IT IS A SIGN of the times, and the times in which we live require schools to utilize all forms of technology, including the internet, not only to keep students interested–a vital aspect of schoolhouse politics, but to prepare students for the real world. And any look to the real world confirms that reality. Schools must embrace the internet in every way possible, not shun it.
However, increasingly, I see our school pulling the plug on computers and blocking every possible website that students and teachers could use in an educational setting. Instead of allowing teachers both to entertain students and to incorporate vital skills into the educational process, technicians and administrators are hindering that prospect. And turning a cold shoulder to technology is turning a back on students.
It all started back in August when the blocking began. Any time a design class needed to access images, they were blocked. Any time Mrs. Huff needed to access her class Wiki, she was blocked. Any time Mr. Goodwin needed to show a historical video clip on YouTube (DO NOT click the link if you are reading this on a school computer), he was blocked. Instead of embracing technology as a twenty-first century school should, our district is turning on the firewalls, preventing students from realizing the complete opportunity that the internet provides. Contrary to the belief of our technicians, students need Photo Bucket, Yahoo! Images, and Flickr to search for images when creating a multimedia project. Contrary to the belief of our technicians, Mrs. Huff needs access to her class website to dispense information to her students. Contrary to the belief of our technicians, Mr. Goodwin needs to show the YouTube video to his class for his students to grasp the full understanding of the Protestant Reformation. After a semester of dealing with our school’s internet blockade, it’s time to burn down the firewalls and let the light of the internet shine on students and teachers.
Last week, a fellow classmate notified me that he spent forty minutes trying to access his school-assigned blog, one that our English teacher assigned and grades regularly. He typed the internet address into the URL bar, clicked Go, and waited and waited and waited. Finally, a box appeared notifying him that he might be violating his internet use policy by clicking Continue. He continued clicking Continue, until–40 minutes later–he was able to access his site. Another classmate notified me that she cannot access the images she needs for her Desktop Publishing class and is forced to use the internet at her home to download the images.
If a filter doesn’t prevent you from visiting the site, check out Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website, which has an excellent animation as to what we experience on a daily basis: unnecessary censorship.
School administration and technicians are aware of the problems–we notified them of this issue back in September. Needless to say, nothing’s changed. In December, I confronted a technician, who was monitoring internet traffic on my account, of the growing problem of blocked websites. He told me tough luck. Get over it. Some things we just can’t change. Well, some things we can change. Some things we must change.
To be fair, it is not just administrators and techies that control the internet at our school. In fact, Congress passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which states “Schools and libraries subject to CIPA may not receive the discounts offered by the E-Rate program unless they certify that they have an Internet safety policy and technology protection measures in place. An Internet safety policy must include technology protection measures to block or filter Internet access to pictures that: (a) are obscene, (b) are child pornography, or (c) are harmful to minors, for computers that are accessed by minors.” To clear things up, my blog includes none of the above. Neither does Mrs. Huff’s wiki. Nor does Mr. Goodwin’s video.
Of course, the internet does include some inappropriate material that technicians need to block on school-controlled internet. However, blocking those sites plus educational ones is not the solution. Clearly, we need a better, more efficient filter.
“Earl Woodruff, a technology professor at the University of Toronto’s education department” suggests that “efforts to reduce access to the sorts of things no parent wants their children to see online could virtually choke off a valuable resource to students.” “Cathy Wing of the Media Awareness Network said…Filters can’t give kids critical thinking and good judgment. We have to teach them those skills.” A technician blocking a website for a student doesn’t teach a student anything. Allowing a student to access whatever material he needs and holding him accountable for what he does online does. For example, if a student accesses inappropriate material online and continues to access the material, the student should be suspended from the computer for a defined period of time-students should be held accountable for their online activity.
So, administration, technicians, school board, will you continue to force students to infinitely click continue to access a school-assigned blog? Will you continue to allow filters to block necessary information? Will you continue to put students’ education at stake, all to filter a few inappropriate websites?
To those who have the ability resposibility to make a change, hear our cry. Tear down that wall.
Image from Microsoft ClipArt. The other image is a screen-shot of the all-to-common “blocked” message that appears on school computers.
