Fiona Hyslop gets it wrong…but has a chance to put it right!

Posted on | September 30, 2008 | 5 Comments

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I attended the keynote at SLF given by the current Cabinet Secretary for Education in the Scottish Government, Fiona Hyslop. The speech was interesting without being riveting, more competent than impressive.

However, in a response to a question from Neil Winton, she made a serious error, one that betrayed a complete lack of knowledge or understanding of the issue that Neil raised.

Neil asked her about the current situation in so many schools and local authorities across Scotland in which the professional judgement of teachers is continually undermined by the intervention of filters and other so-called safety measures on our networks. Teachers who know the educational value of sites and applications find that such sites are routinely blocked by the filters imposed on networks by school and local authority sentinels. Too often these are decisions taken by network administrators who have no inkling of the educational damage they are causing by their actions.

So, what was Fiona’s response. “An operational matter,” said she – something to be taken up with headteachers and local authority managers…….

She really could not have given a more wrong-headed answer to Neil.

Thanks to J L T for the pic.

This is not an operational issue but one that cuts to the very heart of the culture of a lack of trust that currently exists in Scottish education. We do not – and have not for some decades now – trusted the professional judgement of teachers across a whole slew of responsibilities, from curriculum development to assessment, from their own training needs to, in this case, their knowledge of the Web as a rich educational resource. The capacity of teachers to choose and use the best materials they can find for the classroom is, in today’s world, seriously compromised by the irrational and anti-educational filters and security measures so routinely deployed.

Anti-educational? Absolutely – because the best and most effective way to ensure the lifelong safety of our young people in their online travels is to educate them in school on how to recognize and deal with online threats wherever they occur. This is simply not possible in the current set-up in most Scottish authorities.

Of course, I am realistic enough to know that this will not be put right merely by taking away the filters. To reach some common sense on the issues, we will have to find a way to reassure those who currently feel the need to filter that there are other, less draconian, more educational, more rational, solutions.

What we need, therefore, is a comprehensive, and resourced, programme of training for teachers, headteachers, local authority managers and network administrators, that will deliver the required levels of knowledge and understanding of the dangers and threats that exist online (including, of course, a realistic – not sensationalistic – assessment of the reality of those dangers). Where a teacher can prove that he or she has the required level of competence, they should be allowed free rein to use the Web as they decide with their classes. If teachers can be trusted to select a book to use with a class, they should be trusted to select web sites and applications to use with their pupils – but we need to recognize the knowledge gap that exists for so many teachers in this area, and deal with it.

Some of the great work being done by Ollie Bray in East Lothian on Internet Safety Training for Parents and Families points the way – but we can take Ollie’s approach much further, I believe. We need to build an even more extensive and thorough programme of training for every teacher in the country – it is that important! But the training should not simply be about staying safe online – much more importantly, it should be about giving teachers the skills and knowledge they need to be able to pass on those same skills and knowledge to their pupils. We seem to have forgetten in the current climate that we are about education – that is what schools are supposed to be about – so let’s take an educative approach to this whole issue and permit the next few generations of young Scots to grow up with an appreciation of the threats as well as the abundance offered by the Web

Fiona Hyslop, I hope, will think again about the reply she gave to Neil Winton. It was an inadequate response to a critical question, and she should find a way to come back to the issue and to begin a dialogue with the authorities, with LT Scotland and others about how this issue can be dealt with rationally and in a planned way over the next few years.

The current situation is irrational and anti-educational, and we need to change it, radically. We should not be ruled in the classroom by tabloid fears and by parental (or political) ignorance. At the moment, that is precisely where we are, for the most part.

Postscript – there was, previously, discussion about the possibility of organizing a national conference on the issue, perhaps through the good offices of LTS, involving not only people from education but also representatives of those in the IT sections across the country who maintain the current lock-everything-down situation. I t would be good to see this possibility being re-visited, and soon.

Technorati Tags: fiona hyslop, neil winton, online safety, ollie bray

Category: education, government, safety, teaching, technology

Comments

5 Responses to “Fiona Hyslop gets it wrong…but has a chance to put it right!”

Ian
September 30th, 2008 @ 5:11 pm

I would love to be involved in that national conference.
With every pupil in my school having access to the internet whenever they need too I appreciate the value of education on appropriate use. To Teachers, Parents and pupils.
At what age/ stage do you think that some sort control should be put in place?
John Connell
September 30th, 2008 @ 5:19 pm

I guess, Ian, if we accept the principle of giving kids more and more responsibility over their own lives as they get older, it ought to be a progressive thing. What do you think?
Joe Wilson
September 30th, 2008 @ 5:40 pm

Little Britain

Deschooling Society

To move learning into the community we support learners and teachers having better access to the internet in their own homes , coffee bars , airport lounges , railway station waiting rooms , public houses and public conveniences than they are permitted in schools.

and for services to educational computing .. Carol..
http://www.joecar.demon.co.uk/2008/05/little-britain-carol-sketch.html

Read in faux Tom Baker accent

Only kidding..

We just desperately need two or three systems that we can guarantee all teachers can access in Scotland – would save so much time and money..
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January 15th, 2009 @ 8:53 pm

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