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Deleting Online Predators Act - R.I.P.
elearning 2.0 writes "It looks like the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) has died a slow death. DOPA was proposed during the height of last year's moral panic around the issue of child safety and sites like MySpace. The legislation would have banned the use of commercial social networking websites in US schools and libraries which receive federal IT funding — therefore undermining much of the pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space."
e-learning 2.0 space
In any just society, whoever wrote that would swing next to Saddam, Idi Amin, and the guy who invented clamshell packaging.
Most schools already have those kind of sites banned.
"e-learning 2.0"? Is this a subset of Web 2.0?
SmashTech - No smashing of tech involved
therefore undermining much of the pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space
Banning MySpace is undermining much of the pioneering work of what?
I must be missing something.
pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space
I was mildly interested until that. Then my "pretentious, meaningless buzzword" alarm went off.
I hope they are at least leveraging their e-synergies and fully embracing AJAX and SOAP in that 2.0 space.
Finkployd
We will see it again just in time for the 2008 campaign cause theres nothing like flashing the mug shots of creepy old men across the tv with ominous music while stating that ur opponent supports child predators.
Not only is elearning 2.0 a really poor attempt at piggybacking the Web 2.0 buzzword trend, the submitter seems to have some sort of investment in it as well (look at the name). E-learning 2.0 seems to be teaching using so-called Web 2.0 sites and tools, which is a good concept, but not one that needs its own buzzword. Why not just call it online learning or online social education, as those are more descriptive? Let's lay off the stupid buzzwords (Web 2.0, E-Learning 2.0, etc).
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
WARNING: You have exceeded your buzzword quota for the day. Any future buzzword emissions will result in fines from the EPA.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
I seriously doubt banning MySpace in schools would hamper learning. WTF are the looking at that on school time for anyway? At the HS my kids go to, MySpace is already banned...and blocked. On top of that, using proxies to get around their firewall is a suspension offense.
It looks like the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) has died a slow death. DOPA was proposed during the height of last year's moral panic around the issue of child safety
What do you mean "last year's" panic about child safety? The whole "child safety" cliche is every politician's trump card. I don't think it went out of style when we began 2007.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Parents need to start financing their own kids rather than expecting the rest of us to pay for them - via taxes for the salaries of politicians to make this unnecessary rubbish up.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Although I'm strongly in favor of deleting sexual predators- either the online or offline type, DOPA just didn't do the job that it was purported to do.
... The Youth Internet Safety Survey from the University of New Hampshire... found two cases of rape/sexual assault through Internet solicitation in its two surveys covering 3,001 children ages 10 to 17. According to the FBI's criminal victimization tables' national rate for sexual assault, one would expect 7 rapes or sexual assults among such a group every year.
The folowing is stolen from wikipedia ( and abridged slightly ):
Overall, the Youth Internet Safety Survey suggested that fewer children are actually being sexually solicited online in 2005 than in 1999, hypothesizing that those who encounter solicitations knew better now to rebuff or ignore these solicitations. However, children ages 10 to 17 report more harassment and bullying online -- largely from their peers, not strangers.
Oh the humanity!
I guess all the tax credits aren't enough...American Parents can't seem to raise their children and satisfy their own lifestyle demands at the same time.
Blar.
Aside from the obvious problems with the sentence "pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space", how does banning myspace et. al. prevent learning? Are teachers seriously encouraging kids to get on myspace during class time for educational purposes?
I don't see anything wrong with banning social network sites inside school libraries. Wikipedia, Nasa, etc. are legitimate learning sites, I don't see how myspace compares to these.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
E-learning 2.0 article by Stephen Downes. Read/WriteWeb's E-learning 2.0 overview
It would have banned, by particular feature sets, social networking sites. MySpace, of course, is one of the more well-known ones that would have been affected, but there is a lot more to social networking than MySpace, and there are certainly applications of similar technology that have been applied in education that would have been banned by the act.
And why do you think I'm trying to leave? (Posted as AC for obvious reasons.)
Lord, i think i threw up in my mouth a little bit when i read that..
Looks like parents are going to actually have to raise their own children now!
I'm glad to see this worthless piece of legislation stall.
I'm still waiting for Congress to pass the Deleting Funding For Thousands of FBI Agents and Police Who Spend All Day Surfing the Web Pretending to Be a 14 Year Old Girl Act (the D.F.F.T.F.A.P.W.S.A.D.S.W.P.T.O.1.4.Y.O.G.A. of 2007 Act).
This bill, had it passed, would not have stopped at Myspace. It would have banned almost any board which had both comments and info on those posting the comments.
It would have banned Slashdot from libraries.
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
A few possibilities:
- Connecting your students with students in other states or countries studying the same thing, to look at the issue from many perspectives.
- Keeping students engaged in learning while they're at home, where they can post questions about the homework or have side discussions about things brought up in class.
- Giving students a place to post and critique writing anonymously (to everyone but the teacher).
- Making collaboration on projects and papers easier.
That's just what I came up with off the top of my head here. I'm sure that good teachers with a little ingenuity who are thinking about this stuff full-time could do better.Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Why can't there be a law like this... If you use any media to attempt to meet a minor for nefarious purposes, then you are guilty of gross criminal indecency. Leave it to the courts to decide what nefarious means, it's a good litmus test. hun? why not. The all the teachers and people doing good work have no reason to get screwed over, and the pedophiles can be put in jail. "oh Mr. Convict, Did we mention Jim was a pedophile?" Have fun in general population. You'll get everything you deserve.
Mean what you say...say what you mean.
The legislation would have banned the use of commercial social networking websites in US schools and libraries which receive federal IT funding -- therefore undermining much of the pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space.
Every time I walk into the library at my university, I have to actually force some myspace addict off the computer so I can write a paper or do actual research. The school's library has over 300 computers, and there are additional computer labs on campus too.
"undermining"!?!? What the FUCK! Would legislation to block large distractions and bandwidth wasting really "undermine" anyone's "pioneering" work on a school's IT policy and/or hardware/software?
Freespeech sure - if you really need to use myspace for school, ask your "pioneering" IT staff for special access.
While we're at it, can we please block hotmail and ebay? Most schools provide a local email account for students anyway...
So do I have this thing totally wrong? Or am I right in believing that there are some educators out there that believe government-funded schools shouldn't stop students from wasting their bandwidth? Pioneering!?!? WTF!
I'd like to see you say that to my face, buddy. I'll pop you right in the jaw. We speak English in these parts.
-- Too lazy to get a lower UID.
I agree with you, and even I rolled my eyes there. I think I speak for most of us when I say "What topic are you replying to?"
Mod parent up
Encouraging peer communication and collaboration in a learning environment? Good.
Using the fetid cesspool of MySpace, et al to accomplish it? Silly, if not completely irresponsible.
We upgraded our filtering device last summer, with the main impetus being effective blocking of MySpace. This is for several K-12 school districts. Why the hell would you even consider MySpace for education, when there's Moodle and other products you could choose?
Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the second link to find out if perhaps I am doing "e-learning 2.0" without even knowing it or getting buzzword credit for it. Early in the article I discovered the word "edublogosphere", which is pretty much my new favorite word ever.
GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!
How am I going to get laid now?
The legislation in question was just a lame attempt by politicians to buy votes by pretending to care.
The old fashioned way of creating phony My Space accounts to lure Peds and Chesters in order to Delete them the old fashioned Irish/Italian way will still be the way that works.C'mon people we have a database with addresses and pictures of threats to children at our ping! If you don't want them in your neighborhood,simply delete them yourself.It's not as if law enforcement or anyone but their families, really would give a damn if they fell off the face of the planet.
Truth as far as it will go.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
"banned the use of commercial social networking websites in US schools and libraries which receive federal IT funding -- therefore undermining much of the pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space"
How does banning social networking sites, which provide no educational benefit, hurting anyone's classroom, technology-focused or otherwise?
I don't mean to sound callous, but I expect people to do the math before having those kids. People seem to think it is their right to raise children, I say it is a privledge. If driving is a privledge in this nation, then child-rearing should be a privledge as well.
If you cannot afford to provide for your spawn, you don't get to have any.
Sorry, not very sympathetic today.
Blar.
You are suggesting that students in public school are wasting their time unless they are doing schoolwork (?) at school computers, and thus should be forced to 'get a job', perhaps flipping burgers. You add that you can't harrass or damage people via the internet.
If the first assertions are intended to annoy those of us who didn't get excellent grades, it does. The second point is hoping to annoy women, the computer literate? It is too obviously false to get folks to bite on I expect, though.
To get people to flame you back properly you need to personify the types of folks who they already dislike. I think you were shooting for the attributes: sexist, computer ignorant, tax-obsessed, conservative, and elitest. I think you went too broad - that archetype, while it exists (perhaps it has an MBA even), is not one that folks here have to deal with often enough.
Try on the tech issues... there are some subtle rifts in the community which you might be able to exploit there. The gaming threads should be a good sandbox.
Bizarre, lucas has posted previously about frustrations in Switzerland not being able to fire high-school aged techie apprentices.
This person may actually believe the things said, at least those about students.
I hear you on the driving thing.
I suppose what we really need is a way to figure out who is trying hard enough and deserves assistance, and who is just a moocher.
We put warning lables on everything...perhaps we need a law that correlates household income to reccomended quantity children. If you have more children than reccomended for your income bracket, you get no additional assistance.
Blar.
It's true - social networking sites get a lot of bad press and it's a shame that they're blocked in so many schools. Sites like MySpace can help friends stay connected, so it's too bad that everyone has to suffer when a few screwballs mess it up for everyone.