Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

" They are afraid and so it is easier to block access to any area that might cause a problem than to investigate and fight for solutions that are workable. It is easier to hide behind the Great American Education Firewall." Heather Davis , teacher in China   LET FREEDOM RING? Guest Post by Teacher, Heather Davis During the last week in February I was privileged to attend the Flat Classroom Conference at BISS in Beijing led by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay .  The fact that I live in Beijing made it doubly exciting as I was looking forward to people whom I respect and have influenced my thinking coming to see this incredible city and get a better understanding of China. What no one could plan for were the challenges that were going to be faced due to the crack down by the government on areas that we as expats use to allow us to access information.  While I know it made producing the conference much more difficult it also provided the attendees with an...

Filters are a problem because they cannot, nor will they ever get everything. (See Content Filtration: A Little Dirt for Your Health ) My biggest problem is that most teachers cannot request to have anything added (like access to educational Ning s, wikispaces , or an educational blog on blogger - like mine) nor can they ask to have anything blocked.  Someone at some company decides what is accepted and allowed, when in fact, it should be a curricular decision at the local level and there should be systems in place for reporting inappropriate sites and to request that some be allowed for educational use. In the article, Internet Filter blocks education sites but not porn , says: One site a Year 10 student opened while searching for a type of bird contained graphic sexual material and was only barred on Monday after inquiries from The Daily Telegraph. George Cochrane said his school-aged son and daughter, who study by distance education from their farm in Grenfell, were horri...

This was literally my first post on Tech Learning back in November of 2006 and I forgot to cross post it over here. I find myself referring back to it a lot as content filtration policies come under review and I wanted to share it here. I believe it is still relevant today. Content Filtration: A little dirt for your health? Modern science has invented numerous methods of removing allergens from our lives. We have air purifiers, hand sanitizers, and anti-dust mite methodologies. What should have happened is a decrease in allergies, but what has happened is a dramatic increase . When asked about how to help kids with allergies, researchers have made the bold statement , " Let them eat dirt! " As I read these articles, I was struck with the parallel to the content filtration debate that rages in education today. Who can re...

I'm tired and have got to go to bed, but this post from Ric Murry about a conference topic simply got my blood boiling! In his post , Ric quotes the conference description of a local ETTC, here it is: My Network vs. MySpace: Beating students at their own game Today’s tech-savvy students enjoy taking risks and have easy access to negative content. Richard J.B. Campbell of Securiant will discuss how K-12 organizations can address inappropriate web content and the explosion of social websites like MySpace and YouTube while effectively securing their networks with a limited staff and budget. Don’t miss your opportunity to hear from an expert and innovator in the education network security industry! Now, I'm not going to rush to judge Mr. Campbell, actually he and his company, Securiant , seem to be very reputable in the security area and provide services that block hackers from attacking the network but of course, they also offer filtration, etc. I would challenge Mr. Camp...