<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Perhaps VITTA can put together a position statement representative of
members views, and put it forward to various government representatives<br>
<br>
:)<br>
<br>
Margaret<br>
<br>
Brian Lennon wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:47896F2A.2060501@paradigm4.com.au" type="cite">
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
For my sins I also teach VCE Chemistry. I find since we shifted to this
type of internet access system, at least half of the chem sites I use
or I send my students to, have been excluded for reasons like they have
a conferencing area and chat rooms are excluded automatically. The
system is truly appalling. I would suggest sending emails to Rudd as an
advocate of the internet, but the federal Labor government is also on
the idiotic censorship bandwagon. <br>
I had the opportunity to have lunch with Nicholas Negroponte at the
time when Alston was the responsible minister, and was embarrassed by
the reception Nicholas got from Alston. Alston raved on about censoring
the net, passing up the chance to learn something from the head of the
MIT Media Lab. Nicholas said that an aide every so often would suggest
to the minister that he thought that they couldn't actually do the
latest thing he was suggesting. Negroponte was more bemused than
insulted but I felt obliged to apologise anyway. <br>
Wouldn't it be nice to have the occasional pollie or apparatchik with
more between the ears than cheap shots?<br>
<br>
Brian Lennon<br>
<br>
<br>
Margaret King Iaquinto wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid2917.1200180859@ozemail.com.au" type="cite">Let's
take this a step further --<br>
<br>
Who polices these policemen?<br>
<br>
On whose desk does the buck stop?<br>
<br>
Somebody has to make the decision to allow/disallow certain sites. Who
are they?<br>
<br>
One teacher who has commented to this list on a number of occasions
said that her students went to search for information about the SDLC.
And the sites were blocked.<br>
<br>
Say what?<br>
<br>
The SDLC is part of our study design.<br>
<br>
<br>
Maggie<br>
VK3CFI <br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">On Sun Jan 13 8:41 , Russell
Edwards <edwards.russell.t@edumail.vic.gov.au> sent:<br>
<br>
</edwards.russell.t@edumail.vic.gov.au></span>
<blockquote
style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(245, 245, 245); margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px;"><br>
On 13/01/2008, at 6:55 AM, Maggie Iaquinto wrote:<br>
<br>
> Yes, Russell. This all sounds like the 'Great Firewall of China'.<br>
><br>
<br>
Actually, it is a lot, lot worse than Chinese Internet censorship. <br>
Theirs is a blacklist. Ours is a whitelist. Because the internet is <br>
vastly larger than what can be practically hand-checked, it's <br>
impossible for any list to cover a significant fraction it.<br>
<br>
Actual numbers are pretty uncertain but as rough guide:<br>
<br>
Number of sites on the internet: ~100 million<br>
Number of sites allowed by the Education Channel: 200,000<br>
Number of sites blocked by Chinese Communist Party: 20,000<br>
<br>
Fraction of sites blocked by Communist Party: 0.02%<br>
Fraction of sites blocked by DEECD: 99.8%<br>
<br>
As you can see, what is left for Chinese citizens can still reasonably <br>
be called "the Internet". This is not the case for Education Channel- <br>
only provision.<br>
<br>
Russell Edwards<br>
Whittlesea Secondary College<br>
<br>
><br>
> -----Original Message-----<br>
> From: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="javascript:top.opencompose('itapps-bounces@edulists.com.au','','','')">itapps-bounces@edulists.com.au</a>
on behalf of Russell Edwards<br>
> Sent: Sat 1/12/2008 8:21 PM<br>
> To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List<br>
> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] OT Internet Access<br>
><br>
><br>
> On 12/01/2008, at 1:26 PM, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="javascript:top.opencompose('murch@tpg.com.au','','','')">murch@tpg.com.au</a>
wrote:<br>
><br>
> > Hello all. We have just changed service providers and both
staff and<br>
> > students have been blocked<br>
> > from so many sites. Staff have to get the technicians to give
them<br>
> > access to sites that they may<br>
> > want. So, we have different access rights but only on
individual<br>
> > requests. It is so annoying<br>
> > because most of the web 2.0 that I want to use is blocked.<br>
><br>
><br>
> It sounds like you might be on an Education Channel-only policy for<br>
> students, as is my school. It is a whitelist filter: everything is<br>
> blocked by default, only hand-selected sites are allowed. They
won't<br>
> answer my emails for figures but based on what I could dig up,
about<br>
> 99.8% of sites are blocked. It is appalling and by no stretch of
the<br>
> imagination should be referred to as "internet" provision. I could
go<br>
> on and on and on about why it's bad, specifically how it goes
against<br>
> VELS and PoLT and every other fashionable buzzword, and have done
so.<br>
> At my school we convinced everyone who needed to be convinced but
in<br>
> the end it comes down to liability, and the policy remains.<br>
><br>
> The EC-only policy should be officially deprecated or banned by the<br>
> department but instead they encourage it. As far as I can tell it
is<br>
> 0% driven by pedagogy, 0% by genuine concern for student welfare,
and<br>
> 100% legal backside-covering. Both the Department and principals/<br>
> schools/technicians are trying to duck liability. Maybe IT teachers<br>
> should encourage parents to take a class action against the
Department<br>
> for *not* providing proper internet connectivity. That might shake<br>
> some sense into them.<br>
><br>
> Russell Edwards<br>
> Whittlesea Secondary College<br>
><br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edulists.com.au"
target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">http://www.edulists.com.au</span></a>
- FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe<br>
> IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by<br>
> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce%2Fstudies%2Finfotech%2F"
target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce/studies/infotech/</span></a>
<br>
> itapplications3-4.html - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment <br>
> Authority and<br>
><br>
> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vitta.org.au" target="_blank"><span
style="color: red;">http://www.vitta.org.au</span></a>
- VITTA Victorian Information Technology <br>
> Teachers Association Inc<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edulists.com.au"
target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">http://www.edulists.com.au</span></a>
- FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe<br>
IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce%2Fstudies%2Finfotech%2Fitapplications3-4.html"
target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce/studies/infotech/itapplications3-4.html</span></a>
- Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vitta.org.au" target="_blank"><span
style="color: red;">http://www.vitta.org.au</span></a>
- VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc<br>
)<br>
</blockquote>
_______________________________________________ <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.edulists.com.au">
http://www.edulists.com.au </a>
- FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe <br>
IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce/studies/infotech/itapplications3-4.html%20">http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce/studies/infotech/infotechindex.html
</a>- Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.vitta.org.au">
http://www.vitta.org.au </a> -
VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc<br>
<pre wrap=""><hr size="4" width="90%">
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.0/1216 - Release Date: 9/01/2008 10:16 AM
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
_______________________________________________
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.edulists.com.au">
http://www.edulists.com.au </a> - FAQ, resources, subscribe,
unsubscribe <br>
IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce/studies/infotech/itapplications3-4.html%20">
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.auvce/studies/infotech/infotechindex.html </a>
- Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.vitta.org.au">
http://www.vitta.org.au </a> - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
Teachers Association Inc</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Margaret Lawson
Educational Technologist
Training * Workshops * Ideas
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:margaret.lawson@konstantkaos.net">margaret.lawson@konstantkaos.net</a></pre>
</body>
</html>