Another day, another letter home from school (weren’t we supposed to be receiving these by email?). This time about the new managed learning environment, or MLE, that the school is implementing. It appears that the government expects that all children should have access to a MLE by 2010. Scraping by in the nick of time, the boy’s school is following suit.
The letter (which happens to be peppered with spelling and grammatical errors that most junior school children could pick up on) explains just what a MLE is and how the school intend for it to be used. In essence, the system which the school has chosen to work with will allow kids to work on activities related to that which they have been studying in class through the use of forums, links to appropriate and relevant internet pages, quizzes and polls, video and sound clips from the internet and recordings from children’s class work, whether this be in the classroom or from home.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
In reality, though, the use of a MLE throws up quite a few questions that would rightly concern most parents whose young children are accessing the internet. The first being the safety of the system. Each child is to be provided with a username and password. A fairly straightforward and simple measure. In our case (and I would imagine for some of the years above the boy) I hope this will be provided directly to the parents. While the boy would happily try to log in to any site with his first name (and maybe even his second), the use of a password is still a little beyond him. The teachers of each class have admin rights over what will be posted on their particular pages and can ensure all the items available are appropriate and whilst at school, the internet system in use has the necessary filters. So far I’m happy.
But it appears that there isn’t constant monitoring of the site and the school admits that for the time being they anticipate each classroom page to be updated only once a term. At the same time, children can post items on a classroom page and this is where my own concern beings to kick in. At the age the boy is, the chances of inappropriate content appearing on the page is still quite slim. The boy is computer savvy in a way that I wasn’t, even at the beginning of secondary school. That said, I can see that even unsupervised, there is very little chance of him posting unsuitable items to his classroom page. But obviously, as the children get older, this risk increases. Whilst it is possible to identify those responsible for the posting of items by that point the damage has already been done. It’s definitely something I’d be keeping an eye out for in the coming years.
Of course the point of sending home all this information is permission: yet another form to sign. For the time being, knowing that the boy will probably need some assistance in his use of the system at home and I’m happy that we can keep an eye both on what he’s doing, and what he’s getting from the system. We can sign the letter granting permission for the boy to use email and the MLE account and acknowledge that we will be accountable for his actions and responsible for setting standards for him to follow when using the system.
But the permission form doesn’t end there. There is a section for the boy to sign, agreeing to abide by the school’s rules of use of the system and promising to be responsible in that use. The boy is still five, as are most of his classmates. They’re not old enough or knowledgeable enough to understand those rules (none of which have been spelled out in a child-friendly format), let alone remember to follow them.
I think a letter to the school asking for more on the matter is required. What do you think?
I think asking a five year old to sign to any kind of contract is wrong. they are five. they can barely remember what they had for lunch. Older, when these things make more sence, when they have a better grasop of social expectations and rules etc, sure, but asking them to sign something at this age and then trying to hold them accountable to it in later years is not on.
.-= Heather said The Most Terrifying Thing I Have Ever Driven =-.
Glowstars Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:32
I can barely remember what I have for lunch – but at least I have that grasp on social expectations. I think.
I think that TB’s school gives us more and more reasons to laugh every day that goes on… heheheheh
but hey… that’s just me…
.-= Urbanvox said Two Cups of Coffee =-.
this links in with the future environment that some of us cassandras have been saying is to come to us all; we have been saying it from the home ed corner, so few people listen, but it is one of the reasons why we have been getting so upset.
at the moment, the government is seeking to impose monitoring on children educated at home. the monitoring would be done by ofsted. they would have the right of entry into the home to review the suitability of the learning environment. new powers, under safeguarding proposals, include interviewing the child alone. each year the parents would have to register to be given a licence to educate at home. we could not choose our curriculum with the freedom we do now. we would have to follow the national curriculum; we could not be free to follow the style of teaching/learning we want; a licence can be withheld at any time for any reason.
we do not think the government is putting in place these powers just for a few thousand home ed kids who have never given anyone any trouble!
but… if YOU are also charged with ‘delivering the curriculum at home’ with a pc that will be supplied to you courtesy of becta – and only, of course, in the interests of forging close bonds between parents and schools – then why shouldn’t ANY parent fall under the new powers. you’d all be home educating, wouldn’t you?
and it would solve some of the problems the gvmt faces right now – folks withdrawing kids from state schools; kids withheld thanks to not the first choice of schools; some schools oversubscribed. and more: it allows every citizen to be tracked, and every child inspected by a local official. convenient.
i am so so sorry to blog in your comments box and i half expect you to ban me forever. it’s just that the situation you describe is one that we are looking at ion our hard and cruel corner and we do not like it! we are free citizens, and yet all our time and lives are being managed for us, and the responsibility for our own children is steadily, bit by bit, being removed from us.
oh sorry again. sorry.
.-= grit said The ruddy petition =-.
Glowstars Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:28
That’s it – I’m banning you forever!
You’re right though – it’s all becoming very big brother and not because the kids need it to be.
I’ve signed that petition because even on surface knowledge, it seems to me to be too much of a bad idea to possibly let such proposals through. As you say, first that, but what’s next?
I don’t actually think MLE and similar things are bad, sinister or even huge cause for alarm. They’re just symptomatic of the way the world’s going.
When Boy One, 10, started school the head teacher gave us parents a talk. The only bit that stuck with me – apart from all the head lice info – was when she said: “By the time our children grow up more than half of them will be in jobs that don’t exist yet.”
That said – the technology – is simply adding further dimensions to what we do already. Chat on a virtual class wall is no different to a real class room or toilet wall. The same values and controls must apply: a general supervision of what’s going on, alert instincts to things amiss and a trust in children’s understandings of good behaviour and decent values.
Human beings haven’t changed. They’ve only got fancier ways of talking to each other.
The need for endless permissions is the saddest part of the whole affair. Schools are so scared of being sued they’re just shifting blame all over the place.
.-= Ellen A said Things I learned from my children today #14 =-.
Glowstars Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:35
I don’t have a problem with the MLE as such – although I can’t see the boy being overly inclined to use it unless he has to for homework – but I do object to the idea that a five year old can sign in agreement to something, that same agreement that the 10 and 11 year olds will be signing.
signing is fine. It is of no purpose. he is not old enough to be held accountable, nor muster up a recognisable signature I suspect
)
xc
.-= Mrs Hojo said Sorry! =-.
Glowstars Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 15:17
I don’t know, his spelling of ‘the boy’ is very recognisable!