Out of the (relative) blue, @nporter threw a link at me as a result of my recent post on filter troubles. The link turned out to be a gem of an article on Edutopia written by Suzie Boss, “Stumbling Blocks: Playing it Too Safe Will Make You Sorry.”

Great article. If you’re at a school that filters out blogs, wikis, YouTube, etc. read it.

Now.

The setup

• PC: running Windows XP.
• Internets: Filtered.
• Administrative rights: None.
• Browser: Firefox 3 (for whatever reason, I’ve found that Firefox will often install even on machines where you don’t have administrative access. However, the computer tech at school did put Firefox on my computer when I asked.)

How to get YouTube videos at school when they’re blocked

There are many ways of doing this, but the following is simply the method that I have found the most effective.

At home: Find a video you like. Go to Zamzar.com. Click the “Download Videos” tab and paste the URL of the video into the appropriate box. Enter the file format you want the video to be downloaded in. For school I usually use the .mpg format, simply because it meshes well with all the Microsoft stuff. Put in your school email, hit convert. It can take a couple hours for your video to be converted, but it’s usually ready within an hour.

At school: When the file has been converted Zamzar sends you an email with a link to a page where you can download your file. My school doesn’t block Zamzar (so I doubt yours does), so I just go to the download page and save the video to my school computer to use as I see fit. I like this method because it automatically sends the email to my school address and I don’t have to remember much.

Accessing Twitter from school

This is only a trick if Twitter is blocked by your school’s internet filter. You need to be running Firefox for this one. Ask you tech people to install Firefox for you if you can’t do it yourself. I’d bet they’d be okay with it.

Install either the TwitBin or TwitKit Firefox add-ons. For some reason they’re able to retrieve and post tweets even when Twitter is blocked. I suggest both because at my last district TwitKit didn’t work with the filter, but TwitBin did. Currently the opposite is true. I don’t know enough about how these programs work to give you insight into why that might be, my best advice is simply to try one- if it doesn’t work; try the other.

Saving and editing screenshots images on my school computer

My school computer’s a PC, so the clearly superior Skitch program is right out. Other free screenshot tools that are PC compatible generally require administrator access to install, which in my situation is a deal breaker.

1. Use your PrintScreen button to copy your screen as an image.
2. Paste the screen image into PowerPoint.
3. Crop the image, add text, arrows, emphasis, etc.
4. Save your edits in one of two ways:

• One: Use the “Save As…” function to save the entire slide as an image. This only works if the screenshot you want is as large as the entire slide, otherwise you get a lot of unnecessary white space.
• Two: Select all the shapes and text you’ve added along with the image (do this by holding Ctrl while clicking on each element). Right click on the image. One of the options should be “Save as Image…” Pick that one and it will give you the options of saving your selection in a variety of formats. I generally use .jpg or .gif.

Hopefully you’ll find these useful. What workarounds do you use to get around overly protected digital environments?

_______________________________________________________

Image sources:

• Twitter icon for fluid app by mfilej
• Vestigial (Print Screen) by KCIvey
  

I first encountered the idea from a post last week by Clay Burell on his blog, Beyond School. Essentially the idea is for educators to create and utilize their own Personal Learning Network (PLN) to enhance the learning experience by bringing in experts into the classroom (i.e. via Skype) for as he puts it “quick in, quick out” sessions. Ideally teachers would also model and help students create their own PLNs in their individual areas of interest.

Better than this, Clay has begun to actively implement his plan. Utilizing his twitterverse (people following him on Twitter), he has had a few international discussions via Skype (see here and here) with fellow educators on his ideas. He has also begun to work with his students to utilize Twitter and Skype to construct their own PLNs. I applaud him for blazing the trail. My hope is his work will be the first step in convincing school administrators and tech directors to allow student access to networking tools. Currently, students at my school do not have this access.

The idea of students building and utilizing a personal learning network greatly appeals to me. As a teacher, one of my goals is to help students become citizens that contribute positively to their communities. Setting up a PLN allows students to take their learning beyond school walls. It can help them to individualize and specialize their learning in a meaningful way that would be nearly impossible in a traditional classroom. As someone who is more interested in helping students become resilient life-long learners as opposed to regurgitators of irrelevant knowledge, I can’t help but get excited about these new possibilities. Perhaps Ewan McIntosh said it best (via Intrepid Teacher, via The Economist):

“It’s more about helping learners become more world-aware, more communicative, learning from each other, understanding first hand what makes the world go around.“

More and more questions seem to arise the more I think about this:

• What would this learning format look like in a school?
• Can this type of learning be measurable?
  • Should it be even be measured?
• Will students “buy-in” to the idea?
• How can I convince the district to unblock Twitter for a basically untested use of technology?
• Is promoting the use of Twitter and Skype in the classroom essentially marketing these products to students? Is that ethical?

I am excited about the prospects. I am jealous of those in situations with access to these tools. I feel experimentation with these networking tools in the classroom is necessary, even if the outcomes aren’t as expected.

A few other bloggers have added their thoughts on the same thread:

• David Warlick: Is Pedagogy Getting in the Way of Learning?
  
• Intrepid Teacher: What I Meant by Integrating Technology
• Will Richardson: Social Networks (No) vs. Social Tools (Yes) in Schools