I am a bit concerned about a slideshare feature that seems inocuous, but upon further review could potentially cause me, and you, trouble.
Inside my Moodle installation I embed my slide presentations straight from slideshare. My concern is noted in this skitch screenshot…
While slideshare is blocked from my school, what if a kid clicks this link from home, and quickly lands here.
And in two clicks, he or she has seen images of a rave party with suspected drug use, and if he or she clicks on the home page, we see anything from a caricature of Bruce Willis smoking to a sultry anime lady who is barely dressed to other inappropriate material. I can just see an otherwise innocent student (can I remind you my students are 11-12 years old?! and yes, some are quite innocent) seeing this!?
It’s not worth my job.
I voiced this concern to Jonathan Boutelle, who has been kind enough to hear me out in the past in regards to slideshare being blocked all over the place. I have encouraged him to provide a safer service for teachers, who have turned out to be supporters of his site. They listened, and promised to get back to me. For me, this is along the lines of the bloglines image wall that got Miguel all up in arms some months ago.
For me, I am going to have to go back to swf-based presentations until Slideshare helps me by removing that link. It’s far too dangerous to continue use. My Moodle has been in maintenance mode all summer hoping Jonathan would do something to help the teachers out that use Slideshare with kids. So far, nothing.
Sorry Slideshare, I love your service but can’t risk my job.
Paul Harrington says:
Hi Chris,
That would make it an immediate no/no in my school and LEA (UK). It is a bit like the next blog on the top navbar of blogger ( this is removable with a piece of additional code though).
What a shame that they put that there
9th August 2007 at 6:27 pm
GingerTPLC says:
I’m the same way with Ning. I LOVE the look and feel of the networks, but even if I purchase and get rid of all outside links, there’s still one lingering that mentions “network by Ning” with a link to ALL the other networks.
So I’m still in search of a perfect network for my students. (ages 10-14)
9th August 2007 at 6:38 pm
Heather says:
Chris,
Perhaps they could hook with TeacherTube on this?
9th August 2007 at 7:18 pm
Michael Richards says:
Chris, have you thought about using the Zoho preview that just came out? I haven’t tried it myself but this could be a way to do the same things without spending any $.
9th August 2007 at 7:35 pm
University Update - Bruce Willis - Could Slideshare get me fired? says:
[...] Efron Contact the Webmaster Link to Article bruce willis Could Slideshare get me fired? » Posted at Crucial Thought on [...]
9th August 2007 at 9:19 pm
Dean Shareski says:
This is an inevitable consequence of using almost any third party free software. Unless you’re willing to host almost everything or use paid services this will always exist.
You won’t find the perfect solution because I don’t it exists.
I’m not a big fan of TeacherTube because it’s fake…I mean fake in that the real world doesn’t go to TeacherTube to post videos…only teachers. Our obligation, I feel is to show students how to navigate in a real world.
As you can see I do not like filters. They are fake. Let’s help our kids know how to make good choices and recognize crap when they see it.
9th August 2007 at 2:30 am
Lynne Crowe says:
I have to agree with Dean. I teach Year 7 & 8 (11 – 13 year olds) and I see part of my role in teaching students how to use the many tools of the net sensibly and safely. I don’t believe that ‘protecting’ them from the ‘dangers’ of the net is the best way. Many students have unsupervised access to the Internet home (and this can’t be the case only in New Zealand) so isn’t it better that we make them aware of the unsavoury type of things that they may come into contact with online, and how to deal with them if and when they do.
Just my few cents worth!
9th August 2007 at 2:45 am
Mark Collinson says:
Try zoho. IMO much better than slideshare. (safer as well).
cheers
mark
9th August 2007 at 2:58 am
Jamie says:
Zoho doesn’t allow sound in their presentations, does it?
9th August 2007 at 5:07 am
Art Gelwicks says:
I too was looking into Slideshare and I’m disappointed by the same issues you are. This is a common problem across advertising funded application drawing a wide audience. One recommendation would be for Slideshare to offer a premium version sans ads and links back into the service. Another option (the one I’ll be pursuing) is using offline tools to create the presentations and publish them. Unfortunately as is often the case you get what you pay for.
9th August 2007 at 8:38 am
Heather says:
Dean,
I agree that we should be preparing learners for what’s out there, but if the concern is what his content is associated with, then TeacherTube or something like it might be the better option as a place for his content.
9th August 2007 at 11:05 am
Dean Shareski says:
Heather,
Again, I would prefer if products like SlideShare didn’t embed a link but I also understand there business model. I also recognize that part of this is a result of personal tagging. The images or content tagged by others might not be related at all to our content but that’s what makes tagging good…it’s not standardized but personal.
I had exactly the same situation when a youtube video of my showed a link to another video at the end. Someone thought it was still my content. A teachable moment we’ll have to embrace and one that certainly won’t get us fired.
9th August 2007 at 4:18 pm
Can flickr get me sued? | Crucial Thought says:
[...] I am thinking through possible threats to my job, though, like slideshare. [...]
9th August 2007 at 4:45 pm
Jim Gates says:
I’m thinking out loud here, but…
What if you sent a letter home to parents that said that you’d be using those sites because of the great things it allows the students to do, but tell them that there may be times when things like that may happen. I’d also say that they can opt out, if they’re upset with that possibility as you described.
Then, in the windows environment, I’d make sure that all the school’s computers were using that host file (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) so that MOST of those types of ads would never see the light of day to begin with. Now, the dave party slideshare is another story.
Now, we all know that all it will take is ONE parent who will raise a stink and down it goes, so no matter what philosophic reasons we come up with for allowing it to stay, a district is more likely to back down that push back.
Of course, in the meantime the rest of the world IS using those tools and living to tell the tale and even surpassing the US kids who cannot use them. Of course, too, those kids have an unfiltered cable tv in their bedrooms, but don’t get me started.
9th August 2007 at 8:46 pm
Jim Gates says:
DAVE party??? DOH! I meant RAVE party, of course.
9th August 2007 at 8:47 pm
Scott McLeod says:
Here are my thoughts on this:
http://tinyurl.com/25uru8
9th August 2007 at 6:15 am