My State Government has banned YouTube in schools March 1, 2007
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Mobile Phones, Screencast.1 comment so far
The Victorian State Government today announced that YouTube would be blocked in State Government schools. Why? (Read an article here or here)
Maybe there were too many students using it in class to look at innapropriate material instead of focussing on their work? Good guess, but no. Maybe because the extra bandwidth was too costly for the Government and they were trying to cut costs. Another reasonable assumption, but wrong again!
The reason is cyberbullying. Late last year, a group of teenage boys filmed themselves while assaulting a young girl and then making DVDs. The DVDs were distributed in the local area and it was then uploaded onto YouTube. Once this story got into the media, there were many commentators calling for the banning of YouTube in schools (as well as other technological tools).
While I am appalled at the actions of this group of boys and other cyberbullies, there is no way in the world blocking YouTube in schools will stop cyberbullying. While students are at school, bullying will continue to exist in school yards and classrooms, with and without the use of technology.
Naturally, other independent schools will follow suit (if they haven’t done so already) and block YouTube. What concerns me is that YouTube can, be a useful tool. I am currently playing with vodcasts for use by my Year 12 Further Maths class. I have started creating short videos on how they should be using their graphics calculator to solve various problems. YouTube (or podomatic or mogopop or other similar services) would have been an ideal way to distribute these helpful vodcasts. I also plan to use some YouTube videos I’ve found as part of some of my class projects (I’ll post an entry about these one day soon). But now with this ban, many schools will not be able to find crative ways to use YouTube.
So I now have to ask. How will my State Government stop students using YouTube out of school hours? Will they get ISPs to blacklist YouTube? Will they also ban all mobile phones at school and at home to prevent those nasty SMS bully tactics? Maybe they’ll even ask Telstra to close down its phone lines between 8:00 and 10:pm every day to prevent a student bullying another student by phone.
Sorry Steve Bracks (Victorian Premier) and Jacinta Allan (Education minister). You have got this one wrong!
BTW, YouTube removed the video from their site within a very short time, but there would still be many copies of that DVD circulating about. Maybe we should destroy all DVD players too!
k12onlineconference – Follow up November 7, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in Google Earth, Janine Lim, Paul Harrington, Screencast, Tom Barrett, k12online.4 comments
Last week, my presentation on “Around the World in 80 Minutes” was uploaded to a server somewhere and was made available to anyone interested. While no comments were left on the k12online confernece site, a few people sent me personal messages to tell me how things went, or I found references to it on other people’s blogs.
Thanks to those people who wrote to me.
Tom Barrett made a reference to the work on his blog and then Paul Harrington made a comment that people mentioned Tom’s work during the closing skypecast. Pity I missed it. I hope Tom gets many more visitors. 
Janine Lim (she’s the master, I’m still an apprentice) Videoconferncing expert, made a reference to my presentation on her blog and stated she learnt about Qlock, a great utility for your desktop showing world times. A very handy feature when trying to work in various time zones.
I hope anyone who watched it learnt something. I certainly learnt heaps while reseraching the presenation and then actually producing and editing it.
Now, I just need to find time to watch/listen to some more presenations.
k-12 Online Conference, Screencasts and kids October 19, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Personal, Screencast, Video Conference, k12online06.1 comment so far
A very short note to say I’m still here reading others thoughts. I’ve created my first screencast and tried to put it up on my podomatic site, but after many tries, it doesn’t want to work. I’ll keep at it. I gave it to my students via our server and they just laughed at me!!
I’m also preparing for a presenation at work and for the k-12 Online Conference on Video Conferencing. So I’m very busy, developing ideas and I’ll be posting entries more frequently soon (oh, did I mention one of my children had her face whacked by a swing, requiring facial surgery and now my two eldest have contracted chicken pox?) Gee life can get hectic.
podOmatic = podmail September 27, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Paul Harrington, Screencast, Web2.0, blogs, mathematics, podcasts.comments closed
With thanks to Paul Harrington and Judy O’Connell, I have just stumbled on podOmatic. This site is similar to Odeo (but in my opinion, it is “safer” – read the end comment) and allows users to create podcasts and store them on their server for access by anyone else. But, the most exciting thing for me is it is now possible to have a podmail account.
What is podMail?
podMail is just like regular email, only different. With podMail, you now have the power to create your own audio or upload existing audio from your computer and podMail it right into your friend’s iPod!What kinds of messages can I receive at my podomatic.com e-mail address?
Although you can send anything to anyone using podMail, we restrict what kinds of messages get to you from the e-mail world. This is to prevent spam from going into your account. So if you’re using podMail, send whatever you want! If you’re using an e-mail client, or you are asking your friends to send you e-mail @podomatic.com, remember that e-mail from the outside world must include an mp3 attachment to be delivered to you @podomatic.com.Where does podMail go?
podMail goes from podOmatic into your iPod. We transfer it from our servers through podAmigo into your daycast, where you can hear it at your leisure.Who can hear my podMail?
Only you. It has the same privacy characteristics as email.
k – 12 Online Conference “Unleasing the Potential” September 25, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in Screencast, Skype, Video Conference, Web2.0, blogs, podcasts.comments closed
Announcing the first annual “K12 Online 2006″ convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme “Unleashing the Potential.” The K12 Online 2006 blog has just gone live.
On the conference blog you will also find the web form we will be using for the submission of proposals. Everyone is encouraged to submit a proposal. More details are on the conference blog: www.k12onlineconference.org. The blog will be updated regularly with everything you need to know about the conference.
This is such an exciting concept. Having people from around the world share ideas and resources. Many of these people are experts in the use of Web 2.0 technology in education, so why wouldn’t you participate in such a great idea?
And if you are in Australia like me, there is no reason to miss out as presentations will be made available for download.
Well done to the organisers.
ScreenCasts September 14, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in Ewan McIntosh, Screencast, Web2.0, blogs, podcasts.comments closed
I just listened to and watched Ewan McIntosh’s screencast on Web 2.0 technology. His ideas are great and it is something I’ll have to re-watch. His discussion on blogs and podcasts is quite stimulating.
So how will screencasts help us teachers? I recently had a student who was going to miss a term of school to go on a family holiday back to his parent’s homeland. Most of his holiday was going to be spent in and around the family home, so he wasn’t travelling around much. We were about to start Algebra in our Maths class and he didn’t want to fall behind. He had access to the internet and e-mail, so we discussed the possibility of me sending him the class notes that I was using my Tablet PC and Projector or Interactive WhiteBoard (IWB) to generate. I also wanted to send him a podcast to go with the notes, but he said that he wouldn’t require them as he would get help from his older cousins and relatives if he got stuck. I missed out on this educational journey, but perhaps it would have been so much easier to create a Screencast.
I’ll be producing a ScreenCast in the near future (after I’ve played with some software). In the meantime, if you are interested in looking into it further yourself, take a look at the Mathcast site. A great introduction to Screencasting and Mathematics.
