Education
Education
What’s in a name? Ask ICANN and Twitter.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 09:45What do Martin Luther King, Jr., Glenn Beck and Chris Donovan have in common? Each of them have websites using their names in a critical manner.
Recently, I read about the website entitled Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990 dot com. In early September, Matthew A. Kaplan and Al J. Daniels, Jr., attorneys for Mercury Radio Arts, Inc and Glenn Beck submitted Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) complaint against the domain.
The Citizen Media Law Project has an excellent article about the complaint, including a link to the response to the complaint. Not only does the response explain why Glenn Beck’s complaint is without merit, it is a good background on UDRP complaints, free speech issues and even a good explanation of Internet Memes. As a side note, Mr. Beck lives in New Canaan, CT.
Also here in Connecticut, the Connecticut GOP has set up a site criticizing the speaker of the house, Chris Donovan as well as around thirty other State Legislators. It would seem as if any argument against these websites should not include a UDRP complaint, as illustrated by the issues above. Yet there are other issues.
Not only did the CT GOP set up websites, they also set up Twitter accounts. In Twitters’ Terms of Service they reserve the right, without assuming any obligation to do so, to terminate or reclaim users that do not adhere to Twitter’s rules. These rules include: “You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others”
Some have argued that these sites are intended to be parody sites and as such are protected. Others have noted that unlike Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990 dot com, these fail the “Moron in a Hurry” test. Put briefly, even a moron in a hurry is unlikely to believe that a site entitled “Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990” is likely to be a site run by Glenn Beck, but the same moron in a hurry, might believe that “Meet Rep Donovan” is actually a site run by and supportive of Rep. Donovan. I’ve actually spoken with some savvy internet users who were initially confused about the site. It is unclear if Twitter is likely to take any action against the CT GOP.
The broader complaint is that it the site really isn’t any good. The Glenn Beck site, besides making effective use of an Internet Meme, also provides a striking criticism of his style. The CT GOP sites criticizing the Democratic Legislators really have very little to say, which reflects a broader criticism of the CT GOP as a whole.
So, where does Martin Luther King, Jr. fit into all of this? A white supremacist organization hosts Martin Luther King dot org. It is often brought up in discussions about media literacy. Whatever happens with Glenn Beck and Rep. Donovan, we need better media literacy and this should be more of a focus in our schools and beyond. Hopefully, this will have helped various readers understand a little better some of the media literacy issues we face here in Connecticut.
School Board Finances
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 11:49People concerned about good government would be well advised to attend their local board of education meetings on a regular basis. These meetings are where spending on one of the largest items in a town’s budget should be analyzed and discussed. While some people like to go to annual budget meetings and complain about having not seen details of school budgets and spending, those details are available every month at Board of Education meetings.
Monday evening, the Woodbridge Board of Education met for its monthly meeting. I arrived late because of a Government Access Television commission meeting. When I arrived, school officials were providing information about the results of last year’s Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs). Woodbridge continues to do very well with the CMTs and the school administration continues to study the results to find the best ways of continuing to improve the quality of education provided to the students.
There were many important issues brought up during the discussion. How important are the CMTs, really? Is the school teaching too much or too little to the test? What is being done to make sure that students who far exceed the CMTs’ standards get sufficient challenges and educational opportunities? Where do other aspects, such as emotional intelligence, or traditional subject that are not on the CMTs fit in? Underlying all of this is the question about what the people of Woodbridge are really looking for in the town’s educational system.
The new committees are taking shape after May’s municipal elections. Of particular interest was a discussion about the finance committee. Thomas J. Handler has been selected the new chair of this committee, and Carl Lindskog, the former chair has decided to leave the finance committee.
There was a lively discussion about the responsibilities of the finance committee and the board as a whole. Concern was expressed that Mr. Handler is not as experienced in finance issues as Mr. Lindskog. However, board members believe it is more important to have a strong facilitator, like Mr. Handler that will involve all the members of the board as chair instead of a person with a strong finance background that may not be as effective in getting all the board members involved in their responsibilities to oversee the financial functioning of the school district.
Before I moved to Woodbridge, my father-in-law, a retired U.S. Treasury Agent, took part in a commission investigating issues with Amity High School. While I do not recall the details of the case, my recollection is that a major compounding factor was the failure of the Amity Board of Education at the time to properly review the monthly finances of the school. I do not want to see something similar happen with the Woodbridge Board of Education.
Currently, I do not expect something like this to happen. During the meeting many good probing questions were asked, including quite a few by the newly elected board member Steven J. Fleischman. Unfortunately, he appeared to be the only Republican member of the school board taking his job seriously. David Barkin left the meeting prior to the discussion of the financial reports, and the other two Republicans, Mark T. Livesay and Carl Lindskog not only failed to ask any questions or join in the discussion of the reports, but they abstained from voting on all three reports.
Perhaps they are taking their lead from the highest elected Republican official in our state, Gov. Rell who fails to take leadership or responsibility in addressing our states financial issues. Whatever the cause, they are not serving the people of Woodbridge well in their peevishness on issues of finance that the whole Board of Education needs to address.
Obama and Socialism
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 18:44Today, the mother of one of my daughter’s best friends kept her children home from school, because of an irrational fear that the President of the most powerful country in the world might be trying to indoctrinate students to some socialist agenda. It was not because she did not want her children to hear the President’s speech. It was because she wanted them to hear it and the school where her kids attend refused to show it.
Apparently, a small group of people, lacking patriotism and critical thinking called and complained, and the school administration capitulated to the fears of a small vocal minority, thus depriving the majority of students of a great educational experience. Yet this, in and of itself, perhaps is an important educational experience for all of us.
What sort of respect should be shown the President of the United States? Especially, when he is talking about the importance of the children of our country staying in school? What do you think about political pundits encouraging people to not listen to our President?
In my daughter’s school, they watched, and talked about the speech. The part of the message that she remembers is that students shouldn’t drop out.
Jack Nork has a blog post up about How Bethany, Woodbridge and Amity are handling the Obama Speech, including a quote from the chair of the Woodbridge Board of Education:
My understanding is that, as the CSDE notes in its letter, this is a local matter for each BOE to decide. Accordingly as Chairman I've consulted with the Superintendent and signaled that after viewing the relevant material available at the whitehouse.gov website, and consulting with the Public Information officer at the CSDE, I have concluded that this initiative can in no way be viewed as controversial subject matter, and does not necessitate a letter home to parents or opt-out notice (such as we see routinely with sex ed or mature subjects in films like Schindler's List, etc.). Therefore, teachers will be free to incorporate this material into their curriculum, either live at noon or by viewing a recording the tech department will make available (many kids will be at lunch at noon, etc.). I've also advised that anyone calling with "political concerns" be directed to me, in my capacity as their elected representative in this little thing we call a democracy.
You can read the prepared text of President Obama’s speech on the Whitehouse Website. I have only briefly scanned it. It does not jump out at me as one of the top one hundred speeches in United States history, but it may be that the uproar about the speech may place it in a special place in our history. I hope that teachers at the high school level will look at this speech and one speech that is often listed as one of the top one hundred speeches.
On June 9, 1954, Joseph Welch delivered the famous, ”Have You No Sense of Decency" speech which led to the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy. It is time to dust off that speech and for high school history teachers to discuss it.
How is the fear of communism in the 1950s like the fear of socialism today? How is it different? How is the fear of communism in the 1950s like the fear of terrorist, Muslims, or immigrants today? How are political pundits like Sen. McCarthy? These are questions that should be discussed in history classes, as well as around the dinner tables of today.
Perhaps most importantly, who will deliver the “Have You No Sense of Decency" speech for the twenty first century? I’m proud that the chair of my local Board of Education erred on the side of decency and Joe Welch, instead of the side of McCarthyesque fear mongering.
What District are you in?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 10:27New England has a long and wonderful traditional of small town governance, right down to the traditional town meeting. Yet in some cases, it is more efficient to work on a regional level, and state legislative offices often cross town boundaries.
The announcement Friday of the Connecticut’s Probate Redistricting Commission plan caused me to stop and think a little bit about what districts Woodbridge is part of.
Woodbridge is part of the 114th Assembly District which also includes parts of Derby and Orange. Our State Senate District is the 17th which also includes Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, parts of Hamden, and parts of Naugatuck. On a larger scale, Woodbridge is part of Congressional District 3 which includes many towns.
While our elementary school district covers only Woodbridge, our high school is part of the Amity Regional School district, No. 5. It includes Bethany and Orange. For an even larger school region, Woodbridge is part of ACES which includes about two dozen other school districts.
For cable television, especially as it relates to the public, educational and government access channels, Woodbridge is part of the Cable Advisory Council Area 2, which includes Bridgeport, Fairfield, Milford, Orange, and Stratford.
Now, there is the proposal for the new Probate districts. Woodbridge would be in a district with Ansonia, Derby, and Seymour.
My guess is that there are other regional districts that Woodbridge is part of that I am not aware of. I am not sure how various decisions where made, or will be made about what districts Woodbridge is part of, but it does seem a bit scattershot. What do you think? Are there better ways to do districting?
Follow Friday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 08:31@conncan @Alex_Johnston @ctgifted @viennateng @mikegermano @onakiser @contactjr @cksample
It has been a few weeks since I’ve written a Follow Friday blog post, and so I’ll explain again my general approach. I write it as a blog post, which through Twitterfeed ends up on Twitter and from there on to Facebook. I try to follow some sort of theme for the week, but this week am combining a few different themes.
First, there is what is going on in Connecticut Education. I’m on the mailing list of @conncan. Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) “is an advocacy organization building a new movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system.” @Alex_Johnston is their executive director. If your interested in education in Connecticut and especially issues around the achievement gap, I strongly encourage you to check out @conncan.
In following @conncan, I found @ctgifted, the Connecticut Association of the Gifted. I haven’t interacted with their organization yet, but I have long been interested in issues of gifted education.
Changing gears, I want to focus on @viennatang. Ms. Tang is a folk musician that I heard a few years ago at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. I signed up for her mailing list, and last week got a fascinating message. It let her listeners know that she is on Twitter and asked her listeners to joiner her in “a big messy free-for-all multi-way conversation, in a good way.” Last Saturday from 6 to 9 PM Pacific time she was responding to questions. I missed it, but heard it was great fun and hope that she will be doing it again sometime soon. It seems like a great way for musicians to connect with their fans, and I’d love to see other performers do something similar. Oh, and by the way, I like Ms Tang not only because she is making good use of social media, but also because her music is really great.
For my final theme, I want to shout out to some of the people that I met at Digiday:APPS a week and a half ago. Yes, I know, I still need to write up my thoughts on that event. It is coming. Leading the list is @mikegermano of Carrot Creative. He did a great presentation on their group’s work on a Facebook application for Major League Baseball. Other folks joining in a conversation about Digiday:APPS included @onakiser @contactjr @cksample.
So, that’s it for this week’s Follow Friday. Tune in next week (if I manage to fit it in), or other Fridays to see who some of the people I find interesting on Twitter are. Also, let me know who you find interesting out there.
