[TIPS] Meet Vicki's students

Why can’t WE do this? http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/11/meet-my-students-live-on-wednesday.html

Vicki has some of her students at a conference in Atlanta and they’re going to work on their Flat Classroom Project LIVE! Nice, eh? But the NICER part is that she’s going to stream them live on UStream.tv. She’s going to broadcast her students live to the world as they work on their flat classroom wiki.

Compare that to the fact that I tried to show my own little wiki (on Wikispaces) tonight to some teachers in a local district (who don’t get internet from MY IU) and it was BLOCKED. So was my blog. That IU is VERY heavy handed with its filter, but to block Wikispaces? What the @!#$%^ kind of educational philosophy is THAT?

Now, we’re all following the same CIPA law, but we’ve got VASTLY different opinions about what it means. I’m reading a listserv where folks are talking about how they block skype and itunes. Another group talks about how they don’t allow Google Earth on their network. (Can’t be having those hi-res images clogging the lines and preventing REAL education, y’ know) Another group proudly announces that they won’t tell the teachers that they can have a different filtering policy than the students. Others block wikis of any kind as being a risk for kids to say things that will embarrass the school. Another one wants us to stop letting kids use photo story (watered down PowerPoint) as it’s not a real tool that they will see in the business world. I’m not kidding here. All this is for real. Sad but true.

Once again, let’s take note of this. Many districts in PA cannot read blogs (where I read of Vicki’s presentation), and they can’t see wikis (where her kids are building what will inevitably be another award winning wiki), and they can’t see ustream.tv, where her kids will be making an historic – or at least a very cool – presentation.

Pennsylvania is pumping half a billion dollars into infrastructure (Act 183) and Keystones programs, and now the Classrooms for the Future program. Those programs combine for about half a billion dollars. Yet, it may all be for naught if we don’t soon bring some sanity to this out of control situation.