Recently a forum posting that was not of much benefit but of no harm was deleted, but once again, the profile of the minor who posted it was not, nor, as I understand from the IT director at the public school involved, was any effort made to address the issue with the school.
Maybe this isn't the appropriate forum, but then which would be (there are those distressed about similar discussions in comparisons and advocacy)?
The bottom line here though is that deleting posts of minors without tracing and resolving the situation leaves the minor exposed and now renders it more difficult to contact the school.
This is not the first time this has happened and I think that we do need some systemic way to address these matters. If there is some system in place, I'd like to be advised of it. If not, I'd like to see something adopted.
Yes, I agree it would be good to have a policy on this.
What sort of policy would you suggest we adopt, Marc?
Do you know any good examples from other open community sites that we could follow?
What sort of policy would you suggest we adopt, Marc?
Do you know any good examples from other open community sites that we could follow?
Whoops, I missed this.... sorry.
I think Moodle may be in a narrow class of apps in that we see minors registering because they are being introduced to Moodle in school. In a sense this is really not so much a case of profile spam as much as sticking one's toes in the water
I have actually argued at one point for certs with respect to a much smaller enterprise than Moodle.org. Of course, the argument made was that it was totally unrealistic to expect that. When one looks at the risk and potential liability, I am not that sure, but we will pass on that for now as in fact unrealistic............
Proactive:
Its been a while since I went through it, but does moodle.org screen on registration for age and year of birth? If not then I think it should. Not because I think this will put and end to the problem (though I am amazed how often young kids will state that they are so and so years old but are unable to figure out a birthdate that corresponds to that age) but because it will help their teachers address with them the impact of their behavior. If registration requested age, dob and e-mail address, if dob and age did not agree then the registration could flag the e-mail address to a sysadmin. Additionally, we could make a school or company affiliation field mandatory. Again, the younger the child the more likely they are to simply provide such data..... (and arguably, though this may seem tawdry, aren't we more concerned with the innocent than the malfeasant....?)
Along those lines, the situation I have seen all arise on circumstances where the students were using Moodle for class. I think it would be appropriate to provide some instructional materials (Moodle lessons and quizzes) that teachers can use with their students that povides some instruction differentiating between the school moodle and Moodle.org and the issues that regisrtation on Moodle.org create as well as the possible repercussions from their school....
Reactive:
When ever postings from minors appear or are suspected I think we need a protocol that involves not deleting but sequestering the post and identifying the post with a profile and a quick investigation. In each case in which I saw such a posting I was able to contact a school official and have a supportive response within hours based upon information in the post and profile.
I think Moodle may be in a narrow class of apps in that we see minors registering because they are being introduced to Moodle in school. In a sense this is really not so much a case of profile spam as much as sticking one's toes in the water
I have actually argued at one point for certs with respect to a much smaller enterprise than Moodle.org. Of course, the argument made was that it was totally unrealistic to expect that. When one looks at the risk and potential liability, I am not that sure, but we will pass on that for now as in fact unrealistic............
Proactive:
Its been a while since I went through it, but does moodle.org screen on registration for age and year of birth? If not then I think it should. Not because I think this will put and end to the problem (though I am amazed how often young kids will state that they are so and so years old but are unable to figure out a birthdate that corresponds to that age) but because it will help their teachers address with them the impact of their behavior. If registration requested age, dob and e-mail address, if dob and age did not agree then the registration could flag the e-mail address to a sysadmin. Additionally, we could make a school or company affiliation field mandatory. Again, the younger the child the more likely they are to simply provide such data..... (and arguably, though this may seem tawdry, aren't we more concerned with the innocent than the malfeasant....?)
Along those lines, the situation I have seen all arise on circumstances where the students were using Moodle for class. I think it would be appropriate to provide some instructional materials (Moodle lessons and quizzes) that teachers can use with their students that povides some instruction differentiating between the school moodle and Moodle.org and the issues that regisrtation on Moodle.org create as well as the possible repercussions from their school....
Reactive:
When ever postings from minors appear or are suspected I think we need a protocol that involves not deleting but sequestering the post and identifying the post with a profile and a quick investigation. In each case in which I saw such a posting I was able to contact a school official and have a supportive response within hours based upon information in the post and profile.
Hi,
"Minors for Moodle" Forum? "Students for Moodle" group (special avatar), youth language groups (ie /eny, English youth) and/or name spaces in docs.moodle.org? Marc got me thinking about some some wild ideas.
These are potential advocates. If my 1990s experience is any measure, a good percentage of them are also (possible) teacher trainer/mentors
. Figuring out some positive ways to engage and interact, while encouraging them to be responsible....ah... non-adults is a noble goal.
I would imagine that there is a huge range in courses, outcomes and features used. But I do like the idea of a course or activity model demos for students. If I had to do one for a Lesson activity, I would be sort of lost for the common universals.
Good subject.
Best Chris
"Minors for Moodle" Forum? "Students for Moodle" group (special avatar), youth language groups (ie /eny, English youth) and/or name spaces in docs.moodle.org? Marc got me thinking about some some wild ideas.
These are potential advocates. If my 1990s experience is any measure, a good percentage of them are also (possible) teacher trainer/mentors
. Figuring out some positive ways to engage and interact, while encouraging them to be responsible....ah... non-adults is a noble goal. I would imagine that there is a huge range in courses, outcomes and features used. But I do like the idea of a course or activity model demos for students. If I had to do one for a Lesson activity, I would be sort of lost for the common universals.
Good subject.
Best Chris