[Year 12 IT Apps] RE: filtering software overkill!..fireworksMX qn.

Sun May 11 10:58:11 EST 2008

Kent further to this - I am at a government school with similar issues
in respect to filtering websites. 

Our school in their wisdom whether to cut costs - do not know why this
was done, decided 12 to 18 months ago to only use education channel and
associated firewall filtering. This caused some issues that were slowly
overcome, but in some VCE units and the need to review search engines
other than Education Channel caused major problems. I have unblocked a
number of sites for my students to use but there are always those sites
you need that are filtered out - in theory it is not too bad as it made
teachers think about sites that are most appropriate for students
although for senior students it is quite inhibiting. 

I am a prolific user of wikis (Wikispaces) and other social networking
applications to support student learning. Most of these sites I have
created are private, secure sites using SSL / encryption technology. In
the last 2 months due to issues with some proxy bypass applications used
by some students at my school to bypass the education channel that use
sites with https: prefixes the decision was made by those in at DEECD
and those who control our internet and education channel decided to
block all https: sites to students at our school.

What are the consequences of this? The students no long can access my
on-line wikis at school. The curriculum is on them - fortunately they
can access them at home. My plan to use them for collaborative on-line
group work for year 11 can not be done effectively and it has caused
more frustration to students who are trying other inappropriate tools to
bypass the firewall.

The point being - if the wikis were not "private" or unsecure they would
work. But we privacy and the need to provide a safe on-line working
environment for students and by blocking these sites is compromising the
learning of students. 

History:  I contacted Russell Blackie at DEECD - who controls the
content of Education Channel he is aware of the issue but it is the
company that controls the servers are the one that controls the firewall
to block sites. To me it was easier to block all https: sites and they
communicated back to me through our technicians that they can not
unblock specific site - I find this surprising. 

I am writing this out of frustration - and in some way it is similar to
what Kent is experiencing. If the department is committed to using more
Web 2.0 technologies effectively in the curriculum then issues such as
this needs to be resolved. I would like to think within the next month
or so.

Have anyone else on the list had similar experiences? How were they
resolved? 

>From a frustrated IT teacher with ideas in using social networks, wikis
etc in the curriculum I am interested to resolve this issue for myself
and my students

Kent thanks for initiating the topic "Filtering software overkill"

Regards

Peter Nash

IT Teacher and Daily Organiser

Galvin Park Secondary College

Shaws Road, Werribee, Vic. 3030

Tel: (03) 9741 4911

Please consider the environment before you print this page.

________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Kent Beveridge
Sent: Sunday, 11 May 2008 9:48 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: filtering software overkill!..fireworksMX qn.

Does anyone else use 'surfcontrol' (it gives a big white box with red or
blue lettering when banning stuff).

Our school does and its driving me batty! I aint the techie as you know,
but it NOW blocks teacher tube, god tube(yes that exists too) and all
video on the google link.(we already had youtube, myspace and facebook
banned for 'social software link reasons' and I coped with that
before...but now...

My school is going backwards. 

Apparantly its an american program..shoulda guessed!

Its basically killing my classes now...so much for moving forward and
embracing technology.

I desperately want to promote use of multimedia at my school and have
just finished some intense HTML programming which uses links to this
stuff for creating pages at the middle school level but now it seems all
that effort might be for zilch.

Yes, I sent an email to the techie about my concerns, but so far, no
responses.

For others in the Catholic system reading this, what filters do you use,
and could you email me a list of their names please so I can pass it on
to my principal...its gone too far for me not to speak about it now I
think.

About the fireworks program..we have the MX version...has anyone got any
nifty starter level stuff they could email me please. I have no
resources for this one and would love to use it..oh, I also have never
used it so will be learning it too. Targetting years 8/9 level...but
have some smart cookies in that lot.

Kent.

Kent Beveridge,

I.T. co-ordinator

St. Brigids Catholic Sec. College

Horsham

email.. kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au

|<3|\|7  b3\/3r1D93 ?  ;-)

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________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Sun 5/11/2008 2:09 AM
To: eLearning mailing list; Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List; Year 12 IT
Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Privacy fears over student register

As you know, I am an passionate advocate for schools to make good use of
learning technologies in the classroom and ICT to assist the school
administration. 

Last week, I briefly discussed with a departmental Ultranet
representative, some of my concerns about the privacy issues regarding
the construction of the student registry. Perhaps this was an unfair
question but I was surprised that nobody had been briefed in detail
about this. On previous occasions, I have tried to raise this with the
AEU but the emails seem to have spiraled off and into the ether. Perhaps
the mandated  requirement that all state school leaders adopt Ultranet
as a performance goal, it's deep embedding into our schools and bundling
with several different initiatives has confused things.

I harbor some genuine fears that this student registry could put
students' privacy at risk. 

You can read the full Herald Sun newspaper story about the pending
legislation or the attached printable version: 
    http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23661243-2862,00.html

Despite the wishes of former governments, the Australia card was
rejected on very much the same issues and more recently an updated
Medicare card. 
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Card

Now is a good time to explore this whole new area and give consideration
to the implications of what is being planned or the legislation that is
before the Victorian parliament.

Now is a good time to ask questions.

Regards Roland

-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au <http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/> 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret
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