I debated one or two additional interjections to include in the title of this blog entry, because I’m getting pretty… well, you get the picture.
I spent at least a couple of hours yesterday trying to figure out a way for one of my Class Blogmeister teachers to receive e-mail notifications of student posted articles and comments. It seems that her district’s spam filtering software blocks messages from the mail server that Blogmeister resides on. Her tech folks tried to reconfigure the filtering software to allow the messages to go through, but without success. This is after I spent a couple of days, rewriting code in Class Blogmeister to address notification messages from the teachers e-mail address, hoping that it would fool the span filters. I guess someone else had already thought of that.
I’m not blaming the spam and virus filters that schools are using, or even for cranking them up so high. I blame the spammers, virus authors, and malicious hackers that see the Internet as a toy to be played, at best — and at worse, as a place so wild, that ethics do not apply.
So I did some quick research, and according to the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, spam alone will cost companies $198 billion in 2007.
OK, so let’s tell some stories:
Did you know that spam’s going to cost us $198 billion next year?
- That’s a laptop computer, xBox 360, the yet to be released PlayStation 3, a PSP, broadband Internet for a year, and cell phone and PDA — for every public school child in the United States. (Video Game Consoles Reviews)
- It’s almost four million more teachers. (Digest of Education Statistics)
- Six Category five withstanding levees and floodgates around New Orleans. (All Things Considered)
- That’s four times would it would cost to end chronic hunger in the world (Allen).
We need to make clear to children that spam, virus, and hacking are not a game, that they cost us all a lot.
Allen, John. “Compared to war, feeding world’s hungry has modest price tag.” NCR Online 28 Mar 2003. 05 Apr 2006 <http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives/032803/032803h.htm>.
“All Things Considered.” Debate Rages Over Cost for New Orleans Levees. National Public Radio, New York. 23 Feb 2006. Broadcast. 05 Apr 2006 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5230499>.
“Digest of Education Statistics, 2004.” IES. National Center for Educatioin Statistics. 05 Apr. 2006 <http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/tables/dt04_002.asp>.
“Video Game Consoles Reviews.” ConsumerSearch. Nov. 2005. ConsummerSearch Inc.. 05 Apr. 2006 <http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/video-game-consoles/>.
I’ve heard of the filter problem before and the usual suggestion is to have them use a free Web-based email account just for the blog.
And yes, spam, viruses and hacking are enormous problems that are ruining the fun for the rest of us.
Divid,
First, thanks for all your work on Class Blogmeister! You are making an incredible difference for so many. So many lives have opened up, so many discussions have happened that never would have… see my Handling Comments post from 4/05 on http://roomtwelve.com
Now on the frustration, the spam, getting blocked out, etc. This is to me the biggest obstacle standing in the way of web 2.0 moving into any/all classrooms. It’s not teacher reluctance, it’s not lack of skills, it’s not even lack of time. It is the fear that drives the closure of access to one avenue after another – Flickr, blogger, even myspace. I’m holding my breath on Class blogmeister.
One could blame it on spammers. I say nonsense, they can be had. If the spammers are smarter and more competent that the folks running the IT departments in our schools, well then, I guess we are indeed in deep trouble.