Bud the Teacher

    This morning, after reading Will’s "script" for talking about safety concerns, I realized we’re looking at safety the wrong way.  Hopefully, this story helps.
    Last week, we took our students to the local recreation center for an all-day school-wide retreat.  The focus of the day was to do some community-building.  As part of the day, we allowed the students to use the various resources of the center.  Some staff were in the gym, others were in the swimming pool.  I was at the skate park. My choice.
    Many of my students are skateboarders, and I wanted to see what they could do.  I was blown away.  They knew an awful lot about skateboarding.  I asked to borrow a board and give skating a try (I last used a skateboard in middle school.).  They were more than happy to oblige. 
    What the students got for their kindness was a good laugh as I took two or three immediate spills and then decided that I was done for the day.  We shared a laugh or two, in fact.  I was so glad that we had shared the experience. 
    Then one of my skate-savvy students landed wrong and hurt her wrist (a serious sprain, but no permanent damage).  I was devastated.  In the first few minutes of her injury, when I could tell that she was in pain, I second-guessed every decision that got the students and me within five miles of the skate park. 
    But then I woke up.  Certainly no one would advocate removing students from all future activities involving recreation centers because a few people would be hurt.  If that was the case, schools would have done away with athletic programs years ago.  Too many kids have the potential to get hurt playing sports, don’t they?
    That’s absurd.
    Why, then, do we block websites?
    Bad things might happen.  So might some good ones.  We can’t prevent all harm — but by preventing all use, we can definitely prevent the possibility of future success.   By teaching our students about the risks and how to minimize them, we can prepare them for a world where skate parks — and online  environments — exist. 
    It’s the only reasonable way to go.  Isn’t it?

Dan writes:

Bud,

You’ve told us you used Audacity to record Skype calls. But how?
I’ve tried and failed several times (with a PC running Windows XP). I’d
love to know your secret!

Best,
Dan
(I’m an English Prof in South Dakota who uses blogs - and Audacity - with his students)

It’s a good question.  Unfortunately, Dan, you’re not going to like my answer.  I tried to use Audacity on my PC to record Darren and my conversation — and it didn’t work well at all.  While Audacity has a feature for recording the stereo out of a computer instead of the microphone, the levels are wildly different and hard to regulate. 
    The simple solution, in our case, was to let Darren and his Mac record our discussion.  Apparently, as I’ve been learning from listening to the Daily Source Code on my drive to work, PC sound cards are not the best when it comes to recording.  But Macs are.
    Dangit. 
    So, Dan, it seems that the easy answer is to buy a Mac.  There are other options, though.  Lots of folks have posted their suggestions.  I’m just not sure which one is going to work for my PC.          Anyone else know a universal PC Skype-recording solution?  Darren’s got better things to do than record all of my phone calls. 

Will has written the safety message that every teacher considering blogs in the classroom should read and share with their students.  His concluding remarks are down right inspirational:

Blogs can be wonderful places of learning and connection. They can be places to think, to reflect, to dream and to plan. But like anything else, we all need to learn how to use them effectively, appropriately and safely. We think many of our teachers’ and administrators’ personal blogs provide some great models, and we’d urge you to check some of them out. But we also understand that ultimately, you decide what you do and don’t do in your spaces. We hope you learn to use them well, and if there is anything you think we can do to help accomplish that and to help keep you safe, we hope you let us know.

He concludes by asking what should we tell the parents about safety.  I say we tell them just what we tell the students.  Head on over to his place, though, and tell him what you think.