Time Didn’t Mean “Me”
December 20th, 2006 by Christopher HarrisWith every blog post about Time’s announcement of “You” as the person of the year, sadness grows within me. While “you” may have won this great honor, they certainly cannot have meant to select “me” as the person of the year. And so every additional bit of coverage only deepens the resentment over having been left out of this bit of national recognition.
The problem is that when it comes to “me” the definition of “we” falls flat.
We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software (Time).
When it comes to “me” as a professional, the place where I spend the majority of my waking hours is rather not “we.” Or, perhaps it is a bit too “we” – but the “we” that schools have created to mean “us in the corner twiddling our thumbs and pretending that the Internet doesn’t exist.” See, for me, Facebook is forbidden. Second Life is shut down. Amazon reviews are avoided. Podcasts are against policy. Blogs are…well…banned just might not be strong enough of a word. The word that springs to mind is demonized. So how, then, could Time possibly have meant “me” when they named “you” as the person of the year?
December 20th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
“Blogs are…well…banned just might not be strong enough of a word. The word that springs to mind is demonized.”
So Infomancy is, what, chopped liver? It sure looks like a blog. And it doesn’t seem to be anonymous. The domain even appears to be (formerly?) associated with your place of work.
I’m confused. But then, it’s the holidaze.
December 20th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Infomancy would be my “personal” professional blog. It is not, nor has it ever been, in any way connected with the organization where I work. Schoolof.info was formerly a blog site for the University at Buffalo School of Informatics. The organization where I work does not support blogging – which is just as well as all official school web content has to be approved (in writing) by a supervisor before it can go on the web.
It is also a good thing that you left a comment here and not on your blog because Walt at Random is blocked. But don’t worry…you are in good company. Tame the Web is blocked, Shifted Librarian is blocked, Free Range Librarian is blocked, Information Wants to be Free is blocked, Librarian.net is blocked, anything at .typepad/.blogspot/.wordpress/.anyfreeblogservice is blocked…actually, it might be easier to list the ones that aren’t blocked (yet). Luckily Infomancy is one of the ones that isn’t blocked.
Most of the districts that we provide service to are also blocking all of the blogs listed above as well as all access to any blog service providers. We are working on a way to offer Wordpress MU or something to the schools, but are running into some policy issues.
Trust me that when they say “you” that are certainly not referring to most K-12 schools.
December 28th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Maybe you should just carry TorPark on a USB stick?
December 28th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Umm…or I could use Psiphon, but I rather like my job and don’t want to get fired =)
December 30th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Well, with all due respect, I sense that the point is being missed here. I believe Chris is saying that our schools are missing a great and relevant teaching opportunity. Instead of teaching kids to use and create blogs, podcasts etc responsibly, schools (mostly IT directors) are simply blocking the sites in the schools. It makes their jobs easier. They get fewer phone calls from concerned parents. Kids don’t see online the “bad” words they hear on the schoolbus. The illusion being created is that kids are being protected. Instead, kids are losing out on an opportunity to develop skills of evaluation, analysis and creativity that they so desperately need to compete in a global economy.
Innovative and proactive educators in schools who are trying to teach kids the right and wrong ways to use social networking technologies are being “put in their place” by IT directors who have either been given too much authority or who have simply taken it. Kids are losing out. They are not included in the wave of content creation that is lauded in Time magazine. Whether you agree with Time’s assessment or not, kids are being left out because of what I believe are misguided policies at the administrative levels.
My 2 cents.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:45 am
To add to the mess, what students cannot access at school, they do access at home or at the public library, potentially without the kind of supervision they would have in a school. (Us public librarians try our best, but we cannot act in loco parentis although some parents expect us to).
That said, have you handed a list of sites you think you should have access to and why to your tech people? I know its a drag to have to ask for this stuff, but if you need it and don’t have it, you ought to ask for it.
January 3rd, 2007 at 12:17 am
Hurrah. I too work in a school as a librarian. Fortunately I am in an elementary environment, which means my patrons are thrilled just learning how to use the OPAC. The last time I worked at a high school library was during student teaching three years ago, and every day I went home depressed. The quality of the “research” happening there was appalling. “There are ten ways to get the information you need, but I can’t show you any of them. Hope you have access and skill to do it on your own at home! Good luck.” We were even locked out of the databases provided by the state library. Information age, here we come.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
[...] Time Didn’t Mean “Me” (Infomancy) [...]
December 12th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
[...] Chris went off on a rant because See, for me, Facebook is forbidden. Second Life is shut down. Amazon reviews are avoided. Podcasts are against policy. Blogs are…well…banned just might not be strong enough of a word. The word that springs to mind is demonized. So how, then, could Time possibly have meant “me” when they named “you” as the person of the year? [...]