Also, in a great moment of irony lost on everyone but me, I'm signed up for the council's blogging and podcasting course in July. Although it may be quite useful actually for some ideas, particularly on podcasting.
But education at the moment does have a problem. The new government framework for ICT specifically makes use of and mentions sites such as You Tube, Facebook and Blogger to illustrate the idea of ICT being all about information and communication rather than just being about the technolgy part.
Unfortunately all of these sites are now routinely banned and blocked in schools. Now you and I both know that any secondary school pupil with an ounce of brain about them with have a little grab bag of proxy sites at their disposal to try and get past the blocks.
Obviously I wouldn't know if they work as I wouldn't do that at work. Not even to test the integrity of the blocking service. Oh no. Not me.
The people who make ICT policy are a little confused by all this it seems. I imagine there are two camps in this. One side who want to try and open the whole thing up, based on the knowledge that children will freely go on these from an early age at home and wouldn't it be a good idea to try and teach them how to use these sites well and safely. And the other side, who think that China have a really good point with their Golden Shield Idea want to stop them doing anything in school that could in any way bring them into contact with the real world. These are probably the sorts of people who complain about the news being unsuitable for children. They are also known as morons in Bruton mansions.
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