Politech: FC: NYC schools reportedly adopt restrictive web linking, use rules

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[This means a link to politechbot.com would be verboten since (FWIW) the 
site includes banner ads. Not to mention other news sites. --Declan]
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Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 12:20:47 -0400
From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson () realmeasures dyndns org>
Organization: Real Measures
Subject: New NYC Board of Ed. Web Publishing Policy - REALITYCHECK, please.

(Forwarded from WWWEDU list)

John Elfrank-Dana wrote:
>
> I hope everyone is having a good time at NECC.
>
> The new BOE policy for publishing web pages here in NYC is the
> following.
> 1. All schools (1100 of them) are supposed to submit their web sites
> (even those of us who have been hosting independently for years), and
> their teachers' sites to the Board of Ed. server.
> 2. A district censor is supposed to review all the material of each site
> and have it moved to the public viewing area, assuming it's in
> compliance with the new acceptable use policy, which includes no links
> to sites that have a commercial advertisement.  The censors will move
> the content along at "their earliest possible convenience."
> 3. No chats or asynchronous bulletin boards allowed!
>
> Anyone who has ever web mastered an active school or class web site that
> functions as a real communications hub for timely information and class
> dialogue should be equally dismayed as me.
>
> The policy will go in force Sept. 1.  They won't even tell us how much
> disk space we will have.  They also refuse to support FrontPage
> extensions (many of us use them to create active pages and discussions
> forums for our classes).  One practical outcome of this policy: The
> Board's AUP is in Adobe Acrobat, but I can't link for our visitors to
> download the Acrobat Reader because Adobe has ads on its site!!  2. Our
> e-books collection, which VATEA funded for thousands of dollars, won't
> work because it requires a web server on location. 3. No discussion
> boards for class discussions (protected or not).
>
> This policy was conceived by Board of Ed. lawyers and techs who are not
> now nor have been educators.  It's another slap in the face to teachers
> as professionals.  It's like the doctors under managed care who have
> lost control of their practice.  For teachers who use the Internet as an
> instructional tool, this is very heavy-handed policy.
>
> Are other districts implementing similar policies? If so, how has it
> been going?  What organizations, if any, have an interest in this kind
> of policy?  What rights, if any, do teachers have to control the content
> of their instruction?  Is this an intrusion into teacher practice?
>
> Regards,
>
> John Elfrank-Dana
> Web Master/ Social Studies Teacher
> Murry Bergtraum High School
> http://www.bergtraum.org/ushistory
> john () elfrank org




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