What do we tell our students about WikiLeaks?
By Christopher Dawson | November 29, 2010, 11:01pm PST
Summary: WikiLeaks’ impact on foreign policy is considerable, even as we struggle to fully understand the magnitude of their latest disclosures. However, for our students, the questions of ethics and digital citizenship will need to be addressed right now.
Depending on who you ask, WikiLeaks is either the best thing to happen to journalism and the First Amendment since Woodward and Bernstein or a terrorist organization bent on starting World War III. Well, OK, we all know that WWIII isn’t terribly likely, but there are some particularly strong feelings about WikiLeaks and their latest round of disclosures no matter where you go in the world.
So what does this mean to the students who we are teaching to be good digital citizens, critical thinkers, and sharp consumers of information? What does it mean for the students who have finally realized that they shouldn’t post videos of that monster bong hit on YouTube when an organization posts documents that could arguably have major impacts on US foreign relations and military operations? And what does it mean when it takes an organization like WikiLeaks to force some transparency in our government?
So many teachers don’t let their students use Wikipedia or even Google for in-class research. All too often, we send the message that the Internet is unreliable and filled with garbage when a savvy student can unlock incredible amounts of information online. Where does the information posted by WikiLeaks fall? Official government reactions certainly suggest a pretty high degree of credibility. Launching criminal probes and calling WikiLeaks a terrorist organization does not make the American public think that the thousands of documents they’ve posted are anything but real.
Is WikiLeaks then, a credible news source? Perhaps more importantly, how credible is our government in what it chooses to share around our military and foreign policy efforts?
As ZDNet’s David Gewirtz points out,
Wikileaks hasn’t redacted the information about confidential informants, and it’s likely that these informants — in large numbers — will be executed by their factions over the coming weeks and months. That’s bad enough. But…here is where the Wikileaks risk is extreme. Manning [the military informant who leaked the cables to WikiLeaks] and Assange [WikiLeaks founder and frontman] “outed” confidential negotiations (and, yes, pressure) about nuclear defense issues. They “outed” defensive tactics America was taking against cyberwarfare advances by certain other nations. They “outed” the procedures we’re going through to find “homes” for Guantanamo prisoners. They “outed” discussions about protecting Americans from terrorists.
Where does that leave our students who both need to understand modern politics and must carry on responsible use of the vast resources of the Internet?
There are far more questions here than answers. However, make no mistake: WikiLeaks’ latest disclosures affect our students and alter their view of the world, the US government, and the Internet. It’s up to us as educators to help them navigate some very murky waters and some largely uncharted territory in US history.
More from “ZDNet Education”
Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.
Disclosure
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.).
He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change.
He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have).
Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others.
Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair.
Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards.
Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap.
Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff.
Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable.
Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.
Biography
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider.
He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.
Talkback
Most Recent of 47 Talkback(s)
-
what wikileaks has done is expose that fact that the spies are internal, not always external and there are very very limited barriers to the internal leaks. The US gov't must explain why this happened and fix the leak like any good plumber would. I think students should be allowed to use info such as this for study and evaluation...and learn what is real, false or rumour...then when they leave school maybe they are just a but more street smart.
Bradish@...
30th Nov 2010
-
@Bradish@...
Frankly, the leaks show what our country really is - a once super power on the decline, which will do anything, legal or illegal. For the most part, we as U.S. citizens, see our government thru rose colored glasses. Sorry, our government doesn't want to admit that their past behaviors have pissed off, ruined or sublimated other governments. We aint the good guys our government wants us to believe, nor are we the bad guys, or much different from the countries struggling to become the current dominate power. The Islamic extreenist scare me, but what can we expect after our government has done in the past.
redcaboosejr@...
1st Dec 2010
-
@redcaboosejr@...
You mean a country that will do almost everything our enemies are capable of. Our government has no problem admitting their past behaviors have pissed off, ruined or sublimated other governments.
That's just living in the real world, welcome to it.
-
@Bradish@...
Wikileaks didn't expose the fact that spies are internal, that's been common knowledge for millennia. It's happened to every country since man started forming societies that compete with each other, and will continue until we're dead and gone.
-
@Bradish@...
Your right, let the students know the truth and learn from it, because someday some of them will be part of the US gov't. ebooks with resale rights | custom home builders | designer business cards
-
While not every disclosure by Wikileaks may be in Western interests - and I want to see the West prosper - I believe they're performing an essential role. Politics and power are nasty business' and no matter the temporary pain these leaks are causing they serve a higher purpose and that is to expose some of the "back-room deals" that are normally hidden from a population at large. Corruption is the issue, I sure as hell don't want to live in China but I don't think my governments actions are all roses either. The public interest is served by reporting candidly on what has actually taken place. Wikileaks has pulled back a layer of double-speak and should be thanked for doing so. I trust that a healthy democracy can only grow stronger with the light of truth.
-
@BP314
they are performing an essential role? Their published information will get more than 1 person directly killed. That is essential to you?
-
@tiderulz ha - drink some more cool-aid... information from wikileaks getting someone killed. Get that from a Hilary news snippet yesterday and just accepted its true?
-
@Bodazapha
some of us actually work in areas where we see information like that. I saw information on a weekly basis that could get someone injured or killed if i let it out. Its called responsibility. They could easily mark out some areas that identify people and get their point across.
-
@tiderulz, as I have not read the material leaked, but I also don't repeat things unless I can point to a particular piece and say, yep that is active intelligence and it puts these people in harms way now. I don't know that, it is possible, but you won't hear me take that as a fact.
What this does show the American people, and puts egg on the face of the DOD is that personnel have access to things that are likely not pertinent to performing their job, and that sensitive data is not prevented from being download to physical media, nor was their any detection software in place to notify someone with authority of the breach.
If one person dies because of the leak, that is one too many, but at the same time, it displays a major weakness in the United States Cyber Security.
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh
30th Nov 2010
-
Giving the names of confidential informants won't make the people they're informing on very happy at all.
Michael Alan Goff
30th Nov 2010
-
witness protection plan? we all know that these people lives arent in any danger, just like the names of informants in these documents aren't in any danger. the WPP is just a big scam, just another un-needed government dept.
Ron Bergundy
30th Nov 2010
-
@tiderulz
The docs are public now, so it will be easy to point to an example.
You don't have any? Is what I thought...
theo_durcan
30th Nov 2010
-
@BP314
Leaking these files will make nuclear proliferation more likely, will increase the danger of (at least) regional nuclear war, will lead to the deaths of pro-American informants, will make frank diplomatic exchanges less likely, and will inflame anti-American sentiment around the world. All of this was done in clear violation of federal laws and with premeditation. I strongly disagree that WikiLeaks should be thanked for this vicious act.
davidthomas@...
30th Nov 2010
-
@davidthomas@... and will inflame anti-American sentiment around the world... Like invading Iraq? Wikileaks = war apparently
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
