By Nancy
Educators are urged to bring 21st Century skills into their classrooms, and the world wide web has become part of our lives. Teachers are charging ahead, pushing out the classroom walls, and You Tube, Facebook, Flickr, and blogs provide a wealth of resources that are timely, engaging, and free. So the debate comes up at every gathering of educational tech users: how much should districts filter the internet? Or should districts filter at all?
In most districts there is some level of restricting student access to sites that might contain inappropriate material. Teachers are often restricted as well, since they are subject to the same filters for internet access.
Our district filter is a frustrating nag at best, especially when I know there is something on a site that is perfect for what my students need in order to become engaged in a topic. I often feel that someone far removed, and not an educator, is making an educational decision for me. As a professional, I want to be able to act on my best judgment, based on what I know is best for my students right now.
Many students possess a certain savviness with technology and are able to bypass district filters anyway, or have a buddy who can. Then we take steps to manage and oversee students, keep parents in the loop, and have discipline policies for infractions. Some think that a district filter is not allowing students to make the right decision, and just having a block can actually entice some mavericks to find a way around it. And outside of school, these sites are available too.
There are bigger questions here. How much are students responsible for their deliberate actions to seek out material they know adults don’t want them to see? Are we taking away an important opportunity for students to make critical decisions? How much should parents follow through on their own expectations that their child will not seek out inappropriate material, either at school or during the majority of time spent outside of school? What are the consequences of taking this educational decision away from teachers?
Thanks Tracey – you bring up a significant influence: your district IT department. It sounds like you are very fortunate, and I’ve not seen that relationship between IT and teachers in the three districts I’ve worked in. Tech support staff rarely are educators by background, and I’ve witnessed the attitude that ‘those teachers just don’t get how it works’. Again, those outside the classroom are making decisions that directly impact instruction.
This is such an important topic, yet it keeps getting pushed aside to the back burner. I’ve been very fortunate in my district. When I’ve found sites that were blocked that I needed to use for my classroom, or created Nings or wikis for teachers to use, my district has always been prompt to remove the blocks. I think it’s because of the people in our tech department. They actually look to the teachers to make the professional call about what’s appropriate for student learning. I have the impression this is rare. So, I’m pretty comfortable with the filters that have been set in place at the elementary level. But, I agree with Mark. At some point, students need to learn how to navigate the internet to find answers to research questions and explore new ideas while using their own filter – their critical thinking skills.
Also, in my district, they block wikis, nings, and blogs from teacher use as well. We tried to use a wiki for curriculum alignment, but it was blocked for four months about we asked it to be unblocked, and then after it was “unblocked” it was only available in text-only. I have a great idea for using a ning for students for independent reading projects, but it’s not even worth trying because of the hoops I’d have to jump to enable their access to the ning at school.
Great topic, because restriction of any information is frustrating in an educational setting.
As a parent, I want my elementary-aged daughter to be able to use the internet at school without stumbling across porn, a hate site, or a site with explicit photographs of violence. There’s a time and a place for her to grapple with each, but it’s not in a classroom with a 1:25 adult to child ratio.
On the other hand, when she is in high school researching in preparation for a debate or an essay, I want her to have access to information that could inform her argument. Could she do this research at home? Yes, she could, because we have internet access. Today I polled my 10th grade honors class and a third of them do not have internet access at home. They do the bulk of their internet exploration at school.
And it’s not just the informative websites that are filtered. Filters block blogs, email sites, and social sites like myspace and facebook. While there’s a risk that kids will goof around on these sites during class, I can monitor that as easily as I monitor their phones or their doodling. And why shouldn’t they be able to email a friend during lunch?
In high school the filters seem to restrict more than they protect. I’m curious to see what middle school parents / teachers think about this issue.
I understand what you are saying Tom, and those younger grades are a concern. I do wonder, though, whether we are giving up too much access, and taking on too much management by promising parents that their students will not have access at school. At what point do we release this control? Are we setting ourselves up? I’m thinking of the parent expectation that it is all on our shoulders, that we are guaranteeing every child will be closely guarded when in reality some kids can find ways around filters, even in elementary grades. And then outside of school, at 3:30 PM, will parents monitor their student’s access?
I think it depends. I teach third grade in a district that has pretty tight web filters. It can be frustrating, but I also realize that the vast majority of the parents who trust their kids to my care are counting on me to keep them away from anything inappropriate. And after all, these are the people who are paying the tech levies that put those computers in my room in the first place. With that in mind, I have no problem with internet filters in y classroom, since I can’t possible monitor eight laptops at all times.
On the other hand, those same filters are probably overkill for high school seniors, who are ready to deal with more sophisticated and mature topics.
So, it depends.
To me, it is no different from when we teach kids how to use a table of contents, index, etc., for a textbook. Left to their own devices, they might find the info in the book, but there’s certainly a smarter way (use the TOC, for example). With the web, we need to realize that it is a tool, and grant teachers access and make it easier for kids to access what we want them to. Even with all the filters and restrictions in the world. Kids will find a way.
We need to embrace what technology offers in the way of learning opportunities, rather than assume malice and block everyone from everything. I teach Romeo and Juliet, and when doing a google search once was told my search was blocked because results contained explicit content and topics of sexuality, violence, drug use and suicide. Hmm…