The above image is a simplified version of a piece of Ephemera created by four students. Their Cause was to protest against a filter placed on student laptops with no warning, consistency, or explanation. When the group began the Do Something project they were full of indignation and fully intended for their Action Step to be carried out. They planned to send home a letter to parents of all students in the grade. The letter would contain a response form; the group would tally the responses and pass the data and the names of parents objecting to the filter on to the technology department and the principal.

 

This was a sound plan - collecting actual information as well as simplifying a process (of parent objection) that had been identified by supportive teachers as an avenue for countering the filter.  

 

We discussed in class how some Action Steps were public, while others required privacy/secrecy. Other groups planned boycotts and sit-ins as Action Steps appropriate to their causes. It was not part of the project to actually carry through the actions - the skills were in the planning and the communication of the idea and its planning.  

 

 

I spoke to the filter group and told them that their letter should not be distributed; it should perhaps be put on hold. They were annoyed, but also seemed relieved.

 

The filter, however, was a cause that affected the majority of the students: it was shutting down home Internet use and blocking many, in some cases most, of the sites students were accessing for school work (even during school) and for evening pleasure (surfing, mail, entertainment, hobbies, sports).  So when the filtering group presented their ephemera - stickers to be placed on lockers with the catch phrase on the image above - students in the class seized on the idea. Passions rose. There was a call for a sit-in.  

 

We, the adults, had to intercede with a discussion of Communication Actions and Consequences (see post of May 3, Actions and Consequences).

As a result of that discussion, the group changed their tactic. They did, in fact, implement an Action Step - and it worked!  Here is what they did:

    *The paper “magnet”/sticker was duplicated en mass.

    *A day was spent collecting screen shots of filter screens (data gathering); the group requested from me previously collected screen shots

    *An appointment was made with the Principal

    *A Town Meeting for the grade was arranged with the Team Leader for the next day

    *The stickers, with tape, were distributed during Advisory period and during class transitions to all students who wanted them - about 50% of lockers displayed the stickers initially, rising to about 75% (the group discussed with me extending the action to other grades, but decided not to)

    *The group met with the Principal, who listened carefully, looked at the preliminary “packet” and told them to meet with the Team teacher who represented them on the Tech Advisory Committee, which was having a meeting that day

    *The group met with that teacher, who gathered all of the “data” and noted student complaints that were new to her

    *The Tech Advisory Committee listened to the concerns about the filter, reviewed the data, and made the following decisions: All laptop filters would be reset by the technology dept. to 12pm - 5am shut down of Internet; all filters would be set to the same, lower level of filtering (which would continue to be monitored for interference with academics); the Committee would research the filter options, looking for a better product for home Internet safety filtering.

    *The student group reported these results in the Town Meeting. As one of the students said, “We didn’t get everything we wanted, but this is a start.”