controversies

I notice that my fellow wiki-editors are required to have aliases, but Mr Kerr isn't, and neither am I.

Why dont Mr Kerr and I need the same protection?

Should we all be using handles?

- Joel

I suppose schools and education departments are afraid of "stranger danger". The idea is that children do not have the social skills to protect themselves from predatory, in particular sexually predatory, adults. See http://minilegends.edublogs.org/2008/05/02/hello-world/ for the story about a classroom blog that was banned by the education department.

It is a fact that children are most at risk from someone known to them and their family rather than a stranger.

There are risks for adults too. [|Kathy Sierra] received death threats on her blog

- Forster

I think Forster is right. Having aliases does hide your identity and make you safe from recieving threats. They are often threatened by their friends rather than strangers.

- machineab1

Hey mr kerr u need an alias and so do u joel -FluX

ok, I'll call myself Kasparov from now on (Kasparov)

You mean that World Champion Chess Player? Anyway, unless we are leaking information about who actually is under the aliases I doubt we are going to get any threats save any corporate company intimidated by the concept of XO and people supporting it.

-Azumanga

Sounds very cute. Is'nt it?

It seems as if the grandma is telling a story to someone about angel which is very tiny. If you think like this, U R right!!!!!!

But I M a big big baby, not an angel.

-Baby Angel

Ignore the last post, the person seemed to have been confused and said something off topic, From my opinion having aliases is not all that bad and truth be told is actually quite fun. But I do think that the education department seem to grossly underestimate our capiblities to handle things like "Stranger Danger", we are after all young adults and I do agree that adults should be able to have the same protection as the students if they deem so appropiate. - Sinister-Moon

Well said, Sinister. Aliases can be fun so no harm there at all. Also, many students are web savvy and can handle stranger danger. I agree. For those who aren't web savvy then School ought to teach them. But that's hard to do when MySpace etc. are blocked. - Kasparov

Hi Sinister, another issue of concern to teachers is cyber bullying. Now you can video somebody in a compromising situation and post to Youtube. You can then potentially embarass them infront of the whole world rather than just the whole school as in ordinary bullying. What is the impact of cyber bullying? How many people see the video before its taken off Youtube? It must feel really bad even if only a few people see it. Does blocking of Youtube, Facebook and Myspace in schools make any difference apart from losing the opportunities for teaching web savvy skills? (as famous chess player noted). Have you or your friends been cyber bullied? How was it different to old fashioned bullying? - TF

You are right TF, blocking those sites really does not make a difference because because quite a numerous amount of people must have already seen those damaging images, photos, etc before it is, or ever is taken down. Yes, as Kasparov and you said TF, blocking those social sites really does limit the students abilites to learn web savvy skills and social skills that may provide to be quite benificial to the students and I do agree that unblocking those sites would be a good idea. But what must also be noted is that if we were to unblock those social site then there is a risk that the students themselves do abuse the privelige and just go on those site when they are not meant to be on while in a lesson using the sites rather then doing what they are supposed to do like writing up something or doing research. None of my friend nor myself or anyone thatt I know have been cyber bullied as far as I know but I do know enough about it and what it it could do to a person's good reputation and mentality. -Sinister-Moon

NEW CONTROVERSY

Sinister-Moon has become a terrorist by hijacking azumanga's epic failure page. What should we do? - Kasparov