Tag: school

Never Mind, It’s Not Important [en]

As the founding editor of Phonak’s community blog “Open Ears” (now part of “Hearing Like Me“) I contributed a series of articles on hearing loss between 2014 and 2015. Here they are.

You’ve read articles about this, right? How we the hearing less don’t appreciate being told “never mind” or “it’s not important” when we’re asking for something we didn’t understand to be repeated.

Since I started wearing hearing aids, I’ve had a few years to reflect on the impact growing up hearing less, first undiagnosed, then underestimated. When I see what a hard time adults sometimes have adjusting their communication habits to my ears, and that I still sometimes fake it despite my fancy cutting-edge hearing aids, I can only imagine what an impact this had on my relationships and ability to socialise as a child.

Some years ago I met up with a few girls I was in kindergarten with. It was really fun to meet them as adults, and we got on great, although we weren’t all exactly friends when we were in school together. I saw them as the “popular” girls and they didn’t seem to be very interested in me. As I was mentioning that, one of them remarked that it wasn’t they didn’t like me, but that I didn’t really speak to them or answer when they spoke to me.

never-mind-it-s-not-important

Shyness? I was shy. But now, I’m thinking I probably didn’t even hear or understand them. And, as another said, “we were five years old”.

What I’m getting at is that when you don’t hear as well as most of the people around you, you are automatically left out to some extent. You don’t have access to the same sound information as everybody else. You miss things. You misunderstand things. And when you are a child or a teenager, you will be mostly dealing with human beings who are probably not very good at taking that into account.

For many years I blamed my social difficulties as a child on being “awkward”, or not socially skilled, or not likeable, or whatnot. So yes, maybe I was a smart nerdy awkward kid, but the more I think of it, the more I’m convinced that my hearing loss played some role in there.

I’m dragging you into my childhood because I think that for those of us who grew up with hearing loss, “never mind” and other “it’s not important” responses hit right upon this sore spot of being left out. For those who lost hearing later in life, it probably hits a slightly different button, the one about losing an ability you had in the past, and not being able to function socially as you used to anymore.

There is something dismissive and patronising in “never mind”. The words being said were words I was expected to hear and understand, that others around heard and understood. They were uttered and audible-to-normal-ears, and as such made available to the hearer for an executive decision about their importance. If it really weren’t important, you wouldn’t have said it, right? And, as I like to point out to people who dismiss social media as “useless chatter”, these seemingly random and unimportant exchanges are the very ones which draw people together and create relationships.

What “never mind” says is “it is not worth the effort to give you access to this information that other people have”. It is not worth including you. And yes, I get it. You might think it’s not worth the effort.

But to me, it means a lot to feel included, to feel that I am worth the effort. Even if it’s just to get confirmation that indeed, it was nothing important.

At least I get to make that call.

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Linkball [en]

[fr] Une pile de liens, encore!

So, here’s another bunch of interesting links I’ve found and read. Again, blame Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook (and falling down the blog-hole), I’ve lost my sources for most of them. So, a big warm thanks to all the people I follow someplace or other — it’s thanks to you collectively.

W.L. Gore: Lessons from a Management Revolutionary (via johntropea): you’ve all heard of Gore-Tex, right? The company behind it, Gore, sounds very much like a “company of the future” when you read about how it is run (“self-run” is a better term).

My Family’s Experiment in Extreme Schooling: off to Russia from the US (and into a Russian-medium school…)

ZOMBIES, RUN! Running game & audio adventure for iOS/Android: on Kickstarter, a game that will make you run in real life to survive the zombie attack inside the game. If you’re trying to back the project and Amazon doesn’t let you — happens with some non-US accounts, this workaround works.

Nobody Asked For A Refrigerator Fee: how fridges and electricity killed Stockholm’s largest employer a century ago. An example of innovation making business models go bankrupt. Sheds interesting historical light on the uproar around the demise of certain industries brought on by the internet.

A Jobs Plan for the Post-Cubicle Economy: how the work world is changing, and how our migration from office to freelancing is similar to migration from farm to factory.

SEO for Non-dicks: couldn’t have said it better. Read this if you’re concerned about search result placement.

Facebook Scare: Uncheck Comments and Likes: have been trying to fight the epidemic of “please uncheck comments and likes” copy-paste madness on Facebook by spreading this article. Scoop: your comments and likes have always been visible. They depend on the visibility of the status you’re commenting or liking. Only now, you actually get to see if the status is public or not (before, you had to guess). Don’t panic. Go and review your privacy settings instead. And get ready for Timeline, which is going to turn Facebook upside-down for you, whether you want it or not. (God save us all. I can already see the wave of panic, rumors, protests and bunched-up panties that is going to hit us.)

It’s the end of the web as we know it: I keep seeing articles that remind us of the importance of owning our data. Have you noticed how you’re reading this on Climb to the Stars, on my own domain, hosted on my own server, run with my own WordPress installation? Yup.

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? Excellent article on schools and education. Failure, we needs it. Parents who feel compelled to shield their progeny from all the ills of the world, read this fast — you might be depriving them of valuable opportunities to learn critical coping skills. (This is not to say you should be a hard-hearted bastard. Find the right balance.)

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Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms (RSAnimate) [en]

[fr] Excellente explication du pourquoi (et comment) le système éducatif d'aujourd'hui est... coincé. Héritage des Lumières dans un monde qui est aujourd'hui celui de la technologie et de la globalisation: dur, dur!

This is the second RSAnimate video I’ve watched (the first one was Dan Pink) — I love them. The graphics really help you understand and remember what is being said. Watch this one, and listen to Ken Robinson explain the root problem of today’s education — it’s only 10 minutes and you will not regret it.

And when you’re done, do what I’m going to do right now: head over to the RSA YouTube channel and watch other videos.

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Ressources for Parents and Teachers (ISL Talks on Social Networking) [en]

[fr] Quelques liens, points de départ pour mes deux conférences plus tard dans la journée (parents et enseignants, au sujet des adolescents et des réseaux sociaux comme Facebook).

I’m giving two talks today at the [ISL](http://www.isl.ch/), one for teachers and another for parents, about teenagers and social networking (that the request was specifically for “social networking” makes me happy, because we’re finally moving away from the whole “blog” thing). I think we’re moving away further and further from the “internet as library” metaphor, and the “internet as city/village” image is the one that most people are starting to have.

I have already gathered many links with useful information all over the place, but I think it’s a good thing to collect some of them here for easier access. If you’re reading this not long after I posted it, you’ll find a whole series of quotes in [my Tumblr](http://steph.tumblr.com/), too.

**General starting-points**

– my bookmarks tagged [teens](http://del.icio.us/steph/teens), [youth](http://del.icio.us/steph/youth), [fear](http://del.icio.us/steph/fear), [digitalyouth](http://del.icio.us/steph/digitalyouth), [edublogging](http://del.icio.us/steph/edublogging) (click on “related tags” at the top right of each page to explore more)
– search Wikipedia for [Bebo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebo), [Facebook](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook), [MySpace](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace), etc
– search [digital youth on Google](http://www.google.com/search?q=digital+youth) for educational resources and research
– visit [Facebook](http://facebook.com), [MySpace](http://myspace.com) or [skyrock](http://www.skyrock.com/) to explore or create a profile there

**Fear of sexual predators**

This is by large the most important fear linked to teenagers and the internet. Thankfully, it is much exaggerated and no more of concern than fear of predators *offline*. Three starting-points:

– [Predator Panic: Reality Check on Sex Offenders](http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060516_predator_panic.html)
– [MySpace Banning Sex Offenders: Online Predator Paranoia](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/07/25/myspace-banning-sex-offenders-online-predator-paranoia/) (contains relevant quotes and figures from [a 2007 research presentation](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/05/11/just_the_facts.html) one can view/read in full online)
– [My Advice to Parents](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/07/25/parents-teenagers-internet-predators-fear/)

**The real issues**

You’ll see that these are much less “newsworthy” than sexual predators.

– privacy (in the sense of revealing too much about yourself or in an inappropriate context, which leads to embarrassement or social problems) — a look at Facebook privacy settings
– permanence of online media
– weakness of anonymity
– misunderstanding of how online interactions affect communication and relationships (“chat effect”, flame wars…)
– [slide-show of a presentation I gave](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2006/10/01/teenagers-and-skyblog-cartigny-powerpoint-presentation/) about the kind of mischief teenagers get upto on blogs (what I managed to lay my hands on, with screenshots — no fear, it’s pretty mild)
– intellectual property (copyright)
– necessary to move away from a model of “education through control” as everything is available at a click of a mouse (age-restricted content like porn, shopping, gambling)
– rumors, hoaxes and urban legends (use [snopes.com](http://snopes.com/) to debunk them)
– bullying and many other unpleasant online phenomenons are also offline phenomenons, but sometimes less visible to adults; the core issue does not change — if these problems are addressed properly offline, then they will also be online
– [cyberaddiction](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/03/06/technological-overload-or-internet-addiction/) is not common at all, despite what some articles might want to have you believe — unhealthy usage of the computer usually is not the problem in itself, but an element of a larger problem which needs to be addressed
– the jury is still out on [gaming](http://del.icio.us/steph/gaming) — though it’s clearly not healthy to be spending *too* much time immersed in interactive virtual worlds when you’re learning to get to grips with reality, it seems that participating in multi-player online games [can have a significant positive impact](http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/gina_svarovsky_thinking_like_an_engineer/#When:19:52:00Z) on ability to work in teams and solve problems creatively

**Other links or comments**

– [Notes of round table discussion with 4 International School teenagers from the Geneva region](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2008/06/12/lift08-david-brown-workshop-teenagers-and-generation-y/)
– [blog of “web2.0-enabled” educator Ewan McIntosh](http://edu.blogs.com/)
– [blog of danah boyd, PhD researcher on youth and digital spaces](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/)
– tip for teachers present in social networks where students are: make “public” part of profile “school-compatible”, don’t send out friend requests to students, but accept incoming ones (people outside the teaching sphere have similar issues between “personal life” and “business)
– the computer is not the only device which gives access to the living web
– [should parents spy on their kids online? (Facebook)](http://www.viddler.com/steph/videos/3/)
– a good book for parents: [Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online](http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Wired-Tweens-Really-Online/dp/0312360126)
– beyond teenagers, into business (there are many, but two pointers): [How Blogging Brings Dialogue to Corporate Communications](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/09/24/how-blogging-brings-dialogue-to-corporate-communications/), and [The Cluetrain Manifesto](http://cluetrain.com/book.html), a book that gives you the bigger picture

I will probably add to this article later on, following the requests made during the talks. If you want to suggest a topic or ask a question, feel free to do so in the comments.

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LIFT'08: David Brown Workshop — Teenagers and Generation Y [en]

[fr] Notes prises lors de LIFT'08. Workshop sous forme de table ronde avec 4 ados de 16-17 ans, étudiants à l'école internationale de Founex.

*I took these notes at LIFT’08 in February, and am only publishing them now, I’m afraid!*

*Workshop notes with real live teenagers! No guarantee as to how exact
my notes are… etc.*

Panel with real teenagers LIFT08

Four teenagers from the International School of Founex

Trying to formalize things. A bunch of themes/apps to approach this session:

Social networks, IM, Music, Video/Films, E-mail, Blogs, Niche Web2.0,
Location based, Connectivity (what hardware?), Phone SMS, Own tools,
Wow and virtual worlds… Real world.

Friends/social circle, buying/e-commerce/for free,
advertising/marketing/messages, geographical distance, homework,
privacy security personal data, organising, fragmentation

Going round the room to see who is who and what their interest in
teenagers and the net is.

*steph-note: worried that the approach here might be a little too
“adult-oriented”*

Teens (seem like a highly educated, very literate bunch, critical;
international school!):

Chloe: Facebook to communicate with teachers, a lot for school. Not a
gamer, more of a social/pictures person. Maths homework via internet
(Mathletics). 2h a night.

Luisa (?): 16 — Facebook to communicate with each other, organise
meetings, not a gamer.

Elliot: not much of a computer-user, heavy mobile phone user
(text/calling), would play games (was denied electronics until he was
12). Facebook: good way of archiving who your friends are and what
they look like — good way to communicate by replying in your own
time.

Liam: typical: video games, music (not a hardcore gamer though),
Facebook to keep track of friends (social circle online and offline
overlap). Wikipedia saves your life for homework.

Elliot: FB = great way of controlling the photos of you other people
are posting on the internet.

Liam: used to use MySpace but now really identified with Emos… so.

Chloe: used to have a skyblog, had lots of french-speaking friends. In
the international world, more Facebook. Was one of the first in her
school to have FB, as one of her best friends moved to the US and they
had it there.

ELuisa: FB really helps you keep up-to-date with people you’ve met
over the summer. With e-mail, your friendship wears out.

Liam: regular e-mail is good for attachments.

Luisa: it’s weird to have your teacher as your friend. *steph-note:
they don’t want to know too much about their teachers lives*

Chloe: concerned about providing stalker material (cleaned up and
deleted many people she didn’t really know). Didn’t realise that
everybody in the Switzerland network could see all her info — changed
the setting, and is spreading the word around her, even to her
teachers.

My parents use the internet to work/communicate (use FB e.g.) so quite
open-minded. Used to ask for her e-mail password in case anything
happened, but Chloe doesn’t really think it’s necessary.

Luisa: keeping up on FB gives you something to talk about when you go
back — you’re up-to-date.

Never considered using Skyblog as public, and parents uncomfortable.
FB: more control and privacy, feels comfortable with it.

Elliot: couple of friends of mine rejected from universities based on
their FB page.

Chloe: Rumors?

Elliot: heard that some employers now demand access to your FB page
(but could be untrue). FB information is rather light-hearted, likes
and dislikes, etc — not really the business of the school or the
employer.

My question:

– how much of a threat do sexual predators online seem to you?
– do you feel that holding back personal information keeps you safer?

Chloe: not that concerned (from what I understand), doesn’t think that
holding back information keeps her safer — weirdos can get that info
anyway. *steph-note: good for her!* Weird IM people: blocks them.

Luisa: less concerned than she feels she should.

Elliot: more concerned about internet fraud. (E-bay.)

Question: buying online?

Answer: not much (trust, likes going into shops and talking to people)

Chloe: doesn’t like the idea of paying by credit card.

Luisa: amazon++ that’s ok.

Q: concert tickets

Elliot: yeah, tickets often available only online — got semi-scammed once.

(The panel seems divided on online shopping.)

Luisa: convenience vs. safety (giving your credit card number)

Elliot: quite wary of using the credit cards he has, because he knows
he’s being tracked quite closely.

Comment: the teenagers here have little “positive” experience of using
their credit cards to counter-balance the media scare about issues
like fraud or identity theft — which can explain their general
wariness.

Chloe: her dad and her do grocery shopping online on LeShop.ch, and
she’s comfortable with that. Useful.

Luisa, Liam: really weird to go shopping for clothes and food on the internet.

Elliot: gets information in the store and order it online.

Our panel doesn’t seem that familiar with the “go in town, take
photos, post them on facebook, get feedback, buy online” method.

Luisa: more “funny” pictures from changing rooms, but wouldn’t really
put them on FB.

girls: ask opinion about shopping for clothes to offline friends with
them, but wouldn’t do it via the internet. So much more fun to do it
offline. No fun to do it over the internet.

My question: plagiarism in homework

Answer: systems in place in school to detect it, don’t do it — know
people who have gotten away with it, but this is more something the
younger grades do. Doesn’t make much sense because you can’t fake oral
presentations.

Elliot: wikipedia not regarded as a good source.

Liam: because anybody can write what they want on it.

Got to be careful with what you find in wikipedia. Experimented with
putting BS into pages just to see they could.

Music creation and writing on the computer. Picture editing.

Consensus: online doesn’t beat the real world.

Luisa: a good photographer is not somebody who’s skilled in photoshop,
it’s somebody who takes a good picture.

Some consensus here that digital art is “less” than using classical
techniques. Don’t feel “creative” in front of a computer.

Comment: you guys actually look down to things that are easy.
*steph-note: spot on*

*steph-note: interesting how fascinated we adults are to have a chance
to actually talk with teenagers!*

*steph-note: conversation is interesting but going off-topic as far as
I’m concerned (about being critical in general, having role-models).*

Elliot: technology makes it easier to be critical and determine if
what is said in a lecture is a widespread view or not, etc.

Question: do you have any role-models? *steph-note: imho badly
phrased… need to be more concrete: who do you look upto? admire?*

Discussion about music downloading. Awareness that they have the means
to buy the music they like (wealthy enough).

Luisa: “the internet isn’t the only way of spreading…(the word?)”.
Doing things for real (building a schoolroom in tanzania) has more
impact on me than buying a cow through the internet.

Not much webcam use (just Chloe, friends in the states).

*steph-note: sorry, tuning out — could have done with a break but
didn’t push for it.*

Discussion about creative commons and copyright. No perception that
photographs you find in Google are not free of rights. Seems to be a
lot of confusion about copyright regarding images/photographs.
Contrast with discourse about music downloading.

Blogs: a fashion that has gone past. *steph-note: confirms what I
thought, and also why I’m not asked in for talks in schools as much as
before. I think FB and social networking in general are “replacing”
blogs for teenagers. In francophonia though, I guess FB hasn’t taken
off, so it will still be Skyrock. But it’s called Skyrock now, and not
Skyblog…*

Less use of MSN, but Skype and Facebook.

Elliot: in the UK, Blackberry

This bunch are the student council, go on humanitarian trips, etc. Not
the most tech-savvy necessarily, but talkative!

Gambling.

Data usage: this is Switzerland! Data is horrendously expensive, and
it’s not in the culture to use it.

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Teenagers and Spelling [en]

[fr] Pour moi, la dégradation constatée de l'orthographe des jeunes a principalement à voir avec le fait que leur pratique d'écriture a maintenant le plus souvent lieu dans des espaces "non normés" (c'est-à-dire en-dehors du milieu scolaire et "des adultes", où "écrire juste" est important). Les SMS font bien entendu partie de ces pratiques d'écriture, mais son caractère "court" a plutôt comme conséquence l'apparition d'abbréviations très tôt dans l'écriture des jeunes, plus que la "perte" (!) de notions grammaticales ou orthographiques.

Here’s a case of “comment or post?” where I first commented, but now am thinking that I would rather have posted. So I’m reproducing [my comment](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/05/08/dystruktshun_of.html#comment-242922) to danah’s post titled [dystruktshun of inglesh as we no](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/05/08/dystruktshun_of.html) (I know it’s in my [comments page](http://www.cocomment.com/comments/steph) and embedded in the sidebar of the blog, but I need to remember that many of you read this blog through RSS):

> As a French teacher, [I was asked this question](http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=343901&sid=5541448) (are blogs destroying our children’s spelling?) a couple of years back. My take on it is that compared to 15-20 years ago, most of the kids’ “writing activity” goes on in uncontrolled environments. When I was at school, if I wrote, it was usually at school. With pressure to have correct spelling, or I’d have to correct it / get a bad mark. Or I’d be writing a letter to my Grandma (better check the spelling there too).

> Today’s teen spends most of his/her writing time on IM, in e-mails or text messages, or in blogs/SN. Peer pressure to “write correctly” can’t really be said to exist.

> Text messaging has brought to them abbreviations. I remember discovering (stupefied!) that one could abbreviate words when I was in 9th grade (tjs=toujours, bcp=beaucoup). Now, kids know all these — and many more “bastard abbreviations” (jta=je t’adore) that might make our older skin crawl.

> I’d say that there are two ways in which teens’ writing today is “modified” by their writing habits:

> – peer spaces (“uncontrolled” regarding “proper writing”) => funky spelling and disregard for “grammatical rules”
> – length limitation (SMS) => abbreviations

One thing I wanted to add, which is “somewhat related”, is that historically, spelling stabilised when the printing press came into use. That explains why in French (and English too, for that matter) written spelling can be so widely different from pronunciation: the oral language has continued to shift, but our spelling has remained frozen. (If I’m saying stupid things here and you know better, let me know — but as far as I remember my linguistic courses from university this is how things happened.)

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Harvard Law in Second Life [en]

[fr] Un cours de la prestigieuse Harvard Law School est en train d'avoir lieu en partie à l'intérieur de Second Life. Quand je parle de Second Life comme outil/média éducatif, c'est à des choses comme ça que je pensais. Je suis allé y faire un tour, j'ai parlé avec une des instigatrices du projet, et je compte bien essayer de suivre en tous cas une partie de ce cours, qui a lieu les lundis et mardis.

By chance, I picked up [a link to today’s RocketBoom](http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/archives/2006/09/rb_06_sep_12.html) in the #wordpress IRC channel (thanks, [twidget](http://charlesstricklin.com/)). I don’t often watch [RocketBoom](http://rocketboom.com “Popular internet video show. Pretty geeky. Funny.”), but the new presentator (en?) had a nice British accent, so I watched the whole thing.

A [Harvard Law course in Second Life](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/) caught my attention. I watched the trailer, and decided to [hop in and see for myself](http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/123/219/24/?x=400&y=400&img=http%3A//www.law.harvard.edu/programs/center_law/berkman_logo.gif&title=Welcome%20to%20Berkman%20Center%20for%20Internet%20and%20Society%20at%20Harvard%20Law%20School&msg=Berkman%20Island%20is%20the%20product%20of%20a%20collaboration%20between%20individuals%20associated%20with%20the%20real-life%20Berkman%20Center%20and%20Second%20Life%20citizens.%20Members%20of%20the%20community%20have%20helped%20landscape%2C%20enrich%2C%20and%20create%20unique%20content.%20For%20the%20purpose%20of%20the%20Beyond%20Broadcast%20conference%20%28http%3A//beyondbroadcast.net/blog/%29%2C%20we%20have%20built%20an%20inworld%20broadcasting%20center%20and%20a%203D%20replica%20of%20the%20Ames%20Courtroom%20at%20the%20Harvard%20Law%20School.). I’ve been telling people around me that [Second Life](http://secondlife.com) provides opportunities for education that we can barely yet imagine. I’m glad to see that it’s starting to happen. [Watch the trailer for yourself](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/videos/CyberOne.mp4) [10.5Mb].

Inside the Second Life lecture hall (a replica of the real Harvard one, from what I understood) I chatted a while with [Rebecca](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/2006/09/11/day-one-comes-to-a-close/) (one of the instigators!) and a student, LZ.

I learnt that the class was open to “public” ([“at large”](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/audiences/at-large/), they call it), and I’m very tempted to participate. I missed the first classes though, yesterday and today, but the [wiki](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/administration/syllabus#9_11) contains a lot of information and is supposed to give links to the lecture videos (haven’t found those, I’d be glad if somebody can point me to them). A lot of [reading material](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/course-materials/readings/) is online. They also have a [20-minute introduction to Second Life](http://cm.dce.harvard.edu/2006/01/82002/P11/index.html) but [Flock](http://flock.com) can’t find the missing plugins I need to view it. Damn!

So, anyway, had to let you know about this. I think it’s exciting!

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Reighikan Dojo menacé de destruction [fr]

[en] My judo school is at risk of being destroyed.

Le [Reighikan Dojo](http://dojo-lausanne.com), lieu cher à  mon coeur où je pratique le judo depuis une dizaine d’années, est [menacé de destruction](http://dojo-lausanne.com/sos/ “Point de départ pour avoir toutes les informations sur la situation.”).

Nous nous mobilisons entre autres en faisant signer une [pétition disponible sur le site des Amis de la Cité](http://amisdelacite.ch/).

Stage de judo by Roman

Photo: Roman

Il y a [de nombreuses photos du Reighikan Dojo et de la vie que nous y vivons sur Flickr](http://flickr.com/photos/tags/rgkdojo/).

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Blogs pour parents: notes de conférence [fr]

Reproduction des notes de conférence distribuées hier aux parents.

[en] Conference handout for the parents who listened to me last night.

Comme je l’ai fait pour les enseignants, voici les notes de conférence données aux parents d’élèves hier soir.

Aide-mémoire

Un blog, c’est un site internet facile à  créer et qui encourage une interaction auteur-lecteurs. Il est composé d’articles organisés chronologiquement que l’on peut commenter.

Pourquoi s’intéresser aux blogs à  l’école? Dans une double optique de

  • prévention: la parole publique mal maîtrisée fait courir un certain nombre de risques aux adolescents; ceux-ci sont trop souvent livrés à  eux-mêmes face à  Internet, les adultes qui les entourent (parents, enseignants…) n’étant pas assez “au courant”.
  • initiation à  un média qui prend de l’importance: rôle social, politique, économique des blogs; outil de travail et de collaboration, démocratisation de l’expression, complémentarité aux médias traditionnels.

Skyblog est une plateforme de weblogs parmi d’autres. Elle est prisée des adolescents et parfois le lieu de dérapages médiatisés. Les skyblogs d’adolescents ne sont qu’une utilisation particulière des weblogs, qui ne sauraient donc être réduits à  des albums photos en ligne ou des journaux intimes.

Le blog fait souvent partie de la sphère privée de l’élève (mis en ligne et consulté à  la maison). Cependant, il s’agit d’une publication dans le domaine public, qui peut donc avoir bien d’autres conséquences que des discussions de cour de récréation ou des affiches sur le mur d’une chambre à  coucher.

Revoir sa conception d’Internet

Près d’un adolescent sur deux a un blog! Les parents sont souvent peu au courant de ce que font leurs enfants sur Internet.

Internet n’est pas une bibliothèque: c’est un lieu hautement social, où l’on peut publier très facilement et gratuitement ce que l’on veut. Laisser un enfant aller sur Internet sans s’intéresser à  ce qu’il y fait n’est pas équivalent à  le laisser avec sa console de jeux; c’est plutôt équivalent à  le laisser traîner en ville sans se soucier de ses fréquentations ni de ses activités. Le blog n’est qu’une des activités en ligne des adolescents (parmi le chat, l’e-mail, les webcams, la consultation de sites, les jeux multi-joueurs).

Risques pour les adolescents

Voici quelques-uns de risques que peut courir le jeune blogueur:

  • problèmes avec la justice: en cas d’insulte ou d’atteinte à  l’image, une plainte pénale peut être déposée
  • problèmes avec les autorités scolaires: si le blog est utilisé dans le cadre de l’école, ou qu’il contient du matériel inadéquat directement lié à  l’école, il n’est pas exclu que celle-ci prenne des sanctions à  l’égard de l’élève
  • exposition à  outrance de sa personne (photos) et de sa vie privée: l’adolescent ne mesure pas les conséquences possibles d’une telle exposition dans un lieu public

L’anonymat sur Internet est un leurre: si on ne peut pas garantir de découvrir l’identité d’un internaute qui cherche à  la cacher, on ne peut pas non plus s’assurer que l’on restera anonyme. Lorsque l’anonymat tombe, cela peut faire des dégâts (perte d’emploi, conflits avec les proches, conséquences scolaires…).

Une fois que quelque chose est sur Internet, on en perd le contrôle. Même si le site original est effacé, un visiteur peut avoir fait une copie et la mettre en ligne à  son tour. Il y a aussi une archive d’Internet, et les moteurs de recherche gardent des copies des sites qu’ils indexent.

Quelques liens à  explorer

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Blogs et école: notes de conférence [fr]

Un condensé de la conférence que j’ai donnée aujourd’hui dans un établissement scolaire vaudois.

[en] These are the conference notes for a talk I gave today for the teachers in a secondary school.

Je reproduis ici, sans mise en forme particulière, les notes de la conférence que j’ai donnée aujourd’hui aux enseignants d’une école vaudoise.

Aide-mémoire

Un blog, c’est un site internet facile à  créer et qui encourage une interaction auteur-lecteurs. Il est composé d’articles organisés chronologiquement que l’on peut commenter.

Pourquoi s’intéresser aux blogs à  l’école? Dans une double optique de

– prévention: la parole publique mal maîtrisée fait courir un certain nombre de risques aux adolescents; ceux-ci sont trop souvent livrés à  eux-mêmes face à  Internet, les adultes qui les entourent (parents, enseignants…) n’étant pas assez “au courant”.
– initiation à  un média qui prend de l’importance: rôle social, politique, économique des blogs; outil de travail et de collaboration, démocratisation de l’expression, complémentarité aux médias traditionnels.

Limite des sphères privée-publique: comment réagir, en tant qu’enseignant, lorsqu’on est par exemple confronté à  du matériel pornographique sur le blog personnel d’un élève, hors du milieu scolaire? Média qui nous met face à  de nouvelles problématiques.

Skyblog est une plateforme de weblogs parmi d’autres. Elle est prisée des adolescents et parfois le lieu de dérapages médiatisés. Les skyblogs d’adolescents ne sont qu’une utilisation particulière des weblogs, qui ne sauraient donc être réduits à  des albums photos en ligne ou des journaux intimes.

Pistes pédagogiques

  • utilisation des blogs comme source d’information pour un travail de recherche: blogs à  thème, blogs provenant d’une autre culture, blogs témoins d’événements actuels (utiliser http://technorati.com/ et http://fr.wikipedia.org )
  • utilisation du contenu de blogs pour amorcer une réflexion sur le(s) média(s): débats, travail argumentatif, adéquation des propos qui y sont tenus, conséquences possibles pour le blogueur, racisme, respect
  • tenue d’un blog de classe à  plusieurs auteurs: comptes-rendus d’activités, résumés du travail scolaire effectué durant la semaine, rapports de lecture, narration de la vie de la classe
  • blog de projet: pour accompagner un projet indisciplinaire, la mise en place d’un spectacle, la préparation d’un voyage d’études
  • blogs de maîtres (en accès restreint, éventuellement): communication au sein et entre groupes de travail, collaboration et partage de matériel pédagogique, informations officielles ou officieuses au sein de l’établissement

Attention: en cas d’activité de publication, prévoir une charte, discuter des implications avec les élèves, éventuellement obtenir accord des parents (pour textes, photos). Veiller au spam! (Filtres, contrôle périodique…)

Les enseignants qui travaillent aujourd’hui avec des blogs à  l’école font oeuvre de pionniers. Il n’y a pas vraiment de recettes éprouvées, c’est un peu un terrain en friche… à  découvrir!

Quelques liens à  explorer

Erratum

Renseignements pris: les adolescents peuvent bien être tenus pour responsables devant la justice pour les propos publiés sur leurs blogs (plutôt que les parents).

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