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A random collection of rants, reviews, and miscellaneous thoughts on everything from instructional technology to local restaurants.
Blocking Blogs
At NECC I ran into one of my counterparts in another district, and he asked me a distressing question. He asked if our district blocked blogs on our filtering system. I’m hoping I didn’t sound too incredulous when I answered him. No. We don’t block blogs.
Apparently his district does block blogs. According to him, there is "too much questionable material on blogs." This begs the question, exactly what is he blocking? MySpace? Facebook? Or any website that happens to have a blog? I wonder if he blocks this one
The question reveals a certain level of ignorance about blogs. Where there is ignorance, there is fear. It’s something I come across quite frequently. Many people equate the word "blog" with MySpace with all its inherent problems. When I tell someone I blog, sometimes I get several sideways glances.
While there is a level of fear on one side, younger folks who grew up with technology of too much trust. I had another colleague present me with another blogging dilemma. Her daughter is an avid blogger, and in her posts will often include pictures of her children. My colleague’s husband says that daughter shouldn’t be posting pictures of her children. My colleague needed advice. Here’s what I told here…
Both the father and the daughter need to meet in the middle. It’s OK to post pictures of the kids. However, I wouldn’t give too many details. I’d also be cautious about giving away information that shows a pattern of behaviour. For example, I wouldn’t say something like, "here we are in the park, like we are every Tuesday." I also wouldn’t announce when I’m going to be away from home. Sensible precautions. There’s a balance.
[tags]blogs, NECC[/tags]
Posted in EdTech
