In response to Doug Johnson’s call for letters, here is my letter to my local representative. Thanks to Doug (for the first real comment on this blog, no less) and to others, including Will’s wiki letter for the inspiration in getting this young teacher politically motivated…at least a little bit. :-) Anyway, thanks folks. Hope you enjoy the letter.
Dear Representative Barrett:
I am composing this letter in opposition the the Deleting Online Predators Act, bill number H.R. 5319. While I agree with the sentiment that the safety of our children should be a very high priority, this particular bill, as written, is not an acceptable solution. Representative Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania has sponsored this bill in order to protect our students from “potential dangers posed by the use of the Internet by children.” Instead, what this bill will serve to accomplish is prevent a vast amount of viable educational and research-oriented Internet resources in our schools.
In our modern society, the largest, most constantly updated, and most readily available repository of knowledge is the Internet. Many of the educational opportunities for students available online are through a new brand of Internet applications we call Web 2.0, or the Read/Write Web. Web 2.0 applications are grounded in the educational principles of social constructivism: that people learn better through collaboration with learning communities. This bill blocks any “commercial Web sites that let users create public ‘Web pages or profiles’ and also offer a discussion board, chat room, or e-mail service.” This would effectively block millions of valuable educational sites like Wikipedia, blogs, newsfeeds, and classroom message boards. This legislation would also block the ability for teachers to research these sites for possible use in the classroom.
As an English teacher at __________ High School, I have used Web 2.0 Internet technologies in my classroom. My students have created online portfolios of their work, written blogs about characters in our readings, discussed thematic, literary concepts on our classroom discussion board, and contributed to our online Wiki textbook. These are all valuable educational opportunities that have benefited my students. However, under this bill, all of these classroom activites would be inaccessible.
Any place where teenagers and children can congregate could be considered dangerous. The Internet is no different. However, as parents and educators, we teach our children how to safely go to the mall, church, and school. Each of these locations, sadly, has proven to be an environment where students may be in danger of predators. But for some reason, this bill does not consider the option to educate our students on how to safely conduct themselves on the Internet.
The social networking technology targeted by this bill is growing daily. My fear is that with legislation like this, we, as educators and parents, will not be prepared to show our children how to use this technology safely. Students may begin to see sites like Myspace.com as a temptation to be accessed only without parent supervision. When students are not on school grounds, and have access to these sites at home or at a friend’s home, how will they know how to avoid compromising situations like those described in the bill? My classes this semester are not composed of upper-middle class children, yet almost 90% of my current students have access to the Internet at home or at a friend’s home. Over two-thirds of them have pages and profiles on social networking sites. They will continue to use this technology regardless of the outcome of this bill. In my opinion, this bill should not be focusing on blocking student access to social networking sites at schools and libraries, but on educating students on how to wisely use these potentially powerful tools.
There is one portion of the bill that I agree with. Designing a website to educate parents, teachers, and students to use the Internet safely would go a long way towards accomplishing the intent of the bill–protecting our children. My suggestion would be to go further. Create pamphlets, lesson plans, articles, speeches, broadcasts, and other media resources for the same purpose. Use the same social networking technologies (blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, and wikis) that this bill would block to educate people on Internet safety.
Representative Barrett, our society is becoming more and more connected to the online world. We are no longer required to simply teach our students how to become productive members of the real world, but also the virtual world. It is essential that our students become members of this global community, but this bill, in its current state, would “delete” our opportunities to teach them how.
This technology is already out there. Our students are already using it, in and out of school. It is in our best interests to play the role of the educator, not of the censor.
Yours sincerely,
R. Scott Bevill
May 31st, 2006
Posted by
Scott |
dopa |
no comments
A couple days ago, I wrote about this DOPA bill being pushed through Congress. I Speak of Dreams has a great <a href=”http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2006/05/quick_call_your.html” target=”_blank”>entry</a> that compiles what a lot of the information concerning this particular bill. This definitely seems to be one of the topics that is really energizing the edublogosphere (what a wierd word…). I’m definitely interested in seeing where this goes. <br />
<br />
Also, <a href=”http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2006/5/11/doin-something-about-dopa.html” target=”_blank”>Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog</a> has taken a few more steps acting against the DOPA bill. Now this is something that I think can work. There are a lot of really influential education bloggers in the country, and by encourging them, as a group, to take a public stand against this act is really something. I also like how he is asking them to list the professional organizations they belong to. Kind of puts a real world emphasis on this. Really cool idea.<br />
<br />
Another thing that has been pretty interesting to see are the responses to this bill by people from other nations. From Canada, <a href=”http://idarknight.blogspot.com/2006/05/holy-reactionary-legislation-batman.html” target=”_blank”>Raj Boora</a> writes, “…that the US should now move to ban pencils, because they could also be used to form social networks though “pen pal”, a breeding ground for wierdos that like to write to each other and learn about new places at the same time, but then stop suddenly after a few months.” Hahaha, great stuff! <a href=”http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=34187″ target=”_blank”>Stephen Downes</a> doesn’t seem to think much will come of it. I think he’s being a bit too rational about this whole thing. <br />
<br />
It looks like this is just the beginning of a lot of discourse concering the topic. And I realize that I am completely late to the party to this ed-tech blog community, but this is something that I really believe can change the way we teach for the better. I’ll be writing a letter to my Congressman and posting it up on the blog in the next couple of days. Thanks for the inspiration, folks!<br />
May 17th, 2006
Posted by
Scott |
dopa |
no comments
Wow. Simply wow.<br />
<br />
<a href=”http://weblogg-ed.com/2006/headline-congress-targets-social-network-sites/”>Will Richardson’s</a> blog entry on this new congressional legislation is frightening to say the least. <br />
<br />
Schools are a place of learning. In our modern society, the largest, most constantly updated, and most readily available repository of knowledge is at our fingertips through the Internet. Much of the educational opportunities for students available online are through this new brand of Internet applications we call Web 2.0, or the Read/Write Web. So even though all this information is out there for our students to find, these lawmakers do not want our students to have it.<br />
<br />
Oh no, the web is dangerous! It’s like strangers with candy on a street corner and sending kids down Bourbon Street at night unsupervised! Umm, no. There is not much on the Internet that isn’t out in the real world…that our students aren’t facing every single day when they leave the grounds of the school, go home, look out the window, turn on the television, or listen to ther cds. If we’re going to use the Internet as an educational tool, we’re not going to give students free, unsupervised access. The educator who really focuses on using the Internet in the classroom is going to take the time to teach students how to use this powerful techonology safely and responsibly. Hopefully, as Richardson says, the parents would have something to say about that too…But many lawmakers aren’t in the business of trusting parents, or even educators to do what is right. <br />
<br />
According to my first day survey in my 3 classes this past semester, around 90% of my high school students had access to a computer and the internet outside of school. And its not like I only teach the upper-middle class level student. These are average kids in the upstate of South Carolina. They have myspace pages. They get on AIM. They use chatrooms and listen to mp3s. Blocking user-oriented sites at our schools is not going to stop our students from being able to access them. I mean, the burger joint Fuddrucker’s offers free wireless internet access! It’s not like our students are completely devoid of opportunities to use the web for whatever purpose they choose! What we, as educators, have to do is take responsibility for the techonology tools we are sharing with our students and show them how to become productive members of an online learning community.<br />
<br />
Honestly, the Internet isn’t what I’m afraid of. It’s people. People like these lawmakers who are afraid of any new technology…and the imaginary evils that it may bring. People like those low-life predators who try to prey on innocent children…through myspace, through chatrooms, or through offering candy out the window of a car. People like us…who are either too scared to try new methods in technology because of the responses we may get from our administrations, parents, and community. People like are students who are going to use this technology anyway without any sort of guidance from their teachers, parents, or other mentors…because the people who would guide them don’t know what to do either…because they aren’t allowed to work with this technology in schools.<br />
<br />
Yeah, it absolutely is a slippery slope. One that trickles down from myspace to youtube to blogs to wikis to google…<br />
<br />
While this <a href=”http://www.politechbot.com/docs/fitzpatrick.social.networking.051006.pdf”>bill</a> focuses on objectional, inappropriate material, its lumping of “commercial social networking sites” alongside pornography is extremely disturbing. In the eyes of this bill,<br />
<br />
-Editing a Wikipedia entry on the topic of your research paper = surfing for porn.<br />
-Writing a Blog from the perspective of a character in a book you are reading = accessing the anarchist’s cookbook online.<br />
-Using a classroom discussion board for homework help, collaborative assignments, and cooperative learning = chatting with sex offenders.<br />
<br />
I completely understand the desire to protect our children. But I also have a desire to educate our children. These two thougts are not and should not be incompatible.
May 12th, 2006
Posted by
Scott |
dopa |
one comment
