The Politics of Information and Media

FIRST: Let me publicly state that I have great respect for the people that do the "computer stuff" at SVVSD. I have met them a few times, and I think the job they do is valuable and they work hard at doing at maintaining the technological infrastructure that keeps our schools working. This post is not meant to attack them or the job they are doing. I merely want to express my thoughts and concerns that I have with the school and their way of handling the internet. I do not want to present this as a pig-headed bashing of the DTS, or St. Vrain Schools.

Technology is new, and changing every day. The way that students interact with schools, teachers and friends is changing as a result of this. The way we learn is changing because of the internet, email, websites, wikis and blogs. I believe we need to start a discussion on how the internet is leveraged, and how we can use it to make education, and our future, better. This post is an attempt at joining-in on this conversation.

I have finally freed myself from High School. It took quite a bit of effort, but it was worth it. However, while I was a student, I started following several Twitter accounts for the school district. One such account was @SVVSDHD, which is the account for the District Tech Services Help Desk. Now, this Twitter account is not completely impersonal to me, as one of the people that work there is the father of one of my good friends.

This morning, they sent out this Tweet:

New blog post: Microsoft Bing-a-no-no http://bit.ly/tqNbd

Now, I quickly followed the link, and read it. The opening paragraph summarized the decision.

Microsoft recently announced its most recent Internet search engine “Bing”. Bing has a really cool feature where you can preview video from the sites it finds just by hovering over thumbnails. Since the browser is not actually going to these sites, our Internet filter is unable to limit access to inappropriate content. This being the case, the district has blocked access to Bing until such time as the movie previews can be appropriately controlled.

So, I quickly (and admittedly brashly) sent out this tweet:

RT @SVVSDHD: New blog post: Microsoft Bing-a-no-no http://bit.ly/tqNbd - This is stupid. Blocking a search engine because of video previews?

I will admit, I had heart of Microsoft's Bing, but had never used it. Microsoft rarely interests me when it concerns their attempts to outdo Google. After reading the post, I went to Bing, and played around with the video search. I found that Bing did, in fact, offer previews of videos on their site. Some of the videos I found were not academic material. Many were also not school appropriate.

I do understand that what the DTS did was correct for their position. They have no choice but to block any service that violates the terms of what they can allow through the schools. Again, my response was brash, and was not meant to be an attack on @SVVSDHD or anybody working there. My frustrations stem not from this one decision, but my feelings on censorship, and my experiences while I was a student at SCHS.

• On video: This is a hard subject to work with. With the advent of YouTube and other video providing services, it is not possible to find at least a few videos online that concern practically any subject. A vast majority of these videos are inane and useless. When you factor in the high standards presented (and desired) by the public schools it makes a lot of sense to stop this constant stream of crap from infiltrating the education process. It is hard to argue against this. While there are many resources online (and even on YouTube) that provide educational, thoughtful and beneficial video, a vast majority of it is crap.
• On distraction and disruption: From what I can tell, the main reason to block all this nonsense online is to allow the teachers to do their work in peace. They can allow their students to use computers in the classroom, or take them to a computer lab, without worrying about what they will be doing. This frees them to focus on teaching, providing help and resources, and guiding their students to a level of proficiency that will help them be life-long learners (a hippie term, but still a noble goal).
• I am not an expert on education theory, or information technology. I blindly signed the release forms given to me at the beginning of every year. I wanted to be able to use the computers at school. I think the whole process is broken. The men and women that work to help us use the internet while still following the rules are not the problem. These people are our allies. I do believe there is a better way to do it, and that is what I want to say, and what I want to talk about.
• Particulars: Microsoft's Bing is a search-engine portal. It is the equivalent of Google, Ask.com, or Yahoo!. The main selling points behind these sites are the relevancy of their results, the way they present them, and ease of use. The last two fall into the "nifty factor" category. Bing, in wanting to out-do Google's already impressive video search, has created a neat feature which allows people to preview videos without leaving their site. This is a feature of efficiency, and should draw users who do a lot of browsing.
• The decision: The reason DTS blocked this portal (which hosts no content, merely presenting it) is because of this feature. If the videos are blocked, and the sources are blocked, then it is necessary to block any way of viewing them. I was able to quickly find, as any student would, videos of rappers, violent fights, and drug usage on the web without ever leaving the webpage hosted by Bing.
• The problem with blocking it: The problem with blocking Bing.com is because of the limits of the technology we use. We cannot simply block the video search, or the video previews. We must stop students from accessing the entire site to keep the crap out. This includes stopping them from accessing useful information. However, not all portals and search engines are created equally. Students are asked to take large amounts of information and process it into a viable form. Then they must take that useful information and turn it into essays, reports, videos, etc. The problem stems from the first step. Search engines are sold on results and presentation. Google's results can differ from Bing's. The presentation is obviously different in many ways. By blocking this alternate portal, we are disallowing students from finding and processing information in a way that might be beneficial to them. The results of a Bing query might be formatted in a way that would allow some students to look past the crap, and see what is really important. It could allow the to find better, more useful and more informative information which would not only benefit their learning, but their school-work as well. We have stopped this possibility. That is the problem I have.

DTS has been obligated to do their work properly and well. They follow the rules, and try to work with them. They want to help students. They are all extremely attractive. My concern does not lie with them. My concern lies with the acts and rules forced upon them from politicians, and do-gooders that might or might not understand technology and how it is changing education. I hope that things will get better, and that we can use information and technology effectively, but I am concerned with the direction we are heading.


Sources:

• http://blogs.stvrain.k12.co.us/helpdesk/2009/06/04/microsoft-bing-a-no-no/
• http://twitter.com/SVVSDHD/status/2034564391
• http://twitter.com/karlstrope/status/2034605711