-Malik

In my own district, I am very blessed, indeed, to work under a superintendent who greatly values technology. About 2 years ago, I sat down with him and the leadership team for the district and introduced them to the read/write web. The response was unabashed excitement and enthusiasm! Our super went to his office later that day to look at YouTube, and he discovered it was blocked. A quick phone call to tech support rectified that. He poured over the site, and he discovered among the music videos and laughing babies vast stores of educational resources. He made a very gutsy move and had YouTube unblocked in the district. His reasoning? YouTube was too valuable to not attempt to use responsibly.

Our district has been very supportive of my efforts to utilize Web 2.0 tools with students and teachers. The philosophy has become one that relies on high expectations for student and staff responsibility. The goal is to enable all to become proficient with very relevant, very transformative tools. The results have been astounding. Our district has come to be viewed as a benchmark for others in our state to model their own technology practices and policies after.

The key point in all of this is that it all begins with the education of the administration. Many restrictive policies are the result of irrational fears based upon a lack of familiarity and experience. Put a few tools into the hands of a school’s leaders, and walls will come down.

As much as we teachers can try to keep up with advancements in technology, it is the students who are the real experts in using, and finding (even illegally) whatever information they desire. Why can’t we as professionals be trusted to teach students how to use technology responsibly?

And it appears that just this month, Congress has upgraded CIPA (S.1492) in a way that sends the message that Education, not mandatory blocking and filtering, is the best way to protect and prepare
America’s students.

Joint Statement of CoSN and ISTE Hailing Passage of
Internet Safety Education Legislation

http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=21817

Lucie deLaBruere
http://www.LearningWithLucie.com

I don’t see sweeping changes happening any time soon, sadly. I think we are going to be subject to “trickle down” spotty or inconsistent expertise in these areas coming from new teacher graduates. So, it is all the more urgent that school districts provide their new teachers with quality professional development in this area, is this is a field that is constantly changing and evolving.

The issue of educating our kids to be responsible is a big part of the discussion here, but not all of it. Do we put playboy magazines in our libraries and tell kids, “it is there but don’t look at it”? Some things are blocked because they are simply too big a distraction and too tempting for the kids. I block many online gaming sites simply because there is just too much traffic to them during school time. Even when something is perfectly safe for our kids, it is not imperative to provide access to it in school.

The issue of teachers being blocked is a totally different one. This is truly unacceptable and lacks any professionalism whatsoever. However, the filtering system used by our district only allows for one level of access. Unfortunately, changing this is an expense the district is not willing to take on at the moment because our filter is deemed as “effective” by our Board of Ed.

I could open YouTube. I won’t. Not because of kids. Our teachers are poorly equipped to instruct and monitor student use. I am working with staff developers to improve this, but it is a slow process. It pains me to know there is incredible content on YouTube that is hard or impossible to find elsewhere. However there is so much content that is clearly inappropriate and some downright dangerous that without extensive training of 400+ teachers I cannot in good faith open it without feeling that students are being placed in a dangerous situation.

This is an issue that has been with us since the Internet has come into our schools. There is no easy answer. Allowing kids to explore and learn in a world that teachers are not comfortable in, not knowledgeable in, and in some cases not even aware of, is not something I would recommend as an educator. Teacher preparation must improve. Teaching information literacy will be impossible until our teachers are actually information literate themselves. From my experience, most are not, including many new teachers.

Don’t violate your AUP because of me, though

it seems to work very well. the students don’t have any beefs with it, and the teachers are able to block and unblock at will.

perhaps it comes down to having good line of communication between the teachers and admin. i don’t know. just a thought.