The deepening crisis in Iran surrounding the violence and protests over recent election results has raised the profile of a number of social media tools, including blogs and Twitter. Foreign press photography and reporting inside the country has been banned, but still the images emerge, courtesy of brave souls with mobile phones and other devices capturing and then webcasting their footage for the world to see. Still the stories come out of the country, courtesy of those keeping personal accounts and making them available on the web through blogging and twittering. It seems that no matter how repressive or reactionary a government is, there is no silencing the truth. The BBC News site is currently carrying a list of links to Iranian blogs, where people can go to read the latest about what is happening out on the streets of the troubled city of Tehran. It is the users of the mobile devices who are subverting government edicts to ensure that the truth is known. People power it seems, is now particularly dependent on technology. Twitter's planned maintenance downtime in Iran has been postponed because they realised how much Iranians were relying on the microblogging tool to tell the world what is happening. The Iranian government may be trying to block news by issuing press embargoes, shutting down internet connections and denial of services, but like previous authorities, they will never repress the human spirit, and the truth will always emerge. The Iranian situation shows that social media provide the world with an immediacy of news coverage that is unprecedented.
Yesterday, during our expert panel discussion at the JISC South West Regional Support Centre Summer Conference, I made the remark that in schools where social networking services are blocked, children subvert the system by using mobile phones to access the forbidden sites. Even though mobile phones are banned in schools, studies reveal that children still use their phone during teaching hours and one study shows that when they are permitted to use their phones, childen generally behave responsibly. Mobile phones and social media both have a key role to play in education, just as they do in bringing news. So let the kids use them, and let's build some serious learning around them. If we don't, they will use them anyway. There is no stopping people. And neither should there be. Whether it is a life and death situation like repression in Iran, or a freedom of choice situation like schools blocking social network sites, the human spirit will find a way.
See also: Internet brings events in Iran to life
Howard Rheingold: Mobile media and collective political action
Associated Press: Twitter stayed online for Iran chaos
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