Comments on: Thoughts On Teachersday.sg And #tday09

By: Learning Points from Teachersday.sg 2009 « Webdev at MOE

Learning Points from Teachersday.sg 2009 « Webdev at MOE — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:48:41 +0000

[...] lot of the feedback was positive, though there were some reactions to the display of above-mentioned uncouth colloquialism. It was revealing that the initial reaction on the twitterverse was akin to students egging on a [...]

By: Jo Jordan

Jo Jordan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:26:21 +0000

You know, this could just be a teachable moment. Though these kids are younger, when I taught a large uni class, I watched furore’s in other classes when someone went far beyond crass – they were abusive to the point of “hate” – and a student would be disciplined and banned.

I responded differently. In the break of my first semester, I wiped my board clean and told the students frankly what had happened in the other course and said I wiped my board because I hadn’t told them the rules at the beginning and I didn’t want anyone in trouble.

Then I gave them one rule. That we were a uni and we defended the right to free speech. Indeed it was in black and white in the education act that we were the conscience of society. But we were a uni and we asked for people to say things properly. That was the only rule – say things properly.

We had a bit of blue language from time to time but it was never ‘hate’ speech. It might be critical but it was usually supporting someone who was sweating over something. And students often corrected their own language and apologised when they realised what they had said could be misinterpreted.

Couldn’t the same philosophy be drilled down to lower levels? Let students say what is uncouth so they realise that it adds little value and they find more apt and accurate ways to communicate and to draw people to their cause? We shouldn’t underestimate them – or rather we should allow ourselves to be surprised and delighted by them.

A counter-point view for what it is worth.

By: Daryl Tay

Daryl Tay — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:21:29 +0000

@Daphne Maia: Thanks. Well I wouldn’t say it’s wasted, but it’s probably not the result they wanted.

@Jonathan Wong: Well there are other, easier methods that aren’t reliant on Twitter and that won’t be public, but some homework needs to be done.

But yes, essentially, but introducing a hashtag on a public platform, the battle to keep away negativity can’t be won. Which is my point. It’s not about clamming down on that one guy (cos really, five other people will take his place), it’s about accepting that such things WILL happen, and managing expectations around it.

By: Daphne Maia

Daphne Maia — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:48:03 +0000

But the filtering for @chunchuan doesn’t seem to work, does it? i still see messages from the boy.

By: Jonathan Wong

Jonathan Wong — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:34:31 +0000

I think MOE has already started proactive filtering.

Check out the current query they are using for searching #tday09 tweets:

“http://twitter.com/#search?q=-RT -via #tday09 -fuck -shit -@chunchuan”

(You can see the search query by clicking on the “Join the conversation link” on the page.)

However, this won’t scale, not to mention if anyone clicks on the link, they will see the words “fuck” and “shit” prominently on the top of the Twitter search results page.

I don’t think this is a battle that can be won…

By: Daphne Maia

Daphne Maia — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:48:21 +0000

Good post. As always.

I just feel like this is a site where people post stories but nobody reads. Or rather, the intended audience doesn’t get to read it. Which makes it a wasted effort. And these resources and man hours could’ve been put to better use, in that case.