If this looks like a distraction – it is! I only got up to crack on with H810: Accessible Online Learning. Supporting disabled students – to work on a report and delete images of family and friends from blogs or accessible online galleries.

There is cross-over.

1) The screen-grab above demonstrates some kind of excellence in relation to presenting data in a visual form – for anyone.

There is no conflict or ‘overload’ between the language and visual centres of the brain. You listen to the commentary, and see the supporting graphics. The images are blunt, bold and big – compare this to that PowerPoint presentation with chunks of text, long list, irrelevant photo art grabs and such … and silly wipes between screens.

2) The report knocks an End of Module Examination (EMA) into the rough – this is the real thing – a spec to set up e-learning for the next 3-5 years.

This must get precedence. Ahead of blogging, which needs also to retreat to a place to reflect on the MAODE and H810 … after, not before or during the activity

3) It is time for me to edit, lock or delete some blog posts from a decade ago

I don’t even trust ‘Locking’ pages as once leaked stuff is easily cut, pasted and re-released.

We’ve had the editor of Newsnight resign because something he said in a blog was inaccurate – you see a blog really is just electronic paper, it can be nonsense, or it can be used against you. Over a decade ago no one took the blogger seriously – we’d might as well have been writing on bog-roll.

Then I caught a piece about ‘Creep Shots’ on BBC Radio 4. The pernicious side of this is posting shots of people, say commuting into work – the viscous end of this being the ‘up the skirt’ antics that ought to lead to criminal prosecution – and does where it can be proved. The ‘innocent’ side of this is posting shots of people picked out from a crowd – what do the hundreds of photographers do with the tens of thousands of photographs they took at the Lewes Bonfire Night marches? To save the embarrassment of family and friends I’ve removed or locked images of them. That is because through association they can be identified. Why should anyone link to and have a laugh at their expense. But what about total strangers? I’m not going to restrict myself to mid and distance shots. Do any of the people who had too much to drink want to find them pasted into a blog or featuring on the pages of a local paper? It’ll only get worse – a headcam can snap or record almost everything you see. Where might that content go? Or will we become blind to the exposure?

As a child we posed in our swimming teams in our trunks – such shots, certainly online, tend to be swimmers wearing a club T shirt or trackie.

We follow Sports UK Child Protection Guidelines.

An example of where you need to be sensitive however came where I was advised that an adopted child should not feature as it would be inappropriate should blood relatives of that child see it. In relation to H810 Accessible Online Learning: supporting disabled students. It is of course as appropriate to seek permission, even ask them to sign a release form, before a disabled student … indeed any student is featured online, whether or not they are identified. In the case of minors they should not.

Take this post – ‘visible to all Open University users’ a few clicks and anyone can cut, paste and put it on a more public platform.

Trust and common sense?

The same whether online or off?

That and with millions of pages uploaded every hour (or is that every minute), the chances are anything and everything you do will fall on deaf ears anyway.