FunnyMonkey


Bill Fitzgerald

Bill Fitzgerald

The Best Things In Life Are Free (as in Free Speech*)

4 min read

Will Richardson talks about some useful tools in a recent blog post. While the tools he highlights are useful, a few things were left out.

A few alternatives to consider:

Will highlights Google Blog Search and Google Custom Search. As an alternative, a school or a teacher could set up a Drupal site. Add in the leech module which copies blog posts -- or other content -- into the site. Then, add in the OpenSearch module and the OpenSearch client module. The result: a class-specific, fully searchable aggregation of selected resources. For more info on OpenSearch, click here.

Will then proceeds to highlight Vox. In his post, Will appears to laud the "fairly unobtrusive ads." However, the bulk of what Vox offers existed well before the launch of Vox in either Elgg or Drupal. Both Elgg and Drupal offer granular control over content, and neither require students have advertising intruding into their learning space.

As I have mentioned before (and, from the looks of things, will doubtless have to again :) ), there is a hidden cost to free services. I would love for a teacher/consultant to walk into the office of a school administrator and say, "I'm entering an entire seventh grade class into a marketing survey. Whenever they blog, talk with their peers, or express an interest in a subject, this behavior will be recorded -- without their knowledge -- and sold to marketing firms to help advertisers target kids more effectively." Because, if you read the privacy policies for most "free" services, these policies explicitly state that they are collecting information about you and your online habits. From the Vox privacy policy:

Advertisements appearing on the Six Apart Site, Product or Services may be delivered to users by Six Apart or one of our Web advertising partners. Our Web advertising partners may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad servers may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This privacy policy covers the use of cookies by Six Apart and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Six Apart does not share any personally identifiable information with advertisers. Six Apart may share general demographic information (such as aggregated statistics about members' interests and occupations) and non-personally identifiable information (such as browser type and IP addresses) with advertisers and partners. Six Apart does not give advertisers access to your individual personal account information. However, by selecting, interacting with or viewing an ad you are consenting to the possibility that the advertiser will make the assumption that you meet the targeting criteria used to display the ad.

To break this down: Six Apart advertises to you. People pay Six Apart to advertise to you. All of these advertisers set cookies that allow us to identify you. While Six Apart doesn't sell your specific identity, we do sell demographic information about you. When you click on an ad, it tells us more info, which we can both use ourselves and sell to others.

So here's the rub: Is setting up a Drupal site more complicated than creating a Vox account, or searching via Google? Absolutely. This, however, is why we have tech support. Once an organization has set these tools up, they are available for all to use. And I won't even get started on the philosophical implications about engaging in transparent learning on a system whose design is equally transparent. And, what if there was a solution that allowed schools to collaborate and use these tools together?

The thing that gets me: when eloquent advocates for educational change overlook the very tools that can truly put that change in the hands of learners. It is an unnecessary oversight. We have no business chaining educational reform to a "free" service that uses student learning to enhance marketing strategies.

That's about all for now. I'm going to spend my afternoon playing with my daughter, hanging out with my wife, and writing some college recommendations. Then, later tonight, I'm getting into testing a functioning OpenID server and a set of OpenID-enabled Moodle and Drupal sites.

* Free as in "Free Speech"

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0 stars 6 comments

Yes, it's usually better to install free, open-source software on your own server than to subscribe to several different remote solutions. This despite the fact that most teachers in America don't have access to the tech support required to do so. When OETC (an Oregon-wide purchasing collaborative) makes free Moodle hosting available to teachers across Oregon, it's a sure sign that anyone who wants Moodle in this state can have it.

Why do edubloggers tend to live wholly on one side of this fence or the other? How can Will Richardson perform a round-up of web 2.0 services available to teachers without including popular do-it-yourself solutions such as Moodle, Drupal, and MediaWiki? This is not a school funding or resource thing. So what is it?

kassissieh, Oct 29 2006 on funnymonkey.com

I don't really know -- As I see it, there is a lot to know, and a lot to keep track of. I certainly don't see anything nefarious at work here.

What I do see, however, is a need for people talking about these tools to have a better grasp of the tools they describe. As Will says in another post:
We're doing a great job of talking to each other, but at some point, we have to find ways to bring it to people who have little to do with educational technology

Will is good, IMO, at bringing the conversation to a larger audience. But, I don't think that people necessarily understand that there is a whole world of tools out there that don't get mentioned. As to the reasons why people who are recognized as experts would not provide a more complete account of all the tools available to help educators, I can only engage in empty speculation.

Although, in all fairness, Will's piece was not a full roundup of available tools.

RE OETC and their Moodle hosting -- they are doing some great work.

Cheers,

Bill

bill, Oct 30 2006 on funnymonkey.com

Hi Bill,
Thanks for the work you are doing here to articulate the wide variety of options there are out there. You are right...there are a lot of open source alternatives that we can choose from. In my work with districts around the country, I've found that very, very few districts have the tech support in place to run their own Drupal servers (or any other servers), and while there is some movement toward making these alternatives available on a larger scale, many districts just aren't able to even consider them. It is to some extent a funding issue since tech budgets (including support) are by and large being cut not grown. Certainly, I have trumpeted Moodle whenever I can, and I have mentioned Elgg many times. This latest post was simply to offer up some new tools that the community might want to consider.
Thanks,
Will

willrich, Oct 30 2006 on funnymonkey.com

Hello, Will,

Thanks for making the time to reply -- I know that, with the upcoming K12Online conference, you must be pretty busy :)

Your response brings up some interesting points -- RE:In my work with districts around the country, I've found that very, very few districts have the tech support in place to run their own Drupal servers (or any other servers)
If a district has a website (and many/most districts in the US have a web presence), then they are running a server of some sort. So, most districts are already putting resources into maintaining a web presence -- either through maintaining their own servers, or outsourcing the work to a contractor/firm. There is a good argument to be made that investing in Open Source solutions, coupled with meaningful professional development, can result in more sustainable, cost effective solutions for schools. But, one can only make that argument if one has a working knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of current Open Source tools. And, FWIW, I'd love to hear someone make the argument that proprietary tools guarantee a smooth rollout (can anyone say Blackbaud?).

RE:It is to some extent a funding issue since tech budgets (including support) are by and large being cut not grown.

Education budgets are being cut, as well as technology budgets. As I see it, these are related issues, as cuts from one area impact the other. Part of our job is to articulate the rapidly disappearing line between learning and technology that supports that learning.

RE:Thanks for the work you are doing here to articulate the wide variety of options there are out there. You are right...there are a lot of open source alternatives that we can choose from.
Really, I'm not here to articulate a wide variety of options, or to trumpet Open Source as a panacea. There are a host of Open Source tools I would not recommend for a variety of reasons. I do the work I do to support effective learning, effective teaching, and effective management of the process (aka learner needs, teacher needs, and institutional needs). For some places, a proprietary solution is a better fit -- and if someone came to me wanting a proprietary solution, I would work with them to get a consultant who could better meet their needs. However, when we get down to advocating for change in the system, it doesn't make sense to me to simultaneously advocate for change while using tools that don't scale system-wide, and work to support the status quo. And any solution that requires educators to expose students to market research/advertising as a precondition to participation (ie, the Vox solution) should be a nonstarter. Plus, from a technical place, Vox won't scale at all. Sure, it can handle a whole bunch of accounts (and all for free!), but I pity the teacher trying to set up Vox accounts for four classes worth of students, and then trying to track those posts over the course of a semester -- that's a lot of time to demand from an educator, especially when there are easier options available.

In Drupal, tracking class posts is a simple matter. Plus, if a teacher started in a Drupal site, it would be easy to add in additional classes at a later date. Then, of course, using Drupal also leaves portfolio options open, and a range of other learning/assessment options that Vox doesn't offer. And a Drupal site has a built in aggregator (and the feeds can be categorized) that can be shared publicly or kept private, so Bloglines is no longer needed. Have I mentioned that Drupal sites don't have ads?

And this really is the point. We tend to stick with -- and talk about -- what we know. This is good -- it helps us all avoid saying things that are silly. But we also have an obligation to make very clear where our knowledge ends -- that's the place where we ask for help from our fellow learners.

Thanks,

Bill

bill, Oct 30 2006 on funnymonkey.com

First, I am glad you are working on this project. Open source is always better for schools. Just look at the difference between Blackboard/WebCT and Moodle or any other content management system one cobbles together from the loose pieces of the Internet.

Second,i n a non-political world we might all adopt the tech solution you propose, unfortunately the world I live in is not filled with the geek ethic nor is it a zero sum game. What Vox offers is amazingly immediate. What it asks for is mindspace, something that schools have been ceding to software companies for years--Channel One, BusRadio, even the unholy alliance with MS. I agree that this is inappropriate for teachers to require students especially in k-12 to subject themselves to.

Third, in order for me to implement your suggestions I have to give up my afternoon and many more moments with my family. I don't want to do that and as a long-time blogvangelist and tech advocate I have discovered to my great dismay that most everyone I talk to would prefer the road most taken--Vox not Elgg.

I think Will's suggestion is legitimate and fair. I think your criticism is fair as well, but I live in a world of ever steeper learning curves, of rising expectations regarding productivity, and of accelerating rates of technologic change. To think that our problems will be solved by just learning Drupal and adding an open Search module is completely unrealistic. Do you realize how easy Vox is for a novice user? I have never seen an easier program for loading audio, video, and text. I was doing what I wanted in less than ten minutes.

Having said this I am going to invest some time in doing exactly as you suggest. I will explore what you so kindly and aptly suggested. I believe in your ideal. I just have to live in my world, too.

Terry Cecil Elliott, Oct 30 2006 on funnymonkey.com

Actually, we both need to live in that world -- RE:I was doing what I wanted in less than ten minutes.
It's an easy matter to get working in a site that is already set up. A well configured Drupal site is also easy for a novice user -- maybe not as easy as Vox, but the fact that there is even a comparison is interesting, given that Vox was built with millions of dollars of venture capital and Drupal was built largely by volunteers. FunnyMonkey is a small operation -- 2 people -- and our development is funded out of our pocket, or from client work. Yet, leveraging Open Source technology, we are able to craft solutions that help people learn more effectively. Are we (or Open Source) right for every situation? No, and I've said so on several occasions, and in this very thread. Does Open Source fit the bill in some/many cases? Yes, absolutely. That's all I'm saying, nothing more, nothing less.

RE:To think that our problems will be solved by just learning Drupal and adding an open Search module is completely unrealistic.
If only it were that easy :) Again, Google has a slight advantage in terms of resources -- they can probably roll out a more powerful solution than me. Also, I like Google -- I participated as a mentor in their Summer of Code. However, there are other options that do not involve ceding personal information into the void.

RE:Having said this I am going to invest some time in doing exactly as you suggest. I will explore what you so kindly and aptly suggested. I believe in your ideal. I just have to live in my world, too.
Do you want to work together on this? If we build this site, we could then open it up so others could use it. FunnyMonkey could provide the hosting space, and it could be a useful resource. Besides, if we build it, we can both make it so others don't have to, and, we can document the process so others can duplicate it as needed/wanted.

RE pretty to think so -- I also liked Hemingway allusion :)

bill, Oct 30 2006 on funnymonkey.com