Hi all,

You may have noticed that on blogs and Twitter of late people have been blocking the mouth of their pictures in a rally against the government’s plans to Censor the Internet. All coming from this:

Didn’t we just protest to the Chinese Government about their internet censorship during the Olympics?

Anyway it was really refreshing to read Stephen Colins ‘ (@trib) view, a parent, an educator no doubt in the broader sense but not a teacher in the traditional sense:

And here’s the thing. One of the core arguments in the government’s position is protecting our children. Sorry, but that’s my job as a parent.

My daughter has been using the Internet since she could sit at a computer and she’s about to turn 11. She’s had a personal, unfiltered, unchecked by me email address since she was five and she has admin rights on the computer she uses. We have well defined, well understood rules for her Internet use. The computer is in an open part of the house. In all her time using the Internet she has never witnessed anything untoward, been spammed, stalked or otherwise bothered.

I’m thinking she and other kids don’t so much need protection as we as adults need not to abrogate our parenting responsibilities and learn about and understand the Internet. Particularly in the context of our children’s use of it.

@15b and @11g have had a similar experience in our household. In the 1990s I argued long and hard with friends to abolish the study concept – computers should be in the public domain of the house.

Our kids have always had access to everything on the computer. It is an education process with positive experiences and lessons learned. This includes being connected individuals and learners as well as digital natives learning – bringing down the system with viruses and using the monthly quota over night by leaving Limewire open – all learning experiences.

cheers Martin

Update:  Here is a transcript of a discussion this morning on Radio National with @mpesce

HI All,

I have been trying to spread the word about Twitter. Last night I sent a message to Geotchonline which is a Yahoo Group of Geography Teachers.

Here is the message I sent to them:

Hi all,

I have been pondering how and when to share this with you for a while now . If you are not interested please just move on from the email but if a few of you are interested in emerging learning technologies and how they can be applied in teaching and learning I just thought this might be of use.

I find Twitter to be a terrific personal research tool and an avenue of professional development ie: where I can learn from other professional educators and geographers.

Twitter is a form of microblogging using 140 characters which can link people to each other and to websites and ideas by using tiny urls. It is a more professional version of social networking. It has taken me a while to understand and get the most benefit from it and I have been using it for 18 months and it is only 2 years old. At times the platform is a bit unstable but it is worth sticking with.

I notice recently that Matt Rosenberg (of Geography About fame) had discovered Twitter and was using it to drive traffic to his website.

http://twitter.com/rosenbergmatt

What is really useful about it is that you can see who follows him and who he follows – connect with them and thus develop professional connections with other Geographers. To be honest at the moment there are not a lot of Geographers there just yet but there are a lot of educators. It is not all about education there is a social side to it as well – it is up to you to decide what your focus is by who you chose to follow.

It is also useful for current affairs:

http://twitter.com/BBC

http://twitter.com/dailytelegraph

Traffic:

https://twitter.com/sydneytraffic – useful for those who use twitter through their mobile phone.

Just one idea of for potential use. I followed one teacher on the Northern Beaches who was using Twitter while on an excursion to West Head and he and his students made live “tweets” from the location and used photos.

I have more information for those who are interested. Happy to post a lot more but I won’t spam you.

Hi all,

There is a call for community views for the National Geography Curriculum. If you are involved in Geography or see the value of Geography and are a community member which we all are please consider responding to the online survey.

http://www.ngc.org.au/

There is an online survey to fill in the above link. Any way the link gives you some ideas.

The blurb:

I spotted this in the EDNA Schools Headlines where they said the following:

“A paper is being drafted that seeks the views of Geography teachers, students, academics and members of the community as to what should be in the National Curriculum. The paper ‘Geography in the 21st Century: a National Curriculum for Australia’ is part of the National Geography Curriculum project and is an initiative of the Australian Geography Teachers’ Association (AGTA), Royal Geographical Society of Queensland (RGSQ) and the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG). Closing date for comments is 8 December 2008. The draft paper will be available by March 2009 and there will be wide consultations on the draft, including meetings in each state. National Geography Curriculum, October 2008.”

cheers Martin

HI all,

I have just revamped my Top 13 Web 2.0 Tools – what are yours?

13 Web 2.0 Tools

by Martin Pluss

1. Cloud Computing – Google Account
2. Twitter
3. FriendFeed
4. Slideshare
5. Facebook
6. Google Reader
   
7. www.del.icio.us
8. www.flickr.com
9. www.wikispaces.com
10. www.youtube.com
11. Ning – Oz NZ educators
12. Me EDNA
    
13. www.coolrunning.com.au

cheers Martin