ALA gets it - finally

The digital environment offers opportunities for accessing, creating, and sharing information. The rights of minors to retrieve, interact with, and create information posted on the Internet in schools and libraries are extensions of their First Amendment rights. "Minors and Internet Interactivity: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights," ALA 2009

Information retrieved, utilized, or created digitally is constitutionally protected unless determined otherwise by a court of competent jurisdiction. These rights extend to minors as well as adults - Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks, ALA 2009

I will admit that I empathize with the folks who tote firearms to town hall meetings and who post anti-abortion billboards along highways. Now I don't necessarily agree with their causes, but what I do recognize is the strength of their passion - that if one truly, deep down inside feels strongly about an issue, one ought to do something about it.

Being principled is a tricky thing. Too rigid and screed-producing, one doesn't look just real bright. Too open-minded and willing to compromise, one looks academic and wimpy. There may just not be a happy medium when it comes to the degree of fervor one brings to an issue.

Anyway, my passion lies with advocates for intellectual freedom, espcially for kids. It's probably the one issue I still strongly enough to fired over "the principle of the thing." Students cannot get a education without ready access to a diversity of viewpoints. There is a difference between education and indoctrination.

SO it was great to see messages like this in my inbox a few days ago:

Hello,

During the American Library Association Conference in Chicago in July, the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) worked on the following documents and all have relevance for school library media specialists:

• Minors and Internet Interactivity: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (new)
• Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (new)
• Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (revised)
• Labeling and Rating Systems: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (revised)

All the documents were approved by ALA Council on July 15, 2009 and can be located in alphabetical order at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/statementspols/statementsif/interpretations/default.cfm.

Helen Adams, ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee member

Yes, I'm a big time complainer about ALA's OIF dealing with print only and ignoring digital censorship. Here for example is a more modest rant:

The school library field divides itself pretty cleanly and clearly between the children’s/young adult lit people and the research skills/technology people. And to a large extent, the lit people are in control.

The Nov/Dec 2007 issue of AASL’s Knowledge Quest is a telling example. I was very excited to learn that the theme was “Intellectual Freedom 101.” But I was very disappointed in reading it to find that the majority of the issue was devoted to book challenges – not Internet censorship and filtering problems. What does this say about the librarian’s role in technology integration when we still seem to be more concerned about a few cranks wanting to strike a couple fiction books from our shelves than we are about an entire generation of children losing access to a broad range of online information sources and tools? The teachers I talk to don’t worry about kids getting access to Harry Potter, but to Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs and wikis.  HFE Column

So it is wonderful to know that ALA is addressing this concern. It will keep me a (high) dues paying member of that cranky-old-lady of an organization for a while yet. I know of no other group, with exception the ACLU and NCTE, that is willing to advocate for children and young adults' right to information. ISTE certainly isn't in the game on any moral issues.

Thanks, Helen, and your ALA group! Thanks for working on behalf of students.

Source: dominiqueng.co.cc/blog/?p=2138&cpage=1

Anything you tweet may be held against you

From You have the right to remain silent..and tweetless, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 20, 2009:

"Any thing you say, tweet, blog or post can and will be used against you" in the court of public discourse -- and that includes potential legal challenges.

"People tend to use Twitter and Facebook as if they were engaged in casual conversation and think they don't create legal risk; they are wrong," said William McGeveran, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who focuses on digital issues. "They don't realize their statements are public, archived and searchable."

The rest of the article is worth reading and sharing with staff and students.

So for those of you plotting your next bank job, assassination or extra-marital rendezvous, just use the phone like I do.

Shameless self-promotion department

While I certainly remember sweating over it last winter, I just never checked to see if Saywire had ever made the white paper I wrote for them available. But what do you know? Here it is: Connections for Learning, 2009. I've read worse, I guess.

That, in combination with the guidelines I've been working on with Jen Hegna, suggested that the topic of the smart use of (social) networks might be of interest to conference goers and the subject of a new presentation. So, here are my three (new) 2009-10 presentations/workshops:

Change Your Image: 13 Simple Tools to Alter Digital Photographs

While much of the appeal of digital photography is in being able to edit images, Photoshop is a program that just takes too long for most of us to learn. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with images -- thanks to some easy-to-use online tools. Learn 13 simple program features and websites that allow you and your students to manipulate, change and use digital photographs. Create posters, customized images, and other creative products. Fun even for the beginner.

To Friend or Not To Friend: A Guide for Teachers Using Social and Educational Networking Sites

Should you friend your students on your Facebook page? Will writing a blog cost you your job? What expectations should you have of your students who discuss issues on your class Ning? Learn some practical guidelines for using both social and educational networking tools that will both improve your teaching and prevent possible problems with your administration.

Change from the Radical Center

While the Radical Center political movement has been around for thirty years, I suggest that leaders in educational technology and school library media programs adopt a similar view on hot button topics. While polarized views of reading methodologies, filtering, DRM, Open Source, copyright/copyleft, constructivism, e- books, computer labs, fixed schedules, Mac/PC/Linux, and the One Laptop Per Child project all make for entertaining reading and a raised blood pressure, radical stances rarely create educational change or impact educational institutions enough to change kids’ chances of success. This presentation suggests 10 principles to follow from the Radical Center of Education that will actually result in positive change.

On a related note, it's tough dropping old presentations from my oeeuvre. They are like old shoes - comfortable, familiar, reliable, and still (I think) with value since I do update each regularly. But I did whack a few. I do believe Guy Kawasaki when he advises:

Kill the cash cows. This is the only acceptable perspective for both intrapreneurs and their upper management. Cash cows are wonderful—but they should be milked and killed, not sustained until—no pun intended—the cows come home. Truly brave companies understand that if they don’t kill their cash cows, two guys/gals in a garage will do it for them. Macintosh killed the Apple II: Do you think Apple would be around today if it tried to “protect” the Apple II cash cow ad infinitum? The true purpose of cash cows is to fund new calves.

He's right, but it's hard to kill your cow if you've named her Bossie.