Blocking YouTube.. a short fairy tale about access

You Tube and Social Networking sites - The issues for large scale educational access

Once upon a time there was a TAFE college which was suddenly propelled into the 21st Century.  Web 2.0 ‘happened’.  Suddenly staff and students wanted access to social networking tools and video sites such as YouTube and GoogleVideo.

Why did they want to do this?

This was the big question!  Nobody really knew and it all seemed a bit - well... illogical and amorphous...

The 20^th century, American philosopher H. Richard Neibur wrote that the first question of ethics is not, “What is right?”, but rather, “What is going on?” Courtesy - Mark Pesce

This was a strange concept to a hierarchical organisation. They weren't sure quite what to do.

They heard 'communities'.  They built ‘destinations’ and hoped strong networks and communities would evolve. They didn’t really want to participate in the communities themselves because they felt a bit stupid in such a sparsely populated place. They asked students how to build a community.  They didn't want to, they wanted to use existing tools to participate. It was all so uncontrollable.

Elluminate, twitter, Bebo, Facebook, Myspace. ... It was dizzying and raised real fears about

Safety and Duty of Care for minors

The TAFE was right to be concerned in many ways. Under 18s at TAFE was raising duty of care issues.

But...Private schools in WA are allowing access to some of these sites.  What solutions and strategies are they using to manage access?

Why aren’t we working with them?

Back at the campus…one student finds the blocking incomprehensible? “Why - What do they think we’re going to do, access porn!?  AS IF!”

Luckily for the TAFE they created a network.  They consulted across the campus and developed a community of leaders from all facets of college life using online and face to face methods.

The Community develops an appropriate use policy.  The policy deals with the demons of, violence, porn, hatred and of course COPYRIGHT!

The same group (Community of Leaders) decides the consequences for breaching a code of conduct.  A culture of individual responsibility is actively created. Back at the campus… students lecturers and admin staff feel valued and more inclined to work within an agreed code of conduct.

Of course the peace can't last and somebody posts porn to a class wiki. 

The outrage is is deafening..... from the other students. However, they self manage and deal with the issue as a team.

Small problem the Tech Services department is not able to track exactly who accesses what.  So it is impossible to identify people who breach a proposed code of contact.

Tech Services take leadership and implement tools that can track site access. They become heroes, and basking in the limelight Technical Services and IT management adapts to be risk managers. The risk averse practices of before are abandoned…

But then, out of left field arrives the BIG BAD BANDWIDTH MONSTER….

Bandwidth use goes up with use of social networking and youtube sites.

This is NOT unpredictable or unexpected – in fact it is incontrovertible fact.

Luckily, the TAFE is prepared for the battle.  Do they pull out of the race?  Of course not! 

The warriors take the argument statewide up to government and across to users.  Open debate occurs throughout the hierarchy of education providers. 

Tech Services in their highly innovative new leadership role partner with industry, the local Council and other learning providers and establish mesh networks. They explore devices such as the Meraki, They succeed in blanketing the town with wireless. They measure, evaluate and learn – and of course produce cost benefit analyses because they have to be done and they show increased value!

Students across online and face to face networks, and across the gorgeous campus people can be connected, share resources and produce content - cheaply. 

Suddenly -Catastrophic COPYRIGHT leaps out of centre stage

Networks created by WCT members are producing and providing content at all levels of the organisation. There have been wonderful outcomes. Copyright however, is a real issue as people use and reuse, interpret and reinterpret content within their networks, face to face and online.

The Community of Leaders is used again.  They

• Adopt Creative Commons legislation and education across campus
• Encourage use of Creative Commons licenses by staff and students
• Develop individual responsibility as a means of operating within legislation.
  

Meanwhile, WCT networks influence government in partnership with industry networks, and change happens.

To quote Mark Pesce – it was “unexpected, unpredictable”.

The ‘how can a video on skateboarding be relevant to nursing training” argument

Well, here is the TAFE college - holistic, workplace based, accessible from anywhere.  A true work life balance…. BUT – there’s a problem. 

How can we justify letting people look at non-work related videos (clean of COURSE) using OUR bandwidth/resources etc.

The question is posed to the Community of Leaders (now international as students have graduated, been promoted etc).  They respond within 3 hours (such is the power of Twitter).  They point out that learning now bridges life, work and study.  Permission is granted to for some personal use.

Networks grow up around interest groups, and feed back into existing networks.

The experience grows. Things are cruising along nicely at the TAFE. However, everyone’s so busy opening up access and working out how to maximise the educational use of all this access….a small spotfire breaks out.

Generational warfare…

The ‘young’ ones think that if only the ‘old’ ones would just get on with it and use technology things would change even faster.

The problem is thrown open to the networks, and it is decided that everyone is short of ‘play time’

The answer is 'unexpected', 'unpredictable'

By now the TAFE college is listening to what' s 'going on'

Each staff member is allocated ½ a day a week to play with technology, to learn what it can do specifically for them.  Some stick with mobile phones and SMS, others experiment with video, others build networks using Twitter and Ning. People feel supported, support each other and innovate.  The generational warfare ends.

The happy ending

The little TAFE college

-  provides a networked educational experience

- has a world class reputation

-  can deliver education, support and innovation anywhere in the world.

What is our choice - block access - or accept the risks, innovate to deal with the risks and be part of the change.  I know which one I want.

 

Comments

[Russel Montgomery]

Harriet

I love this. This could be my theme song.

[Jo McLeay]

What a clear and coherent laying out of the situation. I enjoyed reading this fairytale (great genre to use for this btw) as many of our schools also see it this way. In our school we even value 'risk taking' as part of innovative learning and that helps us in our workplace to get access.

[Russel Montgomery]

I'm having a discussion over at
http://tinyurl.com/2ef76d on the use of mini laptops in our school and I have referred to your bit about the big bandwidth monster.

[Gary Barber]

Its simple get on board or get out of the way. People will find a way to use the technology.

As it is blocked at the desktop students will start to use their own wireless or use mobile phone based services. Next six months to 2 years I expect you will see students setting up personal mesh networks to get around any restrictions.

The rule is simple, don't put up a barrier, as people will just go around you tagging you as irrelevant as they go.

[Megan Poore]

Great post, Harriet :) What a sensible approach your mob had to integrating technology into the TAFE structure! Very heartening to hear -- I'm going to use it as a case study in clear-headedness when it comes to responding to and implementing change.

[Brad]

Hi Sue
Our network has recently opened up its filters somewhat from a ridiculous lockdown level to where it now even allows for blockages to be reviewed. It has certainly taken a while, after a lot of disattisfaction State-wide. D/K if you might find this of interest, but I touched on some similar themes in a recent symposium (with a library perspective) http://www.alia.org.au/groups/quill/papers/jones.paper.pdf
Regards
Brad

[Michael Coghlan]

Great Harriet. You make it almost seem possible. And maybe it is. Thank you.

[Suz]

sensational story, and I'm glad there is a happy ending :)
Hopefully all of our stories can have the same ending :)

[Null]

The described outcome is certainly possible, but so is far less desirable ones.

Creative Commons style licensing is great, but when your TAFE is competing against dozens of RTOs for students, is giving your IP away for free really viable?

When budgets are tight, is it a good idea to spend large sums on low-engagement student (and staff) entertainment?

When some students are easily distracted and are at TAFE to avoid other mutual obligation activities, is giving them access to a world of off-topic distractions best practice?

[Harriet]

@Null
Thanks for your comments and it's interesting to get your perspective - thanks.

Just a few comments in response to your post:

- I think teachers are already 'giving away' their IP. The Ed Tech community is using countless tools such as You Tube, Slideshare, Wordle, Wikkis, Jing, Ning etc to create online content. They are doing this as they are not able to create these kinds of creative interactive materials within the constraints of the internal systems.

At our TAFE, staff are creating their own material and re-using others' through these sites. I do think a 'web 2.0' revenue model that allows people to be credited for their work financially would be great - but unfortunately I can't work it out - or I'd be retiring shortly.

I don't think these materials are 'entertainment' they are being used for educational purposes, demonstrations and to allow access to real time, live and creative resources. They are free, and so there is no cost, other than bandwidth. In comparison to purchasing video and audio resources. In many cases, they are using these resources BECAUSE budgets are so tight. Yes, some is used for entertainment, but much is used for learning, and there are viable, simple control tools available to manage this process.

We have simple software available that can allow access to web tools at the discretion of the teacher, or for example can restrict 'chat' tools but allow access to videos. We have found that, particularly with youth at risk, the use of technology has engaged students who would otherwise have disengaged entirely.

Interested to continue the conversation. Harriet

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I think block something is not the solution...well thanks for sharing ..!

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This is a fantastic presentation which captures what technology is all about. Thanks you for sharing and may you have many thought provoking conversations!

[Harriet Wakelam]

Thank you - look forward to more conversations

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Militants and hate groups increasingly use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube as propaganda tools to recruit new members, according to a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

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How can we justify letting people look at non-work related videos (clean of COURSE) using OUR bandwidth/resources etc.

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Blocking YouTube a short fairy tale about access, and I think this is really good thing to get for knowledge to gain and make the most of the information for work.

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Actually there are open source social networks that can now be adopted by any school or university. Children see these sites in their home if they want to as all have computer in their room.

[Account Deleted]

Really very useful though, great technology. Thank you for the post.

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[Mutuelle]

sensational story, and I'm glad there is a happy ending :)
Hopefully all of our stories can have the same ending :)
+1

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