Learning with the Fang

In keeping with Al’s desire to ‘embrace this (closure of MiniLegends blog) as an opportunity’, I will try to update this post with summary information and facts that can help Al, his school and DECS move in a forward direction. The issue has clearly struck a nerve, resulting in an outpouring of emotional support. It is my hope that this post will collect some facts, provide some dispassionate analysis and strategies that will help education take at least one step toward catching up with technology and the read/write interwebs.

Strategy 1 – Questions and Answers:

These are my ’straw-man’ suggestions to get the ball rolling. Feel free to attack them, I will attempt to synthesize the best suggestions.

• What could the teacher have done better to prevent this?
• What is the first improvement the teacher should make after the dust settles? [Define an action that would give a parent with a complaint a greater sense of power / being heard]
• What could the school have done better in handling this?
• What is the first change the school should make after the dust settles? [An escalation mechanism that can quickly bring together parties involved - especially the teacher and the department]
• What could the department have done better in handling this? [Take a more granular approach to the 'close pending investigation' edict - for example, remove/hide the blog POST that caused contention]
• What is the first change the department should make after the dust settles?

List of resources coming out of comments to Al’s closure page:

Kids response to another blog closure (via learning is messy – Brian Crosby)
Bloggers contract, letter sent to principals on blog project (via dogtrax)
DECS (2004) guidelines (via Pru)
Wikinews article (via alexanderhayes)
Stephen Downes ‘Black Monday‘ summary & cachery (via OlDaily)
One parent not happy with closure (Parent of Mini Legend – #148)
Wiki containing a collection of detailed responses & some more resources.
- Including:
Podcasts

• Alec Couros’s EC&I 831 course conversation on the Al Upton Situation can be viewed on Ustream here.
• Podcast interview Extraordinary Everyday Lives #044 : Al Upton and the miniLegends
• Live Conversations with Classroom 2.0 – recordings are located audio link, video link and chat link
• Ed Tech Crew 36 – Podcasts, Flickr, Mashups & Minilegends

Fang – Mike Seyfang

technorati tags:seyfang, mikeseyfang