SparkleBox?

[Face-Man]

With ofsed now hot on "safeguarding" I wouldn't want to be responsible for the fact I ignored a possible risk no matter how small. Therefore document it and ensure the head is aware of the situation and let them make the call

[Techie101]

I've been told by somebody I trust that there is a very very good reason for this site not to be used by children. And as they have to be the first priority for schools/LA/RBC unfortunately teachers will have to cope without this resource.

 

see post 50 of Sparklebox ...still banned ? - Early years - TES Connect

 

ermmmm, post 50 just says -

 

"Oops, no idea what happened there!"

[Techie101]

Also just wanted to add that this whole thing has really made my day. I googled "sparklebox banned" and was taken to various teaching forums and some of the comments from teachers had me rolling around on the floor. stuff like "im mortified", "what are teachers going to do now", "how do they expect us to teach without this resource", and my all time favourite "this site halfed my workload, now i'll have to work".

 

God i love teachers, maybe somewhere they forgot they are actually employed to teach, and teaching is not just about surfing the net for resources that other people have done, printing them off and then patting yourself on the back on a job well done, back when i was in uni, that was called plagiarism.

 

can any teacher remember back to when schools had no internet, teachers taught back then too, so one website gets banned and the whole system comes crashing around them.

 

the scenes at some of my schools resemble the movie 2012, damn maybe the Mayans were right, lol

Edited December 8, 2009 by Techie101

[pooley]

I have to be honest, toolbar aside I cannot see anything wrong with the website?

[synaesthesia]

I'm going to have a bit of a sit down with one of my greatest Sparklebox using schools tomorrow, and without scaring any of them I'm going to try and find out the impact it would have should it "dissapear" or be blocked. It's not likely to happen without damned good reason from EMBC down here, but it's just a heads up for them more than anything else. I still can't see anything wrong with it but if more than one LEA has indeed gone full pelt and blocked all/part of their services, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Certainly better than walking into said school one morning to find 10 members of staff grabbing at my collar and trying to buy my time with coffee and biscuits because their favourite/only resource has gone

[LeMarchand]

without scaring any of them

 

Where's the fun in that?

[ZeroHour]

Certainly better than walking into said school one morning to find 10 members of staff grabbing at my collar and trying to buy my time with coffee and biscuits because their favourite/only resource has gone

 

You lucky sod! getting bribes and not abuse to fix issues, that sounds refreshing....

[synaesthesia]

The joys of working with primaries

They all get seen to anyway, noone ever gets left out - just the bribes make them think they're being seen to first or something

[Marci]

ermmmm, post 50 just says -

 

"Oops, no idea what happened there!"

Then the hosting site's administrators have pruned the message out... the basic summary being, "site owner has been banned from working with or having contact with or to be seen to be attempting contact with minors. His hosting of the site itself is in breach of these conditions."

 

How valid that statement is, who knows. At a guess it's removal from TES is due to ongoing legal proceedings upon which a verdict is yet to be made.

[Michael]

I find this a very interesting development. I've worked in schools for quite a number of years and I am pretty certain even a handful of teachers at every school use Sparklebox. I don't consider the software a threat to security, however if the reports are indeed true they're operating illegally all schools and LAs should take note of this.

[synaesthesia]

I've been having a really good poke around and really can't find any holes open to exploit in the toolbar. HOWEVER, and this is a big BUT, the biggest problem lies within the users and toolbars similar to the Sparklebox one. I won't need to explain that too far but I'm sure I'm not the only one that sees a hell of a lot of MyWebSearch infections/toolbars and rubbish/data collection from the likes of aLot.

 

"If Sparklebox is ok, these look similar, they must be fine"

 

Simplistic but apparently a very common approach from a non IT literate user.

[soveryapt]

"If Sparklebox is ok, these look similar, they must be fine"

 

Simplistic but apparently a very common approach from a non IT literate user.

 

Indeed it is, which is why I've banned the SparkleBox toolbar from all our machines as I'm sick of resetting connections .. so much so, I have SpiceWorks on the look out for the various components just in case someone tries to get clever! lol

[oxide54]

wsgfl blocked it for a while, and made a big deal of it on the atomwide site, then they unblocked and posted that they didn't think it was threat after all.

 

no-one at our school new cause no one uses it.

[russdev]

Just for peoples information I have unapproved the last two posts and have PM'd people mainly as there is legal case going on and info is confidential and we could get into hot water over it all...

 

Once the case has been resolved the posts will be re approved and edited etc as needed.

 

I advise people in YHGFL to contact the LA if they want more information.

 

Russell Dyas

EduGeek.net Admin

Edited December 17, 2009 by russdev

[leco]

Thanks for the explanation russdev, I was going to pass the info to my head tomorrow but will wait for the LA.

[eddyc]

@johnymac, it was just a heads up, but in future I won't bother to waste my time.

[mb2k01]

Without wanting to add to the complications Russ talked of above, I think it would be important to update this thread, as like many of you I've allowed a work around for users to access Sparklebox - but shall be removing that access until instructed otherwise...

 

Our LA and ISP have confirmed the real reason that Sparklebox was filtered via a letter to all local Headteachers today.

 

The concerns were not over the illegal running of the company as such - more to do with a second particular concern over individual(s) directly related to the company...

 

Check with your own LA or Broadband Consortium, who should be able to give you a clearer message. Until then, consider suspending your work-around solutions.

[nathan]

i wont paste the statment here, but one has been released on the YHGfL site - Its under Sparklebox - Update

 

Click on the View Item Link

 

Please remove this post if i have broken any rules, although i think that statements now in the public domain to help people decide on the action to take.

 

Nath

[synaesthesia]

Cat amongst the pigeons now. Without going into any detail, would people feel morally correct to continue using the resources? Would it be available for much longer?

And despite these LA's releasing that statement, more importantly can anyone be certain it is the truth?

They're damned good resources - would using them be akin to "blood money"?

 

So what are our thoughts on the allegations? As someone who looks after many schools I'm tempted to tell people to expect the worst. Would you tell the reasons? Would those come out anyway?

Or is ignorance bliss?

 

Please don't misunderstand my post in any way that exonerates the alleged actions; I'm just thinking on behalf of the people that use the resources and protecting them.

[powdarrmonkey]

Cat amongst the pigeons now. Without going into any detail, would people feel morally correct to continue using the resources?

 

Since the site and materials are no longer available, it is not correct to continue using them unless the copyright owners (last time I looked, Sparklebox Teaching Resources Ltd) have clearly placed them in the public domain or you have a license for them which is still in force.

[leco]

Could someone please give me an exact location on the YHGfL site as I can't seem to locate the statement? Thanks.

[powdarrmonkey]

Let me google that for you

[leco]

Let me google that for you

 

Thanks for that but none of the sites are actually YHGfL.

[mb2k01]

I've tried to find a statement from your GfL but it appears there isn't one.

I think the joint concern over liability, and issues which might hinder the ongoing legal process are the main reason for the lack of statement - as well as the reason you won't get many of us coming out with the actual reason here.

Search Google and read the TES forums - the majority of post reflect the facts included in the letter sent from Cornwall LA which I refered to earlier.

[ZeroHour]

Has Sparklebox gone away? - Early years - TES Connect

 

The last few posts with the pictures are interesting...