Filter Fun
We’ve been running into school Internet filters more than usual lately, and the problem seems to be getting worse instead of better. When teachers and even administrators can’t reach basic tools like Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, or Wikipedia, it not only leaves students unprepared for the unfiltered world they actually live in, it also undermines the professionalism of educators. The only way students and teachers will ever really master the Web is by being allowed to use it.
So we’ve been getting tweaked by filters again and the amount of stuff that many schools block and try to keep away from kids and, to a depressingly large extent, teachers as well. We know this is just a repeat of the same basic issues that have been floating around here for a while, but for some reason we’ve been slamming into that wall both technically and intellectually in the past weeks more than usual. It’s frustrating when it seems to be getting worse instead of better.
At one recent event, we had a couple of hours between sessions and since the wireless was spotty, one of the school administrators offered up his office and his computer for us to use. “Slow as hell,” he said as he logged us in. He wasn’t kidding. But the worst part was that we really needed to get onto our Gmail account to snag a file and it was, of course, blocked. Google Docs, blocked. YouTube, blocked. Webpages came up with photos and videos “x’d” out. Apparently, everyone in the school suffered under the same filter. And the same was true of a school superintendent we spoke with who lamented the fact that his IT staff wouldn’t give him access to YouTube and even Wikipedia.
We swear we wanted to grab them both and shake them and say, “You’ve got to be kidding us! Why do you stand for that?”
Oy.
We say this all the time, but we truly believe that filters make our kids less safe. They step off the bus into unfiltered worlds with no context for making good decisions about the stuff coming at them. It’s a huge problem. But on some levels, the bigger problem is what we are doing to our teachers. It insults the profession to not at the very least provide desktop overrides for teachers when they bump up against a filtered site. Have a policy in place to deal with incidents where teachers make poor choices if that’s what the concern is.
Seriously, are we missing something? Why is that so hard to implement?
The only way we’re going to get students, or teachers, to master the Web is to let them use it.
About the author
Weblogg-ed Team — The Weblogg-ed Team is the collective byline behind our editorial coverage. We write about teaching, learning, and the institutions around them as technology and students keep moving faster than the systems built to serve them. Our work covers classroom practice, edtech and AI tools, online learning, homeschooling, digital literacy, and higher education, written for teachers, school leaders, parents, and lifelong learners who want clearer thinking than the press releases provide.
Related posts
AI in the classroom three years in: what’s working, and what isn’t
The first wave of stories about ChatGPT in schools was about cheating. The second wave was about bans. The third, finally, has been about…
Teach. Facebook. Now.
We keep blocking Facebook instead of teaching it, even though most of our students use it and few understand privacy, reputation, and public exposure in that space.
What’s Changed? (2009 Version)
We always get in this reflective mood at the end of the year, trying to put some form to what’s changed, both in our own practice and in the larger conversation about schools. Despite more traveling, more PLP work, and deeper on-the-ground conversations, it still feels as if traditional practice remains deeply ingrained and truly transformative change is rare.