Monday, 6 March 2006

Blog threats

Bluefluff has this - so read it here. I hope Ang picks up on it too because I can imagine here take on it! Go to Bluefluff's piece and follow the links from there - be prepared to suspend disbelief, this is happening now, today, in the United States.

Posted by Nogbad at 01:12:00

17 careful considerations:

kat said...

They have probably been reading things like this and hit a panic button: The Register

Monday, March 06, 2006 11:27:00 am
Rob said...

This is finger in the dyke stuff - blogs are unstoppable...
BTW, the curse of City has struck again - City beat you, and you get sacked: first Souness now McCarthy.

Monday, March 06, 2006 2:24:00 pm
Nogbad said...

It's back to the old truism that the Internet deals with censorship by routing round it. Bloggers in Iraq, Iran and China get through so it's silly to think that the States will fare any better in the long term.

Re the curse of City: Think that the League Cup has saved Taggart or will he suffer if the next derby goes our way? :-) I think Sunderland have treated McCarthy badly - who will they get next? I've seen they want O'Neill but I think they've got more chance of signing my mum as manager (and she won't move out of Manchester and won't drive further than Salford so training could be tricky). They are a basket-case and the board have sacked the last three managers, McCarthy hasn't set the world alight but none of them would be classed as bad managers (Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson) - I wonder if they could tempt alan ball (soccer legend) back to the game?

Monday, March 06, 2006 2:36:00 pm
kat said...

Can you supply the links? All I get if I try to go to Bluefluff's page is 'You are not authorized to view this page'

Monday, March 06, 2006 4:27:00 pm
pal said...

They've got to her too!

Monday, March 06, 2006 4:33:00 pm
bluefluff said...

No idea why my blog is offline - I can only access the editing page if I'm logged in (not the blog itself) & there's no setting I can see to alter.
Spooky!

Monday, March 06, 2006 4:41:00 pm
kat said...

Ang's page has gone too.

Monday, March 06, 2006 4:43:00 pm
bluefluff said...

I've moved the post to my course blog.

Monday, March 06, 2006 4:49:00 pm
kat said...

Thanks Bluefluff. Just goes to show how the Internet wins through. When we can't get you on your own blog we just need to come through Nogbad's. :-)

Monday, March 06, 2006 5:07:00 pm
bluefluff said...

Blogger Status is acknowedging it now (there was nothing earlier).

Monday, March 06, 2006

Some users are currently getting "403 Forbidden" errors when viewing their blogs, and "Permission Denied" errors (or variations thereof) when publishing. We're restarting some machines right now and things should be working again very soon.

Posted by Graham at 08:45 PST

Monday, March 06, 2006 5:57:00 pm
methel said...

as Kat says, Nog's a jolly useful bod keeping his links up to date - I've been accessing Bluefluff's site that way for ages - it never fails, unlike the direct route!

but, my real point is - this has been happening for a while all over the edublogging world - Josie Fraser has most of the stuff on her blog:
http://fraser.typepad.com/edublogs/
or check out James Farmer's bitter expereinces on his blog at:
http://www.incsub.org/blog/

There are already many local authorities in the UK (and elsewhere) who block access to blogs and a lot of other stuff simply 'coz they don't understand what is/isn't going on and are 'kneejerking'. A school librarian in my part of the world told me recently that in their library kid's can surf the net for projects but they have blocked everything except three recommended sites per member of staff and no-one is allowed to make web pages, write blogs 'or anything dangerous'...

Monday, March 06, 2006 8:15:00 pm
kat said...

Yes, blogs are blocked in some UK schools but the kids are blogging from home, without adult support. Absolutely crazy.

Monday, March 06, 2006 10:14:00 pm
bluefluff said...

Methel - I can't find this stuff on Fraser's or Farmer's blogs... any chance of a specific posting URL?

Monday, March 06, 2006 10:27:00 pm
Nogbad said...

Dur. How do schools think they can control this? It's out there, it's part of life. Many children have web access at home and it has to make more sense to teach children how to use the web than pretend that they are "safe" if the school blocks it - I'm probably being dim but my children are as aware of the web as they are of how to cross the road safely, innit the same?

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 3:12:00 am
methel said...

bluefluff - sorry - was in a bit of a hurry when I posted that last comment. James's story is here: http://incsub.org/blog/2005/
edublogs-being-blocked

On Josie's site a lot of info about all the issues in and around kids and internet access is in her postings of 20/12/05 and 22/12/05.

Nog - exactly - so how come the plot was lost?? seems to me this loss of plot, or inability of so many to see it, is almost more dangerous than anythign kids might find on the net. Somehow I keep thinking of the emperor and his 'clothes'...sigh.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 6:35:00 am
kat said...

Not the same thing but take a look at this post re school photos. How does all this fit in with the governments idea that the schools should become the centre of the community? This sort of thing needs to be looked at and discussed. I think it is all going way over the top and schools are at a point where they are shutting themselves and the children off. I don't think I want them to be the centre of my community because the day that happens it will be a criminal offence to take photographs or own a blog. Schools are placing a lot of restrictions on adults and I don't want to be under those restrictions. The school / home agreements seem to be little more than - This is what we are telling you. I don't have all the answers but I think, as we all seem to be saying, they have got to concentrate on teaching children how to look after and protect themselves rather than preventing them from doing anything.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 12:23:00 pm
Nogbad said...

Nog - exactly - so how come the plot was lost?? seems to me this loss of plot, or inability of so many to see it, is almost more dangerous than anythign kids might find on the net. Somehow I keep thinking of the emperor and his 'clothes'...sigh.

Of course if I knew the answer to that I'd be sitting in an ivory tower somewhere sipping pink champagne and eating peeled grapes while engaging in delightful discourse with like-minded people!

Whenever people start on me about the dangers of the Internet with regards children I ask if they allow their children to go into a library. Any decent library will stock books with the same (or similar) ideas as those available on the web, if anyone wants to truly horrify themselves or their children give them "The Diary of Anne Frank" or "QB VII" or Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" or any number of other books about how inhumane humans can be. We teach our children how to approach these books and these subjects but we have to rach a stage where we let them leave the nest and go it alone. I think we do that, in part, based on our own experiences as readers but many people (teachers, parents, school governors, LEA officials) don't have the Internet experience to draw upon in supporting children as they learn to "read" on the web. We're at a critical stage, I think, because the Digital Generation is still being taught (and parented) by the Digital Naives - this is where decisions will be made that influence the direction of the wired world because we have to make sure we inculcate children with valid values about how they use the web in the way we were nurtured in the way we use printed media. I'm one of the world's biggest optimists so I think that whatever happens we will make it work but I do wish we could do more to teach teachers and parents about the web so that they can make critical judgements rather than being led by a tabloid agenda.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 2:14:00 pm

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