The ten founders of ictopus are: Geoff Davies, Rhona Dick, Doug Dickinson, Bob Fox, Heather Govier, Roger Keeling, Mike Matson, Alan Rodgers, Janice Staines and Angella Streluk. And you can find out more about the organization from the First issue of Sharing Good Practice SGP 0.
I have been very impressed with all of the articles except that in SGP 15, which you can download below.
In my view the publishing of the article by Robert Hart in its present form was a mistake as it comes across as a piece of deceptive salesmanship.
At no point does Robert Hart, Director of Intuitive Media, identify his connection with the two clubs that he is reviewing as a result of his research on them He is in fact the promoter of both SuperClubsPlus and GoldStarCafe. The article is written as though it gives an independent report on these clubs. Belatedly the editor points this out in the footnotes but one would not realize this by reading the information.
Many organizations clearly believe that Intuitive Media provide a valuable service in providing a safe environment for children to go on line and chat to children through out the UK. So do I – if this was done for say one to two hours in the week. But the norm is presented as being in the region of at least 15 hours per week i.e. two hours a day.
It is here that I cannot agree that this is “Good Practice” as I explain below.
Initially Ictopus used their blog to encourage a discussion of this article but now all trace of it have been removed so I have reproduced it below with postings that came through me in the first place.
Here then is an opportunity to continue the discussion.
I do not understand the actions of the Ictopus team in either publishing the article as written or in removing comments from the Blog. They do however have a close ‘relationship’ with Roger Hart and Intuitive Media in that he provided them a presence at BETT 2008 on his stand.
Please feel free to express your views – there are many issues that come out of this article which I hope will have a good airing here. As you see there are some for things in the article and several against!
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1 comment:
The most disturbing thing about this is surely that the SGP 15 paper is apparently an extended but covert advert for the author's commercial activity. It has been accepted and published by Ictopus, presumably with the knowledge of this fact and they are now suppressing all discussion. If this is an indication of the moral probity of apparently respected organisations involved in primary education then I feel this is even more worrying than the original message of SP15.
Les Galloway
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