0:00:00.000,0:00:00.778 (Cory Doctorow) Thank you very much 0:00:01.066,0:00:05.420 So I'd like to start with something of a[br]benediction or permission. 0:00:05.420,0:00:07.740 I am one of nature's fast talkers 0:00:07.740,0:00:10.620 and many of you are not [br]native English speakers, or 0:00:10.620,0:00:12.919 maybe not accustomed [br]to my harsh Canadian accent 0:00:12.919,0:00:15.919 in addition I've just come in [br]from Australia 0:00:15.919,0:00:19.166 and so like many of you I am horribly[br]jetlagged and have drunkenough coffee 0:00:19.166,0:00:20.736 this morning to kill a rhino. 0:00:22.112,0:00:23.587 When I used to be at the United Nations 0:00:23.587,0:00:27.023 I was known as the scourge of the[br]simultaneous translation core 0:00:27.157,0:00:29.528 I would stand up and speak [br]as slowly as I could 0:00:29.576,0:00:32.229 and turn around, and there they[br]would be in their boots doing this 0:00:32.229,0:00:35.136 (laughter)[br]When I start to speak too fast, 0:00:35.136,0:00:37.557 this is the universal symbol --[br]my wife invented it -- 0:00:37.557,0:00:41.518 for "Cory, you are talking too fast".[br]Please, don't be shy. 0:00:42.078,0:00:45.790 So, I'm a parent , like many of you [br]and I'm like I'm sure all of you 0:00:45.790,0:00:48.850 who are parents, parenting takes my ass [br]all the time. 0:00:50.030,0:00:54.820 And there are many regrets I have[br]about the mere seven and half years 0:00:54.820,0:00:57.284 that I've been a parent [br]but none ares so keenly felt 0:00:57.784,0:01:00.878 as my regrets over what's happened [br]when I've been wandering 0:01:00.878,0:01:04.766 around the house and seen my[br]daughter working on something 0:01:04.766,0:01:08.697 that was beyond her abilities, that was [br]right at the edge of what she could do 0:01:08.697,0:01:12.759 and where she was doing something [br]that she didn't have competence in yet 0:01:12.759,0:01:17.019 and you know it's that amazing thing [br]to see that frowning concentration, 0:01:17.019,0:01:20.038 tongue stuck out: as a parent, your[br]heart swells with pride 0:01:20.038,0:01:21.332 and you can't help but go over 0:01:21.332,0:01:23.280 and sort of peer over their shoulder[br]what they are doing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and those of you who are parents know [br]what happens when you look too closely 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at someone who is working [br]beyond the age of their competence. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They go back to doing something[br]they're already good at. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You interrupt a moment [br]of genuine learning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you replace it with [br]a kind of embarrassment 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about what you're good at [br]and what you're not. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, it matters a lot that our schools are[br]increasingly surveilled environments, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 environments in which everything that [br]our kids do is watched and recorded. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because when you do that, you interfere[br]with those moments of real learning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our ability to do things that we are not [br]good at yet, that we are not proud of yet, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is negatively impacted [br]by that kind of scrutiny. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that scrutiny comes [br]from a strange place. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have decided that there are [br]some programmatic means 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by which we can find all the web page[br]children shouldn't look at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we will filter our networks[br]to be sure that they don't see them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anyone who has ever paid attention[br]knows that this doesn't work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There are more web pages [br]that kids shouldn't look at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than can ever be cataloged, [br]and any attempt to catalog them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will always catch pages that kids[br]must be looking at. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Any of you who have ever taught [br]a unit on reproductive health 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 know the frustration of trying [br]to get round a school network. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, this is done in the name of[br]digital protection 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it flies in the face of digital[br]literacy and of real learning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because the only way to stop kids [br]from looking at web pages 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they shouldn't be looking at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is to take all of the clicks that they [br]make, all of the messages that they send, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all of their online activity [br]and offshore it to a firm 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that has some nonsensically arrived at[br]list of the bad pages. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so, what we are doing is that we're [br]exfiltrating all of our students' data 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to unknown third parties. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, most of these firms, [br]their primary business is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in serving the education sector. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Most of them service [br]the government sector. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The primarily service governments in[br]repressive autocratic regimes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They help them make sure that [br]their citizens aren't looking at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Amnesty International web pages. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They repackage those tools [br]and sell them to our educators. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we are offshoring our children's clicks[br]to war criminals. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And what our kids do, we know,[br]is they just get around it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because it's not hard to get around it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You know, never underestimate the power[br]of a kid who is time-rich and cash-poor 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to get around our [br]technological blockades. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But when they do this, they don't acquire[br]the kind of digital literacy 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we want them to do, they don't [br]acquire real digital agency 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and moreover, they risk exclusion [br]and in extreme cases, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they risk criminal prosecution. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what if instead, those of us who are[br]trapped in this system of teaching kids 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where we're required to subject them[br]to this kind of surveillance 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that flies in the face [br]of their real learning, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what if instead, we invented [br]curricular units 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that made them real first class[br]digital citizens, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in charge of trying to influence[br]real digital problems? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Like what if we said to them: [br]"We want you to catalog the web pages 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that this vendor lets through [br]that you shouldn't be seeing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We want you to catalog those pages that [br]you should be seeing, that are blocked. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We want you to go and interview [br]every teacher in the school 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about all those lesson plans that were[br]carefully laid out before lunch 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with a video and a web page, [br]and over lunch, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the unaccountable distance center[br]blocked these critical resources 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and left them handing out photographed [br]worksheets in the afternoon 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 instead of the unit they prepared. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We want you to learn how to do the Freedom[br]of Information Act's requests 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and find out what your [br]school authority is spending 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to censor your internet access [br]and surveil your activity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We want you to learn to use the internet [br]to research these companies and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we want you to present this [br]to your parent-teacher association, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to your school authority,[br]to your local newspaper." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because that's the kind [br]of digital literacy 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that makes kids into first-class[br]digital citizens, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that prepares them for a future [br]in which they can participate fully 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a world that's changing. (5:18)