Open Submission Web SItes

Although web sites like Creative Commons have some very positive aspects to what they try to bring to bring to the internet, there is a very ugly side to their existence. It is not the fault of Creative Commons, but it is the reality of a site where people can post material of their own choosing. A significant number of the ads and the submissions that are not appropriate for use in the school environment. My first time in to Creative Commons, I saw advertisements for topics ranging from penis enlargement to online dating. No matter how good the core content is, exposure to such unrestricted material means that I can not bring sites of this type into my classroom to use with my students.
I also had concerns with the content of some of the submissions that I found on the site. Again, the concern is not with Creative Commons, but with the content of the pieces being submitted. There is no way that the site can be opened to my students. I realize the site can still be used by me to download pieces to use in class, but the downloads would have to be done at home as the site would never meet the use policies of my school district. I also do not want to be responsible for the approval of different pieces that get used.
I do wonder that Creative Commons does not have a policy on what is acceptable. Many sites like United Streaming and even Facebook have some fairly serious penalties with respect to the acceptability of content. For my purposes as an educator, I prefer to stick to sites that I know to contain student friendly content. The things that the internet community considers to be acceptable online do not meet my standards as an educator.

New Paradigm for Copyrights at Creative Commons

I decided to break my post for the week into two separate pieces. Although not original, I will refer to these posts as the Good and the Ugly of Creative Commons. I would like to start with the Good though as the intent of Creative Commons is incredible. Data rights and copyright issues have always been an issue for me. In my Air Force career, we always had to be sure who retained what rights to software and what licenses were valid or not valid. In my teaching profession, the battle is even tougher. Student plagiarism is minor compared to the constant battle over what is legal to bring into the classroom to use with students. Even harder are the copyright battles over digitizing materials for students with disabilities. It’s often confusing to know what you really have the right to access. Even my hobby of genealogy is overrun with questions of data rights. How someone can own the rights to information about my family seems ridiculous. But the issues are there.
There are two aspects to Creative Commons that I am really impressed with. The first is the idea of a data sharing warehouse. Information is only useful if it can be shared in a meaningful way. I like the idea of putting information out for anyone to use. Whether its music, art, lesson plans, or information for hobbies… it only benefits people if they can get access to it. And this access tells you exactly what you can do with the information files.
The second aspect that I really appreciate is the ability to share information and still maintain your authorship. Most of the materials and really good lessons that I develop are lessons that I love to share. But it’s nice to keep your name on the really good pieces so people know your work. There is nothing wrong with a little pride of authorship. Creative Commons gives you the ability to share information and specify what people can do with your work. It gives you a feeling of safety that you can put your good work out without loosing control.
I give Creative Commons a hearty congrats on a great idea.

Week 3 and the New Web Sites

It has been some time since I last created a web site. My days of supporting play by mail games and their web sites go back over 15 years. I always found that HTML was fun to work in, but it was not for just anyone. The new tools available today make things much easier. Although I do have a facebook account, I really have not put much effort into designing my wall or controlling the layout. I use it to communicate. The other webpage that I currently maintain is a family tree site on Ancestry.com. I like the site and the tools, but the application is very specialized. My one big complaint is that the tools are changed and moved around the screen. It frustrates users to know end to find a tool missing or moved that we have been using for a year or more.

My experiences this week made me realize just how far the computer industry has come. Web pages used to be something only programmers and engineers developed. With tools like Google and Yola, anyone can create web pages. Not necessarily good ones, but usable pages. The advantage of these new pages is more than just making design more accessible. It also gives the people using the pages the opportunity to name or label their information with names that are meaningful to them. I can remember the many fights with my own engineering teams to get them to go out and learn the customers language and to use that language in our code. Now the customer doesn't need us or our nonsense variable names. Maybe thats not such a bad thing.

The Next 5000 Days by Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly presents and interesting and in some ways frightening view of the internet and where it is going. I have watched the video three times now and I am still not sure how I want to respond to his discussion. He begins with a short history of the first 5000 days and his discussion is very accurate. The growth and expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW) is truely remarkable.

Its in Kevin's description of the next 5000 days that I begin to have my concerns. The levels of data integration and the capacity to hot link from one data element to the next are a reality. These innovations are happening as we speak. Kevin extrapolates this integration to a concept of the "One Machine" where all computer screens are viewing into a single large computer. To me this brings back to many visions of the book 1984, where big brother is looking over our shoulder at all times. Kevin takes his analogy a step further and begins to apply a level of artificial intelligence to the "One Machine" where it begins to monitor and predict our needs. As an IT professional, I spent 21 years fighting the concerns that computers were taking over our lives and that people were becoming little more than numbers.

It is true that automation as provided quicker access and easier viewing of our lives, but there are still controls in place to protect the rights and privacy of the individual. I just do not see the inevitability of the world where computers monitor our lives that closely and as a race we become totally dependent on the computer and the internet. It is a useful tool and one that I enjoy using, but it is something I can do without.

I may have taken this one element to seriously, but Kenin Kelly's words bothered me. Maybe its just a fear that if we do not teach our youth to guard their freedom and individuality, they may someday let the "One Machine" be in charge.

The INternet Detective Tutorial

This was an interesting training source. FOr my own personal information, it was information that I try to teach my own students in school. Unfortunately, it is definitely above the level of my middle school students. I can see its use in high school or early college though.
Again I was concerned with the way the training was designed. It was very difficuly to read even with magnifiaction. The pop ups for the quiz questions are not something that an visually impaired person would always catch. But they were better than the ones for the blackboard.

Taking the Blackboard Tutorial

Finally took the On-line Blackboard Tutorial. It was interesting, but painfully slow compared to the classroom version that I took several years ago before taking my first online class. My only real ah-ha was that someone could develop an automated course that was so difficult to navigate. The screens shots included in the course were microscopic. Without Zoomtext, I would not have been able to complete the course. The test had its own challenges. Finding the popups was not fun. I did not realize the little screens were there at first. This one was not designed for the visually impaired. Grin. Ah well.

My other feedback on the tutorial is that it is painful repetition for those of use who have taken multiple courses so far. I almost missed doing the assignment because I thought I already had credit for the tutorial. But it is done and in before Monday night. All is good in the world.

Lost Capabilty over the Summer

Today was another day of frustration on the technology front. We worked very hard last year to build up a capability to scan books for students with disabilities. All the hours of work that went into the field guide to scanning is now water under the bridge. The district let a new contract for copiers and replaced all the machines. The new machines were not tied to the the online mailboxes so we can not scan files and save them.

So now we wait for the tech team to figure out how to link the new machines and then I get to do an emergency rewrite of the scanning instructions to identify all the changed controls on the new machines. Such joy.

The School Year is underway

The students have arrived and the new house schedules are complicated even for the adults. Not sure how the kids are figuring it all out. As with every year, the network is a mess and we will be lucky to be able to use most of our computers until week 2. But at least the lab was up and running. I began the year teaching the staff how to do initial Speech to Text training. My team mate and I trained 21 staff member how to configure the microphone and to launch the Speech to Text software. Watching them all try to read into the headsets and teach the software to understand their voices was entertaining. Discussing with them how to do the same process with students who can not even read the passages was even more rewarding.

We have come up with some interesting plans though. We hope to use the most common word lists and build up a usable speech dictionary for each student. We won't know how well the plan works for a couple months... but I will post the results as we see them happen.
Larry