Fear the technology
It's the night before my classes discuss Sherman Alexie's "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," and I found a clip of him appearing on the Colbert Report. The problem? That is a blocked site, as is Youtube.com. Why do schools fear technology? It would benefit my students to see video clips of Alexie.
posted by Mr. McNamar @ 5:20 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
You can download YouTube videos to show off line. You have to save them as an flv file and you need an FLV Player to show them.
Sherman Alexie appeared on CSPAN after he won the National Book Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=202083-3
I wouldn't expect CSPAN to be blocked.
And I'd also say, get on the tech committee if you can and try to get this one little aspect of school life changed. It took me *TWO YEARS* to get flickr unblocked at my school. It's still a site that requires me to login to view, but I'd rather log in than not have it at all.
Much easier to download via MediaConverter for offline viewing. You won't need any special player later. And be sure to let your tech person know you're unhappy!
Same old problem going 'round and 'round for over ten years.
You system head tech person is not an educator. He is a techie. No surprise I suppose. Just another annoyance keeping staff from doing the very best job.
Hoping you either have a laptop or thumb drive that you can use to download and use later in the classroom.
Good luck with this and similar in future.
Then there was the staff development day devoted to learning the interactive math games on Marco Polo - only to find that the site is blocked unless we log on with a teacher ID. Yes. Really.
I don't thinks school districts are afraid of technology but what they can get "in trouble for" if students accidentally (or on purpose) see inappropriate images or files. Steven Colbert and youtube definately have questionable content for students.
Another commenter mentioned talking to your district's tech person. You can always submit a request for a site to be allowed through district internet filters. It's done all the time.
I found this comment interseting becasue I am currently enrolled in a class that is educating us on all the different ways we can use technology in our future classrooms. It does seem that schools are scared of technology but when managed correctly it can be a wonderful vehicle for information. We as educators need to unleash that vehicle.
Most school firewall have login capabilities that will allow you to bypass the filter settings. Use zamzar.com or keepvid.com to convert the flv to an mp4 or other format (you can stick avi files into Powerpoint presentations). The filters are there to meet federal requirements that school must adhere to if they are to receive $. It's always about the $.
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