It’s easy to forget that fact when search results for well-intentioned lesson plans get blocked, or when you watch students spend a period trying to sneak their way onto a gaming website. This is when the frustrated teacher throws his/her hands in the air and declares the filter to be the work of the devil. But for every game blocked, that filtering software is also blocking potential predators, unsavory images, and God knows what else.

I was thinking about this more over the weekend while flipping through the Black Friday edition of The Buffalo News. There were two stories on the front page of the City and Region section that highlighted someone using the Internet. One was about a Michigan man using a Genealogy website to find his long-lost birthmother. The other was about a local filmmaker getting arrested for having downloaded more than 1300 child-porn images. These articles create an interesting juxtaposition.

So what’s the answer? Is it to open the floodgates and hope no one gets swept away in the current? Is it to turn off the lights and sit in darkness? Perhaps it’s a bit of both, but where to draw the line is as big (if not bigger) or a question that whether filtering is needed in the first place.

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Is it Possible for Teachers to Have an Anonymous Online Life?

A colleague came to me this morning asking if some of our students had tried friending me on Facebook; she had three requests last night.

Earlier this year, a few giggling kids approached me to ask about something I had posted on my Twitter account. They had found it while Googling the names of their teachers.

Even this blog has been discovered by inquisitive students who spotted its title in my list of favorites.

Is the concept of online anonymity gone? Is it a myth – something people claim to have, but can’t confirm (like spotting a Sasquatch, Chupacabra, or the Loch Ness monster)? Are we experiencing the 21st century equivalent of looking up a teacher’s phone number in the white pages and pranking the daylights out of him/her?

The optimist would say that this issue can be resolved by becoming completely transparent. Share everything; show you have nothing to hide. This does have some merits, like sharing your blog with students so they can see firsthand the rewards of writing for pleasure. But all it takes is one comment, taken out of context, and there’s a problem.

But shutting everything down and denying the existence of a web footprint is just as incriminating for a teacher. If you don’t want kids to know something, it’s probably bad, right? Maybe, maybe not – but that’s how the adolescent mind works.

So how do teachers deal with a loss of online anonymity?

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Keeper of the Light

There once was a village located on a small tropical island. Long ago, the village had decided that it needed a lighthouse to protect them from the dangerous seas that surrounded their island. After building the structure, a keeper was called in from the mainland who was said to be knowledgeable on the subject of dispersing light. The villagers didn't like the idea of the lighthouse keeper looming over them from atop his tower, but it seemed like a necessary evil to keep them protected.

At first, the lighthouse keeper did his job well. Whenever a ship approached the island, he quickly shone the light on the approaching vessel. If it was a passenger or cargo ship, the keeper guided it safely to port. There were also rare occasions when a vessel appeared that was of ill intent – a pirate ship, for example. In these cases, the lighthouse keeper turned off the mighty globe and the ship was forced to turn away or risk splintering on the jagged reefs surrounding the island.

One night, the keeper leaned over the railing at the top of the lighthouse and peered down on the village (Incidentally, the villagers hated when the keeper walked the light deck because it cast his long shadow over the entire island, which is a pretty obvious metaphor for oppression). It was late at night, and most of the villagers were sleeping – all but the village scholar who was busy studying a new leather-bound manuscript he had recently received. His window was illuminated from the candles he was using to read by.

The lighthouse keeper was furious. It was his job to keep the island safe, and he felt that this light could spell disaster. What if a pirate ship were to see the light from the scholar's window? He made the decision to force the scholar to extinguish his candles. The next time the merchant ship carrying manuscripts and other scholarly things approached the island, the lighthouse keeper turned off his light, and it crashed into the coral reefs.

The next night the keeper again looked over the railing and spotted a glow coming from a window far below. This time it was the village baker. His oven was glowing from the fire that baked breads and pastries for the villagers.

Again the lighthouse keeper was furious. So from then on, the light was extinguished for any vessel carrying food supplies.

The following night, the lighthouse keeper felt confident that he would be met by darkness when he peered over the railing of his tower. Instead, he again saw a light, like a bright beacon coming from one of the villagers windows. It was the chemist, who was mixing chemicals that caused small explosions and bursts of light.

So his supply of chemicals, too, were sunk to the bottom of the reef at the hand of the keeper.

Each night, the keeper spotted a new light shining from below his tower. And with each one, he vowed to turn away another ship from the island. Soon the island was completely cut off from the outside world.

And it was all because of the lighthouse keeper.

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Damming the River

Due to stringent district policies, many useful sites such as Youtube, Delicious, and Twitter are being blocked from use during school hours. I wanted to write a blog post about how increasingly difficult it is to participate in digital learning from school. I wrote this story instead.

Damming the River

There once was a village that was built along the shores of a mighty river. The townspeople loved the river, and spent much time rejoicing over it.

“I use the swift current to travel quickly to other villages,” said the trader.

“The river irrigates my crops,” exclaimed the farmer, “and its power operates the water wheel on the grain mill!”

“We love to fish and skip rocks and swim,” cheered the children.

Everyone was happy with the river. Until one day when a young child waded too deep and was swept away. The villagers didn't know what to do. They realized that the river that provided them with so many valuable things could also be very dangerous.

One day, the mayor of the town gathered all the people into the village square and declared that he had a solution.

“My good people,” he began, “It is clear that something must be done with our mighty river to protect us from its dangers. We will build a dam and stop the water from sweeping away any more of our children.”

“But what about those of us who benefit from the river?” called the trader.

“We must protect our children,” reminded the mayor.

“Perhaps we could educate the children on staying safe while playing around the river,” suggested the town scholar. “This way the children will be safe, but everyone else will still be able to harness the power of the river. “

“That just won't do,” responded the mayor. “The children simply can't be trusted. And besides, would any of you want to be held responsible if another child were to be swept away?”

The townspeople looked at each other uncomfortably. Didn't they have enough responsibility in the village already, without having to worry about educating the children on the dangers of the river?

The farmer hesitated slightly, and stepped forward from the crowd. “I guess your solution will have to do,” he said to the mayor. “But who will decide how tall to build the dam and how much water will be allowed to pass through?

“I will,” replied the mayor. And there was no more discussion on the matter.

The dam was built and no more children were swept down the river. In fact, hardly anything swept down the river now because the dam had reduced it to nothing more than a lazy stream trickling through the village. The mayor looked down through his office window (the mayor's office was atop the tallest tower in the village so that he could observe everything with one sweeping glance) and smiled with satisfaction. But as he leaned out the window to get a better view of the village below, he heard a faint murmur. It sounded like the townspeople were upset. The mayor called the villagers back to the town square for another meeting.

“My good people, I have saved your children from certain death caused by the river. Why are you not happy?”

“There is not enough water to grow my crops,” muttered the farmer.

“And without the river,” added the trader, “I have no way of communicating with other villages. I can't sell my wares!”

“Excuse me, Mayor?” A boy stepped forward from the group. “I miss fishing and skipping rocks, and playing in the river. Only one child was swept away, and it was because he was careless. Why should we lose all the positive things the river has to offer because of one poor choice?”

The mayor did not have a good response to any of these concerns. “It is for the good of everyone,” he said, trying to reassure the townspeople. And there was no more discussion on the matter.

If you enjoyed my analogy, feel free to forward the link. You can also download the story in pdf format, here.

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