School Tech Guys

 A follow up on my earlier rant about Filtering, or more specifically over filtering - I came across this great blog post from an educator that actually interviewed the Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology, Karen Cator. It is worth a read and very much shareworthy, She provides quite a bit of clarity as to what is required and what is expected of schools. 

mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/

 At our Nerds meeting last month (see last post for nerds meeting info) we brought in a guest speaker.  We had an attorney from the Kansas Association of School Boards skype in to talk with us about the legal requirements regarding filtering and privacy in schools. It seems that all schools have a different level of comfort about what is and isn't appropriate for students, and all cite the same regulations to justify their level of control. I've read through the common regulations - CIPA, COPPA, FERPA and the like, and find them sufficiently vague enough to make a host of attorneys happy. I feel we are overdoing filtering, and cheating our students out of valuable experience in learning to deal with the threats of the web once they get outside our doors.  In my experience, students can find many ways to get around any filter or firewall, and it just becomes a cat and mouse game.  Wouldn't it be better if we let them use social networks and a broader access to the web, and help them learn to be safe?  I believe so.  I've come across some resources and other similar opinions lately, I'll share those. Lets quit kidding ourselves and start helping our students.  

Here's a great blog post that really gets to the heart of what I'm trying to say:

tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/world%E2%80%99s-simplest-online-safety-policy/

Wesley Fryer has an awesome blog resource here:

unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/w/page/7254095/FrontPage

I just hate to see kids being cheated out of web 2.0 experiences, and neglecting to help them build the most important filter, the one between their ears.

 Just finished a Nerds Group meeting friday.  I was thinking a bit after the meeting about the group, its purpose and its history.  

I had the idea for the group somewhere around ten years ago, the exact start... I can't remember.  We were doing other study groups in our office at the time and I thought - why not do a group for tech coordinators...  honestly there weren't many tech coordinators at the time.  Tech wasn't a big part of school life yet - it was there, but not mission critical by any means.  The internet as we know it was in its infancy - dialup modems and simple web pages.  Different times.  About a half dozen folks showed up and stayed with the group - we're up to twenty something now.  

The real merit of our group, strangely enough for folks that get technology and its use much better that most is the face to face contact!  People  need that ability to breathe the same air, to be able to fluidly converse and read the body language of others. No substitute!  I tried agendas early on, they pretty much ruined the meeting.  The benefit of the meetings lies in the conversations, the sharing of ideas, the "I've tried that, heres how I got it to work".  In many ways it is a form of group therapy!  Many school techs are pretty cut off, isolated because they are the only ones in their daily world that "get it". They rarely have others to brainstorm with, to plan and test ideas on.  This is the greatest benefit of our group.

Lately we've brought in vendors - on a limited scale.  It has been very popular.  School techs don't get a chance to go to conferences, trade shows and the like.  It's hard to know whats out there when you spend your days up to your elbows in server or printing problems.   I'm not sure what the future of the group holds, but I know that the group will continue to be an asset to those that attend our meetings.  Oh, and BTW...  being a NERD is a badge of honor for us!