Scenarios 2.0

When doing ethics workshops, one of my favorite activities is using short scenarios with a few discussion questions. As the poster above suggests, you really can "tell" people what values they ought to have, but you can help them clarify their thinking about them. Good discussions usually bring up consequences of actions and suggestions for appropriate behaviors. These work with both adults and kids. Especially kids.

My book Learning Right from Wrong in the Digital Age uses scenarios as its core. (The handouts for my ethics workshop have the scenarios as well.) Anyone is welcome to use them.

That being said, the book pre-dates Web 2.0 and I need to create some additional situations for discussion revolving around the read-write web. I've done the three below

• Lisa posts photographs from recent party that involved drinking on the FlickR website along with a really funny video of kids making out on YouTube.
  
• Adele “meets” Frank, who shares her interest in figure skating, on MySpace. After several conversations in the following weeks, Frank asks Adele for her home telephone number and address. Adele likes Frank and gives him the information he asked for.
  
• Bob feels his teacher treated him unfairly and creates a “Kill This Teacher” blog that invites other students to submit “creative” means of harming teachers in his school.

For each I would use the following discussion starters:

• What is the unsafe or unethical action?
• What harm might it cause?
• How would you counsel/guide those involved?
• Similar incidents?

I'd love have Blue Skunk Readers suggest other scenarios, especially based on recent experiences they have encountered with students using newer tools on the Web.

My experience tells me that the scenarios that work best are:

1. Short - not more than three to five sentences
2. Somewhat ambiguous - no ages, for example
3. Based on real occurrences

That's it! Give it a try. It's fun!

OK, this is a little like Tom Sawyer and the whitewashed fence. But it's worth a shot.

The Blue Skunk Seal of Approval

This year at NECC I was directly approached by lots o' product vendors who wanted my involvement with their product - to try it, to serve in an advisory capacity, to promote it in my talks or writing. I am flattered, more than a little surprised since I am small fish in the ed tech pond, and a little uncertain about how to handle such requests.

To the credit of at least a couple vendors, they took the time to attend my session on "Policies for the Social Web" and scout out my online offerings to make sure we were philosophically aligned. This saves time since I am not impressed by limiting technologies - overly ambitious filters, monitoring software, integrated learning systems, etc.

But I am excited about some social networking tools that operate in a "walled garden" environment. These products offer many of the same benefits and experiences of common Web2.0 tools, but security through limited access and monitoring is a part of the design. I believe Gaggle.Net is the prototype for this approach to offering students a "safe" means of communicating online.

What I am trying to do is figure out what my personal guidelines ought to be concerning endorsing or even mentioning commercial products on the blog or in my talks. These are what I've followed so far:

• I will not endorse or mention a product (at least without a heavy-duty disclaimer) which I don't have experience using in our district. This is important. While the product itself might look very cool, it's only through experience that one learns about little things like support, compatibility, bug fixes, situational customizations, and unintended consequences of use. (Yes, we use and like Gaggle.Net.)
  
• I will not accept any form of remuneration for reviewing or writing about a product. (Exception listed below.) This includes trips, gifts, cash, cars, call girls or dictatorships of small countries. Not that any of these things have actually been offered to me.
•  I don't take paid advertising on my blog or website.
• I don't wear t-shirts, baseball caps, or underwear with corporate logos. (I do have a hip flask with the ALA logo on it, however.)
  
• I do write "blurbs" for books and/or products that I've actually read or used and liked.
• I try to keep my recommendations my personal recommendations  - not the school district's.

I suppose there are other guidelines I should set for myself. That readers trust my objectivity is important to me.

Now there is one big caveat to all of this. If the price were right, I would probably say just about anything. I am thinking $100K would pay off the mortgage, allow me to fill up both family motor vehicles at the same time, and get the LWW that new garbage disposal she's been pining for. Cool.

There is an old joke about a man who approaches a woman in a bar and offers her a staggering amount of money if she will sleep with him. She accepts. Then the man offers her five dollars if she will sleep with him. The woman responds, "Just what kind of a woman do you think I am?" The man responds, "I think we both know that. We're just negotiating the price."

 I suspect it's good for my professional reputation I work in education where the profit margin is so small that the temptations just aren't that tempting...

What needs to be added to my endorsement guidelines?

Is enforcing common courtesy a bad thing?

This came in my e-mail the other day:

Hi Joyce and Doug,

...ProQuest will be making a montage of events at NECC and so has a camera crew retained and able to come to the breakfast. ProQuest has offered to video the talking portions of the breakfast, and that would be YOU both!

Peggy thinks it would be useful to have the video segments to use later to promote the SIG, etc. I believe SIGMS also plans to video the Forum later in the day. So, please let us know if you are okay w/being videod. Thanks much.

Paula Farley Jackson, Associate Publisher, Linworth Publishing

My reply:

I am OK with video provided you only shoot my good side and I NEVER have to watch it.

Doug

Now, was that so difficult?

There were some feathers ruffled by ISTE when it ordained that at this year's NECC "full video/audio" capture of sessions was not permitted without the written permission of both the presenter and ISTE.

This rule is only asking attendees to exhibit a little common courtesy. A pity that what seems like a simple polite behavior, asking permission, must be mandated.  I can certainly understand why presenters may prefer not to have their efforts video or audio-taped given the technical quality of some of these amateur recordings. There may be presenters for whom presenting is their livelihood for which such broadcasts may cut into their earnings. If such a rule is not in place, presenters need to know going in that their sessions are basically thrown into the public domain with or without their permission. And hey, maybe some people just plain don't like being recorded for whatever reason. Maybe you have a big zit on the end of your nose that day and it's not how you want others to think of you. Whatever.

Should permission from ISTE be required? For recordings of full sessions, I think so. No videotaping rules have long been announcement at concerts and theater events. How different is a keynote? Might educators who listen and view recordings of conference events never actually feel moved to attend NECC in person and so miss out the the powerful F2F networking there? ISTE members, NECC is indeed a revenue generator for the organization. The profits from it help keep your membership dues low and services high. I personally don't believe pocasting would have a negative impact on revenues for the conference (just the opposite, I am guessing), but if it did, the membership would feel the hurt.

Hopefully this issue will be resolved well in advance of the 2009 NECC conference with guidelines that respect both the rights of the attendees, the blogosphere, and the presenters. More reasoned discussion and less knee-jerk reaction by both bloggers and ISTE would be helpful in creating such guidelines.

Miguel, lighten up.  Cathy, think again. ISTE staff, don't be wimps.

Oh, for the record, I've never turned down a request to be taped. But if I ever show up on YouTube, I might well reconsider...