To Filter or Not to Filter

Yesterday, I was training at a SW Podstock conference. The conference was held at a neighboring school district. The campus is relatively new and is equipped with the latest technology. However, as I began setting up for my class, I noticed that the filtering restrictions were much more limiting than what I am used to. Now you need to understand that my basic philosophy is that when in doubt a site ought to be unblocked. For example, I believe that YouTube should be unblocked in my school district, even though as Dean Shareski, a digital educator, thinker, and lecturer with the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, stated in the keynote address, 99% is garbage. But that 1% is useful and so ubiquitous (aren't you impressed) that I believe it should be opened. Now back to my complaining about the filtering in this school district. I expected YouTube to be blocked. That is pretty standard in most school districts. However, in this district all streaming video is blocked. I also noticed that my Dropbox account was not working. (This was critical for me because this was one of the places where I had saved my presentation for that day.) Gmail was blocked. A lot of popular educational sites were blocked.

Now I know that many administrators are in the protect your tail end at all costs mentality, but there comes a point when you have to ask yourself, how far is this going to go? And if we are not going to use the technology, why are we spending billions of dollars to get it into our schools? Maybe we should just sell it and save the taxpayers a lot of money.

I don't think that is the best solution for our students, but what is a constructive approach to allowing our students to use the technology? Angela Haynes, a conference presenter from Northwest ISD, Roanoke, Texas, asked her principal why all these sites were being blocked in her district. He said that they were dangerous. Angela responded by saying that she hands out a pair of scissors to her 2nd grade students all the time and the scissors are dangerous and pose a possible threat to her students. She went on to explain that she is responsible for monitoring the students so that they don't hurt themselves or others. She is also responsible for teaching the students how to use the scissors properly. Now why can't we be just as sensible in our approach to allowing students to use technology? First, we make clear what is acceptable and unacceptable to do on the web. Second, we monitor the students carefully to make sure that they are not viewing inappropriate materials and are on task. Finally, if they persist in viewing inappropriate sites, they lose their privileges to use the technology.

One last thing.... Whenever students use computers, they should have an instructional purpose for being there. If students are bored, then they are going to get into trouble. That is just a part of human nature. Teachers cannot use computers to baby sit their students. The teacher must be well prepared to extend the lesson for those students who finish early. Give them the guidance they need. Vary the tools and make learning fun.