how far can they go?

I've been a bit busy over the last week but I've been doing some research. It has to do with the topic that I've been thinking about recently. I'm curious as to what your opinions are on the following matter.

In the distant past, I had an issue with a student and their blog. I learned that students need to have a place to vent and have their friends chime in without having a grown-up checking in on them. Kids need to be kids and privacy is one thing that they demand as they get older.

Recently I was made aware of a situation here at school. A student wrote something on her blog about a teacher that she didn't like. Her remarks were what you would expect from a teenager - the usual bit about the teacher being horrible, dumb, and some other choice descriptions that kids are known to feel about their least favorite teachers - the usual stuff.

Well it turns out that the teacher found out about the blog and read her site. When the teacher stumbled upon the entry that said less than outstanding things, they took the issue to the director of the school. The student was called into the office, unofficially reprimanded and told to remove the entry. The student complied and then was directed to make a formal apology to the teacher. She did so and the issue is past.

But what this brings to light is the idea of free speech. The student attends a school were American values are at the forefront and one of our most treasured beliefs is the freedom of speech. I know that student newspapers around the US have battled the issue of free speech and censorship but what is the policy on blogs? Does a school have a right to enforce censorship on a student who has done nothing more than exercise their right to free speech when the blog isn't on a school site and wasn't written during school hours?

I've talked with a few people here at school on the issue and I find that there is a division. The students all feel that what was written on the blog was perfectly acceptable as each of us are entitled to our opinion. If a student wants to write bad things about a teacher, that's their opinion. The content of a blog is a personal statement and no one has the right to censor an opinion.

The teachers I talked to were a bit more divided. At what point does free speech become slander? Should a student be able to write their opinion publicly about a teacher? Shouldn't a teacher be allowed to do the same about a student? Teachers are expected to maintain a professional demeanor and not do such things - student affairs are supposed to be confidential. So since we are hamstringed from being able to talk about students, shouldn't they be required to follow the same guidelines? Or does freedom of speech allow us to write about our students? Is the student afforded some protection from the outside world when they are in a classroom? If they are, do teachers get the same protection from their students?

So what's your opinion on the matter? How far can they go? The 'they' in the question applies to student, teacher, and administration. Just what are the limits of freedom of speech, if any?

killed the flow

Well, I can see from the lack of comments on my recent posts that I have successfully managed to kill the good vibe that I had going. How bizarre that my post about the winter olympics would garner the largest number of comments of any posting on this blog and then I have managed to have my subsequent postings illicit nay a single thought-provoking idea.

What can I say, its a talent...

But I'll see what I can do about coming up with some more entertaining posts that will get you all to talk a bit more. I hope you've at least enjoyed watching the videoes that I've posted. :)

Cheers,

Expat

what to write about?

So I'm kinda struggling for a topic here. I spent the last week rolling about my house, doing a lot of nothing, and feeling good about it. It was our Crocus vacation at school and while my roommie was tromping around Prague, I spent time at home relaxing and being a single guy without any worries.

I also spent some more time on Google Video watching short and long movies. I saw a very provocative movie (shown below) about Sept. 11th called "Loose Change". Its done by a couple of filmmakers from NYC who attempt to bring to light new evidence about who was really behind the attacks on that day and what really happened. I'm not buying everything that these two filmmakers say but they do bring up some interesting arguments about the veracity of the stories that we assume to be true from those days' events.

Some of my time during vacation was also spent working on stuff that I need to do for the upcoming move to Peru and making arrangements for that. I'll get to spend a day walking around Amsterdam from consulate to consulate getting papers notarized and having people watch me sign other papers. Its all part of the fun when you're moving to another country. Shamash - you know exactly what I'm talking about, right?

Then today I made my way back to the classroom. Ahhh, a fish back in water. I never thought that I would be glad to get back to my job but the more time I spend doing my job the more that I realize how lucky I was to choose the correct profession. We are all given certain gifts and mine is dealing with teenagers who are too cool for the rest of the world - kinda like me. ;)

And now here's a little piece of conspiracy theory for ya - including the cheesy music and narration. Its about 80 minutes long so if you wanna watch, be forewarned.

piracy is good?

I found the presentation by Mark Pesce at the Australian Film, Television, & Radio School. Its been posted up on Google and my recent trend of putting video up on my blog demands that I put it up for others to see. So instead of you going to look for it, I have brought it to you. The actual presentation is about 45 minutes and then there is time for Q&A. If you've got the time to watch, its an excellent, well-thoughtout presentation about how the model of television can/will change. Enjoy.

what is podcasting?

I'm so glad you asked. The ninja has an answer for you - just like I said he did in the last post!

changing face of TV

I've become addicted to a new podcast, Ask A Ninja. You can find it on iTunes or on their blog. Its a nice bit of humor that really challenges you to follow just what the ninja says. Adult humor at its finest.

But what the creators are doing is pushing the envelope of how content is being delivered. With the growing number of households adopting broadband as their way of getting electronic information, the number of people who are getting their content on their computers is on the rise. Couple this with the ease of storing that data on external hard drives (which are really cheap) and you've got a demographic that is getting their content (shows) instantly and watching them whenever they like. I am a part of this demographic - the nerds who download stuff to watch cuz they do want to be tied to a tv.

And that's just what is happening. Ask A Ninja's goal is to start breaking down the mold of today's content delivery (mainly tv) and to get a new business model in place for the new way that content will be delivered. I remember seeing a program given about a year ago called "Piracy is Good!" that I downloaded from Bit Torrent and the gentleman's presentation talked about how tv as we know it today can/will be totally different in 10 years. If you get a chance to see this presentation, I highly suggest it.

So Ask A Ninja is trying something new with content and Bit Torrent is a new way to deliver content. How long before tv figures out that they aren't the only source for video content any more and tries to adapt? Hmmm, sounds like we are about to see the beginning of something completely different. I wonder where this is gonna go...