Us versus Them
One of the problems that nearly all educators talked about at NECC was the fact their district filtered or blocked access to many sites that do not feel have educational value. Please share your ideas on this topic and any suggestions you have to help tear these wall down.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Queen of the Click on
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I got Ning unblocked in my area by writing to the network admin and telling him how I was going to use it (as a private network for my students and I). It took him a few months, but eventually he released it. Ning is amazing with middle school students.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Still on -
I was able to convince the IT person to unblock the NECC Ning, but other Ning's are still blocked. I am planning on setting up a class Ning this fall. Please share what has and has not worked for you and your students. I'm interested to learn all I can!
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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on -
It definitely helps to get a custom domain name, as you can ask just for that domain (and http//api.ning.com for images) to be unblocked.
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Permalink Reply by John Hendron on -
This is something we have been discussing in Virginia for some time. Our department of education was advertising free seminars for learning about all the latest "Web 2.0 Technologies", i.e., websites, when I realized that so many folks who'd come to see these wouldn't be able to use them once they got back "home" in their schools.
We are lucky, I guess, in our school district. Teachers can "override" a blocked site. They can do it for an hour, 8, or the entire day. While it isn't perfect, it does, say, let them get to Flickr.com while students cannot.
I wrote to the DOE in our state and asked what they could do to help us integrate the use of Web 2.0 tools since so many of the districts were blocking these sites. They never responded.
What bothers me is that there are so many sites that are blocked that in spirit are great sites. The mentality is, say with Flickr, that there are objectionable pictures there. Okay, I've never just "run into" any, but I know they exist. So we block the whole site.
This mentality works on one level. "Do you want your kids exposed to filthy pics? At XYZ school, we block sites like FLICKR where perverts can post their dirty photos!"
But it is also a mentality that breaks down quickly. You can find objectionable material in any space, and I really think the concept of blocking "sites" is a psychological one. I.e., "this book bad, this book good", as they are stacked on a shelf in the library. But with everything so interconnected and linked, "where" it comes from becomes less significant.
Like Steve already suggested, we unblocked portions of Ning so we could offer our teachers a space to collaborate and "network." But we block other Nings (at least for students). Sigh. My best advice would be to make the blocking of sites more community based, by having both technical and instructional people on "the board" making the decisions--or at least--communicating what's becoming blocked and what is not.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Still on
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John.....I would have to agree with your thoughts. What I was disappointed in at NECC was the lack of discussion I heard about how to go about educating parents, school boards, and even teachers about the value of Web 2.0. School districts must start having discussions about why policies and filters were put into place to begin with. I realize and fully appreciate that it is our duty as educators to protect our children, but it is also our responsibility to teach our students how to survive in the digital age. Blocking something because there is there is a possibility that students might see something inappropriate is not the answer. People seem to still forget that there is a teacher presence in the classroom when students are online.
I am very lucky in my district. We are able to override the filters with just a couple of clicks, but we must do this sparingly. If I override the filter for an hour on a "Social Netoworking Site" it takes the filter down for ALL social networking sites for however long I remove the filter...anywhere from 1 minute to all day. I am also fortunate to work in a district where we are leading the charge when it comes to technology. There are still obstacles, but the walls are starting to come down.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Still on
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Yes, I agree completely. The problem is that too many districts do not have a policy in place to allow for teacher input on what is educational! I can easily justify showing numerous YouTube videos in my class, but certainly not all of them are fit for the classroom! There are certain game sites that tie in nicely to my curriculum, but there is a filter on gaming sites! Some of the techs in my district do not recognize the difference between playing poker online or an interactive flash card game. I am trying to get this changed!
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Permalink Reply by Frances DiDavide on -
We are facing this problem in our district. We have blocked many sites and they are not bad or good. An example is Youtube. There is objectionable content, I have seen it and believe me, I don't want the kids finding it, but there is also great content. We are working on letting teachers have access easily so they can use the good content when needed. We need to spend more time educating administrators, teachers and parents and then all of us working together can educate students.
Right now our students are the only ones who can reach these sites, they all know how to get to them through an outside proxy! It seems unfair to block the teachers.
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Permalink Reply by Randy Orwin on -
Here in Washington State we are just putting the final touches on a new acceptable use policy that will be given to folks as a template for use in their districts. We purposely structured the document in such a way as to help remove roadblocks from teachers in the classroom. We recommend the use of web 2.0 technologies and are working on a set of FAQs that will help IT folks and instructional folks come to the table and discuss the needs in the classroom. We hope to roll it out this fall. I am sure there will be much trepidation from many IT folks but at least we are getting the ball rolling and it is not required that folks use it. We really want to get the discussion going at a larger level so that we can move into the new technologies.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Still on
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Those discussions are bound to get heated! It seems to be very hard for teachers and IT folks to find common ground. Glad to hear you are at least moving forward in Washington State. In Nebraska, the State Board still cannot decide if they want to adopt the proposed Reading & Writing standards. They include a large section on multiple literacies which seems to be their preferred term for Web 2.0. I love the new standards, but the vast majority of our teachers are not ready for changes of that magnitude. The only answer is mandatory training, but who decides what is important? No easy answers for this one!
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