Facebook photo reporting misses one

There is an option to report a problem with a Facebook photo in which you have been tagged. Click on the photo and then click on "Report this photo" link below it. You'll get a pop up menu that looks like this that now includes "This photo is harassing or bullying me":

But where is the ability to report: "This photo makes me look fat"?

Not going to happen. Facebook's FAQ reads:

Facebook reviews these complaints and takes down photos as necessary. It is not a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to post a photo that is unflattering, so please don't report a photo just because you don't like the way you look in it.

Rats.

Kids need to know that they can report abuse in Facebook. Have you mentioned it to your students? Might be an interesting discussion about whether purposely posting an "unflattering" photo of someone could be considered a form of bullying. I wonder what criteria Facebook uses?

Do our technology goals need revision?

Our district has been using the same broad technology goals for over ten years. They are:

Established Infrastructure
The district will have a reliable, adequate, cost-effective, and secure technology infrastructure that supports the learning, teaching, and administrative goals of the district. 

Effective Administration
The district will use technology to improve its administrative effectiveness through efficient business practices, communication, planning and record keeping.

Extensive Resources
Technology will be used to provide the most current, accurate and extensive information resources possible to all learners in the district and community in a cost effective and reliable manner at maximum convenience to the user. 

Enhanced Teaching
All district teachers will have the technology training, skills and resources needed to assure students will meet local and state learning objectives and have the technological means to assess and record student progress.

Empowered Learners
All students will demonstrate the mastered use of technology to access, process, organize, communicate and evaluate information in order to answer questions and solve problems and to practice digital citizenship. (Last phrase added in 2010.)

And we view these in a somewhat Maslovian arrangement with the first goals needing to be met before the later goals.

Each year, we use these goals as our framework for annual objectives.

The creation of our district's long-range tech plan is a good time to review these big picture directions. Just why are we mucking about with technology in the first place? So far, our goals have stood up well, but I am thinking of asking our tech advisory committee to consider adding a sixth:

Enabled Individualization Technology will allow the timely and effective assessment of all students of local, state and federally mandated competencies with the data used to help differentiate instruction through a broad array of learning activities and resources.

An increasing amount of our department's efforts are going toward computerized testing and data warehousing and mining. The humane result of all this testing ought to be a more complete picture of each student's abilities and learning styles. In the upcoming years e-text books, course management systems, and computer-assisted learning programs accessed on personal learning devices should be provided to fulfill the promise of all this evaluation and assessment. 

It's not my favorite goal, personally, but it reflects the strategic roadmap for our district. Remember the old Arab proverb - it's easier to steer the camel in the direction it is already heading.

Other big picture goals to consider?

Burning bridges, visibility, tech mystery, and grandchildren

Here's a funny thing: I probably learn as much or more when I give a workshop that those attending learn - especially when the participants, uh, participate. The Ft. Worth area librarians last Friday were certainly a lively, involved group - and upbeat despite many library positions in jeopardy (or already gone) in the state. 

Here are a few things that the workshop got me thinking about.

Go out with a smile. If your position IS eliminated, go out with a smile. You owe it to your students, first of all, but you never know if money might be found to reinstate positions in a district. Burning your bridges might feel good at the time, but you will pay for it in the long haul. 

Move out of your office. As Gary Hartzell reminds us, visibility is a good way to build one's influence. Be seen in the hallways, do "duties," and attend happy events at your school. One of the first things I always did when moving into a new library was to move my desk out of the office and on to the floor of the library where I was accessible to kids and teachers - and visible. How many librarians do we all know whose positions were lost or reduced because they spent too much time hidden away in an office (usually cataloging)?

Technology glitches may be beneficial. I had a very weird thing happen while showing PowerPoint slides using my Mac Book Air and the building's projection/sound system. Whenever a mainly white slide was on the screen, an audible hum came from the sound system. When I returned to a darker color slide, the hum went away. Thankfully I only had a few mostly white slides, but it hummed on each white slide. Any clue why this may have happened? One of the ironies of a technology glitch during a presentation or workshop is that I always have someone come up afterwards and say, "I am so glad to know this happens to the experts as well as the rest of us. I feel better now!" Maybe I should build a glitch into every presentation.

Play up the grandchild card. I don't know anybody who doesn't sacrifice in some way for their children. I don't know anybody who wouldn't doubly sacrifice for their grandchildren. I'm sorry but I am not concerned about libraries continuing into the future because librarians need jobs. I want libraries to continue so grandsons Paul, Miles and Theo get puppet shows, story times, research skills and technology access. Here's my new fantasy rule*: Legislators are required to send their grandchildren to the public schools they fund -  no exceptions.

* Old fantasy rule: Legislators cannot mandate a pass rate on a test that they, themselves, can't meet.